The self-care movement has seen a trend recently – reevaluating what self-care practices are actually “self-care” and what is simply vanity. In today’s day in age, we like to make sure self-care is personal and without judgement, so whatever self-care is to you counts. For me and many others, pedicure is the basis of self-care: it’s quite literally starting your routine from the toes up. As an ex-ballerina myself, I know the importance of a well taken care of foot and frankly, you should too. Ahead, some of the benefits of pedicures and why everyone should be indulging themselves.

General Health

Think about it: you get an annual checkup, you have special doctors for your eyes, ears, skin, teeth, you name it, so why not get a pedicure? Nail technicians see more feet, toes, and nails than you can imagine, so they’re well equipped to let you know if anything looks odd. From ingrown toes to potential infection, these can be flagged early by a nail technicians to help keep your feet in tip top condition.

Ingrown toenails can be a pain both literally and figuratively. While they’re painful to experience, it can be an ever bigger pain trying to fix it if it’s gone unchecked for too long. In fact, some cases require minor surgery to remove the toenail if not properly cared for! Pedicure helps to both prevent and heal potential ingrown toe nails to keep that from ever happening.

Blood Flow and Lymphatic Drainage

Pedicure typically comes with a good foot and lower leg massage, which is great for your health all around. Stimulating that area encourages more blood to flow into the area, therefore increasing circulation and promoting the draining of toxins from the body. In particular, increased blood flow to the foot allows the blood to carry nutrients to the feet it normally would not get, which in turn can help your nails to grow stronger.

Exfoliation

Exfoliating, overall, is incredibly good for your overall health as it helps to slough off dead skin cells and encourage healthy cellular turnover. On the foot, exfoliation is even more key. Calluses are incredibly common the foot, as it’s causes by excessive friction, ill fitting shoes, and the like. If you’re unfamiliar with a callus (count yourself lucky), it’s a patch of rough, hard skin that accumulates as a way to almost pad certain parts of your feet that get the most grief. It’s a catch 22, of course, because the hard skin often hurts and if left untreated, can cause infection. There are at home scrubbers you can use to help alleviate calluses, but getting them removed professionally during a pedicure is absolutely unmatched.

Elevated Mood

A more open-ended benefit, of course, is the stress relief it provides. Any form of massage that helps to relax tension also helps to simultaneously improve mood, so between the massage and the intense scrubbing, your feet will feel like a new person and you mind will start to melt, too.

If you’re convinced a pedicure is for you, click here to book at Chillhouse.

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Feature Image via Alec Kugler