High Heels, Calluses and Blisters - How to Prevent Aching Feet

Women love their high heels. Short women especially love them, cos they give us the appearance of having longer legs. We start wearing them in our late teens and continue to do so through our early 20’s, coasting through our social lives with little or no discomfort.

And then one day we wake up and discover our feet have gone wonkey.

Depending on what type of shoe you have a passion for, deformities will manifest in different ways. Myself, I’ve always preferred 4-6 inch heeled sandals and boots with a slightly squared toe.

Can I just tell you how thankful I am for this? Take a look at what happens when you do the pointy look.

• Witchy, pointy-toed heels can permanently point your piggies.

Girl, this isn’t a good look. In fact, it’s downright scary. Just google up some images of hammertoes and you’ll probably never wear a pair of these again. If you really have to wear these suckers, go a ½ size up and wear slightly thicker hose or socks. The idea is to give your toes more space horizontally. They weren’t really made to all point directly north, for God’s sake.

• High heels that force you to stand on the ball of your foot can create a very large callus.

My boots are designed in such a way that I’m pretty much on tiptoe. Which means that even though my toes have enough space in the shoe, I still have foot pain. My main issue is a big callus on the ball of the foot. You can’t see it, thank God, but I can feel it when I massage my foot. If you want to avoid this, the secret is going ½ a size bigger and purchasing something like Scholl’s Party Feet insertions, or Scholl’s Sore Spot Gels. The reason I say go bigger is that if you have a tight fit these pads won’t really fit in there so well. They are cheap and work wonderfully.

• Shoes that are too narrow just might give you bunions.

No woman wants to buy “wide” shoes. But, let me assure you, you want bunions even less. While it’s not proven that tight fitting shoes can create these, it is accepted as a possibility. And once you have bunions, they will hurt no matter what kind of shoes you are wearing. And they will make your feet look even wider than they were to start with. Go wide if you have to – no one is going to stare at your piggies in horror of the shoe width, I promise!

If you insist on wearing these shoes, take extra care of your feet.

Hey, I’m not giving up my heels either. I’m just too short. So I take extra good care of my piggies.

• Keep your toenails in line – longish toenails can result in pain whilst pressing up against the shoes.

• Exfoliate your feet, especially the ball of the foot. This works wonders on those calluses. Just because you have them doesn’t mean they have to look icky.

• Use a softening foot lotion to keep them hydrated and soft. Freeman’s foot lotion is cheap, smells great and works very, very well.

• Don’t wear high heels all day every day. Get yourself a nice pair of orthopedic sandals – or even soccer slides, these feel awesome after you’ve been wearing heels – to de-stress your piggies.

• Massage your feet. Even if only for a few minutes, this really can reduce the pain by as much as 80%.

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Of all the things women do for fashion, this one’s pretty out there, considering some of us are willing to deform our feet for height and leg shape. The least we can do is try to make it up to our piggies the best we can.

xx Isabella