Ultimate Guide to Wearing High Heels for Beginners

While high heels have gained an unearned reputation as being difficult to wear, painful, and prone to causing embarrassing trips and falls, the truth is that if they are worn correctly they are an easy and flattering stylistic choice that can take your wardrobe to the next level. High heels add a natural lift to your figure, creating a more stylish and desirable silhouette, along with the noticeable benefits of an extra inch or two of height or even 5 like ino our highest heels. In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about wearing high heels like the fashionista professionals do: comfortably, naturally, and easily. 

Beauty for Beginners

It’s widely understood that wearing high heels in excess can cause foot or leg pain, along with other issues like a shortened Achilles tendon. However, there is a reason why they are such an enduring and prominent fashion icon, in fact, you will seldom see a high-class, fashionable event without the ubiquitous heels worn by the ladies. The reasons for this are many: beauty, fashion, style, fitting in, and a form-enhancing effect that creates a natural lift in your lower body. 

However, if you practice healthy heel-wearing habits and follow some simple steps, you can wear your high heels as much as you want without suffering any ill effects. If this wasn’t true, you wouldn’t see so many celebrities, models, and athletes who rely on their physical health and form remaining at 100% wearing high heels to important events.

First, it’s important to understand what causes the issues from high heels, so that it can be properly mitigated. The main issue is that in a normal high heel only 20% of your foot is in contact with the shoe. This causes pressure to concentrate in the metatarsal heads creating that familiar ball of foot pain and burning women feel when they wear heels. Heels also unnaturally throw off our center of gravity and balance, so they can feel unstable.. Our technology ALIA: Active Lift In Alignment increases the surface area of contact between the foot and heels to 80% or more. This dissipates the pressure across the entire foot to relieve the usual ball of foot pain. The increase in surface area also activates more proprioceptive receptors to feed your brain more information about where you are in space making you feel more balanced. Our stilettos feel like wedges because ALIA makes them much more stable.

If you don’t have ALIA in your shoes, let’s look at some of the basic steps for beginners to the world of high heels to take to wear them safely, comfortably, and in a way that will not lead to slips or falls. 

Tips for Beginners

Start low and slow

When you’re just transitioning into wearing heels from your flats or slips, it’s important to take it easy at first. Just like with a hobby or sport, you’ll want to practice on a beginner level rather than jump straight into an expert-level difficulty setting. First, try wearing heels with a moderate lift, with a maximum height of 2-2.5 inches, and don’t walk too fast or try running in them until you’re comfortable! 

Platforms and Wedges

For the beginner to the world of lifted shoes, platform shoes and wedge heels can be a nice transition. These shoes have far more balance to them than a pair of stilettos, as the heels are wider and provide much more contact with the ground.

Practice at home

One simple exercise you can practice at home to help when wearing heels is to stand up, and slowly raise your weight off of your heels and onto the forward ball of your foot. Hold this position for about 10 seconds, then slowly lower your weight back onto your heel. Repeating this exercise about 20 times per day for several weeks will strengthen the muscles you need and allow you to practice balancing. 

Wear your heels at home to get used to them, and try wearing a pair of thick socks to stretch them out slightly. This will allow you to feel more confident and have less foot pain from wearing them.

Heel-toe landings

One of the things about a natural, sultry high heel gait is the way your feet should land slightly differently than normal. Don’t walk with a flat foot in heels, land first on the heel of your foot and sort of “roll” your foot forward to land on your toes just afterward. Be conscious of touching your heel to the ground, balance and stabilize yourself, then allow your toes to land forward.

At the end of the day, if you follow this advice you will be well on your way to looking beautiful and natural in heels, just like the pros, and you can rest assured that you will be safe and not suffer any falls. Stay balanced and healthy, and check out a high heel retailer today to find the perfect pair for you to practice in!