Barefoot Blisters

I posted this in the health forums, but thought I'd post this here too, because I need major help.

Hot asphalt gets me everytime, but it really got me this time.

I have burns on the balls of my feet from walking to the beach from the parkinglot. I need them healed fast...any ideas?

And how i can keep them from burning next time?

 

sorry bout that, i live in florida know what you mean, that sun, and asphalt..wow, can get really hot.. your soles need to be tough, sort of like rough on the bottom. otherwise, you will burn. just gotta keep walking barefoot, on rough surfaces.

 

Hi. In upstate NY this past weekend it hit 90 a couple times, and was VERY muggy. I always take that first hot as hell weekend and purposefully burn my feet as much as I can stand. Just grin and bare it. I have a black macadam driveway, so around 1-3 pm I just stand around.

Afterwards, the blisters (they'll be quarter-sized) should heal back to the sole. If they don't in a day or two, I pop the blister with a needle, but make sure it doesn't rip off before it heals back to the skin underneath.

If you let your soles callous this way, you'll feel like you are always wearing shoes, because your soles will be WAY desensitized. Only way I can describe it, really. Mine are recently healed, and I can't wait for another hot day to see how much I can stand now.

Late last summer I stood in the same spot on cement till the cement cooled, on a humid 95 degree afternoon, COMFORTABLY, having been conditioned this way. A woman nearby viewed this and tried to do the same. Her eyes went wide, and she probably could've got her sandals on quicker if she'd stopped jumping.

 

DancerAnnie, I'm not really sure how to make your blisters heal faster but the balls of your feet will surely become tougher after they heal.

Sacramento gets over 100 in the summer and the asphalt gets really hot. My feet have tough pads and I walk all over hot asphalt all day comfortably. Although my soles are thick and tough I can still feel textures; they feel sensitive and good, so it's not like having shoes like what the other poster said. I haven't had a blister for like 18 years.

Great pics in your gallery by the way. Maybe you can add one of your blisters...

 

I often find that if I over do it at first when it warms up I'll get big painful ones. But once I've had them once, then my feet will be able to handle anything. If you can get through this you'll have a pain-free summer.

 

My poor blistered feet

 

Temps here in southern Arizona are in the upper 90's to low 100's. My feet can't tolerate the extreme heat, so its barefooting in the morning and early evening. Other than that, it's flip flops for me during those peak times.

Hey DancerAnnie, I'll plant a few kisses on those lovely blistered bare soles of yours! Hope they feel better soon!

 

Mine looked just like that. They'll hurt now that the blisters are full of water. When they shrink, you will be much more comfortable. Unbelievably so if this is your first barefoot summer. I just went for that walk, and it was not hot at all, but there was gravel, and the callouses definitely helped.

Down at the Empire Plaza in Albany, I had two cooks on a smoke break ask me if someone stole my shoes. My answer should have been "Yes. Someone stole my shoes. Just held me down and tore them off. Please call the police." Totally straightfaced in an "I am Jack's whatever" tone ala "Fight Club". Instead I just said nah, it's too nice a day out.

 

This is my second barefoot summer...but in the winter I wore shoes because my feet got real cold in the Michigan/Ohio winter.

Now my feet must have gotten sensitive again or something.

 

Sorry about your feeties. They'll need a day or two to heal and you'll be dancing again in no time. You can always take a pair of socks with you. They're not as bulky to carry around as shoes or sandals. The best you can do is to toughen your feet in the spring before the hot weather. Walk a lot on rough surfaces. Playing tennis or basketball barefoot on a hard court will toughen them or any other activity where you have to move around a lot on a hard or rough surface.

Running across the pavement helps. The feet are not touching the ground as much when you are running. Keeping weight on the heels helps too. I've never had blisters from heat on my heels. Hot sand is even worse. I burned my arches the other day but no blisters. Arches never toughen up. The sand touches every part of the foot and there's no shady spots to run to. Darn!

 

Great news! I woke up this morning and my blisters are virtually gone...the area is still a bit sensitive (because it IS a burn), but nothing I can't handle.

Thanks for all the great advice.

I guess if anyone else gets any burn blisters, pop them, cover them for awhile, then let them breathe and put lotsa neosporin (sp?) on. Keep the fluid out, but keep the skin ON.

 

5 out of 10 toes have blisters from walking soo much this week at work, and all are caused by wearing shoes. Wish I didn't have to wear them there.

 

I certainly wouldn't suggest deflating them, they're fucking agony if you do that!

 

Actually it hurt MORE when the blisters were there...

And they would hurt when more fluid would return and didn't hurt nearly as bad when I broke them. I think if you just keep the skin on, it won't hurt as badly.

 

After those blisters heal, the skin may fall off while walking. You'll think you stepped on a leaf or something, and realize the blister is slowly peeling off. Don't fret. The new skin underneath is what will be carrying you the rest of the summer.

To all: enjoy the season!

 

I agree that running across the pavement helps, and look for painted lines which are cooler than the blacktop. I love going into stores after walking across hot pavement--it's the best "reward" to hang out barefoot in the frozen food section of the grocery store.

Sweetdream, you live in the Sacramento area? I live in the Sac area too! Maybe we can get a group of barefooters together sometime? Are there others here that live in northern California/Bay Area?

Barefootin in Sacramento is pretty good. I am able to go to most places without any problems at all.

 

nice to hear your blisters healed so fast. I think you did the right thing to help them heal faster.

 

Its great to see so many people love going barefoot, I can’t remember ever having blisters, I grew up in a part of Australia where the roads regularly melted and we never wore shoes.

 

Just get the blisters. The larger the blister prone area, the larger the blisters will be.

The most important thing to pay attention to is that the blisters are shallow, rather than deeper. How to tell is that pressing on them after being drained is only sore, not painful, and that they already start to barely reattach by the next afternoon. Only a slight amount of redraining should be needed on something like almost half of behind the balls of the foot being blistered, maybe if two blisters merged into a larger one, but they still won't be so and swollen filled up so the entire blister needs redraining. In two days, without excessive barefooting and minimal heat walking, they should start the reattachment process overnight into the third day. A white spot will always be seen when the soles are even slightly dirty, making it look like the sole is still blistered. It will either permanently reattach for the tough soles look (and I don't mind that), but if it does peel away I have found that shallow indentation can last up to two months for larger blisters.

DO NOT cut away the white skin. DON'T go to the beach for a while or sand will get in the blisters, making it necessary to cut away the white skin. I have several summers worth of blistering on specific parts of the soles of the feet when it's sufficiently hot enough during longer distance walks on asphalt as part of getting those parts of the sole just as heat tolerant as the rest of the sole. I never got an infection, never had to go to the hospital because they were shallow blisters, and it varied whether the skin remained attached or peeled away depending on whether my subsequent walking was mostly smoother or mostly rougher surfaces.