Duality 12-31-2010

Hello again blogosphere.  Recently I have not been posting very often.  This is mainly due to the duality that is my life.  I mentioned a while back in another entry that being as I like to do both male and female things, there are often times when my male side can more easily complete activities.

For example I am currently building my wife and myself a cherry wood bedroom set.  I could work in my shop as a woman, as my wife does when she helps me out, but it is so much easier to do those activities without having to worry about my hair/wig getting full of sawdust or worse tangled in my tablesaw, or to constantly having to readjust my bra straps because yet again they fell off my shoulders.

As a sided note, isn't it difficult to have a bra stay in the correct position when you don't actually have boobs?  Well I suppose you would only know that if you were a woman without much chest, or be like me, a man who likes to wear women's clothes.  Hmm... interesting.

So being as I have been busily working on my nightstands, at the end of the day, I have generally been flopping on the couch, exhausted.  I think about my blog, and then veg out in front of the TV.  So if you have been curious, that is what is going on with me.

Generally this is the time of the year when I like to build things.  During the winter, my shop/garage. is often icy cold, but it is better than the summer when it is often boiling hot.  I'd rather try to put on more clothes to stay warm then work in my shop buck naked and still having sweat roll down from every single pore I possess.

Oh yea, Happy New Year!  Woo-Hoo, made it through another one!  Yea!  On to the next!

Makeup

When I do my makeup I look absolutely nothing like the woman in the picture above. (Edit - actually it is my picture, I have gone back and changed my posts to only include my own pictures, or pictures which I have permission to use them, just FYI.)  Though at times in my life that is what I thought it should look like when you apply mkeup.  I'm not really sure why I thought that.  I suppose it is what crossdressers often think about when they try to emulate women.  They often do not try and look like women really do, they end up looking like a massive exaggeration of what a women looks like.  This often just ends up making crossdressers look like skanks instead of actual women.


When I do my makeup I try to make it look as natural as possible.  I don't like the look of extra thick foundation, garish lipstick, overdone eyes, and cherry red cheeks.  Part of my goal in the clothes I choose to wear and the way I choose to do my makeup is to blend in.  I don't want to stick out anymore than I already do.  I'm a guy in a dress, I don't need to give people other reasons to stare at me.

So here is my routine:
1 - I apply a light foundation.  The lighter it is the better it looks.  Most guys want the foundation to help cover things up, like a beard maybe?  The best way I have found to hide my beard is a really close shave.  I tend to shave regularly, then shave against the grain, then I touch things up with an electric shaver.
2 - I use a very light dusting of powder, just to set the foundation.  The lighter you do steps 1 and 2, the less your wrinkles will show up!
3 - I put on a very light, very light, extremely light dusting of blush on my cheeks.
4 - I use a light colored eye foundation just on my lids.
5 - If I am going out during the day on my eyes I use a four color combo on my upper eyelids.  Clinique just came out with a new shadow campact that shows you where to put each color.
6 - If I am going out at night I will use a light line of eyeliner, normally on just y upper lids, but occasionally the lower one also,
7 - Now I will put mascara on my upper lashes, and normally my lowers ones, but not always.
8 - Lastly I like to use clinique lipstick.

My last piece of advice within this entry is to say, practice, practice, practice!  Oh, I almost forgot, at the end of the day, I like to use a couple of makeup removers, also from Clinique.

Enjoy!  What is your routine?  Do you have one yet?  Have you ever had your makeup done at a counter?

Outfit for 12/20/2010

Shoes - A.N.A - Forget

Skirt - Guess

Blouse - I removed the tag but I think it is Liz Claiborne

Necklace - I forget

Wow I really don't remember where I got most of this outfit from, but I certainly remember the skirt.  I know for darn sure that I got the skirt from guess.  It is possibly my favorite skirt out of all that I have.  It is might favorite because of the cut of the skirt.

I love how it cuts in right above my knees.  The cut of the skirt itself helps give the illusion of curves.  I am pretty sure that I am wearing small padded hips with this skirt, but it is mostly the cut of the skirt itself that really helps accentuate the hips.  I own possibly one other skirt that makes it look as though I actually have hips and that would be a stretchy tight black skirt that has a very similar cut where it squeezes in right above my knees.But this skirt has that cute little flair right at my knees that adds a dimension of curves.

Nails

If you have never gone to a nail shop and had your nails done, you are really missing out.  It took me until about a year and a half ago to work up the courage and go get a pedicure and manicure.  But I will tell you that once I did it, I was hooked.  I generally now like to go get my nails, at least my toe nails, done at least once a month.  I determined, once I had actually gotten them done once, that I was no longer going to take care of my own toe nails.

One of the things that I wanted to make sure that any guys out there understand is that most stores are out to make money.  And you have that money to give them.  Don't worry about what others are going to think of you, just get dressed up as a normal girl, its best to wear shorts, wear a pair of flip flop sandles, find a nail shop, walk in and tell them that you want a pedicure.

Trust me, you will love the experience.  I always do.  That will be a lifelong affair for me.

The one thing I ask, is don't be a freak-a-do.  I once heard of a guy that would dress as a lady and go get a manicure with a skirt on, but would not wear underwear.  Come on now people.  Don't be going out there and giving all of us a bad name by being a freak-a-do!

Outfit for 12/10/2010

Blouse - Mossimo - Target

Shorts - Mossimo - Target

Black Under Shorts - Maidenform

Shoes - Converse - Name Brand Shoes

These shorts that I am wearing I originally purchased just for me to wear around the house because I thought that they were too short.  And I thought that they were too tight to be able for me to hide Mr. Happy.  I haven't talked about Mr. Happy yet and the dressing concerns that are brought about by wearing women's clothes and having Mr. Happy.  I hope you know what I am talking about in referencing Mr. Happy, if not, then what is something that guys have that women don't?

Okay, so now that we are hopefully clear about the topic, we can discuss a little how I handle him in terms of clothes.  First off, I generally don't ever tuck.  Tucking gives a great look and yet it is often too uncomfortable to have him tucked for an entire day of walking and sitting and living.  The main thing I do with him, is nothing.  I really just like to wear clothes that help me to hide him.  For example the shirt I have on above hangs a little low and works very well to hide the bulge in my shorts.  That is my very favorite thing to do with him.  Leave him alone and wear a top that is long enough to cover him.  I don't like to have him on display as I do not think it is a very feminine look.

The other thing I am doing in the picture above is to wear a pair of under shorts that are tighter than normal and they help to compress things down.  Also they are a little longer than those very short shorts and prevents it from looking as though I am wearing a pair of daisy dukes!

I really like the outfit above and was very comfortable for a day walking around a museum and hanging out on a warm summer day.

Shaving

I have tried many different things to remove my body hair but by far the easiest, the quickest, the most reliable is the old fashioned method of shaving.  Many people hate shaving but there are also many benefits of it when compared to the other options available.  Like waxing for example.  Waxing has great results but it is so painful.  I know, I know, it gets less painful the more that you do it, but waxing my chest is so painful that it brings tears to my eyes.  It hurts so bad that I just can't keep up with it.  I also hate that it is not perfect.  I expect that if I am going to go through that much pain to get rid of my hair, I want it to be perfect.  I want the results to be ultra smooth, soft, silky, skin.  But alas when I wax it pulls out most of the hair, but breaks off many others and the very next day I have stubble, especially on my chest.  So due to the imperfect results, I choose to wax only occasionally.

Next would be depilatories.  I have tried many of these different products but the time between removing the hair and burning my skin seems to be about a nanosecond apart.  I've tried using them, but generally I do not like the results.

So shaving is my go to choice.  Initially I would only shave about once a month, whenever I decided to dress as a woman.  This created many problems for me.  The number one problem is that my legs and my armpits were so sensitive that shaving irritated my skin almost as much as depilatories.  It also would take me about one to two hours to shave my entire body, which took way too long.

The trick to shaving is to keep up with it.  If you are going to want your hair to be gone, you need to commit to it.  I now shave something just about every single day.  I try to shave each of my body parts about twice per week.  A few years ago I would have never thought about shaving my armpits more than once a month, but now I shave them about two to three times per week and it is probably the only way I would have it.  Because I shave all of my body parts so frequently, my skin has become much more accustomed to it and generally is not irritated at all.  The other great thing about shaving so often is that I am very quick and good at it.  I can now shave everything by myself with very good results, and very few nicks.

I suppose that I am a lucky crossdresser in that I do not need to shave my back.  Woo-hoo, yeah for the little things.

image courtesy of http://www.girlznight.co.uk/magazine/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/shaving-legs1.jpg

Outfit for 12/6/10

Blouse - Liz Claibourne

Skirt - Mossimo - Target

Shoes - Nine West

I was thinking the other day about this blog and my purpose for writing it.  I realized that my goal in doing this is to try and help other crossdressers to see that they do not have to dress like trashy women.  Not that all crossdressers do, but many do dress that way.  And then they wonder why people stare at them when they go out in public, or they wonder why they feel uncomfortable going out in public dressed in women's clothes.

What I would really like for other men to see is that you can dress as a normal woman, and when you do dress as a normal woman, you will be accepted as a woman.  When you go out dressed as a trashy woman, then men will stare at you, because they are checking you out, and then get pissed because generally they will eventually always be able to tell that you are a man, and women will stare at you and be pissed because you are representing them poorly.  It's fine for a real woman to dress trashy, because there are trashy women.  They do exist and for some reason that seems to be okay.  Guys often like looking at them, because trashy women often show way too much cleavage, and guys like boobs.  Girls will still often look down upon trashy women because of how they represent their own gender.

The thing is that many crossdressers have a goal of passing, but they do not dress appropriately for the situation.  The outfit I am wearing in the picture is a good outfit for going out to dinner.  It is not the best outfit for going to the beach, or for mowing the lawn.  You really need to know where to wear the clothes you want to wear.  There is a time and place for many clothing items.  Many of the clothes I own I will never wear outside.  Besides the fact that some things I like are not appropriate for my almost 40 year old age, they are just not right to wear out in public, if you do not want people staring at you.

Think about what you wear, and wear things appropriately.  That is one of my main goals in sharing my life with you all.  Hopefully I can help educate crossdresser and straight people alike.

Shoes

I once read that the shoes a crossdresser owns would make a street walker blush.  I have also read about how crossdressers will wear shoes that are completely inappropriate for the situation.  I must confess that I have been guilty of the later, but not so much the former.  My shoe collection is about normal for a woman.  Well for a woman that likes to wear heels, as many of my shoes have heels.

The highest pair of heels that I have is a two and half inch, or maybe a 3 inch pair of heels.  They are very pretty but i don't wear them out of the house.  The main reason I don't wear them anywhere is because they are too big for me to walk comfortably in.  And that is one of my most important things, to be comfortable.  I will wear heels, and most of my heels are actually comfortable to wear.  Unless of course I am going to be in them for more than about 8 hours or I will be walking a lot.  But my tallest heels, I can only wear them for a little bit, like about an hour.  After that my feet just can't take it.

The most comfortable heels I own are 2 inch heels.  In a two inch heel, I can wear them for just about as long as I would like to wear them.  Now would two inch heels make a street walker blush, I don't think so!

Ok, but have a worn inappropriate shoes for the situation?  Maybe, well probably.  I have probably done that on more than one occasion.  I do it less and less often though, due to wanting to blend in with the average woman.  I will say though that it is hard to nor wear heels just about everywhere.  If I am going to a museum, or if I am going to be walking around a lot, then I will wear flats, or sneakers even.  But if not, then I will probably wear a heel.  I just love the way my legs look when I am in a heel.

To other crossdressers out there, I would have to say think about the shoes you are wearing, will they make you stick out of the crowd and are they really appropriate for the situation?