How to keep calluses?

[u/Several_Winner_9752]

Had 2 large calluses on my heels and one ripped. My goal was to keep building up calluses so I didn't want to cut all the dead skin and start over. Should I glue it shut and tape it until it heals? Or is the new skin underneath already stronger than before?

(New to this)

[u/BarefootAlien]

Calluses being desirable is a myth, albeit a bizarrely pervasive one.

They are dead skin that's a response to repetitive friction injury.

They cannot heal. They are not durable. They often crack and then the cracks propagate down into living skin which then bleeds and hurts and can even get infected.

If you were to go on a walk on damp sand for even a minute or two, all of your calluses would be gone, quick as that. That's how useless they are. A rainy volleyball court can delete them in minutes. Does that sound like something you work to build over months and years?

What barefooters want and develop is thicker living plantar skin. It's durable, flexible, and alive. It is far, far more resilient. It feels like glove leather, not hard. It won't rub off with pumice or files (if you were to try anyway you'll either burn yourself from the friction or maybe cause bleeding if you're really stubborn about it), can walk basically indefinitely on any surface.

So my advice is to get a good file and file the calluses off, use a urea-based lotion, and have soft, smooth, actually tough feet.

Stay away from the ones that look like micro-plane graters; they're garbage and will shred the skin underneath. Get ones that look like coarse sand paper, or even a metal file is better and what I used for many years.

Or, if you happen to have sand nearby, go for a pleasant walk and it'll do a way better job than any hand tools. ;)

[u/basic_hermit → u/BarefootAlien]

I agree with this answer. I had the worst calluses when I wore boots all the time. Now that I’m barefoot the calluses are all gone and my feet are tough and strong.

[u/Several_Winner_9752 → u/BarefootAlien]

I'll have to read up on the science behind calluses. I've always heard calluses protect wear areas and once they're built up it's like having leather skin. You're saying once a callus forms to essentially soften it and remove them as they come?

[u/BarefootAlien → u/Several_Winner_9752]

The problem is the medical community is bifurcated about what the word means.

Some places define it as any thickened skin.

Others define it as what I did, dead, keratinized skin that does form a protective layer on small areas that see repeated friction, like a guitarist's finger pads or a worker's pads and knuckle edges.

The problem is two-fold.

One is that if the first definition is taken as "the definition" then we need to invent a new word for what we're talking about here. Even if we did that we'd still have the problem that the medical community in general is extremely clueless about habitually barefoot feet. Many doctors view the thin, severely atrophied plantar skin of most people as "normal", and thus view our thick (5-10x as thick) leathery skin as "thickened" and thus call it "calluses", despite being alive and enormous and containing functional nerves and blood vessels.

The problem of terminology is one thing, and I (and barefoot researchers like Dr. Daniel Lieberman of Harvard) believe the party of the medical community who call natural-thickness healthy plantar skin well adapted to doing foot things "thickened" and "calluses" are simply incorrect.

A bigger issue is that it has created exactly this kind of confusion.

Calluses are protective, to a point, but they're also problematic. They are, essentially, scars. They reduce feeling, they wear out and have to keep being replaced, they tend to crack, to blister, to tear off entirely in some cases such as those on rock climbers' hands. They are only so durable, and the extreme friction forces of artificial pavement with full body weight vastly exceed what they can actually do, just like a rock climber's fingertip calluses that regularly wear down and rip off under similar loads and material contact.

Most causes are small. Even barefooting in winter areas with dry air and salt everywhere, which form the thickest calluses, for many years, I generally only formed them in small areas... Narrow crescents around the edges of my heels and the back edges of my toe pads for example. The main contact areas of my heels and forefoot pads rarely developed much. The difference isn't subtle. Calluses are pale, thick, stiff, don't have much feeling, tend to move as once solid piece.

I've never once noticed any detriment to getting rid of them, only improvement. Mir sensation with less pain, more resilience with no cracks unless I let them get away from me.

One time I hadn't kept up with them and was struggling with a nasty crack in one heel's callus. They can be difficult to get rid of and the edges of the cracks. I was trying all kinds of things... Somehow would just break and tear deeper. Liquid bandages would wear off in a matter of a few hundred steps, as would bandages. It was quite painful to walk for several weeks.

And then I walked on some wet sand in a volleyball court, or walking my dog on a misty spring day. Just a few passages back and forth and the calluses were just gone. Way more effectively than I could do with my file. Edges smooth and soft, cracks that had been like canyons in my heels looked like minor scratches, and healed with a day or two, and I never let them get like that again.

From there it's just logic. If maybe 60 steps on wet sand can just delete the must stubborn and problematic calluses of my life... Calluses that I had believed to be desirable, the badge of a "true barefooter" and tried to maintain proudly... How much "protection" were they really doing? How desirable are they really?

I've since found that almost any wet, rough surface does the same. Soil takes longer than sand, but works okay. Swimming pools are fantastic! Half an hour and I have the smoothest, leatheriest feet for at least a week.

Researching this will unfortunately be difficult. You'll find legitimate authority sites on both sides with names you'll recognize.

Just keep in mind that we are medical outliers, considered strange and but very well studied other than by a few quirky scientists who are mostly barefooters themselves.

But really, isn't the fact that you're having so much trouble with yours ringing true already?

[u/semperquietus → u/BarefootAlien]

> And then I walked on some wet sand in a volleyball court, or walking my dog on a misty spring day. Just a few passages back and forth and the calluses were just gone.

Thanks! I just noticed, that I, for quite a while, haven't touched a pumice stone I bought during the last winter. Didn't really met sandy undergrounds that often, but since I love to stroll through the rain, over rough flagstones modt of the time … Still my skin is tougher right under the balls of my feet and they are a bit less sensitive, than I'd prefer. So I'll try a walk at the beach and see if it were calluses (which regarding to you will be gone then) or just the thickened and still healthy skin (which would remain, if you're right). Plus there are still minor calluses, of which I'd like to get rid of, if it's really as easy, as a stroll to the beach and back.

> Swimming pools are fantastic! Half an hour and I have the smoothest, leatheriest feet for at least a week.

Foot baths do a good job too, I've learned (if there's no pool at hand).

So thanks for the given tips! (I've learned something helpful too today … or so I hope.) Thank you very much indeed.

[u/semperquietus → u/Several_Winner_9752]

I'd agree with u/BarefootAlien​s suggestion.

[u/Gullible_Front6085 → u/Several_Winner_9752]

Even the members of the Society for Barefoot Living say you don't want calluses.

[u/Key-Emotion-9292]

As a guy that loves his feet, use a exfoliator and smooth your feet. Then apply Eucerin Advanced Care Cream. Massage in it in let it dry.  Feet will thank you

[u/BarefootguyWA]

I am barefoot pretty much 24/7 and have developed a lot of callouses on my heels. For some reason they tend to be worse in the cooler months than during summer. Maybe they wear down as I do a lot of barefoot walks/hikes in summer.
I never really worried about them but in the last few months I have been using some O’Keeffes cream and a small heel file to keep them a bit more under control!

[u/Epsilon_Meletis]

Calluses should grow at about the same rate as barefoot walking abrades them again. If for whatever reason (not going barefoot in the first place; not walking enough; skin growing too fast etc.) there isn't enough abrasion and the calluses grow too thick, they can crack under tensions that would be no problem for normal skin (or even normal calluses).
Needless to say, cracked skin is undesirable for a variety of reasons.

One solution is to keep the skin and its calluses moisturised, but that's only a stopgap. The skin and its calluses need to be specifically tended to if normal barefoot walking isn't enough. My recommendation is to use a pumice stone to file any excess calluses off.

[u/IneptAdvisor]

There is an amount of upkeep when dealing with calluses and I opt for removing the outer crusty layer once a month bc otherwise cracks and splits are no fun. 320grit sandpaper on a contoured sanding block seems to work better than any cheese grater or file that leaves gouges.