What? How is this possible and why didn’t I know this in my 20’s?
Wearing high heels is an art form and one I’m not so good at. Mine have to be very specific; block heels, kitten heels and certainly NOT pointy. Stilletos…not a chance! But what if there was a secret hack to making ALL heels comfy? Enter Podiatrist, Emma Supple. She is a foot expert and she has revealed we do NOT have to spend our life in sensible flats. She discovered that it is all down to the shape of our foot and she has come up with a formula for finding out which height heels suit your foot type best. According to the Daily Mail, she calls her shoe maths Perfect Heel Height (PHH) and uses it in her London practice when confronted with women who suffer pain because of wearing the wrong shoes.
It is all based on the flexibility of the bone that connects the leg to the foot. It is called the Talus. It is a curved bone set on the front of the foot and the angle at which it tilts dictates the height of the heel you should wear. The London-based expert explains;
“If the talus tilts downwards when you are holding your leg out straight and relaxing your foot, then you have a lot of mobility and can wear high heels with ease, your foot can move up and down much more. But if your talus doesn’t tilt, then you will be more comfortable and far happier in flat shoes. Flatter shoes give a right-angle to the ground and don’t require as much movement from the foot. Some women find heels unspeakably uncomfortable, and there’s nothing they can do about this.”
So maths IS useful after all!
You too could figure out your Perfect Heel Height in a few simple steps. Just take off your shoes and sit down with one leg straight out in front of you. Relax your foot completely. Emma says;
“If your foot sits naturally at a right angle to your outstretched leg and does not dangle, then you have less mobility in the talus and will be more comfortable in flat shoes than in high heels. If the top of your foot falls forwards, in a straightish line following your leg, you are a natural heel wearer. To find your optimum heel height, get a friend or partner to help stretch the tape measure from your heel in a straight line parallel to the floor, then place a pencil at the ball of your foot at right angles to the tape. Reading the tape measure where it hits the pencil will give you your ideal heel height.”
It seems over the years we have learnt to auto-correct our walks in order to accommodate high shoes. We tuck in our tail bones but our toes are pushed too far forward into our shoes, and this can cause pain. It is important to use common sense and not wear six-inch heels ever day. Remember that it is not just about height either, the heel position should always be in a central column UNDER the heel bone.
“Lots of designers mess around and put it too far back on the shoe, this means you’re striking down too far back on the heel every time you walk. It’s one way to break the heel of the shoe and send you tumbling. A Forties-style shoe is by far the best, and ideally, it should have a buckle for extra support.”
This is GREAT news and fits in perfectly with my overall life mantra which is to NEVER underestimate the power of red lipstick and a pair of high heels.
