> Back in my teens, for both dancing and walking, I hardened the skin on
> my feet with surgical spirit, which generally seemed very successful,
> but I did notice that I occasionally got a deep blister or sore spot
> that seemed to be as a result of the hardened skin, but this was far
> less of a problem than the problem I was solving.

> When rowing, I seemed to be fairly lucky, I gradually got tougher
> skin, but didn't get callouses (I didn't row that much...). I got some
> horrendous blisters once coxing a boat with minature handles on the
> rudder wires that also had a odd shaped rim on the saxboard, I
> couldn't avoid them whether I held the saxboard or not - I prefer to
> hold the saxboard.

> So it was something I never really had a problem with, but I have some
> kind of vague recollection of a minority of people suggesting that
> hardening the skin was a bad thing and that building up callouses
> would ultimately result in major pain and blisters when you at some
> point, inevitably, used different equipment, or any number of more
> subtle things and that the best way to minimise the issue was to keep
> your hands very soft.

> I'm asking now because I've been dancing a lot recently and I've been
> noticing I'm starting to develop lots of patches of thickened skin.
> Sore feet seems to be inevitable for dancers, but just recently I've
> been noticing that after an hour or so of practicing I can feel sore
> spots on my toes that seem to be from the harder skin pressing on
> them, not because they would be sore anyway from shoes or something.
> I've been a little reluctant to go for the soft route, the pain of
> broken skin is much more intense! Then I remembered I'm sure I've
> heard this debate from rowers, I just can't recall the answer!

> If you do go for soft, how to do do that and maintain it? I'm a
> devotee of vaseline for healing and softening on other parts of the
> body, but it's not something you can just rub in. I had a particularly
> intense session on Monday night and decided I would smother my feet
> and put socks on overnight and it worked like a dream, I would usually
> expect to feel the after effects of such a session for 48hours or so,
> but felt great Tuesday morning.

> Any thoughts?

> Cheers
> Anne