Quote from: thatboyfresh on August 17, 2013, 12:28:43 AM
Yo!
Another thing you should think about is the way facial hair can really change the way a person looks. Ive known guys who've had staches all their lives but look totally different clean shaven and such. No word of a lie I actually didn't recognize a friend of many years point blank when we first made contact after he shaved his beard he had since I met him.
I know not all trans men have facial hair but I am just saying I saw a "bigger" transformation in men who gained facial hair when really their actual features might not have changed at all.
Some examples:
Lastly. IMO I think it depends on your feature before taking T. Ive had people that I havent seen for more then 5+ years recognize me from grade school . Through the years no matter how much my style/hair/weight changed i still looked recognizable and my base features havent changed.
Don't believe the hype those people are telling you about not seing any changes in you. They are just there to bring you down man.
Yeah, I can see how facial hair can masculines you a lot. Wish my facial hair would fill in and grow thicker soon so I could keep it instead of shaving every month to 2 months.
Quote from: Arch on August 17, 2013, 01:52:17 AM
I've had experiences with people who tell me that I look completely different (and one colleague clearly didn't recognize me at all when we ran into each other in the toilet) and others who tell me that I look the same, except with facial hair. I've looked at my video footage from four years ago, and holy Ned I have changed. But I still look like me.
All of my IRL friends who started transition while I have known them are completely recognizable as themselves. They just look quite a bit more male.
My best friend says that my voice hasn't changed. I am a baritone now. I guess he just recognizes the inherent Arch-ness in the way I speak. And the men in my men's group never noticed a thing when I went from tenor to baritone or light baritone to much deeper baritone. So that was kind of weird.
I remember seeing a clip of you a while back, Dominick. Your voice wasn't super deep, but what struck me was your way of speaking. I talked to a guy on the phone the other day who has a higher voice than you did then--but he spoke with total confidence, so I didn't doubt his maleness. I know that you aren't comfortable in front of the camera--so you come across as unsure of yourself--but I suspect that you project the same way IRL. If you really really want to "pass" over the phone, you might study and implement typical male inflections and speech patterns. It might not help, but it certainly can't hurt. If you have already done that, I don't know what to tell you. It's very disruptive to pass in person but not over the phone. That happened to me for only a short time, but it really did a number on me and made me unsure of myself.
Yeah, it really depends of the person I guess. Some think you look the same and other think you look the same but just more masculine.
I did recently pass over the phone for the second time b/c I deepened my voice. I know when I talk on the phone my voice does get higher b/c I try to sound very polite on the phone. I usually start off (depending on who I'm calling) by saying, "Hi, this is Dominick calling" so that way they can't mis-gender me.
