Hair removal is a good start.

[Mazarine_Sky]

Hey, anyone who remembers me knows that I went and joined the Infantry 8 and a half months ago. Some time during the summer, I posted a thread about how much LGBT hatred is present in the military, and how I felt like I couldn't put up with it.
And since then, my method of putting up with it has just been to accept my choice to enlist and try to become more of a man.
Well, seen as how I am definitely more of a woman than a man, and any more continued suppression of this will probably drive me insane (I am genderqueer. If I suppress any one side of myself I will lose all sight of my identity) I decided I should embrace what I can as a member of the armed forces.
Basically what I mean is that I can't go around cross dressing ot wearing make up, but I can definitely remove my body hair and stop trying to act so masculine.
So, let's start with the most simple step of all, but one that I don't know enough about. Body hair. I hate it, with a passion. I tried shaving my legs but after a few weeks I was getting infected razor bumps and every one of my fellow soldiers realized that I shaved my legs and accused me of being gay, to the point of violence.
And I stopped for two reasons: one because of the bad razor bumps, and two because I was being made fun of and threatened. When I stopped shaving, they left me alone and actually commented that I'm "more of a man now". This of course is ridiculous, but what can I do?
The fact is, I don't really care any more. It's not going to be warm enough to wear shorts anyway for a while.
So what can I do? Shave again? If so, I need some serious help to avoid razor bumps. What other methods exist? How expensive is lazer hair removal?
Thank you all very much.

[Nicky]

Well, a good first step would be to get out of the millitary don't you think?

Well, to avoid bumps make sure you moisturise, exfoliate regulalry and use a good razor and shave foam (also shave in or after a shower/bath) and don't shave with soap. Another method is to wax, or buy an exfoliator. Thirdly you could try a dilaptory cream the dissolves the hair. In any case it is still worth exfoliating and moisturising.

Laser would be real expensive on the legs, but would be a possibility, so is electrolysis. You can also buy do it yourself machines - but make sure you do some research on those as I suspect a lot of them don't work well enough to be worth it.

[Mazarine_Sky]

How much money are we talking about on the legs with electrolysis or laser?

[K8]

I am retired military.  I was a closeted cross-dresser when in, so I know just a little of what you are talking about.

I was male-bodied and thought to be a man.  I tried being a man but it never worked very well.  At one point I just started relaxing and being myself, acting a bit effeminate because that's who I am.  It probably helped that I was married to a woman, had about 12 years in, and had achieved some rank, but I probably would have done it anyway.

As long as there is "Don't ask don't tell" you should be careful about being perceived as gay by your peers if they aren't willing to overlook it.  (Most people I worked with didn't care whether I was gay.)

I didn't shave my legs in the military and didn't wear women's underwear regularly.  I managed to suppress most of that until I got out.  I wasn't willing to subject myself to the problems doing those things would have opened me up to.

Laser on your legs will probably cost upwards of $1,000.  I wouldn't trust any of the do-it-yourself machines, but that's just me.  I don't need to shave my legs anymore, but when I did I would do it using soap while showering.  I changed the blades frequently and would rub baby oil on my legs when I got out of the shower but before I dried off.  I had no problems other than my skin drying out sometimes.  Then I would put hand cream on them.

Being in the military requires a certain amount of commitment and a certain amount of willingness to suppress your individuality.  I found that if I did some things the way they wanted me to do them – was "a good soldier" – I had a lot of leeway to do other things the way I wanted to.  The trick is to discover what you need to do to be free enough to be left alone the rest of the time.

Good luck.  You are in a tough position for someone like us, but you can learn to manage it.

- Kate

[Mazarine_Sky]

Thank you. I guess it's just that I'm an Infantryman, and I actually love my job, but it just sucks that I can't be me. But thank you. I think one of the reasons I was getting razor bumps is because I used the same blade up to 3 times.