Feet Tea

It's not that I have smelly feet. It always depends on the type of footwear. And socks. It's a given that your feet would stink after a long day of work. The locker room would stink so bad you could literally taste it on your tongue. A certain bitterness. I am not against changing footwear after work, but some of these people leave their stinky socks in their lockers together with their smelly shoes, leaving a very pleasant frangrance!

My lockermates did that before; leaving their shoes and socks in the locker without so much as putting it in a shoebox. It made my apron smelled of their shoes eew! Don't they have common sense!? So, rather than complaining to them, I took the matters into my own hand; I prepared a shoe box in the locker for their use! At least, when they left, the shoe box would remain there for future idiots to take notice of!

And no, I wear my shoes straight from home, so the only thing I left in my locker is my apron and nametag. And a bottle of lotion I hardly use.

But when I get home, my feet are tired, battered and smelled of mouldy socks. I remember seeing my homie back in uni soaking her feet in saltwater. I thought, 'oh how nice'. The first time I tried it, I just wanted to soak my feet in something herby and nice. I remembered this episode on Oprah where the girl was told to soak her feet in tea to cure her smelly feet problem. Normally when they bother me, I just go and take a shower and scrub my feet. The smell can be persistent even after thorough washing and they won't completely disappear until the next morning.

Determined to relax my battered feet, I foraged around the kitchen and found some old tea bags. I doubt their taste is suitable for consumption now which made them great for foot soaking. I popped two teabags in a bucket and poured hot water. I let them seep for a while and then added tap water to the right temparature. Then I settled into my chair and soaked my feet. Ah~ bliss.

My feet emerged like prunes, but man did they not smell - of anything! Not even of earl grey! I do this about once a week or when I feel like it. It's a lot of work, you know. Carrying the bucket around. But then I found this article about the benefits of soaking feet in tea. Apparently if you soak your feet in tea for 30 minutes everyday for a week, you can keep smelly feet at bay for weeks to come. And from then on just do it once or twice a week to keep the symptoms at bay. The tannin in tea shrinks the sweat glands in your feet, causing your feet to sweat less, giving bacterias less surfaces to breed and cause smelly feet.

Like I said, I don't naturally have smelly feet. But I might just try it because it's so nice and relaxing hehehe!

Try it! You'll love it! Ta'ra!