No Always Amanda - I totally agree with you - it can be almost "overnight" in some cases. Although, realistically it's been changing for months, it's just that it strikes you all of a sudden.
Growing up I was often mistaken for a girl. I have always had very small facial features and have always maintained pretty good skin due to my ethnic background. As a child I was also slightly overweight or "pleasently plump" with "baby fat" so I always appeared softer. As I went thru puberty I lost some of that but I always looked extremely feminine. I always LOVED make-up and that's probably why I am a make-up artist today. Even as a "boy" I often wore make-up but never really felt like I "needed" it the way my little sister or my mother explained they "needed" it (at least mascara & lip gloss and maybe a little blush) before they left the house. As a "boy" I used it more to "perfect" certain features and wore it more in the evenings when I went out with friends or to dinner.
BUT after 7 months on hormones my face has gotten even more of a natural glow and my face has DEFINITELY gained a good deal of fat and softened even more than before. I feel more comfortable in my skin now more than ever but what really striked me was about a month ago when I looked in the mirror and felt my face more than ever NEEDED make-up - not because I was not pretty - or not because I looked like a man - but I saw that freshed, baby-doll looking, washed face that I only saw on my mother & sister in the morning before they awoke and applied their daily regimen of make-up before leaving the house for work or school. It was TRULY an amazing realization & I felt like that sort of came over night.
People who hadn't seen me since I started HRT say if they didn't know I was born male they would have had no clue I wasn't a GG - especially in the face they have said. That's a HUGE compliment but not one I noticed as much because I see myself EVERYDAY! Mind you I'm in the beauty industry so I'm always around mirrors - so whether or not I WANT to see my reflection everyday - I see it more often than most. So those changes didn't seem as apparent to me. But now comparing photos from 3 years ago and today I can tell MAJOR changes in my face.
It's very exciting being that I've only been on HRT 7 months....I can't wait to see what I look like a year from now...3 years from now...10 years from now. That has to be one of the most exciting parts of being transgendered for us - that's knowing that physically things will ONLY get BETTER! Where as many GG fear aging - I look foward to it as I will slowly see the very little bit of boy now displayed in the mirrior disappearing!
