How to Wear Heels without Pain

I’ve always had a love for heels ( I attribute at least a part of that to wishing I was at least 5’8’’ – 5’9’’ which most of my heels get me to) but learning to wear them without suffering with blisters and aching feet for days after took a bit of effort and research. Over the years I’ve developed my own tricks and today, I’m going to share them with you in hopes of making your heel – filled days a little more comfortable.

1. My first trick is actually the most recent of the ones I’ve tried. If you tape your third and fourth toe together (counting from the big toe) when you wear heels, it redistributes the pressure points on your foot and takes the pressure off the ball of the foot which allows you to wear heels for hours without having any discomfort. This can be done with regular tape (and I’ve done it with a band aid when I didn’t have tape and had to improvise). This is obviously more of an option with closed toed shoes since the tape is hidden but if your toes are at least partially hidden in some open toed sandals, you can try it then as well.
2. Scholl’s For Her Rub Relief Strips – Strips of foam that can stick onto your shoe to prevent rubbing and blistering. These come in a dispenser (which has its own cutting device that I’ve had no trouble with but reading some reviews told me that some people have better luck cutting the strips with scissors instead) and you roll out the amount of tape that you need (there’s a button that you roll to make the tape come out) and stick it onto the part of your shoe that usually causes the most trouble.
3. Band Aid Friction Block Stick – I remember buying this and thinking it was going to be a waste of money and not work but I was completely wrong. This comes in a mini deodorant looking dispenser which is really convenient for carrying this around. You rub the product on the areas where your shoes tend to rub and this helps prevent the irritation and rubbing from happening. I don’t ever break in new shoes without this stuff. It’s only about $5 at Target (by far the cheapest place I could find it) and I definitely recommend picking this up.
4. Band Aids – And by band aids I mean pre-emptively putting on band aids on spots that usually get blisters. I will usually get blisters on the back of my feet so that is where I will always put a band aid when putting on new shoes, just in case.
5. Pointy toed flats – Yes, I know this post is supposed to be about heels but I just had to mention this. I’ve learned that with pointy toed flats you almost always have to go up half a size. If you buy a size 7, that usually means it’s a size 7 measured to the pointiest part of the shoe which makes the sides basically be a size 6.5 which doesn’t work. This usually ends up being a long day if you chose to wear these out for the first time without back up shoes. So my recommendation is – go up half a size especially if ordering online and not getting to try the shoes on.

As always, I hope this was helpful! Leave any comments below if you have other tips and tricks that have worked for you!