yeah, start small. think of them as training heels. And when you get self contious, think.....hell, i'm model height and they wear heels and own it, why not me?

I wear heels all day for work. I tend to wear my topshop flat boots for going to the pub in but if I'm gping out OUT, or to an event, I wear heels.

i've always had a shoe problem, so i've always bought a lot of high heeled shoes - but for a long time i rarely wore them, cause a) not being used to wear them, they hurt my feet really bad, and b) i felt a bit strange wearing them whenever i went out, i did see them like ''shoes for certain occasions''
at a certain point i realized i couldnt go on buying shoes and NOT wearing them
so i either had to stop buying them or wear them more.
i actually ended up wearing them more and more and now they dont really hurt anymore, i can dance from 9 pm to 5 pm and have no problem with a pair 5" heeled shoes.
i guess you just have to wear them more and more and you get used to them.

i adore wearing heels. they make me feel sexier and better looking, i have a better posture while walking and not being tall (actually being kinda short) i can get away with wearing also EXTREMELY HIGH heels.and they make you legs seem longer and thats always good. plus a lot of skirts/dresses fit better if you wear high heeled shoes.

but, as much as i love heels, wedges disgust me

hum...i like wedges. what i dont like (and apparently i'm the only one) are those pointy ass toes. you know, really long and pointy, like anyone has feet like that? it looks bad to me, but its very in style right now. I just choose to ignore it.

i think the taller the better, tall women are amazing

i'm only 4'11" though, so maybe it's a grass is always greener thing

no you're right. THE POINTY TOES ARE THE DEVIL. they're fug and make your feet look like shit, apart from really occasional and random and special ones. (eg : the louboutin pigalle's. those are HOT)

ill always and only go for the round toes.

I love high heels but don't wear them 24/7. I do feel sexy wearing them, but I feel just as sexy in a pair of ballerina flats. My sister used to wear them ALL THE TIME and still does mostly and her feet always hurt her.

yes, round toes are preferable for me. they make my feet look small, and thats a novelty that isnt wearing off.

square toes are sometimes neat too.

I'm 5'11 so when I wear heels I feel too tall. If I'm going out with friends though we'll collectively decide to wear heels. Safety with fellow giants.
I also broke my ankle when I younger jumping off of a jungle gym, so after a little while my ankle will start to bother me.
I wish I could wear heels more often. I do feel better with them on. Especially opposed to the sneakers or flats I wear everyday. But shoe companies need to start making more high heeled shoes in bigger sizes. I'm a ten and it's rly hard to find a pretty pair of high heels in a size ten.

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cheeseburger lips!

i dont have a problem finding 10's, but they put out size 6's and they look so cute, then i get my size out and...well...they're not so cute anymore...hehe

im 5'1 and i love heels,i used to wear them (or platforms) a lot because i'm so short & they make my legs look longer and thinner.
but lately i've been wearing flat shoes more because years of heels is making my knees ache a lot of the time.

6 inches! how? are they platforms. i have the same problem with being tall, but i'm starting not to care. i always feel a bit 'overdressed' wearing heels but i do love them.

If you're a high-heel kind of a girl, we bet you're slipping on those spiky heels or platform pumps because you like the way they make your calves and clothes look. Plus, hey, guys dig them.

Women know high heels aren't good for their feet, and they don't deny that they're uncomfortable. In fact, a Gallup Poll found that 37 percent of women surveyed said they would continue to wear high heels, even though they did not think them comfortable. Mark it up to the price of beauty.

Feet aren't made for heels

Despite what you're willing to tolerate as a lover of heels, you may be underestimating the damage that high heels can cause, beyond just having sore feet at the end of the day.

Not surprisingly, doctors of podiatric medicine (foot doctors) and orthopaedic surgeons see no value in high heels, which they generally define as pumps with heels of more than two inches.

You know those lovely curves you get with high heels? "It's not a normal anatomical position," says Teisha Chiarelli, a podiatrist in Glendale, Ariz.

Physicians say high heels are "biomechanically and orthopedically unsound," citing medical, postural and safety faults of such heels, according to the American Podiatric Medical Association. Among the litany of problems to which stilettos and their sister heels contribute are knee and back problems, disabling injuries in falls and shortened calf muscles, not to mention an awkward, unnatural gait.

Uncovering women's footwear problems

While most high-heel fans aren't so willing to totally abandon their high pumps, a survey indicates that many might be willing to make some adjustments - to a point.

In an online survey by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, 80 percent of the women respondents said their feet hurt, and nearly 60 percent of them 'fessed up to wearing uncomfortable shoes for at least an hour a day. The good news, though, is that 85 percent of the women with aching feet said that they had changed the kind of shoes they wear or wear them less often.

The survey, which involved 1,724 women, also revealed that:

* 'Work' or 'style' are the reasons why women wear uncomfortable shoes.

* Calluses and heel pain were the top shoe-related foot ailments.

* Women also complain about such conditions as bunions, swelling of the joint at the base of the big toe; hammertoes, a permanent bend in the middle joint of a toe; neuromas, nerve problems that cause shooting pain into the toes; ingrown toenails; and even stress fractures.

Chiarelli says high heels are a particular cause of concern.

"I've got elderly women come in who swear they've worn high heel shoes all their lives and say they can't wear a flat shoe. They get a physiologically shorter Achilles tendon. Over a period of time, we accommodate that position," she says.

Typically, Chiarelli says feet swell throughout the day and poorly fitting shoes won't accommodate that swelling. Sometimes the pain is achy, "almost a bone bruising," she says, or a sharp pain between the bones in the ball of the foot.

"We're looking at bony problems where the toes are starting to curl up from being in a narrow or pointed toe box," she says. "Probably the patient with the ugliest feet is a dancer because she's wearing toe shoes or high heels for dancing."

"Bony problems" are such a big part of foot problems that podiatrists even have a high-heel nickname for one condition - a pump bump. "It's a big old bump on the back of your heel," Chiarelli says. "It's like a callus of bone on the back of the heel from the shoe rubbing the bone."

Nail problems also are common from the constant pressure of toes being pressed against the end of the shoe. That can cause the nail to thicken and promote the growth of foul-smelling fungus. Plus, if a person has curved toenails, it can induce or exacerbate painful in-grown nails.

Changing your heel habits

If you just can't imagine life without heels, Chiarelli suggests choosing styles with squared-off toes and shorter, chunkier heels instead of stilettos.

However, it should be noted that a Harvard University study published in the medical journal The Lancet found that wide-heeled shoes cause problems, too.

Researchers found that while women who wore stick-thin heels were more likely to develop problems in their feet, including tendonitis and bone deformities, women who pulled on thick heels were as prone to develop serious and potentially debilitating knee problems.

"They are better for your feet than stiletto heels but just as bad for your knees," Casey Kerrigan, M.D., lead researcher of the Harvard study, says about wider-heeled shoes.

If a wide-heeled shoe isn't you anyway, then follow some of Chiarelli's other tips for female shoe shoppers:

* Look for thicker soles for absorbing shock better and putting less pressure on the foot as well as an upper material, such as leather or microfiber, that will give a little to allow the foot to swell without pinching. "Those will still look nice and not hurt so badly," she says.

* If you simply must wear high heels, then limit the time you wear them. Wearing flatter shoes or tennis shoes for walking long distances, such as to and from the office, and then changing into your heels once you get to work.

* Give your feet a nice massage or soak them in lukewarm water at the end of the day. "If your foot has been put in that funny position all day, it feels like it's stuck that way," Chiarelli says. "Treat yourself."

If you want to want to be good to your feet, then consider following the American Podiatric Medical Association's recommendation on "perhaps the best shoe you can buy from an orthopedic point of view" - a walking shoe with ties (not a slip-on), a Vibram-type composition sole, and a relatively wider heel, no more than a half or three-quarters of an inch in height.

Dull, yes, but safe.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/foot-problems/WO00114
hammertoes





Coloured X-ray of a woman's foot in a high-heel shoe. The construction of the shoe is clearly seen; so is the way that the foot is forced to rest mainly on its toes. Bones and soft tissues of the lower leg and foot are visible. The lower leg bones are the tibia and fibula. The foot comprises many bones, including the calcaneus (heel bone), several tarsal bones, five metatarsals, culminating in the phalanges bones of the toes.

they have like a half inch bottom but not platforms?
I love them
I'll post a picture at some point.

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Diving for pearls.

I want a lolly.

i'm 5'11 and a half.. so really heels are almost always kitten heels, which i HATE.

but it hard to find pants that fit as it is, adding a 3 inch heel makes everything look awkward. but i did splurge and said fuck it, and bought these shoes, and wore them with black ankle-leggins and a mini-dress.

it looked great, but i was fully like 6'3 with the whole thing. and i feel like a monster. or WNBA player..

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wedges are vile
stilettos or nothing. no platforms. no chunky heels. fuck healthy feet so long as your feet look hot at that moment its all that matters

haha my mum's toes are like the ones on the left from being a professional ballerina. i am going to call her hammer toes from now on.


i love stilettos. i'm practically a midget so it's nice to feel normal height sometimes. if your shoes hurt too much, just drink a lot and you won't even notice and after a few nights, they'll be broken in.