my face

snap and hair!! when I work out how to post pics then you will see

FACE. Most definitely.

My brain. I am at ease now. My hair it was thinning pretty badly. Not bald but thinning. Now it is long and luxurious. Much better than a wig.

Face and hair


Conform and be dull. —James Frank Dobie, The Voice of the Coyote

so if my avatar works you can see what I need

Face.

darling it looks fine to me, swop any day!!

   I would have to agree with Dawn. Though having a feminine face is highly desirable to being accepted by myself and others, I feel my own mind is the most important aspect for my successful transition. How can I expect others to accept me as a woman until I can fully accept myself? It takes being comfortable  with myself and my decision to become a woman in my own mind before I will be able to be a woman.
   I envy those younger ladies that have gotten fabulous results from HRT and other medical procedure that make them look so much like cis woman. Oh yes, I envy them. Good looks could make this so much easier. At my age I cannot expect anywhere near their results but than does not mean I will be any less of a woman provided I am one in my own mind. I'm working on that.

  Hugs,
    Jeanette

I should add mental acceptance is probably the most important thing

Body Size/proportions ...

Even with not great HRT results FFS can feminize the face. Hair can be dealt with multiple ways... But with unfortunate body size/proportions even after being on HRT a number of years, not much can be done. I'm a firm believer that if one has to dress a certain way to "pass" ones does not really. IMO to be able to get past transition one needs to be able to get to teh point one does not need to think about how they present to be taken as female, and just are.

Another big factor which is partially physical and IMO there is no good solution if training does not do the job, is voice.

- Karen

I'd say the skeleton...

Body,  mind and soul. Honestly though, its the mind, if that is in good shape all else doesn't matter.

Brain and mind. No contest. If you can't be comfortable with and accept yourself no one else will either.

I got to agree with Karen_A that it's all about proportions. After two years + on hrt the thing that clocks me are my hands. They're huge. At 5'10 I can easily grip a basketball and they're bigger then most guys. Wish there was a way to shrink them.

Socially, there are so many things about presentation I could list. If I had to say one item that is most important, it would be GCS. If I could have, that would have been first on my list to do. That is the thing that will make me scream into my pillow in frustration.
Moni

The Heart is my romantic favorite and seemingly where we feel this experience called transition.  Seems essential to have the heart to be committed to your goals and the heart to feel what is genuine and right for you.  The heart to love and accept ourselves with all our flaws and fears.  That's a big part of success to me.

A lot is just our lucky heritage to be born trans and some are also gifted with physical fortunes.  I have a couple of friends who are male and gay and only need to put on a wig and a dress and they could pass with very pretty faces and petite physique.  Some of us also have the good fortune and/or means to get into therapy, HRT, GCS, FFS you name it...if we need it we find the way.

I think everyone has their own opinion on what makes their own transition successful.  Mine occurred when I no longer suffered from dysphoria.  Since that dysphoria centered around having a penis and lacking significant breast development, I would say that BA and SRS basically helped me achieve a successful transition.  It helped me to feel better about myself while improving my confidence.  Now there were other things that helped, like FFS and my recent VFS, but ultimately relieving my dysphoria helped me achieve a successful transition.

My 2 cents. 

Definitely brain.

My mind, my sense of self