Checking in, update on hair system
Hello gorgeous and handsome siblings,
I haven’t posted in a while so here’s some random pics, a little humor, but more importantly an update on the hair system that I have been using since late January.
For info, I live in Wisconsin, USA, mtf, 70 yo, a boomer with all the baggage of the era, crossdressed as long as I can remember, and started transitioning at 66. I went fulltime Valerie in mid February of this year and it’s been wonderful.
The first pics are me at some gardens and a town square in Prague, Czech Republic. I spent ten days visiting my daughter who is temporarily assigned there for work. This whole area is like most metropolitan areas … more open minded, etc. I was treated very well everywhere I went, and even in the small rural villages we visited. We visited Dresden which is politically a far right stronghold in Germany, and a Polish town called Wroclaw … again, not only no issues with me being trans, but I was treated with respect. I keep waiting to be accosted for being myself, but so far … nada. It’s probably because I’m older and the genders start to look similar now.
It’s a bit amazing as they love Americans over there. Patton’s 3rd Army liberated the area during WW2 and they still remember.
I had the usual immigration/emigration funny stories. I provide my US federally compliant passport to the border agent at O’Hare. Ugly guy photo, M ticked off. The lady processes the passport in the computer, then the photo is taken. She looks at me. Looks at the passport. Looks at me. Calls a coworker over. She looks at the passport. Looks at me.
“Is this your passport?”
“Yup, that’s me”. Smile.
“Do you have another form of ID, ma’am?”
“Yup, here’s my drivers license.”
Looks at me. Looks at the screen.
And they both say simultaneously …
“Oh! It’s the hair!!!”
I get passed through.
A similar sequence when I left the EU at Frankfurt … the German government woman smiled at me after she figured it out, I think because she took me for a woman initially.
I think the lesson learned here, may be that I apply for a new passport, that says M but has a photo of pretty me versus ugly me.
Onto the hair system. I’m bald and this is how I deal with it. I wrote about the technical side of these systems in my previous posts which are in my profile.
I had the first unit glued on in late January and it was a game changer. I sleep, shower, swim and workout with it on 24/7. I swam in the ocean with it, no problem other than what anyone with long hair must deal with. It enabled me to crack through my internal barrier to being myself, and I went fulltime from then on.
It was great until I had it for about two months. After that, I found that it would tangle easily after I woke up, and take about 40 minutes to untangle. Then tangle again after about 30 minutes. Despite being careful I would get a lot of hair breakage. I thought it was something I’d done. I made sure my water softener was working and installed a charcoal filter on my shower head. I bought detangler products and brushes. It just got worse and I was spending a lot of time on it.
I had enough after 2.5 months and called the salon, which got me an appointment the next day. Their immediate assessment was that this unit was a factory defect. I never got a real root cause, but they assured me that the problem was not caused by me. I have heard since that it’s possible that the unit was over processed (bleached) to make it blonde.
We swapped to my second unit and I have to say that the hair texture is finer and very different. I’ve been wearing it 24/7 for 2.5 months now with no issues. The salon is replacing my first unit at no cost to me. The photos have this second unit I’m talking about.
I’ll close by saying that after five months fulltime, it all seems just … normal. My voice is male but I try to speak softly. I’m sure that I get clocked as soon as I talk. However, no one has said a thing. I’m not confused going to the bathroom with questions about, wait, how am I presenting now? I just go to the room with the icon that’s wearing a dress. After so many years denying myself, I sure love how I am now.