FTMs and Facial Hair

[Princess of Hearts]

Hi all

As an ftm do you feel self-conscious about your lack of facial hair?    I do know that testosterone will eventually allow you to grow a beard if you wanted, but that takes quite a while, probably at least a year.    For those just starting down the ftm route or coming to terms with the fact that they are ftm, my question is this:  do you feel that people notice your lack of facial hair/beard shadow and this perhaps causes them to question your gender?   Or do you feel as I do that very few people pay any attention to this sort of thing, and if they do they just assume that you are the man you are presenting as and your fuzz free face is just the result of your close shave?

[GentlemanRDP]

So I'm an FtM and I've been on T for four months as of yesterday,
And while I'm not like Grizzly Adams...yet,
I do have a surprising amount of facial hair for only being on T for four months.
If I don't shave for three days, I'm quite fuzzy, and it's very dark even though it's not very thick.

I'm somewhat conscious about it, but it's one of my smaller worries.
I'm more concerned about my moobs (Yes, moobs, not boobs,) and of my hips.
A clean face is the least of my worries, plus the clean shaven look goes with my sort of style anyway.

[Ryno]

I'm extremely self-conscious about it. I smudge dark eye liner on my upper lip and sideburns when I'm at home just for an ego boost. I like the way I look a lot more when I look like I have shadow. I don't do it in public since, for one, I don't really see myself and two, it looks obvious up close.

Even if I were to shave, I'd be so much happier knowing I have the choice to grow facial hair or not.

I think that and my voice are my biggest triggers for dysphoria. My hips and chest just make me look like a normal chubby guy.

My brother and dad have big O beards and have to shave almost daily. It really sucks. But it makes me hopeful that maybe one day I'll be hairy too.

[Brendon]

I'm roughly 9 months on T, and I'm not particularly self conscious about my lack of facial hair. I lucked out though; I'm young, so it's not exactly strange that I don't have a lot of facial hair. Also, I look like I'm 12, so facial hair would be a little weird at this point, haha. As far as I remember, my brothers both had legit beards (not that scraggly 16 year old stuff :p) when they were 19/20. As long as I have something going on by then, I won't be too concerned about it.


Edited personal information.

[El Capitan]

I'd love facial hair. I get very envious of guys with nice face fuzz I'm not on T though and I look like either a 12 year old boy or a butch lesbian (no offence intended) so I guess a bit of fuzz would help me to pass more often. I very rarely do at the minute It might look a bit odd looking so young and having some fuzz though 

[Sharky]

I'm 22 and going to be starting T in a couple months. A lot of guys don't have much facial hair at my age. Not really worried about it.

[Aussie Jay]

I'm almost 2 years on T and while I have some good growth on my chin, neck and angles of my jaw it still looks a little scraggly if I let it grow out too much as its not completely thick etc and there is still some of the finer, fuzzy sort of hair on my cheeks. I have some in my moustache area and side burns - but its just not that obvious so I just look messy and I don't like that. I like to grow it a little or have a some stubble or whatever then I trim it or shave if I feel like it. But I don't really feel self conscious about it - there are young guys at work and in my social circle who are unable to grow a full beard or even a goatee either!

I feel more self conscious about my arm hair to tell you the truth! My legs are fine and I have plenty of chest and abdominal hair, but pre T I had no body hair at all so my arms were still quite fair and short but it is starting to lengthen, darker and thicken - its just really slow unfortunately.. And I'm sure I am only self conscious as I'm always in short sleeves and once near the beginning of my transition I came up behind a friend in a 'guess who' sort of fashion and after feeling my hands/arms she said "well little or no hair so gotta be a girl" or words to that effect, she apologised and we're still friends haha!! It'll all come together when it's supposed to...

j.

[Nygeel]

I have peach fuzz. I think I would be seen as male more often if I had a full beard or stubble but me, personally...I don't really like it on myself. I don't think facial hair alone is the one and only reason why people misgender me.

[Adio]

I have facial hair, in the process of growing a full beard.  I'm incredibly scared of shaving it off.  I'll trim and shape, but I just can't get rid of it.  My fear is that without it, I'll look like a female again.  The general consensus of my family and friends is that it adds about 2 years on me and definitely makes me look more masculine.

Right now I'm looking for a full-time job and I've had to decide whether to shave or not.  So far I've decided to keep my beard.  If I were offered a position where the dress code required me to be clean-shaven, I'm not really sure if I'd take it.  I say that, but I know I would shave if I had to.  I'd just be extremely self-conscious and keep looking for other work.

[insideontheoutside]

I think that my lack of very visible facial hair is one of the factors some people use to determine what's in my pants.

I do have actual whiskers, but they're not dense so they don't give off that "shadow" appearance and they're all on the very edges of my chin and under it, so not highly visible areas anyway. Only get peach fuzz everywhere else.

However, women I have talked to say they actually prefer guys who don't shave much because of the stubble factor (they don't like the stubble) or they would rather have a guy with a full on beard. I know that only matters if you happen to like women, but there you go!

[Vincent E.S.]

yes-no. I'm self-conscious about the fact that I have peach fuzz.

Since cis-men have to shave, they have smooth faces.. At least, they do once they've reached puberty. The fuzz is replaced with whiskers and those get removed. I feel that my face being fuzzy rather than smooth kind of screams to people that I wasn't born male.

Unfortunately, I'm too nervous that my mother would notice my lack of fuzz and freak out, so I haven't tried shaving it. I do get whiskers sometimes (it comes from my mother's hair family), but they're pure white and don't grow in any sort of beard pattern. Plus I only get a new one about once a month, so I'd have to leave them alone for a year and then only have twelve. Bleh.
My brother took after our mom and has always been hairy. He had a full beard/goatee before he entered sixth grade. I, however, took after our dad and have no body hair on my torso or thighs, and the hair I do have elsewhere on my limbs is very fine and light-colored. The only time you can really see my arm hair is when I'm sunburned and all the little white hairs stand out against the red. So I'm probably never going to have facial hair. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get five o'month shadow.

[anibioman]

as im a teenage guy it bugs me that i dont have facial hair, since all my guy friends have all started growing facial hair. also my younger brother (of two years) is slowly growing a scraggly blond mustache that he refuses to shave, even though i ask him to a lot as it contributes to my dysphoria. plus his voice gets deeper every day. it doesnt really effect my passing most people just think im a year younger then i am. when i get older i think it will be harder as most 18 year olds have started and finished puberty.

[JungianZoe]

as im a teenage guy it bugs me that i dont have facial hair, since all my guy friends have all started growing facial hair. also my younger brother (of two years) is slowly growing a scraggly blond mustache that he refuses to shave, even though i ask him to a lot as it contributes to my dysphoria. plus his voice gets deeper every day. it doesnt really effect my passing most people just think im a year younger then i am. when i get older i think it will be harder as most 18 year olds have started and finished puberty.

Don't give up hope!  Even in biological males, this is wildly variable.  I started HRT three days before my 33rd birthday and I couldn't grow much of any facial hair outside the goatee area.  Sideburns?  They never came in.  And aside from fine, wispy hair^* on my lower legs and lower arms, I didn't grow a single body hair either.  I might have got some of this later if I hadn't transitioned because my dad didn't get his first chest hair until he was 55.   But then again, he had a full beard in his early 20s and I wasn't even close at 33.

Guess what I'm really trying to say is that there's no guaranteed cut-off age at which hair growth can start.


^*It's possible that the hairs on my arms and legs that I had before HRT weren't even male body hairs as they weren't coarse or curly.

[sneakersjay]

To those with peach fuzz:  Shave it.  I started shaving pre-T just to get rid of the fuzz.


Jay

[Wolf]

I want to grow facial hair asap on T. If it's looking bleak by a few months in, I might consider trying out the Rogaine project, but I am shy to try it before I'm on T because all of the information I have on using it to grow beards is from biomales who have been doing it.

I'm more concerned about my voice and moobs though, I'm not as self concious about facial hair but I do feel that y'know, if I had a goatee right now nobody would mis-gender me and if they did, they would correct themselves pretty quick I think.

[Da Monkey]

I have facial hair, in the process of growing a full beard.  I'm incredibly scared of shaving it off.  I'll trim and shape, but I just can't get rid of it.  My fear is that without it, I'll look like a female again.  The general consensus of my family and friends is that it adds about 2 years on me and definitely makes me look more masculine.

Right now I'm looking for a full-time job and I've had to decide whether to shave or not.  So far I've decided to keep my beard.  If I were offered a position where the dress code required me to be clean-shaven, I'm not really sure if I'd take it.  I say that, but I know I would shave if I had to.  I'd just be extremely self-conscious and keep looking for other work.

I feel the same way. I have kept facial hair since I was about 8 months on T and it's gonna be 2 years in October. I have a chin strap thing going on and get terrified to shave it off. I don't think I ever will hahah. I feel like it's the only thing that keeps me from passing, somehow.

[brandnewman]

The hair on the sides of my chin that I already had pre-T is growing faster and coarser on T. I also have hair growing on my neck under my chin. I'm waiting for the day I start growing a full goatee. I will be a very happy man that day. For the time being, I don't pass consistently as my face is not 100% male, but my voice is getting deeper, which helps some. Patience...

[brandon823]

I have been on T for 9 yrs and am starting to finally have some good growth.  I still cant really grow any kind of beard.  It just depends on genetics.

[N.Chaos]

(Thanks to being half-Italian, I suppose) I've actually always had a notable bit of facial hair. I used to hate it, makes me happy now. I'm pretty damn femmey at times, I wear eyeliner still and all that, so I don't want a massive bushy-ass beard but I've got a goo bit under my lip. Makes me happy, even if it's pretty dorky to have a soul patch.

[HarryP]

I am pre-T but luckily I'm naturally hairy and have moustache and sideburns hair. It grows REALLY slowly, but now I've started shaving it, it's growing back darker and coarser, like proper beard hair!  I do get down that I don't have a proper beard yet though; firstly because I work with 17-18 yr olds and they all look older than me, and secondly because I want to be a bear but I look all twinky still!