A hello and a question

[Tobie]

Greetings, I did introduce myself over in the introductions area but wanted to say hi here and add that I'm a young mother during 'daylight' hours, and SO and I have 4 kids between us. The youngest two(2 1/2, and 2 months), while the older two visit every couple of weeks.

My question is about something I've been trying to figure out.

How do you make your features appear more masculine? I know if my hair were really short again(as it was 3 years ago), my features appear very boyish. The problem with that is I have mid-back length hair, love it, and would have a line-up of people to torture me if I dared shave it off.

I have been curious about facial hair, or if there is any costuming way of making realistic facial hair. One friend of mine recommended shaving the peach fuzz off the cheeks because that can be a dead giveaway of being female.

[Cai]

I don't really try to make my features seem more masculine. I worry more about attitude and the way I stand. My mantra (alongside of "I don't care what they think") is "Guys take up space."

From my understanding, shaving is supposed to help. I can't really see any difference, but I like to do it. Facial hair is hard to fake, though.

[ZenFrost]

I agree with Cai, it's mostly attitude. But clothes can certainly help, especially of they're somewhat formal (a suit and tie are pretty masculine, more-so than perhaps jeans and a T are). As for your hair, would a hat help? Maybe you could put all your hair away in a hat and no one would notice. There's a lot of male hats that would work with that. Fake facial hair is tricky and it rarely looks real, but they do have things like http://www.propia.co.jp/shopping/makeup.html if you can find them where you live.

[happyfish]

I know a drag king who has long hair and still manages to look masculine when she needs to. Though I'd have to agree with Cai and Zen that a lot of it is attitude, because I have no idea how she does it.
Shaving the peach fuzz is a good idea, as most/all men don't have it. There's a method of creating fake facial hair using crepe hair (or your own) and spirit gum, but it doesn't stand up to close inspection and it itches. Anything more sophisticated than that would probably take a professional.

[BarbaraTalbot]

I don't really try to make my features seem more masculine. I worry more about attitude and the way I stand. My mantra (alongside of "I don't care what they think") is "Guys take up space."

From my understanding, shaving is supposed to help. I can't really see any difference, but I like to do it. Facial hair is hard to fake, though.


Keep in mind that I just had my wife help me wax one leg today and I veeted the other, and I really thought that was a great day.

In guy mode, shaving my face is a chore and not fun! I do remember taking off some skin with grandpas 'safety' razor when I wanted to emulate him after watching him shave.

grass is always greener eh?

I can just see the gg's on the sidelines rolling their eyes at us both.

Its all about the little things that help us capture a bit of that elusive essence that aways seems just out of reach. :)

Oh on the peach fuzz thing. Pick a line across your cheekbones. shave down from there only, leaving the top. guys don't clean up the part on their upper cheeks where dark hair doesn't grow, on the mistaken belief that shaving causes the dark hair to grow. guys have a little downy hair mixed in with the beard but especially on the apples of the cheeks.

[Tobie]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts on this.

I've tried to find the facial hair that is shown on that website, but I can't seem to find anything like that.

As for my long hair, I've tried to put it back with a cap on, under the cap, etc. I'm actually waiting on my boywig, which I'm hoping will arrive in the next couple of days.

Argh.. was trying to think of my response to everyone, and got sidestracked by a clinging toddler. Sigh, no boy for me today, apparently I'm supposed to be all mommy.