On Your Toes : Good Pedicurists Know Better Than to Play Doctor With Your Feet

PICTURE HAVING your feet massaged with sweet-smelling oils after soaking them in a warm-water bath, the toenails gently trimmed, the rough spots smoothed. A pedicure can be a soothing escape. Now imagine the tranquil mood ending abruptly with a piercing jab.

In the hands of a bad pedicurist, pedicures can be dangerous, as one Manhattan Beach woman can attest. Recently, a pedicurist inadvertently cut the woman’s foot while removing a callus. The woman promptly stood up, dried her foot and hobbled out of the shop.

She could have taken one more step and filed a complaint with the California Board of Cosmetology in Sacramento. Although many pedicurists use razor-sharp metal instruments to eliminate corns and calluses, the practice is illegal and should be reported, says Jeff Weir, assistant executive officer of the board, which regulates salons and issues licenses to pedicurists.

By law, a pedicure involves only “massaging, cleansing and beautifying,” which means trimming and polishing the toenails and smoothing the skin with a tool such as a pumice stone. The ambiguous word treating was removed from the legal definition of a pedicure earlier this year because any process that cuts the skin, such as trying to release an ingrown nail or removing a callus or corn, is considered medical treatment “and should be handled by a foot doctor,” Weir explains.

Trimming hangnails or rough cuticles with nippers or cuticle scissors is allowed, but Dr. Robert Mohr, a podiatrist and assistant professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, recommends that the cuticles of toenails not be pushed, loosened or cut. Because they are enclosed in shoes all day, toenails are much more susceptible to infection than fingernails. “The cuticle serves as a waxy seal that helps prevent bacteria from getting into the area surrounding the nail,” Mohr says.

Goro Uesugi of the Yuki Salon on Sunset Boulevard says an overzealous approach to a pedicure is unnecessary. “The massage is more important than any other aspect,” he says. When he gives $40 pedicures to clients such as film stars Jack Nicholson, Anjelica Huston, Michelle Phillips and ice skater Dorothy Hamill, he spends 25 to 30 minutes gently kneading and rubbing the feet.

Celebrities Charlene Tilton, Pia Zadora and Grace Jones have their pedicures at the Georgette Klinger salon in Beverly Hills, where their feet are immersed in warm paraffin wax. “Besides softening the skin, the wax eliminates tension that can build up in the feet,” says Kathryn Klinger, president of the salon. Dr. Stephen Schwartz, a clinical associate professor of podiatry at the USC School of Medicine, adds that the deep heat provided by warm paraffin “flushes out swelling in the feet and is a technique commonly taught in medical schools.”

Polishing has traditionally been the final step in the pedicure, but Uesugi says an increasing number of women are asking for unpainted toes. At the Menage a Trois salon in Beverly Hills, where Masao Katayose tends to the toes of Eva Gabor and Barbara Sinatra, red is still the most requested shade. Katayose says only men ask for clear.

But even polish can lead to problems, Mohr says. “Fungus infections can result if the nails are always painted.” His advice? “Make sure the salon and tools are clean, and don’t allow anything to be cut but your nails.”

Stylist: Mindy Hahn / Celestine-Cloutier; foot stool courtesy of La Maison de France