Save Your Soles

You’ve probably heard it all before – we walk on our feet all day but never take care of them apart from some cosmetic tidying up and nail polish. It’s no surprise then that going to a podiatrist is probably the least trendy thing you can imagine doing.

Not anymore.

British podiatrist Margaret Dabbs has taken footcare out of the doctor’s office into a spa environment and her spas are mostly located inside high-end malls. She’s not about to tell anyone they can’t wear heels – instead she’s all about damage control.

Dabbs’ philosophy is unique and she is serious about feet. She looks at one’s feet and starts talking about metatarsals and arches, but understands that the customer want footcare to be chic, not embarrassing. “So many people hide their feet away. This is very much a fusion of health and beauty. There’s quite a bit of synergy between us and dentists. People used to only go to the dentist when there was a problem, but of course people don’t now, and I think feet have become similar.”

So what makes a Dabbs’ session different from your average pedicure? Well, the price for one. Priced at over Rs. 10,000, the staff who do the treatments are podiatrists, not beauticians and are qualified to assess the health and shape of feet and sort them out, long before any swanky products or nail polish come in.

“For all the beauty products in the world – if your feet hurt, your face will show it,” Dabbs, a chirpy Londoner, remarks as her staffer pulls out a (completely painless) drill to do some damage control on a patient’s stiletto-ravaged heels.

There are so many more things that they can diagnose and fix on a younger foot – stress fractures in the metatarsals, and sometimes people don’t know why they are getting a particular pain, ankle sprains, people being treated for verrucas when actually they are corns and vice versa.

The treatment is done dry, meaning the areas that need most attention are obvious to the therapist and her range of files, buffers and occasionally, a delicate scalpel for the toughest bits.