Boy to girl

As promised, here's my lists of things that have to do to change from "boy" to "girl", and why it takes at least three hours all up.

First, there's the preparatory things that can be done hours before the actual transformation begins:

*decide on an outfit including wig;
*get out wig cap, clips and pins to match wig, brush, comb and spray;
*get the wig (on foam head) out and put it on the stand, spray and brush all over;
*get the clothing out, hang or lay out on the bed as appropriate;
*get out the underwear, padding, breast forms etc and lay them out on the bed;
*get out the shoes that I'll be wearing when I leave the house, plus heels in their box if I'm going to change shoes after driving. Often, I'll put the heels in the car now or immediately before starting the actual change;
*choose and get out jewellery to match;
*get out makeup, brushes etc and put them on a cloth on the bed ready to take to the bathroom;
*check and trim or shave any body or facial hair that needs doing. This is only a touch-up, as the hair will all have been waxed or epilated if I'm organised;
*get out girl purse and handbag to match outfit. If I don't need to go anywhere in boy mode before I get changed, I'll pack the purse and mostly pack the handbag aside from makeup, keys and phone.

At this point, I can leave it all like this for hours before I start to actually change. Sometimes the above organising will be done through the day between doing other things if I'm going out at night.

Once it's time to actually change, the process is fairly consistently in this order:
*in bedroom, take off boy shoes/boots and socks, shirt and trousers to give the maximum possible time for the clothing pressure marks to go away, remove boy earrings, brush and tie hair off face, put on girl dressing gown. I have 2 separate dressing gowns, a boy one which never comes into contact with makeup or perfume and the girl one that gets perfume and makeup on it all the time;
*in bathroom, wash, tone and moisturise face, neck and decolette;
*in bedroom, apply adhesive bra, checking in mirror to get the 2 pieces symmetrically placed, put on bra, do up clip on adhesive bra then put the breast forms into place. I do the adhesive bra up after putting the normal bra on because reaching around to do the bra up has broken the clips on adhesive bras before;
*apply a quick spray of body spray to belly and back below bra before putting dressing gown back on;
*pick up the cloth with the makeup by the corners in one hand, brush set in the other hand and return to the bathroom;
*lay makeup out on cloth in order of use on one side of bathroom vanity, brushes on the other side;
*get 3 tisues, tuck 2 of them along the cleavage edges of the bra to keep the makeup off, put the other one aside for blotting lipstick;
*do makeup. There'll be a separate post about this, but it currently takes around an hour and 5 to 20 minutes;
*use toilet. Sounds odd to put in this list, but after the next 2 steps, I have to strip to go again;
*take makeup and brushes back to bedroom, finish packing handbag;
*in bedroom, apply talc, go back to bathroom and wash hands (I should take the talc to the bathroom with the makeup but I never thought of it until I was typing this!), put on g-string which holds boy bits tucked into place to give a smooth feminine shape, inner shaper pants to keep padding off skin, outer shaper pants rolled down to crotch. Insert bottom edges of padding into shaper pants, roll shaper pants up over padding, lift bottom edges to flatten padding, move padding and pants as necessary to get in correct position. Once the padding and shaper pants are all in place, put the thigh-to-underbust body shaper on over them, starting by pulling it up the legs with it also rolled down to the crotch. unroll body shaper and hook on removable straps, feed straps up under sides of bra and get them sitting under the bra straps on the top of the shoulders. Lift the legs of the shaper and get all the layers sitting flat;
*Put on tights/pantihose/socks, outer garments, shoes;
*take wig on stand, brush, wig cap, clips, pins etc to bathroom;
*pin hair up using about 10 one touch clips, then clip wig cap on using another 10 clips;
*put wig on, adjust and pin into place, quick brush, put decorative clips into wig, brush again;
*put on earrings, necklace, bracelets, wedding ring;
*apply perfume to wrists;
*check overall look in mirror. Brush wig again if needed.

On Tuesday afternoon this week, the actual change took about two and a half hours, including the makeup taking one hour and five minutes. The organising stuff took at least half an hour.

Fun, fun, fun on facebook

A friend who I've known for over thirty years recently realised who I am and sent me a friend request on facebook. It's funny to realise that I started cross-dressing a few years before I met her, but it wasn't until just a few weeks ago that she found out. She was shocked at first but is quite accepting. I'm genuinely surprised just how happy that has made me.

After all this time of wondering if my wife's family have any idea who I am, I've finally had a hint on facebook that some of them actually know and just won't say anything. :)

Importing stuff to facebook

Well, I've finally decided to import my blog into my Facebook notes. If you're reading this on facebook as a single note, you can click on the Alice's Notes link above the note, next to my photo, to see all of my notes including all the imported blog posts. If you click on the View original post link below the note, it'll take you to the original blog post on blogger. Sadly, it doesn't seem to be possible to also transfer comments left on blogger in response to posts there across to Facebook, so there may end up being 2 separate sets of comments on the same post.

I also discovered that it's very easy to link my photos on flickr to Facebook, so now new image uploads to flickr will also show up on my wall and my friends' home pages.

For anyone wondering, my new profile photo on both blogger and facebook was taken after I got home from dinner with friends on Tuesday night. It's one of those rare occasions where I look at a photo and think that it has turned out just right. :)

I've had several people respond to my second last post about all the things that I do going from "girl to boy", asking for more similar stuff. I promise that I'll soon be doing a similar "boy to girl" list, a "grooming" list and perhaps a post about "why it takes me so long to do makeup". :)

Dinner with the family

In my second last post, I mentioned that I was going out for dinner with my wife's family, and that I was wondering what would happen after one of my wife's cousins saw me on Saturday.

Well, the answer was a big fat nothing!

The guy who saw me was visiting from Sydney, and went home before the dinner because of other commitments. His parents (who he probably stayed with) and brother were all there, and none of them even looked at me sideways let alone saying anything.

Sheesh! it could be xmas before I see him again! I still don't know if he recognised me, but if he did, it doesn't look like he told any of his family.

Why does it take so long to change from girl to boy?

Someone asked me recently on a forum why it takes me over an hour to change from "girl" back to "boy". Since I figured that other people might be interested, here is a summary. I don't always do everything in exactly this order, but this is roughly it:

* unpack and put away handbag;
* put away makeup, etc;
* remove and put away jewellery;
* remove shoes, put back in box & put box away in cupboard unless wet, in which case leave to air. If I've worn flats to drive and heels while out, put away or air both;
* remove wig, put it on foam head, brush then put away;
* remove outer clothes and socks/tights/pantihose. Sort and put out to wash or hang for next time. I use a silk or satin scarf over my head to avoid getting makeup on the top or dress if it comes off over my head;
* remove bra, breast forms, adhesive bra, body shaper, outer shaper pants (holds padding in place), padding, inner shaper pants (keeps padding off skin) and g-string;
* hang bra, shapers and padding to air or put out to wash;
* hand wash breast forms, adhesive bra and g-string. Towel dry non-adhesive sides of forms and bra, put in storage trays to air dry. Hang g-string on shower screen to drip;
* remove wig cap and about 20 one-touch clips;
* remove makeup, which extends all the way to the top edge of the bra;
* shower. This includes washing my face twice with different cleansers to make sure all visible signs of makeup are gone, washing all over thoroughly to remove perfume and washing hair;
* tone, apply eyecream and moisturiser;
* towel dry g-string and hang to air dry;
* put on "boy" clothes;
* put "boy" earrings in;
* brush and tie up hair;
* transfer almost everything from my girl purse to my boy wallet.

Yes, that's at least an hour.

Facebook friend invites - episode 3, plus a day out shopping

Yesterday, for no obvious reason, I decided to send a few more friend invites on Facebook. I haven't sent a 2nd invite to anybody who ignored the first one, I've just sent a few more to various people who know me as a boy.

That included my father-in-law's sister, who, like her brother, accepted the invite soon after I sent it, without comment.

It also included my sister-in-law's husband, who popped up a chat with my wife asking "Who is Alice?" while she was in the middle of preparing dinner. I think that she responded with something along the lines of "Look at her profile and you should be able to work it out. I've got to go back to preparing dinner." It's over a day since then, and nothing more has been said to my wife or to me.

I decided yesterday that I wanted to do some shopping today. I'd broken the clip on my last adhesive bra (you can see that I use them for on wikipedia), and one place has them at 2 for $8, so I went there and bought 4. That was in the Hunter Street Mall, and getting there without paying for parking involved hiking from the top of Newcommen Street down to the mall and back. For those who don't know the area, it's a decent sized hill.

After that, I headed to Westfield Kotara to look for coloured tights, particularly purple ones to go with a body suit that I particularly like. One idea is to layer black lace tights over purple. I bought some patterned purple tights at Target, and while I was there I almost bumped into one of my wife's cousins, who only knows me as a male. He looked at me, then did a double take but didn't say anything. I turned away as calmly as I could manage and simply headed to the checkouts without looking back.

After browsing several other stores and buying a couple of things at DJs, I headed up to Charlestown Square. I hit the jackpot on the tights at Sussan. They not only had purple tights that are an almost perfect match to the body suit, but they also had black lace floral pattern ones like the one pair I've had for a couple of years and couldn't more of. They were on sale at $5 off each, too. I'm considering going back and buying some more while they're still on special!

I realised something sort of funny a while ago, and today reinforced it for me. Even if people read me as a crossdresser, they never confront me about it. It's actually easier to go out shopping as a woman and have few people even look twice than to go into "women's" shops and the "women's" department of shops as a man and have lots of people looking, whispering, etc!

There's a family get-together coming up for my wife's family. I'll be interested to see what is said, if anything.

Random bits 'n' bobs

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. It has been far too long since I last blogged and lots of things have happened that I should have written about. :)

Sadly, my dear friend Pip, who I mentioned in my last post, has passed away. Even though it was expected, it's still taking a while to really get over.

My nephew, who I mentioned in my 2nd last post, still doesn't seem to have worked it out. Last weekend, I forgot that he doesn't know and when I was visiting my brother's place there was a discussion about who was taller. Someone said that my nephew is yet to have his main growth spurt. I responded with "That's okay, I've got 4" heels." Everybody laughed, but he responded with a comment that indicated that he thought that I was joking.

In a surprise move, one of my friends sent me a friend request on Facebook. I'm yet to find out what led her to realise who I am, but it was a real surprise because I sent her a request months ago and she ignored it.

I've finally made the decision to abandon MySpace entirely. I deleted my profile yesterday, so old links to my blog of MySpace won't work any more. That's okay, though, because I copied them all here first.

My neighbour, who I blogged about having outed myself to, seems to be more accepting than before. We've chatted across the fence about my crossdressing, and she tells me that she's seen me a few times and thinks that I look better as a brunette. :)