I don't like my feet very much. Scratch that, I HATE them. They stay firmly under wraps and put up with abuse on a daily basis. Were I a parent I'd have been taken off to counselling long ago, and that's exactly what Margaret Dabbs is, serious self help for the feet.
Not your average pedicurist, she's a trained chiropodist who works on making the feet look good, INSIDE and OUT, that means intensive assesment, and a real foot overhaul. She's not working on the cosmetic appearance, she nurtures deep down, and somehow she turned my gnarly hooves into the silken slippers of a fourteen year old (well, almost). Read on to learn how she performed this miracle....
First off, I slipped off my shoes and placed my feet in her lap.No shudders were evident and as she turned them around, she asked if I'd ever been told to wear orthotics. I had! How did she know? My vanity meant I'd never kept them in, and as a result my flat feet had got worse.. and apparently the rough calluses on the inside of my feet were from a rolling gait. I was very impressed and relieved as I thought I'd had calluses the size of Everest, and no scrubbing had previously got rid of them.
She explained that as long as I didn't get the correct support they'd remain, but they could be smoothed, and reduced and she set to work. She used a rather scary looking drill attached to a heavy duty machine, 'the same they use in the dentists!' to buff and smooth the foot, always explaining just what she was doing and how you could look after them at home.
This wasn't a hard sell at all, as she says that visits tend to be about once very three months, two months for really tragic cases (which I somehow wasn't!). A session with her or one of her trained therapists is very reasonably priced, but as she's so in demand you might have to wait a while for an appointment.
Next she got to work on my toes, filing them across with a glass file and rubbing in cuticle lotion. They were attacked with the machine again, and I couldn't help squealing as it was slightly ticklish. She applied firm pressure to the toes, and two areas I'd previously thought were corns turned out just to be very hard skin, that had formed a corn like appearance. These were drilled down into more pleasant bumps and I was advised to take a foot file to the feet once a week.
'Use it one direction' she advised', and then you won't get that grated look. Also run over the toenails with the foot file to keep them in good shape, and you can maintain these results at home'.
All too soon it was over and as I gently trod on the floor I had a strange out of body like sensation, it literally felt as if I were flying across the floor. My feet looked fresh and twinkly and all the callused build up and strange bumps were gone. She says she's just a chiropodist, but I would call her a magician.
Truly, Dabbs is the Queen of feet, and now I've been to her I can see just how deserving she is of that crown.
A session with Margaret would cost £120 for the Surgical Pedicure.
Margaret Dabbs, 36 Weymouth Street, London W1, 020-7487 5510 and at Urban Retreat at Harrods and the Hurlingham Clinic & Spa.
Related: Get your feet in tip-top condition with Butter products