okay, barefooters... what do you do about slivers? you know those itty bitty ones that break as soon as the tweezers even get near them. how the heck do you get them out without digging a huge hole in your foot?
If they dont bother you they may work themselves out. I would use a knife and dig the sucker out, without digging a bit hole in the process. (actually a needle would be better but I never seem to have one).
Try soaking your foot in hot or warm water...maybe with some epsom salt or whatever? My grandmother says that fixes everything. There's this stuff called Draw Out Salve that we used to put on bee stings, and it would somehow get the stingers to come out, so maybe it would work for that. We always called it black salve, though...whatever. Good luck!
I sometimes got glass slivers after barefootin' around NYC, the Village, etc. They would get stuck in my callouses. Best way I got them out was with a pin and very sharp, narrow tweezers. They weren't painful since I have tough feet, the biggest problem was finding them through the blackness!
I've read that certain types of splinters can be pulled out if you apply a layer of Elmer's Glue to the skin on top of them, let it dry, and then peel the glue off. The glue supposedly grips the splinter and takes it with it when you peel it off. I have not tried this, only read that it can be done. I don't tend to have a problem getting splinters, and even though I'm a most-of-the-time barefooter, my feet are really not very calloused or "tough." They are, however, tough in the sense that they are not so sensitive to surfaces as they were when I was a tenderfoot. It seems that not everyone's feet respond to going barefoot by becoming calloused and thick-skinned. Blue skies, -Jeffrey
I find that I pick up small glass splinters a couple of times a month - normally from broken beer bottles in the CBD. They seem to penetrate to just below the callous layer and I find it fairly easy to squeeze them out. If I'm going somwhere particularly suspect I carry a needle and tweazers just in case, but I can't remember when I last had to use them. Over the years I've had a few splinters, probably glass, that went in so deep that I never managed to retrieve them. I just left them, they might have worked themselves out or wore down with the surrounding skin. Maybe they are still somewhere in my feet I don't know, anyway I've not had any pain from them
Generally, a soak in warm water is enough. If one gets in a little deeper, before you goto sleep, put a dab of zinc oxide cream and a band-aid on it - remove in the morning. If that doesn't draw it out, go in with very sharp tweezers or a needle.
Ugh! This thread reminds me of 1999, when I was playing disc golf at a park on Randall's Island (NYC), and I stepped on a twig that had some weird thorns on it. One of the thorns broke off and injected itself into the ball of my left foot. It broke at a point under the skin, so it wasn't grippable at the surface. I had to sit on the grass and dig at the thing with a pocketknife, causing some extra damage to the surrounding sole-flesh. In the end, I was able to gouge out the thorn piece -- which was very nearly a quarter inch long! (Remember, this 1/4 inch was straight into my foot, not diagonal or parallel to the surface!) It hurt like a bitch to walk on for much of the next week! Fortunately, nothing like that has happened since then. Blue skies, -Jeffrey
If it does not get infected, don't worry about it and it will work itself out or become a benign part of you. If you fear infection, put a poultice on it. A simple piece of bread soaked in milk or water and applied to the wound covered with something that will keep it moist does the trick. I have seen slivers of over 3 inches drawn out within a day from feet this way.
What fascinates me is that shod people fully believe that they are protected by shoes. This is a fantasy. I have a lot of boards in my garden with rusty nails in them. I had punctured my feet quite often when I used to wear shoes. The problem with shoes and sharp objects is that it does not allow the foot the normal flexing that would escape serious injury. Now that I go without shoes, walking on those boards is no longer a concern. My foot flexes as it hits the nail and I automatically move aside to a safe spot. I have also noticed that there is a "bounce" to my step now that was missing before. The bounce allows my foot to "sense" problems with the immediate environment and adjust the pressure and the placement of my step. It is difficult to explain to a shod person the benefits of going without shoes as it becomes so clear so quickly when they just take the plunge. Walking outdoors is completely different than indoors for me barefoot. Outdoors my feet are so much more attentive and responsive.
