When did you know you could let them grow out and have them look...well, like sideburns? Ha. I've got quite a bit of hair now, it goes all the way down the sideburn area and to the chin. It feels like sandpaper even after I shave. But I've been letting it grow out for about 5 days and it looks...well...not that full? I've heard it takes teen guys several weeks for an area to properly fill in and not look nasty, but is there any way to know early in if it's going to just end up looking like crap?

Hey buddy.  In my experience, if you are just starting on T, yea the facial hair looks like crap.  Also the facial hair you get and how fast it grows in is somewhat genetic.  It took me years to grow in a good beard, which I now proudly wear.  But with my genetics...basically my dad being Native American and totally hairless...took years.  I am now the hairy French Canadian descendant of my Mom.  For me to grow a good beard, took me a good 7 years.  And, that is just my genetics.  It is different for all of us.  I say, if it looks like crap, shave it off. If you like the way it looks, go for it.  It is all an individual thing.

I'm 23 and my beard is patchy at best. Only after like 2 months growth does it look good. Physically male my whole life too so definitely give testosterone some time. It'll get there!

Thanks guys, but I think I didn't clarify well enough - I can grow hair, I just don't know if it's supposed to look like proper sideburns after only a week of growing, or if it takes time before they look right.

If you want them to look right, keep them real trimmed.  A scraggly hair growth does not look good on any man. 

Ah, that does answer my question - they're relatively long for one week's worth, but seem too far apart. Maybe it's not the right time yet. Thanks.

It does take time for the facial  hair to grow in and look good.  Again a lot of it depends on genetics.  I was one of the unfortunate that it took me 10 years to grow a great beard.  Now I grow it and keep it well trimmed.  And I find the ladies do like a well trimmed beard.  So let the side burns grow.  Just keep them well trimmed.  Even if they are sparse, if you keep them well trimmed...They will look good.

I'm sideburns obsessed, I've never cut mine, they're only just starting to look good now, 23 months in.

Simple answer:    If sideburn growth is slow, then shaping them is an excellent way to acquire a more masculine look.

When was the last time you saw a girl with shaped sideburns ?

My beard growth started when I was 16 (enough that I didn't worry about being served at the bar).  By 19 I had a full beard all the time, which I wore in one guise or another most of the time until early last year.  Every so often I would shave it off & let it regrow.  Much of the time from I wore a goatee & always wore sideburns, even when I shaved everything else.  (My gender therapist was shocked last year when I didn't realise that sideburns were a dead giveaway of maleness ...)

I often kept them trimmed to about 6mm (c.2 weeks growth for me .... then ... much more now) and always maintained a straight line edge to them (as symmetrical as possible).  The straight line seems more important than the length.  (Or even any shaping at all, just as long as it looks like deliberate shaping.)

I can only say all this looking back.  Before I admitted being trans to myself I purposely cared as little as possible about my appearance (that would have been a 'girly' thing to do, & I couldn't let anyone see even the slightest hint of that - my internal transphobia runs pretty deep).

Just my tuppenny-worth, fwiw.