Monday, Nov. 03, 2008

Fish Pedicures

Some women, it seems, will do anything for beautiful feet — even use them as fish food. The practice of plunging feet into a tub of tiny carp called garra rufa, which nibble on dead skin, was popular in some Asian countries and became an American craze after John Ho, a Virginia salon owner, announced he had offered the treatment to 5,000 customers over a four-month period. Soon, pedicurists all over the country were ordering thousands of the fish, which are said to help soften the skin in advance of normal, human-administered pedicures. Unfortunately for some salon owners who had already ordered the fish, Washington and Texas quickly banned the practice on sanitary grounds. Ho, however, is still going strong with his "Dr. Fish Massage" for the feet.