|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 3 November 2002 |
 |
|
 |
Magazine |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Most narrow feet can handle any colour and shape. But for those with very long nail beds, a French pedicure can break up the length of the nail. Wider feet look best with slightly longer nails, which visually elongate the feet. "When you have wider feet, you really shouldn't do anything that draws attention, like painting stars on your toes," says Ilse Chamberlain, an expert pedicurist. Those with blue undertones in their skin look best in colours that also have a bit of blue: pinks burgundy, cherry,. Warmer colours, such as coral, brown and earth tones, flatter people with yellow skin undertones. Just as a very thin woman can wear almost any fashion trench little bitty feet can handle just about anything," when it comes to pedicure says Chamberlain. For cool weather, she recommends using dark tones, maybe with a bit of shimmer. When in doubt, classy red is universally flattering. Most of us are jsut minutes away from a natural pedicure sorts. Walking barefoot on the beach exfoliates and softens the feet. #################### GO on have a
Launching your boats... There's more to barefoot waterskiing than skidding across the water at warp speed. "People have this idea that to barefoot you have to be going 70 miles an hour," says David Harris, general manager of Mike Seipel's Barefoot International Water Skiing Lessons in Lantana. "But at that speed, the friction from the water on the sole would literally burn your feet." Most people need a pull of between 30 and 40 mph (though a very large person with very small feet would probably need a few miles-per-hour more) and practice, practice, practice. O sole, dear sole Approximately 250,000 sweat glands reside in a pair of feet, and they excrete as much as a half-pint of moisture each day, making them the second sweatiest part of the body. First place honours go to - no surprises here - the underarms; third place to the back, chest and forehead. If your feet are particularly offensive, bear this in mind: some unlucky soles simply have a genetic predisposition to foot odour. Clean, dry feet tucked into clean, absorbent socks should help. Barefooters
Too much time on his feet... While on line, you can also mingle with one John Doppler, an interesting fellow whose stated goal involves bringing prehensile toes back into human evolution. "With the growing complexity of keyboards... and pulltabs on beer cans, I feel that a mere 10 fingers will be insufficient to meet the appliance needs of the future," he writes. (And you thought the 'Net was a just a device to catch weirdos.) Amazing feet... Irish writer Christy Brown, portrayed in the 1990 Oscar-winner My Left Foot, wrote and painted with, well, his left foot. Athletes who compete barefoot include former 5,000-metre world record holder Zola Budd, American pole-vaulter Desha McNeal Beamer, NFL place kickers Tony Franklin and Rich Karlis and India's national field hockey team. The foot bone's connected to...
On their toes... Ballet Florida went through 80 to 100 pairs of toe shoes during last year's 10 performances of The Nutcracker. That's at least one pair per dancer per performance. And these aren't Payless pumps: Each pair costs between $65 and $70. Foot men... Actor Eddie Murphy on tests skanky feet on women. On a tall show a few years ago, he implored female viewers to take care of their feet, even incorporating his bias in his movie Boomerang. And legend has it that Elvis Presley liked women with well-groomed digits. Former members of The King's entourage have said a girl needed clean fingernails and toenails before she could romp with Presley in the Jungle Room. Big foot... The biggest feet in The Guinness Book of World Records belong to Matthew McGrory of Pennsylvania, who wears size 26 shoes. That's approximately 17 inches long. NBA star Shaquille O'Neal wears a mere size 22, about 15 + inches long. But we're right behind you...
Bowling alley owners say feet are indeed getting larger. What size shoes wear out the quickest? Used to be women's sizes 6 to 7+ and men's size 9. These days, women's sizes 8+ to 9 and men's sizes 10 to 10+ are replaced most often. Foot faults As a general rule, women are more likely to get corns teenage and adult males to get athlete's foot. Foot infections, corns and ingrown toenails affect about 5 per cent of the US population each year; 6 per cent experience bunions, flat feet and fallen arches. As income increases, the prevalence of foot problems decreases, according to the American Podiatric Medical Association. These feet were made for walkin'... The average person takes 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day and walks 115,000 miles in a lifetime according to the American Podiatric Medical Association. That's more than four times the circumference of the globe. You think its your feet you hate; it's really your life... Everyone hates their feet (though plenty of folks love other people's feet). A common source of foot embarrassment, shoe sellers report: a second toe that's longer than the big toe. Then it's bunions, followed by nail disorders. But too much focus on the feet can indicate something deeper is afoot. A Californian psychologist who specialises in body image, says women in particular will obsess about their feet as a way of avoiding larger issues in their lives. "Symptom substitution," it's called. They keep growing and growing... Toenails grow faster in your teens, in hot weather and during pregnancy. Feet also lengthen, widen and flatten with age and then at padding on the bottom of the feet erodes. Older folks should have their feet measured each time they buy shoes. Tedious, but a practical thing to do. High heels - the arch enemy? In 1996, just 18 per cent of women in the US wore high heels when entertaining at home, down from 28 per cent in 1986, according to Dr. Scholl's and the American Podiatric Medical Association. And these days, 31 per cent of women surveyed consider a shoe with a one-inch heel to be a "high heel." In '86, only 18 per cent would consider a shoe that low to be high. So will women wear season's towering stilettos? Probably. They may be bad for the feet, but they make the calves look really buff. Footnotes The foot has long left its imprint on art and literature. Leonardo da Vinci called the foot "a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art." Frank Zappa penned an ode to feet. A character in a JD Salinger story blew his brains out shortly after a confrontation over his feet. And a John Updike short story features a man enraptured by a female tennis player's "sharp, small anklebones and metatarsal tendons." Meanwhile, the ultimate tribute to feet, The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, has been reprinted 55 times since it was first published in 1968. Cruel shoes Until early this century, uppercrust Chinese girls endured foot binding, a painful, crippling procedure with an unusual goal: a foot states one historian that could fit inside a man's mouth (presumably her husband's, thank you). Chinese moms would consult astrology to determine when the foot binding ritual would begin - usually when the girl was between the ages of 3 and 8, according to shoes: A Celebration of Pumps, Sandals, Slippers & More. The mother would then groom the child nails, bend the four toes back over the arch leaving the big toe free and bandage them up. After each bath, the bandages were tightened and the foot forced into smaller and smaller shoes. The ideal? A rare "golden lotus," a foot just 3 inches long. (Proud husbands would dismay a wife's tiny, elaborately embroidered shoes on a small plate). The reality? Stunted feet that made walking difficult, and wandering impossible of course. But, apart from tradition, there are other ways we end up punishing our feet - by blindly following fashion. Just because you have liked a certain shoe shape, does not mean your feet are going to sit well in them. Never mind how good the shoes look. Spare a thought for how your feet will feel in them. On that note, bye. P. S. Put your feet up and indulge in a good think about how you are going to treat your feet from tomorrow. #################### Get
a toe-hold on Merely scrabbling your feet and moisturing them before putting on your favourite shade of nail polish 'may be a good start to nice feet but what truly does your feet a world of good is a foot massage before the foot beauty regime. A good pedicure has a hefty dose of massage thrown in for effective measure. The art of pedicure need not always be salon-based. While it is great to have someone else do the work for you as you relax, it is equally true that you can give yourself a very effective foot massage. Keep an hour on a Friday aside for this exercise. Choose your favourite corner in your house, put on some music you really like and get started. Get two small basins - one filled to half with warm, soapy water (you can put in a few slices of lemon if you wish for an invigorating touch) and a few drops of oil in it. You can use aromatherapy oils which induce soothing sensations. Half fill the other basin with plain warm water. You will need the following items - a large stool, two face towels, a pumice stone of foot scrub, emery board, cuticle pusher, a hand and foot lotion, a nail polish and a remover if you need to remove the previous colour).... and you are ready to start. Foot massage: - To begin, put several drops of oil on your palm and rub your hands together to warm them up. - Put your foot on a very low stool on an elevation that is easy to bend down to. - Relax your foot muscles by flexing them a bit before you begin. Stroke front toes to ankle. - Hold foot in both hands and work over the top of the foot with large thumb circles. - Grip the outside of the foot with thumbs on the sole and pull fingers and thumb gently towards each other. - Pull and knead each toe separately. Starting between the toes, thumb. - Roll smoothly up (between the bones continuing the toes) towards the ankle. - Work on the sole of the foot with your knuckles, thumb roll from heel to heel and make thumb circles all over the ankle. - Repeat with the other foot. - You can also use an acupressure not roller for the under foot area. and now... - Massage over, soak your feet in the arm, soapy water for ten minutes and read a magazine or book if you wish. Scrub foot under water with a foot rub, using circular movements to cover the entire area. Pay particular attention to your heel. Do not use too much force while scrubbing. - Remove foot from the water, dip the second basin with clean water, minse feet briefly and pat dry with a foot lowel. - Steady your foot on a low stool, cut nails neatly across, taking care to edges gently. Nails of the feet should not assume conical shape, as they could interfere with the toe-space in shoes, especially if you are wearing tight-fitting shoes. - File nails with an emery board to even edges. Wipe toes with foot towel. - Using a cuticle pusher, gently push skin back. Be careful not to be too enthusiastic about this procedure. - Repeat all steps with other foot. - Take a blob of foot lotion, the size of a dirham, and massage into each foot thoroughly, including between the toes. Ensure your heels are also well moisturised. - Allow for moisturiser to be full absorbed into your skin. - Wipe toe nails with cloth to prepare them for nail polish. if you have applied too much moisturiser on your nails, your nail polish may not glide on the way it should and will not apply properly. - Before applying nail polish, separate toes with small wads of cotton. It makes application as easier and polish won't smear on other digits. If using base coat, allow it to dry thoroughly. Then, using one application at a time, use two coats of nail polish waiting for one coat to dry before applying the second one. You can if you wish top it with a clear lacquer finish. When the nail polish has dried, remove cotton wads. #################### Foot
fads and Never date anyone who doesn't have a pedicure, Ilse Chamberlain told her son when he asked for advice on women. "It means a person takes care of the minor details," explains Chamberlain, general manager of the Babor Institut in Palm beach, where pedicures and all manner of beauty treatments are standard fare. Whether lovely feet really reveal savory aspects about character has yet to be proven. but this much is true: In recent years, we've really grown to fawn over our feet. In the U.S. Women pamper them to the tune of more than $50 million a year. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
To get the
most flattering pedicure, specialists say you should consider the shape of
your feet and toes, as well as skin tone. A few tips of great looking
feet:
How much of a
role do our feet play in making us look beautiful? Maybe not very much,
you'd think, considering they are out of sight most of the time. But to be
able to flaunt a beautiful pair of feet is a privilege we should reach out
for - on our toes.
Tired of shoddy treatment? Do you think of shoes as "unnecessary
ballast?" Prefer "tough, callused soles, and even think it's
cool when they get dirty?" Think policies against barefeet stink? The
Dirty Sole Society (whose members swear it's "not a 'sex thing' or a
dating service") is the club for you. Contact it on-line at
www.barefooters.org.
Each human foot consists of 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments and 19
muscles. The 52 bones in your feet make up about one-quarter of all the
bones in your body. And the skin on the soles is the thickest on the body,
three times thicker than the skin on the palms, 15 times thicker than
facial skin.
In the US, shoe industry honchos are hush hush about average shoe sizes
- something about marketing secrets - but who needs them?
