Dudes: You should totally pamper yourself with a pedicure

I remember in college hearing about basketball players at my school who got pedicures to help with all the wear and tear on their feet.

I was shocked. It wasn’t judgement, it was ignorance. It had never even crossed my mind that getting a pedicure was something a guy could do.

Ten years later, I finally gave it a try. And it was awesome.

Seriously, guys, you should go get a pedicure ASAP. See if your regular barber offers it, or get recommendations for nail salons from women you know. Maybe ask to tag along next time. Just do it.

It was my buddy David’s idea. He’d been talking about us getting pedicures for months, ever since he became a member at Emerson Joseph, the uptown men’s grooming lounge. (This is the same guy who threw a party at Emerson Joseph’s mysterious speakeasy.)

Finally, we made plans for a recent Saturday. He booked the appointments at Emerson Joseph.

I’m not gonna lie: I was nervous. Sure, the beer while I waited helped. But I still didn’t know what to expect. Will my feet gross the person out? Will I do something wrong? Will it tickle?

I’d chugged about half of my Bell’s Two Hearted Ale when Alex walked up, introduced herself as my stylist, and led me back to the pedicure chair.

I sunk into the comfortable brown leather chair. Alex showed me how to use the massage function, but I was too nervous and overwhelmed. I never cut it on.

At the foot of the chair was a basin filled with blue liquid. I hung my feet to the side, unsure of what the heck I was supposed to do with it. She told me to put my feet in. I did. It was warm. It felt nice. Alex left me there for a few minutes. I settled in, took a sip of my beer, and focused on the college football game on the TV. Off to a good start.

“Is this your first time?” Alex asked when she came back in. Yep. Apparently I’m not the only guy coming in for his first pedicure. She gets a lot of first-timers, she said.

Don’t worry about your feet, she said, I’ve seen it all. She actually enjoys doing pedicures, she told me as she grabbed my right foot and pulled it out of the blue water. Then she got to work.

She cut the nails, then filed them, then scraped around the edges, then put some drops on them that made them shiny (???), then moved to the other foot and repeated the process, then she took this cheese-grater-looking thing and scraped the calluses, then she put a blue moisturizing mask or something on both feet, then rubbed some kind of lotion on them and wrapped them in warm towels …

Look, I realize I’m not being specific. I meant to ask questions about all of the things Alex was doing, I really did, because I knew I wanted to write about it. But it felt so good that I just relaxed,  let my mind wander — and totally forgot.

Afterward, my feet felt refreshed. They were smooth. They looked pretty. They felt awesome.

Later that day, my wife (probably accidentally) touched the bottom of my feet. “Ooh,” she said. That’s all the positive reinforcement I needed. Fifty bucks well spent, and I’d do it again.

Dudes: Go get a pedicure. Trust me.

Photo: Corey Inscoe

This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 9:02 PM with the headline "Dudes: You should totally pamper yourself with a pedicure."