My partner offered to do my makeup today. I was excited both because she’s been iffy on the whole transition thing and because she’s very good at doing her own makeup and I was excited to get some instruction.
I’ve always thought I look young for my age and fairly attractive (if you’re into mountain men) so I was cautiously optimistic about the results. But when she was done I looked in the mirror and my first thought was: shit, I hope Napoleon comes through that door and puts me out of my misery. I looked like an old french duke or a sad theatre queen in a Christmas pantomime.
Without the makeup I looked around 5 years younger than my age, but with it I looked easily 25 years older. My eyelids especially looked like poorly tanned leather. I know estrogen is amazing for your skin, but Jesus Christ does it have some heavy fucking lifting to do.
That’s really helpful, thanks. Weirdly I am not worried about voice training. I have remarkably malleable vocal folds.
Edit: don’t get me wrong. My voice is a huge source of dysphoria, I just think I won’t have much difficulty(after this damn throat infection subsides). If you’re having difficulty, you could just try impersonating someone who’s voice you like. It’s a lot easier to mimic someone else than make deliberate and distinct changes to your own voice.