GenderLife Forum: The Information Exchange

Mane & Tail is the shizznit.

When I came out nineteen months ago I had a crew cut and had to wear wigs until it was long enough to have styled. My natural hair is so curly I wore a Fro through out school just to keep from fighting with it. I went and bought a straightener back in Late April and my boyfriend and myself straitened it ourselves. I color it red about once a month and have had it brunette a couple of times. I also cut it myself the last time, so yea I would say I obsess over my hair constantly. It's the one thing that you can easily do that helps one pass as a lady.

when i first decided and started on my journey i had a shaved head ...that was 5 and a half years ago and the first few months on mones i still dressing as a man so had a bit of time to grow me barnett so the time i was full time my hair was down on my shoulders nearly

i was lucky my friend is a beauty therapist/hair dresser so she helped me and styled my hair then

i obsess over my hair as i like to look my best and look good as it breeds inner confidence and gives me that glow

I agree, when your hair looks good you definitely feel better about yourself.

I'm in the process of growing my hair out. These looks were suggested to me by my very t-friendly, very gay hairstylist, as I still live a double life.
This one is for presenting male:


and somewhere in between these two looks for presenting female:












Feedback and constructive criticism are not only welcomed, but would be appreciated. Please don't tell me that I'm so ugly I just need to wear a bag over my head.

"A thing as simple as a hairpin stirs thoughts of wonderment within me". By Tessa Pierce (my last name here)

It took me awhile to realize there were two other photos.He has rather small lips don't ya think?ah well. You have the face structure for either hairstyle but I like the thumbnail pic.
Ugly? Not with that smile.

If you Google on "hairstyles" you'll get a bazillion hits. Most are sorted by short, medium, long, curly, straight, etc. I took the best sites (it did take a lot of looking) and picked a hair description that fit my hair at the time, like short. All of the sites have pictures, and most can be saved to your PC. So, the next time you have a couple of hours to burn... Go on line, find hairstyle photos for your length of hair; pick the one's you like and save the pictures to your PC. Then you can print the pictures to take them to your stylist, and say, "make me pretty like that" (lol). As your hair grows out, or as your tastes change, you can go through the process again.

What I found was that after going through 10 or 20 websites, and saving a two or three dozen photos I just went numb. I suggest you not spend too much time looking at individual pictures, but just save the ones that catch you attention. What I found was that there were definite trends to what I saved, and I could edit them down to a few to show to my stylist. My experience is that my stylist works much better from photos than from a verbal description.

Good luck! It's a PITA, but it's fun.

I would love it if my hair looked like my thumbnail, but that isn't my real hair. I started off with a very, very short classic businesssman's cut, shaved close on the sides and parted on the left two months ago. Now I only have what would kindly be called very short hair, after my last cut it's 1/2 to 3/4 inches on the sides and 1.5 inches on top. I feel pretty good about my appearance, but there are three visual things that get me read:
My arms (which are shrinking, ever so slowly)

My eyebrows, which are eay to fix, but I started out with brows that looked like this:

so I've been working them smaller for a while.

and my wig.

I shaved my head in April...and we're not talking a clipper job. I lathered it up and went over it with a mach 3. Chalk it up to the last vestiges of denial. I also had a very bushy beard. Fortunately the hair on my head grows pretty quickly and it's pretty curly, so I've got something to show for it already. I've got recession, so the doorag will remain in place until I can do something about it. A surgical solution will probably be required but I should be able to get away with a piece or wig for awhile. Also, I'm now fully clean-shaven for the first time since 1993. I didn't realize how much I really hated that goatee until it was gone...what a symbol it was of the male identity I had come to feel smothered by.

The funny thing is, I had long hair when I was younger, and it was blond and wavy and I got compliments from girls. I could manage a ponytail and pigtails and braids...so once I'm all grown out I should be set.