[Alice]

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I love it because I feel very sexy dressed as a woman and that little fantasy is very fulfilling.

That’s interesting.

I find dressing as a woman irresistably enjoyable (like a moth to a flame ) activity, but in a completely non-sexual way.

It’s interesting that some of us see CDing as a sexual activity, while others see it as being yourself, or expressing a different aspect of yourself.

I don’t think that this coincides with CDing vs TS, as I’m a very part time CD with no interest in transitioning and I’m probably in a position that most would think is the TS end of the scale!

Alice

[Alice]

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I’ve got home-made carved hip padding. It looks rough from the inside, but smooth on the outside. The trick is to use a piece of flat foam with a reasonably smooth surface and only carve the “back”

I’ve created a private album and put a couple of photos there of the padding that I described here years ago.

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I’d like to make a garment to put the foam into, but I struggle to find time to dress let alone sew!

I appear to have solved this problem. My wife is going to make a unitard for me. Hopefully it’ll be ready soon.

I’ll put a photo or two of it in my album as soon as it’s ready.

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I don’t wear any
sort of corset and the male-distributed fat around my waist area
doesn’t look wrong with the padding in place. Because I am 5’11”, I
look moderately thin as a size 14! Who’d think that you can look
thinner by adding padding.

I’ve since lost weight, so the padding on the hips looks even better, even without any sort of waist cinching.

I’ve put a photo in my album to show how it looks in one of my favourite dresses.

Alice

[Alice]

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I believe the music you listen to has alot to say about who you are as a person.

In male mode, I tend to listen to Beatles, ELO, Queen, etc..

My favourite music for while I’m transforming myself is Bananarama!

Alice

[Alice]

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How many of us were caught By our Parents?

I remember the first time my parents found my stash of femme gear.

We had a work area under the house, and I had a small spot where I kept about 4 or 5 cardboard boxes of old toys and the like. Because I shared a bedroom with two brothers, I couldn’t dress in my bedroom, so I kept my clothes in a box, with a few pieces of paper and a few tonka toys on top.

I could dress there when nobody was home, and change when I heard a car or someone at the front door, which would be long before they would come to the work area looking for me.

I still don’t know why, but one day my father pulled the box off the shelf and pulled the stuff off the top and found my stash.

I went on the attack, claiming that it was a form of burglar alarm in that if someone went through my private stuff, they’d do exactly as he had and I’d know that they had invaded my privacy. It appeared to work in convincing them that I wasn’t a CD, but my mother washed all of my clothes and gave them to a friend of hers who had an op shop.

Because of these happenings, for several years during my teens, I had a hidden spot in the bush near my home, where I kept my stash of femme stuff. I’d dress there instead of at home. It was private enough that I never got caught but I did have trouble with keeping my stuff dry.

Years later, when my brothers had left home and I had a room to myself, I had some old pantyhose under my bed, separate from all of my good stuff. My mother found these, washed them and put them back without a word! I didn’t realise this until years later still, when I came out to my mother.

I’ve never come out to my father.

Alice

[Alice]

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Appologies for the long winded reply but I’m hoping you and others may benefit from this information.

Never apologise for being helpful!

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First of all, I say keep your long hair.

The decision was made in the opposite direction and I don’t regret it.

I have 9 wigs at the moment. All provide far better feminine appearance than my own hair ever could.

I’ve actually decided that I want to maximise the difference between my male and female appearances for various reasons, and going to short hair that fits my male appearance helps with that.

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All up you’re looking at around $90 per month to save your hair.

I have enough trouble using DIY dermabrasion twice a week, using pore reducing mask 2 or 3 times a week, epiling face and brows weekly, epiling arms, legs, etc. about fortnightly and finding one day every 4 to 6 weeks to dress with full makeup. I really doubt that I could organise to apply stuff to my scalp twice per day!

I expect that other girls will find your suggestions helpful. It appears to be pretty much the right solution for those who want to use their own hair.

Alice

[Alice]

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I managed 5 years before breaking down.

I think that the longest I managed was about 10 weeks!

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I suppose my desires might be different to the average CD. I really wanted a normal life, or I thought I did. More than that though I really wanted that girl to stay in my life when I knew that announcing myself as TS would drive her away.It never went away, it was just denied.

Same story, shorter time. I purged everything except a pair of masectomy forms that I thought I was going to try to sell. I also got my hair cut because that was what she wanted.

I think that every CD eventually realises that, if you have to choose, the CDing will defeat a relationship every time.

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Now I am me, the real me, and the purge cycle isn’t ever going to hit me again,

I think I’d be in a lot of trouble if I tried to purge. My wife wouldn’t like me giving away clothes that she has made for me.

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oh except I almost purged all the boy clothes until I got this job and had to be boy for another 6 months……

In spite of having no desire to ever transition, I must admit that I have imagined doing that!

Alice

[Alice]

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I simply decided to be rational and put all my stuff in a big black garbage bag and tossed it into the back of the storeroom.

You raised a very good point there.

It is much better to store it yourself if you are able.

I guess that this should go into the first part of the instructions.
[ul]Clean everything. Instead of throwing everything away or donating it to charity, box it up and, if possible, store it somewhere out of the way. If you can’t store it yourself, ask a friend to store it for you.[/ul]
That’s better.

Alice

[Alice]

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I think I might add to your list of conditions:

5: A one year extension of storage should you be unsure. Storage not to exceed 2 years.

In my experience, I’ve never come across a CD who has stayed in purge denial for more than a few months.

My expectation would always be that the stuff will have been collected in well under 6 months.

That said, I see nothing wrong with your suggestion. If I’m right, that rule would never be used. If I’m wrong, the stuff gathers dust for an extra year.

[Alice]

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Nad’s Ingrow Solution seems to be more effective after about a week than Savlon ever was!

I’ll try to remember to post another update in a few months time.

Well, about another month or so later and I’ve just bought my 2nd bottle of Nad’s Ingrow Solution.

Works great.

I even got an androgynous friend of mine using it. He bought the green bottle like I have, and was given a bottle of the blue “for men” version for leaving positive feedback on their web site. He found that far less effective on the face but about the same everywhere else.

I think that I’ll stick with the green stuff.

Alice

[Alice]

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Hello girls,
I’m Clare, and I’m a Dad to six girls and two boys, ages from 4 to 18.
I’ve been thinking about my relationship with my family, trying to decide whether I should tell them about my female personality.

Everything that I have ever read on the subject indicates that early childhood is a good time to tell (or more accurately, show) them. At that age, they haven’t been taught to be biased against it and accept is as normal.

My son has seen my female side numerous times. I’m not sure whether it is a good thing or a bad thing that he recognises photos of me in female mode and says “photo of dad!” ❗

From around 8yo until early to mid 20s is apparently not a good time to tell them. They have enough trouble with their own gender and identity issues without having something that they’ve come to consider a stable reference of gender identity suddenly change on them!

[Alice]

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Nope, I feel totally female with myself now, and almost 100% enfem now and Im def. NOT into or attracted to men .

I think that one of the reasons why I crossdress is because I find females attractive and males repulsive. This applies to my own male appearance as well as others.

Whether I’m in male mode or female mode, I always find masculinity repulsive.

Alice

[Alice]

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Savlon is actually the best thing I’ve found for ingrown hairs!

Well, I’ve now found better. Nad’s Ingrow Solution seems to be more effective after about a week than Savlon ever was!

I’ll try to remember to post another update in a few months time.

[Alice]

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I wonder if you can help me, I have dark hairs and it seems that I can never shave close enough to get rid of them, and even with beard cover they shine right through, ruining my chances to pass!

I very rarely shave. Pretty much only if I haven’t had time to epil and I need to look good in male mode. Probably once or twice this year so far!

I use an “epilator” to pull the hair out. It’s a bit like waxing, in that there needs to be a bit of length before you can grip the hairs to pull them out, but only a few millimetres.

Over time, the hairs get finer and less pigmented. Sometimes, if I keep it done often enough, I can get to having downy bum fluff all over my face, just like a lot of real females.

For any hair colour, epiling or waxing will make the beard shadow less noticable than shaving, without any need to use extra makeup to hide it. You also don’t have to worry about the beard coming through as a 5 o’clock shadow after a few hours.

It’s definately more painful initially but gives a much better result and the pain gets less as the hairs grow back finer and more sparsely! Tweezing by hand (takes several hours) or getting waxing done professionally are good ways of getting prepared to start epiling.

[Alice]

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also! when your having them done, Its a great idea to get the tinted and also your eyelashes at the same time .

I used to get my lashes and brows tinted, but eventually realised that, as a male, the lash tinting looked far too much like I was wearing mascara!

For someone living en femme full-time, I’d suggest lash tinting as a good idea but not for part-time CDs.

[Alice]

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Anyone got any hints they want to share on using Dermablend?

I used dermablend concealer under other brands of liquid foundation.

I find a makeup primer (I use Shisedo Pre-makeup base) makes applying the concealer far easier. It also seems to make the concealer go on at just the right coverage: heavy enough to cover, but no heavier.

So, step by step, I cleanse, tone, moisturise, apply makeup primer, then apply the dermablend concealer.

I used to apply the concealer with my fingers, but found that it works better by scooping it out onto a hand, then using a makeup sponge to apply it from there.

I’m pretty sure that Dermablend’s colourless setting powder is actually just very fine talc with a trace of preservative, so any powder that contains talc should be fine with it.

I set the dermablend concealer, then apply a liquid foundation using a makeup sponge. If the foundation lifts the concealer, the concealer is too heavy or I’m rubbing instead of dabbing with the sponge!