Unfortunately my left heel has become the latest casualty to the long cold New England winter. During the spring, summer and even fall months I'm good about keeping my feet moist because I'm going barefoot all the time. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the winter and as a result I have a couple of slits on my heel that you could slide a quarter into. The pain is unbearable. To think there are people who find cracked heels sexy. I just hope I learn from this.
I've used teat balm and it works very well. Dairies use it to keep cow teats from chapping. If you can't find it in a store,check with a dairy and see if they have it or know where you can get it. I'm sure there'll be other recommendations as well.
cracked heels, sexy ? geez, tell me where is that place , i could become a sex idol there, dear. i don't find the pain unbearable, but god, its pesky and my pain threshold is rather high. when a crack just won't heal i sew it up but that's not recommended, although it is an _instant_ fix for me (once its closed tight, pain goes away). the trouble with heel cracks is that walking on them they split open and never heal, hence the idea of sewing calloused skin with some silk and forget it. plasters just won't stay in place, steri strips are useless. what's that balm youre talking about ?
Come on, we all know shoes don't serve any purpose and human feet don't need any protection, they take care of themselves perfectly and to put anything on them only hurts them. So you obviously can't have problems from not wearing shoes.
Jagerhans--actually it's called Bag Balm.It says on the tin =Dairy Association Company,Inc,Lyndonville,Vermont,but I would think it or a comparable product would be available where you are if you check with a dairy. It really works well.
Used to get cracked feet all the time as a kid. My mom had a remedy that seemed to work. Cover feet in Vaseline, lightly wrap with saran wrap, put on big socks, go to bed. Do this for 2-3 days, always worked for me.
soak, clean, scrub your heels, medicate, and apply a canvas band-aid strip , the kind that comes in reels and is very sticky like hansaplast . apply in a way to prevent the slit edges to split open. pain should disappear.
I use an Australian remedy called "heel balm" to get rid of them, and vaseline to keep them away. I also find ped eggs and pumice stone helpful.
I've used neosporin pain-relief formula and just slapped a band-aid on it at bed time and its mostly gone by morning. I've also had cracked skin happen to my hands during cold, dry winter weather. Obviously that doesn't mean I have to wear gloves all day, anymore than it means wearing shoes to prevent cracked heels.
cracked heels (and cracked big toes, or slit toes) are starting to drive me mad. lately i cannot get a heel crack healed that some other wound opens elsewhere and it is either another heel crack or a cut big toe or a little toe that develops a cross cut. at the present time i have six (6) different wounds and i am not even hiking a lot. filing cracks down works if each god damn evening you soak and pumice them , because calluses are not likely to close at all. just the opposite, a cracked callus will prepare future crack wounds. so far the only radical solution (for me) is waiting until callus becomes sooper-thick , then i sew it up. this cures instantly from pain ,allows the deep wound to heal (cracks cannot open again) and you won't lose the bandage by walking. unfortunately this solution is only possible on heels, where skin is so thick, coriaceous and insensitive. and i always get cracks on my right foot: my left foot seems to be 100% immune but it is plagued by a permanent cut on the big toe. i've managed to make it disappear but now its back and there is a new one on my right toe too. i started thinking that i am barefooting just plain too much. maybe i should keep those damned shoes on for awhile but it seems this is beyond my will power. the good side is, so far i never had infection and this kind of wounds never bleeds, only there is sore cracked skin . maybe this can be caused by a warts? i cannot spot nothing peculiar. soaking and scrubbing feet each evening is helpful because skin keeps softer and flexible, filing callus down is good because gives the tissue a chance to close up, but it is very important to apply something that keeps the cracks closed. a lanolin based cream also can be useful. i cannot find any of the above mentioned remedies and balms round here. any further suggestion is most welcome
Actually, what I think you're referring to is called "Flexitol Heel Balm." And it works wonders on cracks, especially heel cracks. My wife had really bad heel cracks - she's not a barefooter, but wears flip-flops all the time. She used it for about a week, and amazingly all the cracks just seemed to heal up. I had some minor cracks in one of my heels, so I thought I'd give it a try as well. Cleared them right up in a few days. Now I, and my wife as well, use it occasionally when cracks start to reappear. I'm a fulltime barefooter, but don't do any of the other stuff to my feet that others have mentioned - just the Flexitol once in a while. Highly recommend it. I think it's available at most pharmacies in the US. I got the tube we have at Walgreens.
I might suggest a custom balm. Take one leaf aloe vera, scrape one spoon of the pulp into a bowl. Take two spoons shea butter, warm that up in a pan until it just starts melting. Add the aloe gell. Turn off the heat. Add three drops of Neem oil, one drop of tea trea oil. Mix, cool, and use on dry, cracked skin. Other uses: Sunburns, dry hands, ring worm, acne. Reasons: Tea trea kills viral and fungal causes. Neem oil kills fungal and parasitic causes. Shea butter moisturizes, makes the skin pliable and soft. Aloe soothes and heals. A small bead of supper glue affixed to the calloused, dead skin may be useful for those of us with cracked heels that lack sewing skills. Only apply to dead skin as supper glue can irritate live flesh. Use sparingly. Field medics use this. I have used glue to save an injured bird's life. Birds don't like to be sewn. *She did say that the trouble stemmed from wearing shoes in the winter, and transitioning to no shoes suddenly. *Cracks in one heel and not the other? Could be something else at work. I'd suggest upping the Neem oil to 10 drops for you.
cracket heels were a status symbol when i was younger,becus we always wwnt batefoot all year around.Also,besides teat cream,use a heel grater/scourer,it shallows the cracks,and speeds up healing
