Beauty Skin-Care Tips

Should You Be Exfoliating Your Feet? Apparently, Yes

Rachel Lapidos

November 17, 2018

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In terms of my self-care regimen, one part of my body is definitely left out. Sure, I nourish my face, hair, and limbs with some beauty essentials, but the last thing—geographically and emotionally—I want to deal with are my feet. That's especially true this time of year, when I simply shove my feet inside of a boot and forget that they ever existed anyways. Apparently, I'm doing them a misdeed, though—because I've stumbled upon a skin-care subreddit that's all about the perks of exfoliating your feet.

Exfoliation supposedly combats that gross roughness that you get all too easily. One Redditor concocted their own AHA peel of sorts, applying half a dropper of lactic acid on each foot, then waiting 30 minutes for it to dry. Once it had soaked in completely, they followed it with a rich cream and then socks, and awoke to smoother feet. When I read this, I thought it was super weird to do a facial skin-care step on your nasty feet, but even dermatologists agree that this is a good idea (is this some big secret everyone's been hiding?!).

"It is extremely important to make sure that the skin on your feet is exfoliated because they can get dry and cracked." —Mona Gohara, MD

"It is extremely important to make sure that the skin on your feet is exfoliated because they can get dry and cracked," says Mona Gohara, MD, a Danbury, Connecticut board-certified dermatologist. "Using AHA and urea are my favorite." So that means yes, you can use your go-to chemical exfoliant on your peds. It works the same slough-off-that-dead-skin magic, which results in smoother, cuter feet. I guess that means you'll have to tend to them after all.

Whatever you do—do not use a cheese grater for your feet to combat that roughness. And here's what causes those cracked heels.