Friday 23 July 2010

Fabfrocks reviews: the fish pedicure

Thursday's deal from Wahanda was a half price fish pedicure (just £9) and having read so much about them via twitter, I decided I had to give it a go! A fish pedicure is a pedicure with a difference: you dip your feet into a tank full of garra rufa (or doctor) fish, who suck away all your dead hard skin. For those of you worrying about losing more than you expected (a toe perhaps!) they only consume the affected and dead areas of the skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow.
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My experience was disappointing: I went to Wanda Fish in Camden, which was a very basic establishment, rather than the salon I was expecting. I was very cautious when I dipped my feet into the big tub of fish, but aside from about a minute of weirdness, it didn't feel uncomfortable at all: in fact it just felt like having your feet in a bubble spa. The sensation was really gentle and soothing. The water was tepid, which was great as I expected it to be cold, but apparently garra rufa are warm water fish.

The problem with fish is that unlike a therapist, you can't tell them to concentrate on your problem areas: the fish seemed to enjoy the tops of my feet, which didn't need any work, and left the soles of my feet alone. I also didn't think there were enough fish in each tank, and that may have affected the performance: other salons say they have between 150-200 fish per tank, but I would estimate that there were only around 50 in mine. So although this had no real affect on my feet, it could be that the experience is better in other locations. I think this kind of treatment would work best in conjunction with a therapist as well, which this salon didn't offer: after my half an hour with the fish I would've liked the rest of the hard skin removed from my feet and my nails painted, which you get with a normal pedi, but don't get with a fish one.

I'm glad I tried it, and it was definitely worth giving it a go, for the experience if nothing else. But sadly it hasn't made any real difference to my feet, and i'm still going to have to go for a proper pedicure to remove the hard skin on my heels, and for a shape and polish.

Love, Tor xx

6 comments:

Little Miss Serendipity said...

I'd be too freaked out for that! Nothing beats a big dollop of moisturiser preferably (L'occitane foot cream) marinading all night in a pair of ancient socks. You're totally right! They should have painted your nails after :(

teawithonesugarplease said...

It was very brave of you to try it

Laura said...

The idea always freaks me out, but I bet it's quite a nice feeling.

It'd be good if they painted your nails in a fish theme after. Well, maybe that would only be good if you wanted fishy toenails, which is probably not a lot of people. Maybe not.

Laura
asifby-magic.blogspot.com

Louise Mc said...

Oh my, I've never heard of this before. Thank you for enlightening me! What a weird concept. I like fish, but I'm not sure I could put my feet in with them, so that was brave of you!

Anonymous said...

I have always wanted to try this! Unfortunately they don't do it in Belgium yet. Too bad your experience wasn't the best.

http://blogtobealive.com

shoaltosole said...

I had the fish foot spa treatment myself and found the experience great,I was sceptical at first,was this another fad? would it really work? well,I am pleased to say it did,My feet were smoother and I could literally see and feel the difference.I had the treatment again and yes a significant difference so much so I purchased some fish to try at home to really see if this treatment worked long term,YES IT HAS!so much so I am in the process of setting up my own foot spa.I do agree with the ladys previous comment,The amount of fish does make a difference,100+ per tank should do it,bare in mind it takes a long time to build up all that hard dry skin,this is not an overnite miracle treatment,we have 6-7 layers of dead skin, each treatment should take off atleast 1 layer,my tip is to pre soak feet before you go for this treatment,this makes your feet softer enabling the fish to nibble easier, make sure you do your homework and find a good spa,UV sterilisers should be used in each tank set up.enjoy