Goodbye, Mystique

Okay, fine, since you ASKED.

My little toes have a weird…for lack of a better phrase, a keel on the underside. Both sides come down and join at about a 45-degree angle at the bottom, like a tiny little boat with a toenail.

Deeply confused by this, the skin on this weird little point grows…out. It’s not sure if it wants to be a callus or not, but I get pointy skin. It’s not very big, but it’s rather thick and very definitely dead, so for lack of a better option, I trim this weird little fin whenever I’m clipping my toenails, which I do like a normal human, since having velociraptor-like talons which can disembowel your enemies with one kick is hard on socks.

There. That’s all I got. If there is any mystique remaining whatsoever, I have no idea how to banish it, and you’ll just have to get over it on your own.

7 thoughts on “Goodbye, Mystique

  1. Peter of the Norse says:

    I had a girlfriend with this problem and it’s caused by funky shoes. The skin on the bottom of your feet is supposed to grow thick, but if you don’t go barefoot enough, your little toe will start to press against and curl under its neighbor. The skin on one side will be rubbed off by your shoe, and the other side by the toe. The cure is to go barefoot and stop wearing heels.

    I can’t actually picture you in high heels, but any shoe that presses on the little toe will cause it.

  2. woollythinker says:

    Not convinced it’s all the shoes’ fault, Peter. I don’t have this funky skin problem, but I do have this shape of toe, and I’ve spent an *enormous* part of my life barefoot. And always had a strict comfy-shoe rule.

  3. Bee says:

    I second woolly thinker. I too have this shape little toe (not the skin thing though) and I’ve always just assumed little toes were made in this shape. Now that you’ve brought it up I’ve checked my husband’s feet and he too has this shaped little toe.

    The weird thing about both my little toes is the nail is actually split into two seperate parts. Not sure why but it’s always been like that.

  4. Russ says:

    Hey, I have a lilttle keel too! but It’s due to my feet being scrunched up in shoes all day! I bet if you walked barefoot all day-for a year, your toes would be round or flatter on the bottom. Call me a toe doctor.

  5. Tanit-Isis says:

    I have this, too—I don’t know if it’s only caused by narrow shoes, but having widish feet definitely doesn’t help. I used to trim mine but found it just made it grow faster and hardened the callus.

  6. Briny Deep says:

    I have a toe keel, too, but it’s only on my fourth toe, and only on my right foot. My pinky toes also have a point, but it never hardens up like the fourth toe.

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