Today I Discovered: A Hack For High Heels Using Plain Flour

This is something a little out of the ordinary. On the weekend, I was heading out with a group of friends when one of them grabbed a tub of flour and went into the bathroom. She opened it up, sprinkled it on the shower floor and rubbed it all over her feet, before putting her high heels on. I was confused.

When I asked her where this hack came from, she told me that it was her own improvised idea but that it came courtesy of her grandma. Her old lady had suggested the best thing to do to slip into high heels was to rub some talcum powder on the soles and heel of her foot, which would help her slide into the heel and ’cause less friction’.

I was really confused.

The next day I sent her a message to see if it helped out and she told me that those particular heels “usually give her blisters (especially on a hot day)” and that at the end of the day’s festivities she had none.

Wowee!

I was super confused.

So I started frantically Googling to see if this was ‘A Thing’ and was struggling to find any websites that used plain flour in heels as a way to stop friction. A parenting blog I came across suggested that using rice flour or corn flour on a baby’s bottom was a good substitute for the harmful talcum powder, and another site suggested a few remedies like gel pads or hairdryers. But there were no sites specifically advocating to use plain flour.

I’ve heard of using talcum powder to keep feet dry and certainly to keep the from getting smelly when they’re damp, but I’ve never heard of a hack – replacing talcum powder with plain flour – to ensure that your feet don’t blister in high heels.

The science seems sound.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to try this one out in high heels, but I applied some plain flour to the base of my feet while I wore $5 K-Mart flats around the neighbourhood over the weekend and I can report that, well, nothing really happened. I’ll need to repeat the experiment putting a lot more strain on my heels if I hope to work this one out.

If you’ve used this remedy yourself or you have any other high heels hacks, drop them in the comments below!

Today I Discovered is a daily dose of facts for Lifehacker readers – the weird, wonderful and sometimes worrying. Most of the time, it’s just mind-blowing. Let us know if you discovered anything that blew your mind in the comments!