Yeah, beat your feet with a dull knife until they bleed, wrap them up, and as soon as they've healed, do it again... and again... and again... until you've gotten the callouses in several days that you could have gotten far more painlessly over several weeks
Every person's feet adapt and react differently to the environment to which they are exposed. I've dated barefoot women who had very calloused soles, another had uniformly leather-like tough soles and others had soft soles. None of them had any discomfort or problems walking on hot pavement, gravel, concrete, hot sand, etc. Some people develop callouses from pressure points due to ill fitting footwear or friction. Just because you get callouses doesn't mean you will not feel discomfort while going barefoot. Best advice is to take it S-L-O-W. Go barefoot for brief periods on smooth surfaces, grass, etc. Gradually increase the time you do this and then move on to more difficult surfaces. Many people start going barefoot for a long time, get blsiters or hurt their feet and swear off going barefoot again. Big mistake. Here are barefoot runner Anke's tough soles: http://i.imgur.com/KiD1J.jpg
Yes. You have to roughen the soles up. Walking on rougher surfaces does that. However, what I also do is use a handheld cheese grater on the soles and lightly run it along the areas to be callused. I figured out that the normal smooth direction was from toes to heel, so the opposite is from heel to toes. Grate lines should not be deep, best is not to make them but otherwise as narrow and shallow as possible. I use an X shape to make the calluses. Obviously, I go barefoot again after making the new calluses, but they will need to get slightly more heat tolerance if the etch lines were too deep.
This is what I mean by making calluses. Using an inexpensive handheld grater such as this (in the USA this can be purchased at a Walmart): Grate against the normal grain using an X-shape in the direction towards the toes on the toe pads, the balls of the foot, and the heels--each grating section close to as wide as the grating surface. For the edges of the sole, just make an X--to the outside of the edge in the direction towards the toes, then to the outside of the edge in the direction towards the heel. With these newly roughened spots, go barefoot the same day or no later than the next day. Make sure to train them again on both rougher and hotter surfaces, in case a small amount of calluses were grated off. As the calluses become thicker, these will just roughen up more. If it's consistently hot enough to start baking the soles more leathery, grating will keep the very surface rougher and callused. I don't recommend grating more than once a week when the weather during the hottest afternoon hours starts getting into the mid 90 degrees F range to over 100 degrees F. Even a small amount of barefooting, that makes the soles even slightly dirty, will also show the quality of the newer calluses made by roughening. (Zoom in 200% to make the text more readable.) And that's really all there is too it. Better traction. Better tolerance to rougher surfaces. Better heat tolerance. They don't even trap as much dirt, and will show as more white through dirtier soles, but as another side effect when walking on hotter surfaces they will show even whiter through the dirt the more the soles are burned.
Why do people make things so difficult? Just start going barefoot, but don't force yourself to over do it. Your feet will acquire their own toughness & calluses. Eventually, you'll realize that you're able to be barefoot in places that you would have never even considered before.
Agreed, just start with a simple walk, or walk around barefoot in the house. The more you walk barefoot, the further you can go and the rougher the surfaces can be. And enjoy!
