Temperatures are dropping and winter can make the skin on your feet, especially your heels, super dry — dry enough to crack like a fault line. Even though sock season gives them a place to hide in plain sight, cracks in your heels can fracture into deep cuts or fissures, that can be pretty painful and even get infected.
We asked board-certified dermatologists Sheel Desai Solomon, MD, founder of Preston Dermatology & Skin Surgery in North Carolina and Samer Jaber, MD, founder of Washington Square Dermatology in New York City, what causes our heels to crack and what we can do to heal and protect them.
How heels crack: “Cracked heels occur when you have a disruption of your skin barrier,” explains Jaber. “It can be from a medical condition, like psoriasis or eczema, or can occur when you skin is very dry.”
Other variables that can dry out your heel skin enough to crack are age (your skin gets thinner, less elastic and some common medications can contribute) and, of course, winter itself is quite the culprit. “Heels are at their worst in winter,” says Solomon. “Indoors and outdoors there is less humidity in the air, and a lack of humidity causes the skin to become drier.
