Toughening feet with liquids/medicines?

Hi all,

A long time ago, I read online about people toughening up their soles by using various liquids and stuff. Some people have said that applying alcohol helps but that would just dry the skin too much, which would not be a good idea. Somebody else (forgot the details) mentioned something about applying a paste made of bark or something like that onto their kids feet before bed. Does anybody have experience with this?

 

When I First Started Fulltime Barefooting Back In 2006 I Used To Put "Methylated Spirits" In

A Shallow Tray And Soak For An Hour Or More.......Not Only Toughened Up The Soles But

Also Eliminated The Risk Of Infection From Any Nicks And Cuts.....



Cheers Glen.

 

I think there is no need to toughen the soles by a special treatment since we are all made for barefooting by nature and it’s just a matter of practice and training. But I think it’s a good idea to treat the soles to prevent them getting too hard and cracky, at least if you walk a lot on hard, dry or urban ground. I use normal olive hand cream, or just simple olive or almond oil (but the oil version is something for outdoors only, as you’ll get footprints on your floor inside).

 

Never used anything to toughen mine. Just stayed barefoot and let nature do the work. They’ve stayed pretty tough just from that.

 

my feet are in shoes a lot more often than not and Ive no trouble over rough terrain barefoot ..

 

Makes sense. I won't go to the effort of finding and making solutions and stuff, I was just curious. Not much point beyond moisturiser.

 

Pine tar. In Scandinavian nations, particularly in Finland and Sweden where they had a thriving business around tar manufacturing during the 17th and 18th centuries, people would lather pine tar onto their kids' bare soles to enable them to go barefoot trough the summer, so that no shoes (expensive back then) would have to be purchased for them. I've known about this old practice for years now, and at times even felt tempted to try it myself. But you'd probably end up with messy tar stains on your floors, which is something worth considering. But there should be no health concerns. Pine tar is a 100% natural product, and in ancient times was frequently used as an antiseptic.

 

This page lists a few recipes to toughen feet- never tried any apart from just alcohol which is deemed to be not the best of the bunch BTW. Myrrh oil can also be used to help mending cracked skin.

 

Since 'pressure' is the approach that we've used so far, we'll stick to that. Thanks for the link!

 

I've heard from a friend that her brother-in-law used to toughen his kids feet by having them urinate on them. The guy was Iranian and noted for some bizarre stuff, but I'd think you might have to stand and soak in it for a while for it to work. Urine is also used to help dissolve fats from hides before tanning.

I think I'll stick to walking on mine. A guy looked at me like I was nuts when he watched me walk into church across the gravel lot in my bare feet the other day. It seems to be working for me so far. And yes, I did put my shoes and socks on once inside.

 

Some German hippie fella at a medicine rainbow advised me to do so because on that mountain my feet got in a poor shape with lots of embedded tiny chestnut thorns and because of all the rocks but later on he emailed me that he got a bad infection in his foot... I had told him not to use old piss and if he really had to do that to stick to fresh or refrigerated urine (welcome to weirdland folks) before the fairly sterile urine turns into a culture of random germs so wasn't really impressed about that outcome. It is disappointing how little people ever cares about my advice.

 

Apply cement and blacktop as regularly as the weather allows.

 

Nonsense.

The biggest change from regular bare footing that makes feet tough is the increase in padding, the muscle behind the skin.

 

Very true. It is also what now prevents me from wearing boot ever again: the foot becomes overall thicker and doesn't fit in any more. And what allows us to walk over pointy rocks, it is like when you brace your abdomen to absorb a belly punch

 

the best liquid for toughening feet is moonshine. after enough of that, you can walk over anything and not feel pain.

 

Ok

Also...urine? I'll stick to just walking.