This week’s Fashion Friday is brought to you by Ro!
Levis 510 (super skinny) Jeans ~$80
Lumberjack socks (Walmart) ~$12
Timbaland boots ~$200
Nike SB plaid shirt ~$45
Jean Jacket (Forever 21) ~$40
Maroon Jacket ~$80
I live in Winnipeg, Canada – and it can get pretty cold here, which sucks for everything except for fashion. Layering is a great way for trans guys to appear more masculine, by disguising your chest. It also allows you take layers off and on when needed, which is nice since wearing a chest binder can alter your temperature a lot throughout the day.
From his Facebook, “I’m excited to announce that my book, Second Son: Transitioning Toward My Destiny, Love and Life is now available for pre-order! If you are planning to hear me soon, you’ll also be able to purchase a book from me and have it signed! I can’t wait for where this year goes.”
Ryan Sallans is an amazing guy and such a huge asset to the FTM and trans* community. He has single-handedly shaped the transitional lives of many FTMs in the midwest and elsewhere by advocating, changing policy, creating safe spaces for face-to-face support groups, meeting with doctors and medical students, coaching communities, being on national television sharing his story several times, and being a big brother to any and all transmen who ask him for help.
Zak and Adrian cannot say enough good things about this man. He personally held open an entire clinic late so Zak could make it to his first ever appointment to get on testosterone. He aided Adrian in essentially every step in his transitional process including helping him change his name, inviting him to support group, recommending surgeons for hysterectomies and much more. He’s even contributed to this blog! We have much love for Ryan and hope that you all can experience and enjoy him as much as we have.
Adrian, one of your moderators, with Buck Angel. Adrian attended an event for Washington University’s (St. Louis) Trans* Awareness Week in which Buck Angel was speaking about his life as a transman.
Buck was very kind and cautious with his words during his presentation and was gracious with those of us who stuck around to ask him questions/take pictures/etc.
He also said he’s been to the site! So hello Buck if you’re watching.
Here are some fashion tips for various body types common among transgender men. These tips are culled from askmen.com, What Not to Wear, and GQ in order to help you look your best no matter your body type.
Short
-Vertical stripes add visual length and make you appear taller
-Tucking in button-up shirts hides the fact that they may be too long on you (remember to wear a belt with tucked in shirts)
-Wear fitted pants and jackets to ensure you don’t look like you’re wearing your dad’s clothes
-Avoid cuffing your pants, it shortens the appearance of your legs
Curvy
-Dark colors are slimming, wearing them on bottom can help conceal your hips
-Pleated pants should generally be avoided, but for curvy guys they can help you get a better fit
-Polo shirts are cut in a way which will give you a boxier look and generally won’t hug your hips
-Opt for straight leg or boot cut jeans and avoid skinny or slim cuts (these will only emphasize how wide your hips are in comparison to your legs)
-Add bulk to your upper body to balance out your look by layering or wearing sweaters, strong-shouldered jackets, etc.
-Wearing a lighter shirt on top and a darker color on bottom will emphasize your upper body and make it look larger than your lower half
All-around Small
-When dressing up, stick to narrow lapels on your shirts, skinny ties, and fitted jackets (like we said before, you don’t want to look like you’re wearing your father’s clothes)
-Opt for a small knot for your tie, like a half-windsor
-Wear fitted clothes so you don’t look too scrawny
-If you are frequently mistaken for a kid, invest in accessories that will make you look more adult, for instance a nice watch, a leather belt, or a grown-up looking jacket.
Large Chested
-Layer on top to flatten what’s underneath
-Wear bold patterns to distract from the curve of your chest
-Wear dark shirts
Kaden and Devin talk about their relationship with/views on testosterone.
Hello guys, as you may have read we over here at Art of Transliness are giving away some of our t-shirts, one a week, for an entire month! To win the t-shirt just follow the directions! WEEK 2 CONEST SUBMISSION PROMPT: *The second week is geared more towards the older/more experienced portion of the trans*male community. Make a YOUTUBE video, short article, poem, comic, or photo essay giving advice to your fellow trans* men, either things you wish you would’ve known when you started transitioning or just things you’ve learned on your gender journey. You do not have to be on testosterone or post-op in order to share your knowledge, just have something to say and not be at the beginning of your journey. Say a bit about yourself, where you’re from, what you’re up to in your life, and then dive into the prompt. We really want to give guy’s a chance to share what they’ve learned and give them a voice while helping out those younger/less experienced then them. To submit, post a link to the VIDEO (not your channel) or just submit your response to the prompt in the form of a picture or text post and we will post it asap. Remember, the submission with the most notes wins. The winner can either choose a Trans Pride or a (FAAB)ulous t-shirt as a prize. Deadline for accumulation of notes is 11:59pm, central time zone, June 15th. Good luck! Please pass this around!
A lot of guys have been asking about changes on testosterone, specifically what will happen to them and when. Unfortunately this information is largely unknown because it varies so much from person to person. There is no clear timeline of what to expect every month the way there is for babies (who, while there is a lot of variation, largely grow and change in the same way in the same general time frame). There is no “What to Expect when You’re Transitioning” guidebook, as much as we’d love to be able to write one. The best we can do is cluster the common changes on T into general time categories of “early in the first year”, “middle of the first year”, “end of the first year and beyond”. Even these are only averages, based upon our own personal experiences and youtube videos of others’ transitions. We are not doctors or experts, these are just observations for those of you who really want some kind of answer to “what will happen to me and when”, a largely unanswerable question.
Early in the First Year (0-4 months):
-Increased Appetite (sometimes)
-Increased Sex Drive (quite often/almost always)
-Genital Growth: This varies immensely from person to person but the clitoris usually ends up around 1-3 inches or so. If you want to see examples of this it’s easy to find pictures or videos of nude post-T transguys on xtube (a porn site) or the newly minted transqueersxxx tumblr.
-Vaginal dryness, hot flashes, and other symptoms similar to menopause: This is due to the decrease in estrogen production as your body switches over to being a largely testosterone-driven system, though these symptoms vary in severity and may not happen to everyone).
-Cession of menstrual periods (this can actually take anywhere from 2-6 months or beyond depending on your dose and body, ask your doctor!)
-Breaking or cracking of voice (again, depends, but usually begins around the 3rd or 4th month).
-Changes in body odor (difficult to describe, doesn’t mean you’ll stink but most guys notice that they smell a bit different).
-Increased muscle development. It becomes easier to build muscle.
-Increased sweat production and acne
Middle of First Year (5-10 months):
-Deepening of Voice: The voice generally begins to settle down in months 6-9 and continues to slowly deepen after that. Some transguys say their voices took up to 2 years to fill out and finish changing, but the major changes occur in the first year.
-Facial hair growth (may start before this, but generally only begins to become noticeable around this time)
-Increase in body hair (leg, stomach, chest, and arm hair, generally become thicker and longer but this depends on genetics, some guys never grow chest hair, for example). This may start earlier but, again, usually becomes noticeable around this time frame.
-Redistribution of fat may begin around this time (but it varies immensely from person to person), shoulders may broaden, and other body shape changes may occur. These usually take years to complete but may become noticeable around now depending on your level of exercise, body shape pre-T, genes, etc etc.
End of First Year and Beyond (11 months-5 years):
-Voice settles in
-Facial hair continues to grow
-Body shape continues to change
-Facial shape changes (generally the face becomes more angular and masculine)
-Possible hair loss (depending on genetics)
Notice that we didn’t mention anything about emotional changes, this is because all reports of those are anecdotal and no studies have been done on emotional changes on T. Some guys say they experience a dampening of emotions, difficulty crying, a shorter attention span, that they are easier to anger, that they are calmer, or a decrease in depression and anxiety. This could be due to many factors though, from how they feel about their transition to what they expect to feel like on T (the placebo effect is stronger than you think).
Hopefully that kind of gives you an idea of what happens and when, but obviously this may not apply to you. Plenty of guys report changes and timelines that are completely different than this and that’s normal. You might still have a high-pitched voice after a year, or you might a deeper voice than your dad after 4 months. However these are the averages that you begin to notice if you watch a large amount of youtube transition videos (which, we might add, we suggest you do if you are considering taking testosterone). For more information about testosterone and HRT for FtMs, check out Hudson’s FtM Guide.
Advice on life for the modern trans man
