This post may contain affiliate links.

Blister Prevention and Treatment for Hikers

Leukotape
Leukotape is a very sticky tape that is good for protecting hotspots and preventing blisters. Better than moleskin, even.

No one is immune to blisters. However, blisters are preventable if you understand the conditions that cause them and they will heal faster if you know how to treat them properly. In the following article I begin by explaining what blisters are and why they occur. I then discuss techniques to prevent them from occurring, followed by guidelines for treating blisters that will hasten the healing process.

What Causes Blisters?

Blisters can be caused by burns, allergic reactions, and fungal infections. Friction is the most common cause of hiking blisters. When your feet get hot and sweaty, your socks stick to your feet and begin to rub against the inside of your shoes or boots. The skin at the point of friction becomes red and irritated. Lymphatic fluid flows to the friction site gathering between the layers of skin to protect the area like a small balloon, eventually forming a bubble of fluid known as a blister. Blisters can also occur when your socks, boots or shoes get wet from the rain, snow, or a stream crossing.

Blister Prevention

The key to preventing blisters is to eliminate friction. Shoes and boots should be well broken in and you should make an effort to keep your socks as dry as possible by changing them when your feet get hot and sweaty or by taking your shoes or boots off periodically to let your feet and socks dry out when you take a snack break. If this means bringing along one or two extra pairs of socks, it may be well worth a few more ounces of pack weight.

If you expect to do a lot of stream crossings you should consider bringing along a pair of sandals or crocs to wear instead of your boots to keep them dry. Bringing along a pair of camp shoes also gives your boots and socks an opportunity to dry for a longer period of time before you need to put them back on again. Conditions permitting, you may also want to re-evaluate a preference for leather hiking boots. Ultralight hikers who wear lightweight boots, running shoes, or even sandals may experience fewer blisters because their footwear dries more quickly when it gets wet. Gore-Tex lined leather boots, on the other hand, can take days to dry out completely.

Other effective ways to reduce friction include applying petroleum jelly to a hot spot or sprinkling foot powder or corn starch on your feet to prevent moisture buildup. If you feel a hot spot forming on your feet, you should stop to inspect it immediately and apply moleskin or tape to prevent it from turning into a blister later in the day. Some hikers also prefer wearing two sock layers, a liner that absorbs moisture and can be changed frequently, and a heavier outer sock. This moves the site of friction between the socks, away from your skin and a sock.

Blister Treatment

Blisters come in different shapes and sizes. The first stage in determining how to treat a blister is to assess it. Broken blisters that are leaking fluid should be disinfected and bandaged. Unbroken blisters that are painful should be pricked with a sterile needle and drained. Small blisters that are not painful should be left alone because the best protection against infection is the blister’s own skin. These will heal by themselves and will be reabsorbed in a few days.

If a blister has broken, it should be cleaned, disinfected, and then bandaged. You can disinfect the would by irrigating it with chlorinated water, wiping it with an alcohol swab, or rubbing it with a dab of Purell. If the skin over the blister is ragged and dirty it should be carefully cut off. Otherwise, it should be left intact to prevent infection. Before bandaging the wound, an antibiotic ointment should be applied. Research has shown that the application of Neosporin or triple antibiotic gel will kill off infecting bacteria after two applications and accelerate the healing process.

Unbroken blisters that are painful should be drained. This is caused by the build up of fluid in the blister, so removing it will help relieve the pain. First swab the blister with alcohol to disinfect the area. Then, using your fingers, push the fluid to one side of the blister. Prick the side with the fluid using a needle that has been sterilized by alcohol, a lighted match or in boiling water. The needle should prick the blister horizontally at the point where the blister begins to rise above the skin. Leave the skin overlying the blister in place to prevent infection. Apply antibiotic gel to the site of the needle pricks and cover with a bandage. For small blisters, cover the entire blister with an adhesive bandage. For larger blisters cover the entire blister with a porous, plastic-coated gauze pad that will absorb any further drainage and allows the blister to breathe and dry out. If the bandages get wet, reapply the antibiotic ointment and redress the blisters. After a few days, the skin under the blister should have healed and you can cut away the remaining dead skin.

Other Folk Remedies

If you hang around long-distance hikers and backpackers long enough, someone will suggest using Superglue to help heal a blister or make it possible to keep walking with one. This suggestion is actually a lot less far-fetched than it sounds. Superglue is widely used by surgeons to bond together organs or parts of the body that respond poorly to stitches. It is also effective in closing skin shears like cracked calluses where the sides of a wound must be bonded to accelerate healing.

Superglue can be used to treat blisters by squirting it between the top of a popped blister and the skin beneath it. This bonds the roof of the blister to the underlying skin reducing the risk of infection and creating a hardened shell over the blister site. The downside of this technique is that the solvents in the Superglue will hurt like hell when they are applied to the wound. To be on the safe side, make sure that you have sterilized the blister with alcohol before applying Superglue to it.

Tincture of Benzoin is another bonding agent that can also be used to seal the roof of the blister to the exposed skin underneath. It already contains alcohol, so a separate application is unnecessary.

SectionHiker is reader-supported. We only make money if you purchase a product through our affiliate links. Help us continue to test and write unsponsored and independent gear reviews, beginner FAQs, and free hiking guides.

18 comments

  1. I have read on BPL from several hikers that they use and swear by Hydropel. You out this on every morning and it helps prevent blisters I just bought a tube (not cheap) as I m off with my son for a week long trek and want to assure myself that it goes well for my son. I will remember to change socks a couple of times a day as an extra precaution

  2. I've tried every imaginable lubricant to prevent blisters, and here's what I have learned: In the winter, I pre-tape my heel with duct tape when I wear mountaineering boots. For 3 season, I've switched to trail runners. No more blisters. 50 yards of duct tapes lasts a long long time and costs a lot less than hydropel.

  3. I looked up using super glue on skin and there is a better product call Dermabond.

    From: sportsmedicine.about.com/od/treatinginjuries/a/supergluecuts.htm

    "For a safer wound-healing glue consider Dermabond. This anti-bacterial form of the substance 2-octyl-cyanoacrylate is approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for skin wound closure. "

    I have also found the water-proof bandages from nexgen are excellent. They are very slick and when I put them on small blisters they heal quickly and don't hurt.

  4. I think there isn’t really anything what can help you when you go on the hike that is much longer than any of your exercise in previous months. Only good socks and boots and plasters :D

  5. Just thought I’d point out that surgeons use Dermabond which although similar is chemically distinct from superglue which is known to potentially cause tissue irritation (which would inhibit healing).

    It’s also considerably more expensive than super glue. Pick your poison I guess.

  6. I am very prone to blisters. I wear orthotics in my shoes and I am a sweater and they both contribute to blisters. I used to get crippled with blisters but over time I worked out where I always got them. I found taping worked on some spots and that’s enough, but I had two stubborn points that still blistered. I now use Spenco 2nd skin gel pads on the worst places, with Fixomull tape next then sports tape. Other less troublesome recurrent spots I use Fixomull tape with sports tape over top. I find the sports tape slips off with sweat and that the Fixomull tape just stays in place and bonds further to your skin as you heat up. I then double sock just for good luck. I spend half an hour over breakfast every morning taping up my feet and ankles and I hate it but I don’t blister any more. I try to avoid crossing streams too, as that’s problematic with the taping.

    • Hi Justine,

      Where do you buy the Fixpmull tape?

      • Hi Veronica, I live in NZ and I buy it from the local pharmacy which is like your drug stores if you’re in the USA. Otherwise doctor, physio, vet clinic, or online at amazon or similar. Good luck

  7. Why is every article about blisters about friction? There is another source–PRESSURE.
    Adding another layer where there is already pressure seems wrong to me and to NOLS instruction in the 80’s. Use a donut made from molefoam or several layers of moleskin to releave any pressure. That worked for a month long trip. Now there are jell pads which do seem to work but they are hard to keep on, and you have to add another layer of tape…more pressure.

  8. Good article. I am reading your blog entries from the bottom up.

    I do wonder though, since i am living in Europe, we never use antibiotics ourselves since it can make you immune to it’s working substances, and if so, if you would get infected it would be harder to kill off the immune bacteria. We only get it on prescription. I use disinfecting stuff like Dettol instead.

  9. Dave I do a lot of hiking in PA over rocks and boulder fields. They destroy my feet. If you soak your feet twice a week in salt water it will toughen the skin up on your feet. A lot fewer blisters.

  10. My prep for backpack trips is to scrub my feet after every shower to toughen up the skin. Then I dab rubbing alcohol on them.
    I grew up on a farm and the county needed some space to store rocks to cover a nearby road. They left a mountain of small stones (chert?) in our yard. I usually ran around barefoot and the rocks hurt for about 2 or 3 days but after that I could run up and down with no pain. This proved to me that you can toughen up the skin of your feet.
    Also, first trip to CO in about 1977, I developed a blister so asked a ranger what to do. He said he just got a new product that you spray on it and that should help. In 2 days I was limping. Finally got that stuff off, let it air out and heal. Found out that what he had was a preventative spray not a healing spray.
    Lesson learned: do not always trust the ‘experts’. Learn for yourself what works for you.

  11. Since I discovered Spenco 2nd Skin Adhesive Knit (around 1977), I’ve considered Moleskin to be obsolete old technology. Apply at the first sensation of a hot spot. It stretches and comforms and is thin so it doesn’t add pressure. It breathes well so doesn’t soften your skin. If your feet are sweaty, dry them and put on dry socks. I’ve used it on many hikes over those 40 years. I’ve heard about using duct tape, but my concern is it doesn’t stretch or breath and is not a medical grade product.

  12. There are products like super glue that are used to bond tissues in surgery. Like the ones for organs, they are not super glue. There is a comparison at how they work. Bonding. But that’s it.

  13. I used to use leukotape preventatively. But when I converted to Darn Tough socks I forgot it once. Haven’t needed to use it since.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Solve *