TransLater

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A community for trans folk who transitioned or are transitioning later in life.

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ada@lemmy.blahaj.zone

ada@piefed.blahaj.zone

All aboard the Dysphoria train (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by Berengaria_of_Navarre@lemmy.world to c/translater@lemmy.blahaj.zone

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My partner offered to do my makeup today. I was excited both because she's been iffy on the whole transition thing and because she's very good at doing her own makeup and I was excited to get some instruction.

I've always thought I look young for my age and fairly attractive (if you're into mountain men) so I was cautiously optimistic about the results. But when she was done I looked in the mirror and my first thought was: shit, I hope Napoleon comes through that door and puts me out of my misery. I looked like an old french duke or a sad theatre queen in a Christmas pantomime.

Without the makeup I looked around 5 years younger than my age, but with it I looked easily 25 years older. My eyelids especially looked like poorly tanned leather. I know estrogen is amazing for your skin, but Jesus Christ does it have some heavy fucking lifting to do.

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[–] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The first time I had a professional makeover done, it was by an artist who didn't know what to do with trans folk. The end result was a face of makeup I took off as soon as I got home, because it almost looked like a caricature, with everything over exaggerated.

And that's because HRT changes the way your face sits, and thus the way shadows fall, it changes the tone of your skin, it changes how hooded your eyelids are, and countless other little things that you don't think about, but all add up.

But, there's lots of tutorials out there on how to achieve the results you want with the face you have, rather than trying to apply the techniques that cis women use. And with time, the difference between those two will reduce as well.

[–] Berengaria_of_Navarre@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

That's good to know. I'm from a place with almost no gender expression (ie men and women basically dress the same and hang out in mixed groups and kinda look the same) and the only woman in my immediate family didn't ever wear makeup. So it's all pretty unfamiliar to me.