Thinking about going barefoot?

So whats it like? Does it hurt? Do you do it in the winter too? The mall? I want to know everything about it so I can decide if I should try it. Is there anything I should know?

 

LMAO Grunge! Lemme tell ya about barefootin' hun! It's one of the best feelings to not have to have ya little piggies confined in smelly sneakers! Yes, if you aren't used to it, those feetsies are gonna be tender! I believe I have tough feet as I have gone barefoot since I was a child whenever it could be permitted! I even walk barefoot in the woods and through the creeks! Now some of those stones are ouchies! But ya learn how to walk differently. No, I personally don't go barefoot in the winter, unless in the house and its warm enough, cuz I freeze my little tail off as it is! I hate the cold! In a car, I go barefoot(though illegal) & I throw my sandles or whatever on the floor in the front seat for easy access. Got to have them too, in order to go into any store(which I think damn sucks). But other than that.....any chance of freedom for my piggies, you bet'cha I am barefoot!

 

Oh! Oh! I forgot..........you can't "TRY" it you just have to start "DOING" it!

 

LOL Thanks, your gonna laugh but the only thing I'm worried about is in the rain, its not that I mind getting my feet wet cause I don't. I'm just scared to step on a worm, that would gross me out to no end. Perhaps I should get a pair of sandals to carry around with me huh?

 

Those worms like to come out after a heavy rain. I try to avoid them when I'm on the paved trails but usually end up stepping on a few. I never bring shoes any more, so I just have to put up with them. There's more of them when you're on a paved path with grass on either side. They feel kind of funny when you step on them.

Just go barefoot in dry weather as a start. Bring sandals as a contingency if you wish. Don't let the worms scare you away.

 

Just do it! Going barefoot is very comfortable. Personally I'd rather go barefoot on hot or freezing pavement than wear shoes. No, it is NOT illegal in ANY state to drive barefoot. That is a matter of record. Stores, fast foods and malls may ask you to leave, NOT because of any Health Dep't rules (there are none, again a matter of record) but because of their own rules.

After you get used to going barefoot your feet will toughen up and hot pavement, rocks, gravel and glass won't bother you. I've been into going barefoot since I was a kid. Going to Dead concerts, the Village in NYC, stores, etc. is great! Getting black feet is the mark of a true barefooter, not just someone who kicks off their shoes on the grass in Central Park.

I say go for it! It's YOUR right!

 

I am glad for your enthusiasm for being barefoot, but you need to know that driving barefoot is NOT illegal -- not in any of the 50 states nor any of the U.S. territories.
This is a common myth -- a common and pernicious one.

It is also a common myth that "health department regulations" prohibit patrons from entering businesses, stores and restaurants barefoot. This is simply not true; nor are there state or federal laws to prohibit going barefoot. Not the Post Office. Not the DMV. Nowhere. Individual businesses may, of course, set their own policies about whether barefoot patrons are welcome, but there is no force of LAW compelling people to wear shoes.

These myths, and the mistaken belief in them, are largely responsible for people's anti-barefoot attitudes. I myself used to believe that driving barefoot was illegal. Why? I thought I'd "heard it somewhere." Same with going into restaurants barefoot.

Some say that these myths, and the "No shirt, no shoes, no service" signs, sprang up when businesses wanted to have an excuse to bar hippies from entry!

Please check out www.barefooters.org and that site will set you straight.

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

 

I checked that site out and now I'm scared to get cracks in my feet. My uncle had a big crack in his heal once it looked painful. on average how long does it take your feet to toughen up?

 

How long? Well it depends what you do. If you do it gradually then your feet will build up slowly but surely, it won't be the quickest way but the long term results will be the best. If you do it too quickly you could over do it and wear down the soles more quickly than you build them up.

If I were you I would start in moderate weather, because if the pavement feels warm at first, it will slowly burn your soles and you will get blisters, and don't do it too much at first. Going barefoot at night is good for building up soles because you have the rough surfaces that can build up your skin but they won't be too hot.

After a while you should be able to go out for longer periods of time in the day and even when it's very warm. Eventually you'll be able to go out when it's really hot, feel the pavement burning your feet and it might even hurt a little bit the first few times but you'll get back home and find that your feet, though maybe a little sore aren't damaged at all and you'll get out the next day feeling fine and able to cope with a lot more.

So it's up to you really, do it gradually, don't overdo it at first.

On the other hand, supposing you do push yourself a bit far and get blisters, those blisters will make for great protection allowing you to build up the rest of your skin while they heal underneath.

 

i grew up in NY state and was lead to believe its illegal to drive barefoot. come to find out, its NOT!! YAY!! what a dumb law that would be anyway! (a dumb law? never!)


those big cracks do hurt; i've kept them really well moisturized and it helps--just throw a glob of lotion on 'em. also, a trick i've learned rockclimbing: crazy glue will fill those cracks and heal you up. no shit.

peace

 

Ok, maybe there is no law expressly forbidding barefoot driving.

But piss off a cop enough, and you'll get a ticket anyway for reckless driving. First... well, second-hand experience. The recepient of the ticket did NOT manage to beat it in court.

 

You really just super glue the cracks in your feet? lol

 

There's an adhesive called Dermabond that's been around a while.

http://www.dermabond.com/

Superglue has been used in surgical applications.

 

To even get the attention of the police officer in the first place you'd have to be driving illegally/dangerously (or perhaps just be black if you're unlucky). They're not even going to find out what you're wearing on your feet until they have a reason to stop you. They can't book you for driving barefoot. Any officer worth their salt would not try to book you for something that is not against the law. And what if they did? If it's not illegal you don't have to comply with them and you don't have to pay any fine and you can go down to the station and complain if they persist. A charge of reckless driving will be registered in a very formal way and the officer who registered it will be easily identifiable. So if all they've got to go on is something that's not illegal it's really not going to go very far. They'll be dismissed for wasting your time and wasting police time pretty much immediately, and for being ignorant of the law.

Strangely enough the law isn't there to set guidelines for what we ought and oughtn't do in principle. It's there to set out what you can and can't do. And if you can do something then you can do it. End of.

 

Stepped out of my office last summer (barefoot, of course) and stepped right onto a garter snake. It was about 20 inches long and very surprised (just sunning itself on the black carpet of the office step). I was very surprised, too, but very glad that I was barefoot and my very forgiving feet did the snake no real damage. Did me no damage either.

I cannot even begin to relate the very positive experiences and feelings of going shoeless.

Two weeks from now and you will wonder what fool ever came up with the idea of shoes.

In winter? What a wonderful feeling to walk on the beautiful white pillows that mother nature provides for you feet during the snow fall.

 

Bare feet are really quiet too. I sneak up on rabbits and deer in the woods. I was standing about 15 feet away from a deer in the woods a while back. She didn't see me through all the trees and didn't hear me either. Shoes would have caused the sticks to crack and scared her away. I can walk almost totally quiet in the woods in bare feet. Animals get really surprised to see you.

 

Uh, no, you won't.

Sorry, that should have been easy to beat, as long as the sole reason for a claim of "reckless driving" was simply not wearing shoes.

It's more reckless to try to control a car with 4" spiked heels on, yet women do it all the time.

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

 

Barefooting feels great - you feel more in touch with the earth and once you adjust, your walk in a much more healthy way - I've found that barefooting eliminates pain from many foot, ankle, and leg problems as most of these are caused by shoes. Winter - depends on how cold. If you live somewhere where there's snow on the ground most've the winter, you should probably wear shoes. I find that my feet get better circulation and therefore stay warm more easily when I go barefoot, but if it's cold enough, you could still get frostbite. Depends on the individual store. Some places around here don't care if you wear shoes, but most do. I don't think most malls have a barefoot policy, but individual stores in them probably will.

After it rains, watch the ground. On pavement, it's not too hard to see worms, and in grass, it's usually soft enough that you won't hurt the worm - and the grass will clean your foot.

your feet shouldn't crack unless they're not moisturized enough. If they feel dry, put cream on them and they should never crack. You'll probably get some blisters when you're starting out though. Never remove the skin from them, but if there's a lot of pressure on them when you walk, you might have to drain them. Blisters are usually kinda painful, so if you get a lot of blisters at once, you might have to wear something on your feet until they start to heal. Once they heal, you'll have nice thick calluses, and should be able to go barefoot much more easily. You could avoid blisters by carrying sandals and putting them on when your feet start to get tender, but calluses take much longer to form this way.

Feet toughen in a few weeks depending on how often you go barefoot. Your feet will stop being sore after a few days to a week, and after 3 or 4 weeks, your feet should be tough enough to walk on most surfaces without much pain.

 

Do you all really think that blisters are that common for people to get just because they are beginning to go barefoot more often?

I don't see it.

I have never had a barefooting-related blister. The last blister I got on my feet has to have been years ago, and was probably from cheap rollerskates or something.

I don't know what about barefooting would cause blisters, unless you're talking about walking on hot pavement, in which case you'd probably get your butt off it before it cooked your feet enough to cause blisters! (I know, because I was out skydiving last week and had to walk back from the landing field, across hot airport asphalt, three times! I headed for the grass when and where I could.)

What are your experiences with getting blisters from going barefoot?

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

 

I've gotten blisters before. It's not uncommon for it to happen to people when they start barefooting. For me it sometimes happens at the end of winter when my soles are not as tough. People in colder climates don't usually go barefoot in the winter and the soles are tender at the start of spring.

Warm pavement can cause blisters for some, even though it's not burning hot. When my feet aren't tough and I've walked on warm pavement for a while, it makes my skin more sensitive to rough terrain. I don't know why this is so, but it happens. I will sometimes get a minor blister walking on dirt-gravel trails after a length of warm pavement, but this is only when my feet are not tough after the end of winter.

Heat isn't the only thing that causes blisters. Walking on rough terrain can cause the outer layer of the skin to separate slightly from the deeper layers and cause a blister. I've had this happen on the ball of the foot after walking rough trails. It looks like a large 2 inch reddish spot on the ball of the foot, not the same as a small blister caused by heat. That part of the skin gets nice and tough a couple days later, though.

A blood blister is another nuance that you'll hear barefooters talk about. It looks like a small bruise. I got one of those once when I first started barefoot hiking. Those usually come from walking on gravel or other rough terrain when you are not used to it.

The good part is that I rarely get blisters and they only affect me for a day or two. My soles are tougher afterwards.