Video Credit to the Australian Ballet
Great tips and tricks from various dancers of the Australian Ballet. They all have their own personal methods of caring for their feet, and this video is really helpful to gain some information on different types of feet.
Personally, I use methylated spirits to harden the skin on my feet, especially for long rehearsals when your toes may get sweaty, causing the formation of blisters.
Ouch Pouches are great, especially when you are beginning pointe, and it makes the pain of sore toes bearable (somewhat). Ouch Pouches can be purchased from almost any dance store, costing about $30-$40, depending on the quality you want them to be. If you’re not a fan of being $40 poorer, a good little cheat is to buy some cheap socks, and cut the ends of them and put them on your feet. I sometimes put of two 3 on each foot! Much cheaper, but they aren’t as effective and sometimes soak up sweat. Which leads into my next tip....
Tissues in your pointe shoes. Sounds crazy, I know, but if you put them in the right place, they could assist to soak up the moisture from long periods of dancing on pointe. I’ll only do this once or twice a week, for rehearsals that go for like 2-3 hours, but if they aren’t put in the correct place (differs for each dancer) they can be a real nuisance. Also, beware that you do not leave them in your shoe. Take them out immediately when you’re done, and throw them out. They could harden up, and if you wear them again and again, maybe even misshape your foot.
Also for prolonging the life of your shoes, never put them together in a dance bag after. As much as it may disgust your nose as well as others’, leave them in a locker or other room to air out. The sweat from your feet could soften the paper mache that the shoe is made out of, and soften it.
With bandaged your feet, I always tape my little toes and big toes as they are where I get the most blisters. These are places that ub the most and get the most sweat, so make sure they are tightly covered and definitely NOT with plastic band-aids. The plastic traps the sweat in and also, they just fall off way to easily. They are good to cover broken toenails, but worsen blisters. I use Elastoplasts Leukofoam. It is an exceptionally sticky medical tape, designed with padding/foam which is 100x better than the comfort of a bandaid. Do not put it straight on a blister, so if you do get a blister and need to cover it, I recommend putting a slither of medical gauze in between your blister and the take separate the glue and your blister which could be REALLY painful when you pull it off.
DO NOT PAINT YOUR TOENAILS. This could cover a discolouration in your nails that indicate an infection or bruised toenail that would require immediate attention if you do not want a fungal infection, ingrown toenail, or even a toenail just dropping completely off. Dancers particularly need to wash their feet to prevent infections and warts. If you do get an infection in any of your toes, seek help immediately, as it will only get worse. There are plenty of products to help in most pharmacies.
If you get a blister, pop it and let it air. Dry blisters are considerably less painful. Wear thongs (or flip-flops whatever you call them) to help this, and don’t sleep with socks on.
Other than that, just enjoy pointe. At least make all the pain worth it.
