mlroseplant

Thank you all for your interest. It has been a long road, literally!

12 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Wow! That's pretty impressive! And well recorded too. Congratulations. Am I right in guessing that would have made your ankles and calves pretty fit?

It has indeed, and I have really noticed in the past week how taking some time off from heels due to an injury of sorts has negatively affected my stamina in heels. I also do a lot of exercises and stretches to accentuate the good parts of heeling, such as stronger calves and ankles, and minimize the bad parts, such as tight leg muscles and restricted range of motion.

8 hours ago, SF said:

Mr. Mlroseplant,  That is a nice accomplishment.  So what now?  Are you going to "retire" or keep heeling???  We do need more guys out in heels.  I imagine that you will continue to be a "dedicated heeling soldier" and keep up the cause??  Take care, and again congrats.....   sf

It is not a question of whether I will continue heeling (of course I will), but rather whether I will continue to take walks for the purpose of recording the mileage. I am not sure that I want to create a 2,000 mile goal. Probably, I will continue recording. If nothing else, it is interesting to find out which shoe repair materials turn out to be the most durable. Yes, I record that also.

Ohhhhh. That is a bummer. I hope the healing process is a speedy one.

Although this happened a few months ago, I never got around to telling it on this forum. Our choir director resigned some months ago, and when the new choir director started rehearsals, we spent more than half the rehearsal telling a little bit about ourselves, mostly for her benefit. So one of the questions was, "What is one thing that you've tried in your life that you'll never do again?" Of course, you got the usual answers like skydiving, or certain foods, that sort of thing. When it came to my turn, I answered, "I tried wearing flat shoes once.  .  ."

2 hours ago, kneehighs said:

Yup, be proactively alert.  More now, than before the President Elect.  The laws against LGBT (in our case freestylers) may not change.  But that doesn't mean people won't break the law as negativity towards them has increased and probably will continue to do so, regardless of the laws.  

In my neck of the woods, I just don't foresee it making any difference whatever as far as my heel wearing. The outcome of the election really didn't change who the people of Iowa are. As a good friend of mine from Florida once said, "Iowans are just too polite to say anything, even if they hate your look." Largely, that is true.

I used to get pedicures every 2-3 weeks. Well, why not, when your friends own the shop and refuse to charge you? I made up for it by doing handyman/repair work for them when they needed it. However, my favorite nail tech and personal close friend left the industry a few years back, and I quickly decided that I didn't want anyone else touching my feet. I know, I'm weird that way. So these days, I do my own. I think I was a pretty good student, and my ex-nail technician has complimented my work on several occasions. I do miss it sometimes, though. As an aside, I have never gotten polish, as I prefer bare, but well-groomed, nails on both men and women.

However, I know that the nail salon, which still goes on, has several male customers, although I guarantee none of them are heel wearers, because I would have heard about that immediately through the Vietnamese grape vine.

11 hours ago, XtremeHeels said:

Thanks!!! Actually, they aren't too high at all and are perfect for long walks with the girlfriend

I was going to say, for a guy who calls himself XtremeHeels, those are like flats, right?

Seriously though, I have several similar pairs, including Aldo brand, and they are perfectly suitable for a several mile walk if you're used to wearing them a lot. Nice boots!

@w6ish, you're back! That's awesome. 

Interesting thoughts. I guess for me I tend to focus more on the heels, but the whole design of the shoe is important, too. 

First of all, the height of the heel is is important to me. Nowadays, I simply don't buy anything under 12 cm, or about 4 3/4". Anything lower just doesn't look right to me. The majority of my shoes are in the 12 to 13 cm range, with a few 14 cm heels thrown in for good measure.

If money and convenience were no object, I'd probably wear stilettos most of the time, but the doggoned heel tips, or top lifts, as cobblers in this country call them, wear out so quickly. Therefore, I usually choose slightly thicker heels for doing any serious walking. They last several times longer. 

The toe of the shoe is not unimportant to me. I do not very pointy toes, nor do l like square toes. Almond shaped toes look best to me, both in shoes and sandals. Round toes are ok too. 

An update on the situation: It got much worse after my post of more than 3 months ago. It didn't affect my life too horribly much, but I remember some loooooong days at work, where I was not able to walk normally. The boots that I was wearing at work had a higher than normal heel, but nothing more extreme than an ordinary pair of logging boots. I began to question whether my radical high heeling days were over (I never wear flats outside of work). I found it hard to accept, and difficult to believe that after over 4 years and thousands of miles of walking in truly high heels, that the mild steepness of my work boots was the cause of my problems.

I switched boots again, to something like a normal work boot (almost flat). As it turns out, that seems to have solved the problem, but not for the reason that I thought. I am slowly, day by day, returning to pain free feet, even though I wear and walk a good distance in substantially high heels after work daily. I think it was in the soles of my boots, particularly the material they were made of, and not the height of the heels, and possibly the cheap construction of the boots. I didn't think a boot sole could be too soft or too bouncy, but that seems to be the case. Only after I switched back to "real" work boots did I notice that I could no longer feel individual pieces of loose gravel beneath my feet. It wasn't a week until my feet started feeling incrementally better, and now I'm back to 80% of where I was before this whole problem started, even though I've gotten lazy about icing my feet every night. It just doesn't seem necessary.

With any luck, the problem will disappear entirely over the coming weeks, and I can continue wearing my heels without guilt.

2 hours ago, gj said:

I agree :-) I'm wearing them almost every day. They are great.

I've had my eye on those boots for some time now, I really like the looks of them, but I have not purchased them because they are way too high to wear to work, but I bet I wouldn't wear them at home, either, because.  .  . they're not high enough! But I really do like the look of them. I bet they're all day comfy, too.

Found these Dolce & Gabbana knee high boots on eBay. They're exactly what I'm looking for. Block heel that's not too clunky but very high, little or no platform. Trouble is, they want 500 bucks for 'em. I don't think so. 

Goodness! That was a surprise. I have nothing else to say. Except that despite going to bed at 9:00, I haven't slept one minute. Now I'm on HHP. Reckon I'll have to call in sick tomorrow. This is not good. 

I have decided that this winter, it will be the season of clogs. I bought two new (to me) pairs on eBay, and it seems both will work out. Both are right at 5" heels, with a 1" platform, which is perfect for me in the comfort range.

The black ones are Coach, model name Rana. The brown suede ones are Gucci, model name unknown, but made in Italy. The Guccis required some work with the shoe stretcher, as they are quite narrow, but they don't seem to pinch me anywhere. They are currently at the cobbler, being reheeled. Well, what do you expect? I only gave 55 bucks for them, but the upper is perfect. They were obviously worn a few times. The Coach clogs I have worn out a few times already, so I know they're good. They were virtually brand new, no visible wear on the bottoms. 

Also, I got some True Religion leather slides for next year. They make a satisfying noise when you walk in them. 

Maybe I'm doing something wrong. When I click on your link, I am taken to the Wolford site as expected, I can see the word "Men," and there is stuff below it to click on, but after that I see nothing but the same incredibly leggy and thin female model. Where are the male models, so that we might know how these things actually look? On Steve's site, there are many pictures of males modeling the products.

I voted early last Wednesday, in my bib overalls and work boots. Nothing to tell, really. I feel like I need to get dolled up at least a little bit to wear heels, and there simply wasn't time, as I came right from work, greasy, matted hair and all!

1 hour ago, meganiwish said:

HeelsWearer, I wasn't in any way intending to do you down.  I should probably also have responded with a simple answer to your straight question, as quoted in the above post, and for that omission I apologise.  To answer you, you had no need to apologise, since it's neither taboo nor against the site rules for a woman to post in the men's section.  How else would we put them straight?

Megan, I've yet to see you give a simple and straight answer to anything, and for that I admire and appreciate you. 

6 minutes ago, swedeheeler said:

Best part of it all. Was worried to get homo label of my mom but she defended me from my brothers comment about brokeback mountain with the words "you're absolutley not gay"

I really don't care whether people think I'm gay, I know who I am. My wife seems to care a great deal. My construction worker friends are quick to point out to people that I'm not gay, should the smallest hint of the subject arise. People are funny.

More importantly for you: I think it sounds like your mom is supportive in a way that gives you confidence, and that is nice. My family is also supportive of me.

I am done wearing mules with bootcut pants. It is my high heel history and heritage, I know, but I'm done with it. For some reason, I've always been attracted to mules, and my first several pairs of heels were backless clogs, and I always wore them with bootcut jeans, in order to be a little more subtle. No more. It is so much nicer to wear mules when you are not always worried about whether the hem of your pants is about to get trapped in the back of your shoe. I'll still wear bootcut jeans with.  .  . well, boots.

Good for you! I'm glad you had such a successful party, and received positive reactions.

Upon further consideration, 95% of the time, I've been asked one of the above questions while at a bar, and it's always been by women. It may be that alcohol has had something to do with this. Ya think?

Yes, it seems like a double standard without knowing the history of why this rule came about, and how this site has changed in its membership and focus over the years. If one is new to the site, one might wonder why we even have a Girls section. It did once serve a useful purpose, but that was ruined by a few asshat boys.  So yes, girls can post anywhere, and we welcome you! Boys can't post in the girls section.

I've had 1, 2, 3, and 9 many times, asked by strangers, and 8 and 10 fairly recently, asked by people who know me. I have one friend who actually wanted me to wear different shoes because I would need to drive. I was wearing 4.5" wedges. She did not believe I could drive in them. People are funny.

Just as long as they don't start asking, "What would Joe do?" I wouldn't want that kind of pressure. 

It's normally not my thing, but I do rather like those boots. However, I think you are now running into the dilemma that is modern adult Hallowe'en. During this one day of the year, a man feels like he can get away with wearing something that he otherwise couldn't, and that's probably true. The problem is, where do you go from there? You can't very well show up on All Saints' Day in your Hallowe'en costume, can you?

It's a tricky business, wearing heels as part of a costume, because it's all supposed to be a bit of a joke, isn't it? And of course, as you and I know, it's not a joke at all, so how do you make the transition from humorous costume to real life? In any case, I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time, hat or no hat. Good luck!