Fish Pedicures?
Yes, you heard it right, a fish pedicure.
A fish pedicure is exactly that, a pedicure that involves using fish, to chew away dead skin and supposedly make the feet more healthy and beautiful. And believe it or not, although this sounds like a “new fad” it’s actually been around for at least 400 years in the far East.
The fish that are used are called Doctor Fish. This is the name given to two kinds of fish: the Garra rufa and the Cyprionion macrostomus. Other nicknames include nibble fish, kangal fish, physio fish, and doctorfishen. In non-medical contexts, the Garra rufa is called the reddish log sucker.
Originally made popular in Turkey, a pedicure given with the help of fish nibbling on your toes is a beauty craze that has reached cities around this country and is receiving mixed reviews by the people who maintain standards of health and sanitary conditions in the U.S.
BUT, the customers seem to love this strange technique and it has quickly become the latest fad in many salons around the country.
In 2006, doctor fish spa resorts opened in Japan, and in Croatia, where the fish were first used to clean the bathers at the spas. The new method became popular, and there are now fish pedicure spas in resorts in China, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Korea, Singapore, Hungary, Slovakia, India, Thailand, Indonesia,Malaysia, Phillippines, Hong Kong, and Romania,Spain, France and Norway.
Although this has been a popular way to make women’s feet healthy and beautiful in many other countries, health concerns are making this pedicure technique somewhat controversial in the U.S. This is due to the fact that the usual pedicure procedure involves sanitizing the tools used after each pedicure, which cannot be the case when using fish for the pedicure!
Usually when a woman goes to get a pedicure, a loofa is used to massage the feet and slough away the dead skin. After this, a moisturizing lotion is applied to the foot to make it soft.
Well, during a pedicure with fish, a woman places her feet into a tank full of little, biting fish that chew away at the dead skin instead of a loofa rubbing the dead skin away. The sensation of these nibbles is said to be weird and may tickle at first, but after a few minutes it becomes relaxing. After the fish do their job of nibbling away dead skin, the feet will be moisturized with lotion and painted with polish if desired, just like a normal pedicure.
If you are adventurous and open to new things, especially with your beauty regime, you may want to try a fish pedicure. This type of pedicure may sound like a creepy way to get beautiful feet, but if you’re willing to try it, you may just find your new favorite type of pedicure!