Girls - how easily can you walk barefoot on hard outdoor surfaces?

I always walk barefoot, including hikes of about ten miles on asphalt, and my feet never hurt! If you're habitually barefoot, the skin of your feet thickens and grows very tough, it's how our body adapts. I even like gravel and rough asphalt and rocks, I enjoy noticing how tough my soles are and what the body can do, gives me more confidence. If you always wear shoes, your skin is very soft, isn't used to anything.

There's a personal difference too though; as a kid, when I never went barefoot outdoors apart from at home & in the yard, and the ice cream truck would drive by in the street, I'd run across the coarse gravel driveway while my friends would either stop to put on their shoes or follow much more slowly. My feet never hurt in the beginning when I just started to go barefoot either; I could walk a single mile on asphalt right away although I'm sure I would've had trouble if I'd tried to go for five or ten miles without any practice. But as far as I know everyone can build up calluses, I hear from other barefooters who have tender feet when starting out but who still enjoy the freedom of bare feet and who build up tough feet over time.

I love to walk around barefoot. I've gone hiking through the rocks and mountains barefoot because I've found I had a better grip and traction on the loose rocks and branches. Feeling the concrete under my feet is amazing, or the soft grass of the park, despite the fact that I usually have allergic reactions.

As everyone else said, it all depends on how built up the calases are on your feet. If your feet are really tender and soft from never walking around barefoot, then it is going to be very painful. For the girls that say it isn't, their feet have already built up an amount of resistance to the small pebbles that you'll find on a normal walkway.

It's your own personal choice. One gets used to it after awhile but you don't have to. I just like the feeling of having my feet free, but I also get regular pedicures to make sure they still look decent enough for people to not be grossed out. :D

You may just have very sensitive feet. Some people do. I know a man and his son who cannot STAND to walk barefoot even on soft carpeting. Then again, those other girls may spend a lot more time barefoot on rough surfaces. That will toughen the soles of your feet considerably.

Hmmm I walk around barefoot most of the time. Up and down the drive with the baby, in and out of the house - all over the garden. I guess its down to how hard the skin on your feet it - I have a chiropodist once a month because I really get mine hard!!

it depends how tough your feet are, and your sensitivity to pain.
when i was little we had gravel backyard, so im used to it, and i also love walking on asfault, it feels good, like a foot massage.

some people just feel pain differntly, you may just have sensitive feet.

Same as the answer above...I walk barefoot all the time,I guess you build a tolarence to it.If you would like to do the same,walk bare foot evey day on the path and when it gets to hard to continue put your shoes on :) do it evey day and you will beat the others in a gravel race!

maybe your not used to wearing nothing/bearfoot... your feet are soft/sensitive to the hard ground...

Very easy. I am always barefoot.

I have no trouble

I can't walk on concrete or gravel with bare feet, it hurts. However, I walk around barefooted in the house. I overall don't like going barefooted outdoors, because I like my feet clean and I don't like the feeling of it