Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Women who go through one puberty over 8 to 12 years have a lot of time to practice with their hair.  They make it look so easy. It's not!


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No hair is not easy I took cosmetology course way back in high school (18 years ago) though it was a good way to meet girls well hair was not easy than or for me now either I passed with a 61 percent

Trust me hair is not easy. I just recently started wearing my own hair and it's hell. I'm going back to hair weaves til my hair get to my azz


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It's not easy, but it is predictably something that we can master with enough effort.  Lights, curling irons, action!

all you need is a mirror, time, and patience

Quote from: rmaddy on January 20, 2018, 12:34:30 AM
It's not easy, but it is predictably something that we can master with enough effort.  Lights, curling irons, action!

You left out a 3rd hand with double jointed fingers.

That's if you have hair :) ::)

Nope. Not easy at all. I'm not to a point that I feel like I have all the hair I really want to work with, but I'm certainly liking having more hair than before. I'm finding that my hair naturally curls in a way that would eliminate my need for a curling iron which is kind of bizarre but also looks really good. I honestly have no clue where my particular curls came from in my lineage but I'm not going to challenge it. :P

My hair despises me.
It's just touching my shoulders and I wear it up a lot as it is so curly.
But it's not the nice curly waves that look gorgeous, it's the curly all directions mess that looks permanently like I have been standing in a hurricane.

I am slowly learning the tricks such as no blowdrying  ever and the futile attempt to keep my hair dry in the morning shower.
I am heavy on the conditioner designed my type of hair, I use leave in conditoner for my type ofor hair.
I try to not use straighteners but I hate how it looks curly.
It feels dry and brittle minutes after using conditioner.

But to keep on topic, cis girls have a huge advantage over us on all things beauty.
As a guy my idea of beauty was using a face cream one a month.

I dunno. I went to a lesbian discussion group last night and yes the topic of hair came up - first short hair as a signal of being lesbian then about what a pita long hair can be.

I think it can be as easy or hard as you want to make it. I don't ever plan to see the business end of a curling iron, most of the attention I pay to it is regular use if a conditioner and keeping it brushed out. I'll do a braided ponytail once in a while put in wet to encourage some waviness after it's dried.

I'm extremely happy to have hit mid shoulder length, I simply keep it in a ponytail 95% of the time as it's simple and a long ponytail in straight hair has always been the look I find most fetching.

I love having femme hair, totally worth the small extra effort I have to put into it.

Sounds like a hairy situation  ;D  I guess I'm lucky because my hair is fairly simple, beyond putting it up in a ponytail there isn't really much I can do with it

I wash it, brush it out, and let it air dry

I mamaged to figure out a lot of creative ways if keeping my hair out of my way under my hardhat at work and several simple on the go hairstyles.

I do shave the sides away still like a mohawk so I do have a lot less to manage but the practices are the same.

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Don't feel bad. I can do any cut or style with hair but I have trouble doing anything with my own hair. Even hairstylists have trouble doing their own hair. It's hard to see the exact way your hair is going to look in a mirror. If I'm going out for something special I have one of the people I work with do my hair.  When your doing your own hair Don't try to be too elaborate. Pick something fairly simple that still looks good. Use a hand mirror to see the back. Some thing I see a lot with people doing their own hair is the hair around their face is very well done but nothing has been done to the back. When people do their own hair the concentrate on the hair they can see. Since they can't see the back it gets neglected or forgotten entirely.

Using a hand mirror to see the back can help but most of the time you need both hands to do your hair. Use a mirror with a base that you can set on a table top to style the back of your hair. How you ask. Well we have a huge decorative mirror in our dining room. I just sit with my back to the mirror and then put the pedestal mirror on the table in front of me. You can also use your dresser mirror.  Sit with your back to the mirror then use like a TV tray table to set your mirror on so you can see the back. The other option is to have someone help you. If necessary you can explain how to use the curling iron or flat iron and have them do it for you.

Be very careful trying to cut your own hair. I've seen some tragic outcomes from people trying to cut their own hair. People with long hair think since trimming the ends is fairly simple they can just do it themselves. The problem is to get a straight cut the hair all needs to be hanging down your back. Pulling it forward and trying to cut the ends is going to make it totally uneven. You need to go to a salon to have it trimmed. Make sure you tell the stylist to trim the split ends ONLY. Emphasize this a couple of times. I really don't know what it is with some stylists but they get scissor happy.  I won't let anyone at work cut my hair because the 2 times I have they cut way more than just the ends. I just have my dad do it for me. No he isn't a stylist but growing up I refused to go to a salon or barber shop and while my dad was willing to let me have long hair he wasn't willing to let me have it down to my butt so he would cut a little off himself once in a while. So I trust him. If you have someone you totally trust you can have them trim the ends for you. They don't need to even know how to cut hair, its just cutting a straight line.

I do use two mirrors too.  After conditioning and still wet, I can make straight cuts and even gradual rounded cuts from around the ears to the back.  This was hard at first and a good stylist would likely do a far better job of having all of your hair match your face and style desires.  But if you simply do not want your hair to get really long and have a pretty consistent look from your last trim, after months of practice and using professional cutting and thinning shears, you should improve from making some miscuts to doing a fairly decent job. 

I rarely cut my hair when it is dry to adjust the length, except from those random strands.  I do use the thinning shears when my hair is dry for the simple reason that I want to see how thick the hair looks as I make each thinning cut.  The thinning shears has those notches instead of flat blades, so it will not cut all the hair between the blades.

My hair in the back can cover my collar for sure and hangs down straight and is thick.  I am presenting as male but if it does get thicker and longer, I would think some people might consider it unisex or even fem, because even now, it can have a rounded, close to same length thick look from the back view when it is fresh and clean.

Because of a medical condition I have used Fin for years.  It has an amazing impact on my head hair.  As a male, it is probably counter gender to enjoy noticing my hair "moving" in the back as I turn my head.  I think if it was just as long all around my face, covering not only parts of the ears but all of the ears and my cheeks, I might enjoy playing with it a lot as it moves across my face and I might have a lot of trouble focusing what I am doing.  Maybe not, as women have to deal with that a lot.  It is just a necessary part of women having that hairstyle, and they certainly go on with all their important activities in life.

While I am a guy I might have some T like thinking. I am learning a lot here.  I just do not see myself with GD at the moment.  Perhaps just different or more inclusive in thinking.

Quote from: plastic-mayhem on January 20, 2018, 12:54:31 AM
all you need is a mirror, time, and patience

I still have issues with mirrors.

I cheat with my hair. That's a wig in my photo, but I don't do anything more with it than brush it out or put it in a pony tail on windy days. There's more I can do with it, but I don't know what to do or have the practice to do it.

Too much hassle for me to have been bothered with in the past, that's for sure.

Now I can leave it looking almost like I never brush it and it's considered sexy.  :-* 

Haha... I love this thread. Reminds me of many an hour I have spent in front of the mirror cursing my hair. We just have to keep trying, practicing, and we will eventually slay the beast.

I just ordered a wig from Vogue Wigs and I need to style it - my hair is still waaay too short- However it does grow fast and I've just found some really cute long on top short styles that I'm going to go for, at least for now.
I need to focus on one skill at a time- makeup, for me is more important for now.
[emoji1381]‍♀️


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I have had long hair for years before transitioning and have dyed and straghtened it for years as well.  Its currently the shortest it's been in a very long time in my avatar.  I still have days I can't get it to do anything and I have to wear a ponytail. 

Aw, it's just about hair. I thought this thread was going to be "Don't let CIS women fool you, they want your kidneys to sell on the black market." or something salacious.

I'm still trying to get the hang of make-up... Some days I look great, others, a train wreck...

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Quote from: Roll on January 20, 2018, 10:57:10 PM
Aw, it's just about hair. I thought this thread was going to be "Don't let CIS women fool you, they want your kidneys to sell on the black market." or something salacious.

Lol, you really crack me up. 😃

The date was going so well until I woke up in that bath tub full of ice water...

I haven't had a cut since Oct 2016. After over a year the back is to my shoulders but the front and sides take longer. Mine has gone through stages. under a certain length it was all wavy. It even sort of self curled with just leave in spray conditioner. Now it has a little wave left but lays nearly straight at least until I use shampoo. Then it poofs up. I have found the best conditioner is in those tubes that come in the hair color kits. You are supposed to use it once a week to help maintain the color but it also makes my hair super soft.
I am at the point where a simple ponytail is my main go-to right now. Its just long enough so I have started to notice the ponytail hangs down to my neck. If I get my peaks on the front to fully grow back in I will be happy with my hair for the first time ever. So far I have seen some regrowth at the upper hair line turn into short terminal hair now about an inch long.  ;D

Quote from: Colleen_definitely on January 21, 2018, 08:03:24 AM
The date was going so well until I woke up in that bath tub full of ice water...

🤣🤣🤣 🤷🏼‍♀️


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Quote from: josie76 on January 21, 2018, 08:07:47 AM
I haven't had a cut since Oct 2016. After over a year the back is to my shoulders but the front and sides take longer. Mine has gone through stages. under a certain length it was all wavy. It even sort of self curled with just leave in spray conditioner. Now it has a little wave left but lays nearly straight at least until I use shampoo. Then it poofs up. I have found the best conditioner is in those tubes that come in the hair color kits. You are supposed to use it once a week to help maintain the color but it also makes my hair super soft.
I am at the point where a simple ponytail is my main go-to right now. Its just long enough so I have started to notice the ponytail hangs down to my neck. If I get my peaks on the front to fully grow back in I will be happy with my hair for the first time ever. So far I have seen some regrowth at the upper hair line turn into short terminal hair now about an inch long.  ;D

Try a hair masque sometime.  They do wonders for my hair.  It's a deep conditioner sort of concoction that you leave in for a couple of hours.

I know it's not super sexy in the moment but I use a shower cap most times when I'm not shampooing/conditioning or the struggle is too real. My hair is sooooo heavy and curly if I get it wet!  :P

Thanks all.  Good comments.

Pre transition I washed my 1 inch hair daily.  Drying it took 30 seconds. Now it's a few inches below the shoulder and takes 2 hours to dry.

With the sub freezing temps here in Chicago I only wash it twice per week.  Today was a definite bad hair day!!

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Ugh! My hair is still in that VERY awkward stage of clearly just grown out man hair. It's long enough in the back to touch my collar but not long enough everywhere to put up in a secure ponytail or bun. A few more months though and I'll be able to at least get it out of my way securely. Then a few more months after that and I can get it trimmed to all about the same length! I look at it as a journey. :)

Ah the trans mullet.  I remember those days well.  I used a lot of gel and/or hairspray to keep it presentable at that point in my life.