Feet Forward

By Leandi Claasen

The winter season is upon us, the time for feet to be stuffed into thick socks and heavy boots; with open-toed sandals a summer’s dream away why would anyone bother with a pedicure? Because those socks have to come off sometime, darling!

Foot Massage

There are two types of people: those who pedicure and those who don’t. I am a recent convert to the pedicure cause; blame five years of looking at grubby toes and filthy toenails entering the boutique where I work part-time for convincing me that there are little uglier than an unvarnished, unattended-to foot.

Paarl born beauty therapist, Judith Jardien, couldn’t agree more: “It’s not just the work-slaves who are guilty of not caring what’s going on past their ankles, if they even get that far; gosh, the number of hairy calves on women in this town is enough to make anyone despair!”

Jardien says even Franschhoek’s elite seem oblivious to the jarring juxtaposition of wearing a pair of R2000 Errol Arendz with unpainted toenails.

“Why bother, it’s like paying that kind of money for MAC and then not bothering to pluck your eyebrows. The devil, as they say, is in the details.”

So, the pedicure: Jardien says there are good pedicures and there are bad ones. She recalls how a friend of hers succumbed to a “Shenzhen Special” only to develop a severe skin infection on the soles of her feet where the callus had been ‘shaved’ with an unsterilized blade.

“Upon enquiring why she had even considered having her feet tended to while on a business trip over the border, she replied promptly, because it costs a third of what it does here in South Africa.”

Judith concedes that one of the main reasons why most women fail to tend to their feet is “because spas and beauty salons in this country can be quite pricy.”

But she’s quick to assure that if South African women shop around they’d be surprised at the number of local salons that do offer similar treatments (that high-class establishments offer) at more affordable prices.

At Beauty Off Main, where Jardien has been working for four years, the mood is relaxed. Located on the hillside, away from the hustle and the bustle of the main strip, the little building at first glance seems an unlikely place for pedicure bliss.

Yes, they do have a spa section, but for all intents and purposes, the place is better known as a hair salon.

But book a pedicure here (Stylelesch did) and you’ll be ushered over to a wonderfully plush armchair lounger in a quiet little nook near the fireplace, offered honey rooibos tea (delicious) and fussed over like royalty!