A transmans guide to “passing”
I recently had a young friend ask for tips about “passing” before hormones. I thought the list I came up with might be helpful to others so here ya go:
- Buy a chest binder if you want to bind your chest. Absolutely DO NOT bind your chest with anything other than actual chest binders (don’t use ace bandages, plastic wrap, bras that are too small, ect) unsafe binding can hurt and permanently damage your spine and rib cage. I’d check out the website gc2b for the most comfortable and safest chest binders, available in variety of skin tones.
- Another thing you can do, if you’re cool with buying some makeup, is alter your face a bit. Guys usually have thicker, darker eyebrows and their jaw lines are square rather than pointed. If you buy an eyebrow kit and a contour pallet (E.l.f Brand is cheapest) those are alterations you can make in the morning real quick. Add a square line of contour to your lower jaw bone, darken and thicken your brows, and contour your brow bone a bit. There are even makeup tricks to make it look like you have facial hair, though I never tried those.
- Your haircut can also make a big difference. Men’s haircuts are usually styled with square angles. Pull up a google image shirt of celebrity haircuts and experiment with trying to imitate ones you like. Leave your sideburns long and cut around your ears.
- Clothes can really help you feel like a guy. Wear baggy pants as often as you can. Cargo shorts are a great option, because they hang away from your body and mask your groin area. But, if you really like tight pants you could also try packing. Ftm.com has a great selection of packers that are easy to wash and wear. I usually wear one when I wear formal wear, since suits require tighter pants.
- The last step would be altering your voice, but in that area, be careful! Vocal damage can be permanent, so you should never speak in a register that hurts your throat. If your throat hurts at the end of the day, you’ve been speaking too low. Try this: stand up straight, and call “helloooooo” as if you were shouting to someone on the other side of a mountain range. Whatever pitch the “o” of the oooo landed on comfortable is your prime tone. It’s where your voice naturally sits at its clearest, and where it spent most of its time talking up until now. If you want to lower your voice, go a few pitches down. Slowly your voice will stretch to accommodate your new speaking voice.
That’s a lot of information at once but it’s just a lot of little things you can do that might make you feel more comfortable. But take your time! Never do anything you’re not comfortable with! “Passing” is all about you trying to feel like the best you. The choices you make with it should be for your sake alone, not for the sake of those around you.
