I'm 6 and a half years in and transition remains the best thing I've ever done for myself. Not the easiest thing, but the best thing.
I joined a women's roller derby league and it's the most fun I've had in a sport, ever! My teammates are super inclusive, kind, and treat me just like any other gal on the team. I love them all so much and I never would have met them had I stayed closeted. It also really works out my hips and lower body, while keeping a slim waste and avoiding anything shoulders which has really started to give me euphoria about my body lately.
My boobs are starting to fill in finally too, my partner noticed I had underboob the other day and I couldn't stop staring at myself in the mirror while giggling!
A bunch of my partners friends donated some clothes to me too, which really helped fill out my closet. Most of them fit me really well, and accentuate my body shape in a way I didn't know I could feel good about.
All in all, I'm 6 months in and couldn't be happier with my choice to transition, but it helps massively that I: A. Live in a blue state and B. have an incredible partner and support group who want nothing but to see me thrive as a woman.
Thanks for asking!
Roller derby you say?
Do it! Join us!
I'm an ex derby player :)
Jammer 4 life
Whoa! That's great you have such a robust network of people who support you. Roller derby always looked cool as hell. Must feel awesome to fly across the floor like that. Thank you for sharing!
My coworker wants me to join, I just don't have the time or energy right now.
Roller derby is love, roller derby is life, please don't pass me the star pantie, I'll die. 😅
Please don't make me take it off, I'll die. 😉
Seriously, blocking is hard. Idk how ya'll do it.
Random strangers treat me as just another person, so that's pretty nice. No, but actually. I always have such anxiety about going out, and forget I live in one of the most LGBT+ positive places in the country. I have so much internalized crap from growing up down south in Baptist churches.
Even though I still don't love how I look, I've finally reached a point where I can occasionally like my reflection, actually seeing a woman. It's hit or miss, but the hits feel really good.
I met up with a friend group I haven't seen in a while, and a lot of people made an effort to lump me into 'the girls'.
Plus electrolysis is showing good results, even if that hour a week is slowly killing my soul with pain.
That's awesome! I am also very jealous you are getting electrolysis. Can't imagine what it feels like though, I have been doing IPL and that stings enough lol
Are you using an at home IPL device?
Yeah. I am using the Braun Silk Pro 5, which has worked amazingly well from my shoulders down because I have dark hair and pale skin. I tried it on my facial and neck hair, which they do not recommend, and sure enough it is not powerful enough for that and did very little. Overall I am quite happy with it, though. My legs stay very smooth.
Thank you, for sharing your experiences. I’ve been looking into at home IPL, and I know the technology has changed a lot since they were basically as seen on TV scam products and everyone said to stay away, but the #sponsored nature of most reviews had me skeptical.
Edit: I’ve been looking at the Ulike Sapphire Air3 myself, but I’m not seeing any hard specs or data on the devices and their output, so it’s hard to gauge if one is “more powerful” than the other.
Edit 2: the Iluminage TOUCH seems to be approved for a wider range of skin tones and hair colors, it MAY be better suited to applications where “more power” may be needed?
Please don't use an off the shelf ipl device on your face, you really don't want blotches.
Blotches as in patchy growth or blotches as in skin discoloration?
Discoloration. I have two areas on my cheeks that don't blush right any more.
🫨😬 Goodness! what device was that?
Regarding those alternatives and the possibility of them being more powerful, I think when it comes to darker skin tones the devices actually have to turn their power down, to avoid burning you. On areas of my skin which are more tan than others, I can see the power indicator lights on my particular IPL device go down.
I wish there was an easy way to compare the power of prospective devices. They never seen to give solid specs on like joules of energy they output or whatnot. I think your best bet is just to read reviews by people that have used them, and see what devices people have had the most success with!
Well, thank you for giving me a good little rabbit hole of research to fall down.
This is probably the worst industry to try to research anything on. A lot of the products that aren't big names appear to be Amazon rebrand scams. If you take the high review counts and search back through the reviews, they were all stuff like pens, and charging bricks, and other random items until early this year.
"reputable" brands tend to host their own blogs with reviews, and the other kinds of reviews seem to be sponsored as well.
This could be the signs of a new industry trying to bootstrap itself to gain traction on products that could be revolutionary in the way people groom themselves, or it could just be an elaborate grift in a market that uses emotional manipulation and societal pressure to make easy sales on disposable one off fad products (although I don't think that is 100% true, as at home IPL has been shown effective, if not as effective as marketers would like to claim).
I have a lot of experience (at least compared to the average US consumer) with Chinese Manufacturing and Industry, the nature of Chinese Copyright, and the positives and negatives that adds to the generic products category of consumer goods. I've always been a DIY punk and anarchist type and my interests have taken me from small engines to electronics and everything in between. If you know how to look with the right knowledge set, you can find some real diamonds in the rough, but most of the time that category of goods tends to cut costs in ways that severely impact the integrity or safety of the product, so you have to be careful when sourcing third party replacement parts or cheap thumb drives as an example. I don't mind buying a Chinese product from a "no name" company but it raises flags for me when they try to hide it and get a jump start on their product reviews, so here I am, broke AF and trying to do a cost benefit analysis on vaguely specc'd products among a gamut of price points.
I think for myself, I want either the Ulike sapphire air 3 still or I may gamble on a cheaper product like whatever this one is trying to call itself and after I have time to save up some money here and there do more research to the options available and hopefully as the industry matures I'll be able to buy a nicer/ more effective, however you want to think of it, solution.
I wonder if there is enough of an audience to be like the trans-femme version of Technology Connections and just do deep dive video essays on things as they pique my (and others) interests?
I had a co-worker compliment my nails and give me a tip on how to achieve a cleaner look over all on them. Made me feel really nice, and seen. Most of my coworkers just stare at my hands and try to avoid saying anything, but she said they look gorgeous.
Edit: a random adult cashier just complimented my nails and asked me where I got them done AFTER she got a look at them up close. I could've DIED I was so happy!
I got my first lesbian fuckbuddy a couple of months ago and it's amazing, it's as much fun as other people always seemed to be having with sex.
It's good that we are explicitly keeping each other at arm's length emotionally because I understand u-haul syndrome now.
Very lucky to be able to experience the hormone rush of good sex and experience how it differs from the hormone rush of being in love. Or maybe it doesn't and I'm just learning to manage it better.
But I wear my old guy clothes and she LOVES it, being a butch lesbian kicks ass. Yeah, the straights call me sir, goes with the territory, doesn't really bother me any more.
U-haul syndrome?
The stereotype that lesbian move in together (hence U-Haul) after the second date.
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