So one Friday evening a few weeks ago I did something I've been meaning to do for about the last two years: I took myself off to the calming environs of The Beauty Suite for a Danné medi pedi. Your common-or-garden spa pedicures are lovely and all that, but I was after something a bit more heavy duty to totally transform my tootsies. The Danné medi pedi is a paramedical treatment that promises to sort out even the most stubborn dry, hard, cracked or calloused skin - just the sort of industrial-sounding procedure I was after.
I was almost disappointed when my absolute dote of a therapist, Cathy, said that I actually had very little hard skin on my feet - but that's good, sez she, we should be able to get rid of it all with one treatment. Now, a course of treatments may be recommended for anyone with really chronic cheese rind heels and the like but I thought it was refreshing for an establishment not to go all-out with the hard sales pitch, because so many do whether it's actually merited or not.
While I reclined in a great big comfy leather massage chair and wondered which of its massage settings to start with, Cathy asked me to let her know if I feel any kind of unpleasant sensation during the treatment: some people can be sensitive to the procedure as it is essentially a six-layer peel for feet. Once double-gloved, Cathy set about mixing up an alkaline paste and then bathed my feet. The alkaline paste was applied judiciously where it's needed (for me, that's the sides of my big toes, part of the balls of my feet, and just at my heels) and then massaged in for just a few minutes to soften and dissolve hard skin. The idea is that this is a far more gentle alternative to hacking away at the hard skin with rasps or blades, which basically freaks out your feet and makes them think “Eek, we're under attack! Better thicken up that skin to protect ourselves, pronto!" Not exactly a desirable after-effect of a pedicure.
When the time was up, Cathy rubbed the alkaline solution off my tootsies, and as it came off, it took every last bit of dead skin with it. She told me that I'd probably notice a bit of this peeling process happening after a bath or shower for the next little while, and since I'm the sort of person who loves digging out ingrown hairs or examining the content of congested pores, I was looking forward to that.
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A neutraliser was applied to bring the pH of the feet back to normal, and they looked so good even at this stage that I had to cop a feel of them. I was genuinely shocked at how silky and soft my former hooves felt. Ever the sceptic, I had taken the Danné slogan “Get your baby feet back" as nothing more than a catchy marketing line but this really is a treatment that does exactly what it says on the tin.
Next, a callous cream was massaged into my feet to help ward off future thickening of the skin, and oil was applied to keep the newly soft skin moisturised. My medi pedi was rounded off with a foot and leg massage, careful toenail shape, cuticle treatment and a pedicure, which enhanced what is otherwise not a particularly pampering treatment!
Even so, the results are very impressive and really do speak for themselves: this is obviously a great treatment for anyone who's a martyr to their crusty heels but I think it's also ideal for anyone like myself whose footcare routine is, er, sporadic at the best of times, and for whom a run-of-the-mill pedicure just might not do the job.
Find The Beauty Suite on the 2nd floor above Zeba hair salon, South William Street, Dublin 2.
