All About Calluses, Your Skin’s Natural (and Sometimes Painful) Armor
Calluses, those areas of hard, thickened skin on the arms and legs, are part armor and part harm. Gymnasts are fixated on shaving them off; runners worry about keeping fit. If managed wisely, you can have happy, tough skin that doesn’t give you problems.
Why do calluses appear
A callus is an area of thickened skin that develops where there is intense friction or pressure. This could be where the ball of your foot rubs against your shoes, or where your palms rub against the bar while pulling up. Guitarists even get (and cherish) tiny calluses on their fingertips.
The outermost layer of your skin (the stratum corneum above) is made up of dead skin cells. It may sound strange, but this is how your skin works. These dead, flattened cells protect the living layers of skin underneath. So when additional friction or pressure is applied to your skin, your body reacts by creating more cells that attach to the dead skin’s outer protective layer.
Sometimes the calluses are barely visible. In other cases, the thickened portion can be so large and bumpy that it creates more problems than it solves. That’s when it’s time to think about removing or thinning calluses, which we’ll talk about later.
Rubbing that causes calluses can also cause or worsen blisters . A blister can form when the layers of skin separate from each other with friction. Since your cells are always surrounded by clear liquid, some of that liquid fills the space in the separation, and the result is a creepy-looking bubble that you know and probably hate.
For example, if you’re new to running, your sensitive feet may blister on your first long run. But once you gain experience, your legs will literally become stiffer: you will develop calluses, which to some extent protect the skin in this area. However, blisters are not required; blisters do not “turn into” calluses.
Calluses take several weeks to form. If you take a break from what caused the blister – you give up running for a long vacation or put your guitar away for a while – your skin will stop producing extra dead cells. We are constantly losing skin cells, so in a few weeks the corns will disappear.
When to process corn and when not
People have very strong opinions about their calluses. Go to any dedicated forum – dancers, roller derby players, crossfit enthusiasts, violinists – and you’ll see tons of recommendations on how you should or shouldn’t try to remove them.
To gain insight into these controversies, I spoke with Dr. Paul Kupcha , Head of Foot and Ankle at Christiana Care Health System Orthopedics in Delaware.
Shaving the calluses isn’t likely to hurt much, he said. Even if you saw off too much, you will soon grow it back again. He is more concerned about the opposite situation, “letting her get too fat and applying too much pressure.” Because a callus, this keratinized epithelium becomes hard like a stone, and it’s like sticking a pebble to a leg or hand. “
So, caring for your skin is a balance between keeping enough corns to protect you and keeping it thin enough to not create problems. Here are some of the things that can happen when a callus gets out of hand:
- Like a stone in a shoe, calluses can irritate them even more . In some cases, a blister may form under the corn.
- A large, thick clump of calluses can crack over time , and the cracks will painfully spread to the living layers of the skin.
- Gymnasts and rowers know this: a callus on an arm can come off , revealing a fresh wound. If you are grasping barbells or dumbbells with your hands, you want the calluses to be as thin and smooth as possible, while still providing some protection.
Calluses can also sneak up on you, so you won’t notice that you are getting them until you have them for a while. If the corn isn’t causing problems, you don’t need to remove it.
You also don’t have to be afraid to hold them. If your calluses are softening in the bubble bath after a race, or if your pedicure wants to smooth them out, you will probably be fine – just ask the pedicure not to remove too much.
How to tame calluses on your hardworking hands and feet
If you decide that a corn is on your way, you have several ways to tame it. In each of these cases, all you do is remove dead skin cells – the very ones that you lose all the time. You just do it faster than usual. There are several approaches to choose from:
- For daily grooming, soften calluses by showering or bathing, then scrub with a loofah or pumice stone to remove some of the softened skin.
- File off the corn with an emery board or a special foot file .
- Make a filing cut with a Microplane trowel designed specifically for feet . Don’t get this interspersed with the one you use for lemon peel.
- Use one of the plurality of products used in the storage industry is extremely diverse corns , e.g., PedEgg , which also has an electric version called PedEgg Powerball . These are all just fancy files.
- Shave the calluses (carefully!) With a special razor .
If you have a huge corn and these approaches are not enough, Dr. Kupcha recommends salicylic acid preparations sold under names such as Liquid Corn / Dr. Scholl Callus Remover. You apply the solution to your skin at night, put a piece of tape on it, and then the skin will be soft enough in the morning that you have a better chance of removing the callus using one of the methods above.
If you get blisters all the time and are bothering you, it may be worth preventing them. When it comes to calluses on your feet, consider if you are matching the wrong shoe size or style, or if you need to fix the lacing to relieve pressure . Dr. Kupcha notes that if you feel the need to add padding to an area prone to blistering or calluses, place the pad around the painful area rather than right on top of it, or you will simply make the problem worse. …
We’ve mentioned a few ideas that can help reduce the likelihood of blistering, which are also good ideas for calluses (or, if you’re getting a double hit, calluses with blisters underneath). You can reduce friction by covering sore spots with body deodorant or deodorant gel . Cropped tights can be worn under the socks . Or, following recent research by ultramarathon runners, you can use paper tape that can be purchased cheaply from the pharmacy in areas prone to hot spots.
For hands prone to calluses, consider gloves. In some sports, such as CrossFit, people oppose gloves, but for less compelling reasons. Know that there is nothing wrong with using gloves if you prefer. Gloves, however, mean you have to consider if your skin can now rub against the glove, rather than the weight or pull-up bar. In this case, consider using a lubricant or tape to reduce friction there. Should the callus ever rupture, Dr. Kupcha advises removing the dangling flap (nail trimmers will help) and treating the open wound like an open wound. Keep it clean and cover until it heals.
How to maintain optimal callus levels is something you will need to find over time, depending on your sport and possibly the fit of your shoes or gloves. Handle the callus razor with care, and good luck.
Illustration by Sam Woolley .