Simple and Easy Ways to Care for your Feet
Too many women are inclined to forget that they have feet until
something happens to call their attention to them. A beautifully
formed foot is as charming to the eye as a beautifully shaped
hand. Every woman should have a knowledge of the practical facts
which make for her physical beauty. It is to supply these facts
that this little article has been written.
Shoes have much to do with preserving or distorting the natural
foot outline, and in this connection several practical facts
should be remembered. First, that every woman's shoe should be
broad enough to let her toes rest flatly and naturally on the
sole. Second, that a low heel throws the weight of the body on
the instep. If you feel that broken arches are a slight penalty
to pay for tottering about with the silly helplessness of a
footbound Chinese woman of the old type, by all means wear
highheeled shoes.
If you will have "French" heels — and to the average man
a woman looks ridiculous in them, though politeness bid him
disguise his feelings — there is nothing more to be said.
Do not wear old shoes about the house. They will make your feet
shapeless. The dyes in cheap stockings often run. If you have a
slight skin abrasion or a cut, you may get blood poisoning.
Hence pay more for your stockings (silk, lisle or silk and wool)
rather than risk infection.
FOOT MANICURING
Always cut your toenails straight across, using a nail clip, or
nail scissors. Ingrown nails always result from cutting away the
corners of the nail which support its forward part. If you
smooth the nail edges with emery, a good deal of darning will be
saved.
FOOT AILMENTS
Calluses.—Calluses very often develop on the sole of the
foot. They also form on the toes, where they turn into hard
corns, or between the toes, where they become soft ones, and are
capable of causing severe pain. Like bunions, flat feet and
fallen arches, calluses and corns are a logical result of the
wearing of tight or ill fitting shoes.
Good corn plasters give relief. There are also good acid
solutions for corns, but they must be applied to the hard skin
of the corn only. It is best, however, to have a good
chiropodist remove corns, since he is able to take out their
core. The "vascular" corn (made up of small blood vessels),
which is less common, should always be taken out by a
chiropodist.
Bunions.—Bunions are beyond proper home treatment. They
are produced by pressure on the big toe, causing inflammation of
the second toe joint. A preliminary callus turns into
enlargement of the joint, and, in many cases, motives much
suffering, and inability to wear a shoe. If the shoe pressure
which causes the bunion be removed, the callus will disappear,
but not necessarily the bunion. When bunions are long standing
it is not always possible to cure them permanently. A bunion
should at once be referred to a chiropodist.
Ingrowing Nails.—Their origin has already been mentioned.
Treatment should consist in bathing in hot water, then raising
the injured portion of the nail, and inserting pieces of lint or
absorbent cotton as an artificial support. Then scrape the nail
longitudinally. The lint or cotton support must be renewed from
time to time, until the nail has reverted to normal. If a proud
flesh condition has developed it will be best to go at once to
the chiropodist, instead of attempting a cure yourself.
Flat and Fallen Arches.—Both these foot troubles are
beyond any home treatment. Fallen arches, once they have
definitely dropped, cannot be completely cured. Both diseases,
in most cases, result from improper footwear, high heels, and
shoes wrongly balanced, and each and every case usually needs
individual treatment.
Chilblains.—Chilblains, one of the most common of foot
disorders, can usually be cured at home. It comes from cold or
frost, and does not start in feet which have a good blood
circulation. Soaking the feet in hot water, rubbing and
massaging with warm spirits of rosemary and turpentine, and
exercise are the remedies. Exercise, especially, restores the
circulation, and alleviates the redness, the burning feeling and
the intolerable itching which are the signs of the ailment.
FOOT PERSPIRATION AND PERSPIRATION IN GENERAL
Foot Perspiration.—Perspiration we associate more
directly and more perceptibly with the feet than any other part
of the body. There is a reason. There are more perspiration
glands in the feet than anywhere else on the body, save in the
palms of the hands. Daily bathing, night and morning, is the
best preventive of excessive foot perspiration. It is well, when
you are thus troubled, to add a little alum to the water (it
should be warm), and after drying to powder the feet with
boracic powder. Or, if you prefer, use a soothing lotion for
"feet that are weary" and perspiring, made up of equal parts of
alcohol and witch hazel. Hot water, however, is a sovereign
specific for all sweaty feet.
Perspiration in General.—We are perspiring all the time.
Our perspiration glands are constantly throwing off the waste
matter of the body, and bathing serves the double purpose of
keeping the pores open so that this matter may be discharged,
and removing it in order that no disagreeable odors result from
its presence. The soles of the feet, the armpits, at times the
forehead, chest, and neck are perspiration centers.
Perspiration is usually not excessive when a woman is in good
general health, or when it is not a result of violent exercise
or unusual temperature conditions. But when it is habitual and
unchecked it robs a young woman or girl of all that charm of
daintiness and appeal which is her right and privilege. There is
no odor more immediately and more resentfully noticed than that
of dried perspiration. It clings not only to the body, but to
the clothes. Perfumes and scented powders do not hide it, and it
always awakens disgust.
Frequent bathing, frequent change of undergarments and
stockings, and a free use of talcum powder or "odorono" are all
indicated. Never imagine that the use of talcum instead of soap
and water will do away with this unhappy scent. After washing,
always and invariably after washing, is powder to be used. The
poet has coined the phrase "honest sweat." But there is no such
thing as "honest sweat" in feminine beauty's bright lexicon of
charm. Perspiration, especially at evening affairs, dances,
etc., steals away that natural freshness and fragrance of aura
which should surround woman.