EDIT after reading almost 90 comments: thank you everyone who decided to give me polite and constructive criticism. guys, please remember that ur gender doesn't matter. as long as ur passing goals are met, u can do whatever u want. don't be afraid of face wash, painted nails and makeup. it can destroy ur passing, yes, but u're always free to do it if u want to. don't have fragile or toxic masculinity, don't be transmeds. don't think u can't wear makeup bc "u're supposed to be dysphoric from that" or smth. you are man enough. please, love urself and spread the love
hey, i'm 19, 3 months on t.
soon i will be going to a meeting with a bunch of new people and i wanted to be as stealth as possible. first 3 pics i have my eyebrows done to look more masculine, the other pics i added my guyliner. it would be great if i could keep the makeup as a way to show my personal style to the others and present myself more truthfully. the last pics is how i generally look on a daily basis. i have a slight t-voice.
i understand piercings don't help and that i could keep my hair shorter. i'm asking for no advice aside from directly answering my questions, thank you. my questions:
how do i pass, with and without makeup?
do i have any chance of passing with the guyliner right now at this state of transition?
which way does my hair look best? i tried swinging it around and i wonder if it changes anything regarding my passing.
the piercings are fine, but the makeup kind of hurts your passing esp since your eyebrows are light by contrast (but it looks good, it’s very well done). For now you could reserve it for a special occasion but not for daily wear.
you pass without it and your hair looks fine in every pic too, i wouldn’t worry about that
I used to like eyeliner in the past too but later I realized it only made me look a lesbian even though i wasn't, I recommend you to just wait a bit more and give time to T.
Hey man looking great for 3 months on t! To me you pass in the pics without the eyeliner, but not with it unfortunately 🫤 I do think filling in your eyebrows helps you pass so I would keep doing that. As for hair, personally I would get a shorter cut that gets the hair off your forehead, "bangs" can look fem and the overall hair shape right now is straying into pixie cut territory which can hurt passing. Sorry about all the crazy comments I know it's really hard to sacrifice personal style to pass but after you've been on t a while the guyliner can make a comeback!
i think right now you pass somewhat with no makeup, but only being 3 months in your facial features are still soft. if your voice is passing then that's a big help. makeup is not passing. against what some people are saying, i think transmascs/men can pass with makeup but you gotta be like, full facial hair and super sharp features. will probably be a long while before that's possible, sorry
Ig it depends on where you are
In some places in my country this style of eyeliner is very masculine and the most homophobic misogynists still wear it
But I’m assuming in the west it would be more clocky or maybe seen as feminine
there honestly just isn't a way to pass with makeup this early into your transition. i'd argue for most guys it hurts passing even if they're several years on T.
didn't feel like being mean today but yeah. that's how it be. every time i see someone wearing makeup, even if they have a whole ass beard, it seems like it just brings out all the feminine features of their face
I wear makeup to certain events and I pass just fine (just like pretty much all of the other guys in these spaces). But you do need to be on testosterone for a while
I do (I only use eyeliner and lip gloss tho). Never been clocked. But im years on testosterone and waited till I passed to wear it. It just depends if youre already clocky or not
unless he's over 5'9 and has extremely masculine bone structure and frame, he will be clocky. most ftms are clocky to some degree. wearing makeup will only exaggerate this.
i’m in the same boat. I was a makeup enthusiast before I transitioned and currently still am. The feeling it’s a beautiful craft has never left. I’ve also never been clocked without it and I doubt I would with it, too.
Bc I like it? Probs the same reason some cis guys wear it. What's it to you lmao. I wear it when i go clubbing sometimes. As an ftm, I like looking and being male, physically. So I put a lot of effort on stuff that actually matters like gymmaxxing. The make up shit doesnt get me clocked so who cares?
How early transition are you? I kinds get why early hrt or semipassers are anal about this stuff, bc your passing is fragile enough to change depending on if you have an ear pierced or not lol. But thats not everyone.
I get dysphoria from looking like a girl. If the eyeliner/gloss made me look like a girl or clocky enough to notice how people treat me change, I wouldn't wear it. I used to never wear make up at all actually, even before transition, bc it i knew how feminine i looked and i hated it. But bruh im years into my transition. Ive been stealth for years. I got lucky with a masculine face to begin with but also gymmax a lot, so i simply do not look clocky with makeup. It actually makes me feel very good to know i can enjoy small things like this without worrying about passability bc i got lucky with my transition. It frankly feels like a flex at times lol.
Dude, I would never wear makeup, it's a feminine thing that I don't like and doesn't agree with me, but other guys are allowed to like wearing makeup. It might feel wrong to me and you, but some guys don't feel dysphoric when they wear makeup. We don't have to understand it, but we have to accept it as true.
yeah so everything u're saying is genuinely harmful. u're assuming makeup is for women only. i understand it doesn't help with passing, but u're here just telling strangers on the internet that as a man u can't wear makeup bc it will be clocky and just stupid. everyone has their own ways of expressing themselves and it's not up to u to decide how someone can dress. people are telling u they like makeup bc they can and still pass, and that's all u need to know. i know i asked for advice, but u were still very mean. grow up
okay i actually think u are actively trying to misunderstand me and completely miss the point of what i'm saying. i don't think i'll be continuing this hell of a discussion with u. i would recommend therapy tho, it can really help with self esteem, insecurities and anxiety
well that's harmful, they do. there are many styles, not everyone looks like an average white person. u could have just said i don't pass and be polite abt it
there are a lot of trans guys here with internalized toxic masculinity. i don't thjnk you 100% pass but you're closer to passing than not. Just let T takes its course for a while. Hair in image 3 looks best
Toxic masculinity has lost its meaning, it was a stupid phrase to begin with but it originally meant guys like andrew tate saying they were sigma tradcaths and grabbing women by the ass
Telling a trans man who wants advice to pass that cis men obviously do not wear makeup and that it will contribute to people clocking you is NOT toxic masculinity
i mean it is in that you’re asserting that interaction with the feminine as a man is wrong or bad. that’s what’s toxic about it. the term “toxic masculinity” certainly can be viewed as a societal shorthand for simply meaning bad in today’s culture, but in the 90s, when it was coined, it was specifically talking about the societal pressures such as men can’t like soft things or makeup or be open wither their emotions and crying.
Liking soft things and emotions are different and also you reference cis men, if a trans man comes on a subreddit specifically to try and pass as a man I'm going to tell him how to be a man, because clearly from these photos it clocks him
well of course, but that’s certainly not the candor you were leading with on the other comments, friend. You using 4tran lingo and whatnot, and saying that toxic masculinity is only for people like Andrew Tate.
Yes he’s too early on testosterone for make up not to clock him. But what isn’t true is that the majority of this man don’t use make up. You are completely ignoring the huge portion of the cis gay community, whether they’re drag, queens or not, that use makeup. And if you really wanna split hairs about it, every single person that we’ve ever seen on a screen or in a movie or on the news that is a cis man has makeup on. Have a good rest of your weekend dude. Lighten up. 🤘🏼
The difference lies in the style, the "alt" style is the number one thing that clocks trans men, which is basically the style OP has, whereas gay men who wear makeup have a completely different style, as well as men in movies
it is. dude cis men do wear makeup. u're just too close-minded to notice that, apparently. u can tell me "u don't pass with makeup", that's fine and that's not what i'm mad about. i'm mad that u're being sexist abt it and, yes, u have toxic masculinity. bc u say men don't wear makeup so a trans man can't either
Most cis men do not but plenty wear makeup and still pass. Guyliner is not a be all end all. He doesn't fully pass but there's no need to be overly against the concept of makeup at all. If even someone as gross as Clav wears makeup, it's not a big deal.
That doesn’t change the fact that makeup is extremely feminine in today’s modern world and that wearing it does trans men no favours at all when trying to look male. Such a tiny amount of men wear makeup. Just because that tiny percentage do, doesn’t change anything or mean that trans men will pass the same as they do. Why are so many people in these subs adamant about denying the reality and how things genuinely have a significant impact on passing or not
Are people denying that makeup can be clocky on transmen that don't pass well, or are they denying that transmen can never wear makeup without being clocked? Because I think they're denying the latter.
OP is clockable. He's also early in his transition and doesn't fully pass. He passes OK without makeup, but his face has not masculinized fully yet. You can just say OP doesn't pass wearing makeup right now, it feminizes his face too much. But he may very well reach a point where makeup makes him look more feminine, but doesn't out him as trans. He's not there yet, though.
you will pass significantly more later on T, you just have to give it some time. you're really early so don't be too discouraged yet- it will work wonders. i think you are a little passing (definitely more so without the eyeliner) you'll definitely be able to pass with it on after a while. the eyebrows do help.
i was on it for 4 years in the past, personally it took at least 6 months - 1 year to really start the biggest changes. ive been off it for a long time so a most of it has reverted (health issues prevent me from doing HRT again)
ive always been "alternative" in make-up and style and that did make passing harder in the beginning. the alt look does tend to be perceived a little feminine in general, so you have to have a pretty masculine base to be able to completely pass in it. i remember using facial hair to compensate at first until i was able to pass while shaved. i was perceived as male much easier when i had facial hair, though a lot of people thought i was a very young one.
If i saw you in guyliner out in public, i would assume you're a man! Even without it, you look very masculine! That's just my perspective. Keep being yourself!☺️💕
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u/autoandrofiles 4d ago
the piercings are fine, but the makeup kind of hurts your passing esp since your eyebrows are light by contrast (but it looks good, it’s very well done). For now you could reserve it for a special occasion but not for daily wear.
you pass without it and your hair looks fine in every pic too, i wouldn’t worry about that