Pedicures. Ugh. You wouldn’t believe how much beauty therapists hate doing them
THERE’S one treatment that beauty therapists hate more than any other. No, it’s not a Brazilian. But it does involve a region ‘down there’…
IN a previous job I worked as a beauty therapist.
I loved the work, I loved the clients, but there’s one treatment that has always sent a shiver down my spine, and not in the Fifty Shades kind of way.
It was pedicures.
You might think that something a little more intimate like a Brazilian wax or a nose hair trim was the most cringeworthy type of therapy, but I assure you, pedicures were far worse. Here are my top 10 reasons why:
1. People’s feet stink
Allow me to introduce you to what beauty therapists call the ‘Dorito Feet’, aka when someone’s foot smells so bad it gives off the odour of stale Doritos. You might think the sort of person who comes to a beauty salon is already well-groomed and has impeccable hygiene. Wrong!
They’re not footy players after all, right? Well actually, some of them ARE footy players (no names, sorry).
2. Weird bits and pieces on your feet
If there are lumps and bumps that aren’t your toes, then something isn’t right.
Corns, callouses, bunyons and fungus, you name it, we’ve seen it.
3. Dead skin cells falling off people’s feet
If you are having a winter snow flake withdrawal in this hot Aussie summer, just head to your local beauty salon and witness someone’s dead skin cells get exfoliated off. If you are lucky, not only will you see a snowfall, but you might experience a whole mountain.
4. Clipping nails and dirt in between toes
If an anthill can be built between your toes, then you need more than a pedicure, you need a hose. There is nothing more feral then not only having to clip someone’s toe nails and have their nails flying at you, but seeing the dirt between their toes as you are cutting.
5. Freaky toenails
There was never an Edward Scissorfeet for a reason! Toenails shouldn’t be super long and sharp enough to cut cardboard. You never know what you are going to get when your client slips off their shoe, it can range from all skin and no nail to chipped and razored cut nails served with a side of hangnail.
6. Scraping out toe jam
Unless it’s strawberry, raspberry, blueberry or apricot jam then it probably shouldn’t exist. This is the all mighty toe jam. A mix of unknown substances trapped underneath ones nail.
7. Cuticles
Some people have the Diana Ross afro of cuticles – wild and overgrown. If there are enough dead skin cells rotting on your nails to cover your toe nail, then it needs to go! There’s nothing worse than the removal process of someone’s toenail cuticles.
8. Cleaning the foot bath water afterwards
Coming back to clean the footbath and beauty tools after a pedicure may very well be the worst part of the treatment. Looking at water that has just scrubbed off skin, nails and dirt is not the kind of mud bath you would dream of.
9. Splashback
On a hot summer day there is nothing better than being splashed with some cooling water. Unless of cause you are sitting in a salon and that water is from someone’s foot bath. Feet are one of the most ticklish parts of the body, however, when you’re buffing someone’s feet and they drop it like it’s hot into the water, the splash isn’t as refreshing as you may think.
10. Hair on toes
Enough said.
