Funny, when I first wrote the title to this article, I accidently misspelled heels to hells.

How to walk in hells actually sounds more accurate.

For years I admired the look of heels and the feeling of them, but everytime I would try to wear them, I returned wounded and bandaged and defeated.

I tried again for months, daily — using bandaids, socks, even lipbalm to prevent blisters and pun intended, kept on walking.

It was when my feet started to get painfully misaligned from succumbing to the gravity of my foot sliding into beautiful dainty pointed shoes that I threw in the towel for years.

I still bought heels, owned them, admired them.

And never wore them.

I believed that when women wore heels it was powerful, magical and beautiful.

I knew that superwomen who constantly rocked heels existed — and I was determined to figure out how they did it.

Today I am able to walk in heels, at least 5 days a week to work. All day, no blisters, no misalignment. And the best part is, I’m actually quite comfortable in them.

I will show you exactly how I did it, but I warn you.

There will be pain, there is always pain and that is the price you pay for wearing heels.

How to Walk in Heels

1. First of all, BUY QUALITY SHOES!

Anything synthetic or, God forbid, plastic, is going to wreck your feet and test your pain threshold. Start here and you’re halfway there.

When you buy your shoes, make sure they are quality. If you are a beginner, get lower or thicker heels, but with these steps, you will be able to walk in thin stilettos like a pro.

When you buy your heels, make sure your toes are all comfortable next to each other, if they are squished, buy another shoe. If they are a tiny bit tight in the front on pointed toed shoes and they are leather, then you are alright, they will stretch slightly to fit.

Notice how your shoes fit against your ankles. If they rub on your ankles right away, practice walking straighter or skip on buying that pair.

Shoes should be snug, but not crushing your toes. Think of buying leather heels like buying jeans, you want to buy them just slightly snug because the leather will stretch just like the denim will stretch.

2. Learn to Walk in Heels. Here’s How.

Here’s an important trick to walking in heels. First of all, take the time to adjust your feet and toes comfortably every single time before starting to walk. Sounds obvious, but a tiny misalignment will lead to some major pain in just a few minutes.

Learn how to rest your weight into the back of your shoes, not the toes. Many women feel like they are learning forward when wearing heels because of the angle. Focus on bearing your weight back. Put your weight on the front of your feet, and your heel wearing will be short lived.

Learn how to take steps while focusing on keeping the weight focused on the back of your shoes. To begin, you will feel like you are overcompensating by keeping your weight back, but you will actually create balance.

Practice walking on an even surface.

3. Endure the First Few Weeks 

This is why I never made it the first several times I tried to incorporate heels into my life. Your feet will be very surprised by heels and will react — painfully.

Keep bandaids at hand. Pro tip: put the bandaids on before you get blisters. You’ll know where that is. Trust me you’ll feel it.

After the first few days or weeks, the front of your feet will be on fire and you will get blisters.

After the first few weeks is when the magic starts to happen. Your feet start to get used to the feeling of heels and it starts to “feel right”. Your feet will diminish the pain signals to your brain and blisters will no longer happen. Your feet will begin to get used to heels.

You may also feel pain in your calves and back. If it’s muscle pain, that’s your body working out muscles it may not be used to using. If it’s shooting pain, you’re doing something wrong. STOP WEARING HEELS. If it persists, consult a doctor.

Protip: If your feet start getting slightly misaligned STOP. STOP WEARING HEELS. This can lead to dangerous inflammation, displaced sesamoid bones and bunions, due to the misalignment and the constant rubbing friction. This can really, really mess up your feet.

If this is happening, it’s because you:

1. Need to buy better quality shoes. Real leather shoes.

or

2. You are walking way too much and your feet are shocked by it.

Stop, let your feet heal and if you are brave, try again.

This is what can happen if you abuse your feet in heels.

Image from: http://www.footnankledoc.com/services/hammertoes.html

More Pro tips:

Buy closed toe shoes. Avoid open toe shoes, especially the peep toes, at least in the very beginning. Your feet will slide into the little space and it’s terribly painful.

Buy shoes with a platform. It keeps the height of the heel and lessens the angle. Look at the angle of the sole of the shoe. The higher the incline, the more “expert mode” the heels.

Avoid walking large distances at once. Shorter walking distances are much more optimal, especially at the beginning.

Keep flats on hand. Take a pair of flip-flops or the rollup ballerina flats and change into those when you’ve had too much.

Wearing pantyhose take the difficulty up a notch. Your feet will slide more into the front of your shoe. Once again, this is expert mode.

When walking over surfaces that have gaps in the floor such as sidewalk grates, keep your weight on your toes so your heel doesn’t slip into the grate. It sucks. It messes up your shoes pretty bad as well.

Stay positive and take your focus off the pain and on the beauty, design and power of heels.