Susan's Favorite Photos (of Susan!)

These pictures are from my one-week stay in Hilton Head, South Carolina. I stayed at my weekly timeshare in both 1994 and 1996. I spent the whole week as Susan King. I did not bring any male clothes.

It was my 1996 vacation that I enjoyed the most. The main reason was that I joined the Internet in 1995 followed by joining a "crossdressing" message board. I found a group living in Hilton Head and began to communicate with them.

I left Atlanta traveling to Orlando on Thursday, May 23, 1996. I stopped by to visit my parents for a few days. My mother wanted to take me shopping to buy a few items for my vacation. On Friday, my mother took me to a local department store and we spent a couple of hours shopping for a few female summer outfits. It was so much fun and something I always wanted to do.

I left for Hilton Head, South Carolina, on Saturday May 25, 1996. On my way, I stopped at a nail salon and had a set of acrylic nails put on. It was the first time I had a set of nails. At first I felt apprehensive and the tech had to tell me to relax my hands. But she did such a great job and I enjoyed those nails all week.

Over the week, I met with a few other "crossdressers" who lived on the island. We had a great time shopping, having meals together and touring the island and the neighboring city of Savannah.

These pictures are from the first full day of my trip. One of the friends I met took a few picture of me. I loved the casual outfit. I bought a white hair band to hold my hair back and away from my face.
When I look at this picture, I find it interesting that I am wearing stockings during the warm Hilton Head weather.

I will always have fond memories of this vacation. I knew, after that trip that I wanted to transition.
Now I am finally transitioning. But I needed those past 20 years to build my business and raise my children
.
I would like to thank Stana for making some of those past 20 years easier by living through her experiences discussed in this blog.

Calling all girls! My open invitation to post your favorite photo along with the story behind it and the reason it is your favorite photo still stands, so don't be shy, send me your fave foto. ― Stana

Wearing Badgley Mischka.

Singer Serban Copot femulating on Romanian television's Te Cunosc de Undeva.

Femulating Over There

The New Girlfriend DVD is now available with English sub-titles from Netflix. This 2014 French film tells the story of a closeted crossdresser, who explores his female persona more fully after his wife dies.

I watched the film Tuesday night and there were a lot of "been there, done that" moments, so it felt authentic from my perspective.

The DVD includes some extras: trailer, deleted scenes, and a short documentary, Romain Duris: "Portrait of an Actress," which goes behind the scenes concentrating on the actor (Romain Duris) who portrays the transwoman in the film.

I thought it was interesting that Mr. Duris admitted that his sister would constantly dress him up when he was 8-years-old. "Every time we went to dinner with friends, she'd dress me up."

By the way, the film was educational, too. I learned a simple (and logical) tip for applying mascara: hold the mascara wand in your left hand when you do your left eye and switch to your right hand when you do your right eye.

Aunty Marlena e-mailed me about The Switch Drag Race, a Chilean reality/talent show. It is basically Chile's version of RuPaul's Drag Race, so it s more drag than femulation.

I tried to view the videos that are available on the show's website, but I was informed, "No videos for you." YouTube was more accommodating.

Bye & Rønning is a Norwegian comedy team, who present as the opposite gender in some of their comedy bits. Reader Jan alerted me to one such bit titled "Techno Artist Tine" that is on YouTube. After viewing it, I discovered another titled "Sweet Junior High" (see the "Femulator" image below).

My Norwegian is not very good, so I dunno how amusing Bye & Rønning really are, but their femulations are very good.

Wearing Brahmin.

Bye & Rønning femulating on Norwegian television.

Happy Birthday, Donna Reed

What young femulator of a certain age didn't want to be Donna Reed when they grew up?

11 Million

Femulate just passed another milestone: 11,000,000 hits according to the hit counter!
On average, 5,100 visitors viewed the blog each day during the past month. By far, the most popular of the blog's 3,570 posts  is "feminine skirts and dresses for men" with nearly 300,000 views and over 200 comments!

The USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia, Russia, India, France, Spain and Netherlands, in that order, are the top ten countries where this blog's readers live. Femulate must be giving Google Translate a workout!

The success of this blog still amazes me as its 9th anniversary approaches. I guess I must be doing something write.

In the Log

In addition to the six trans hams who left comments to Monday's ham radio post, I also received emails from three trans hams in response to the post.

What impressed me was the willingness of the commenters to include their call signs in their comments. The times must be changing because I don't think many transwoman would  go public with their call signs a few years ago.

By the way, my call sign was in Morse Code at the end of that post. I used Morse Code to fool the robots trolling the Internet, but I guess I could have used WA-one-LOU or somesuch to accomplish the same thing.

Wearing Hayden & More.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and Grayson Perry, CBE

DIY Breast Forms

Hello Stana,

Thanks for all your time and effort producing your blog. If I may, I would like to make a critical observation on something you wrote recently that I think will benefit readers and offer all your readers some advice that could be very useful.

Recently, you mentioned making a set of boobs with the assistance of birdseed! Honestly, this approach was acceptable many, many years ago when there was no realistic alternative – but nowadays, there are so many realistic breast forms available, it is a minefield knowing which gorgeous accessory to choose and where to spend our money.

Equally, some breast forms are so expensive that for some of us, they are out of our budget or the expenditure cannot be justified. Therefore, anyone would be forgiven for taking your advice and exploring the birdseed option.

I would like to suggest an alternative that will consign the birdseed option to history (where it belongs – please do not feel offended!) and be a viable choice for many transgirls - balloons.

I am sure many of us have tried party balloons before, but their downside is that they puncture easily and are mostly on the small size.

There is available a large balloon that is used to send meteorological equipment into the stratosphere. These meteorological balloons are by nature of the task for which they are designed, manufactured to exacting standards from materials that are tough, resistant and durable. They can be inflated with air to enormous size – a property that doesn’t interest us as we intend to fill them with water – but it demonstrates how capable they are. They come in various uninflated sizes and what you need to decide is which one to choose, rather like which size of cup do you need.

What you are trying to achieve is as follows:

• Fill the balloon with water so that it stays floppy and does not start to become round in shape.
• Tie a simple loose knot and DO NOT cut the end off. A knot is safer than string, which may cut the balloon.
• Slip into your bra and check the required shape and fullness.
• If you need more/less ‘bust’ remove, undo the knot and add/remove water.
• Repeat this process until you are happy with the result.
• Do the same for your other boob, but in order to create a matching pair, weigh your first one and then accurately measure out an equal amount of water for the second one. This is best done in a jug, but remember to allow for the weight of the jug. Use a funnel to make pouring easier.
• When you are finally happy with the cup size, make sure you expel all air (to avoid watery sounds when you move) before tying the final knot which needs to be secure. Still do not cut the end off the balloon. You may wish to make alterations later. Also, it is possible to devise various methods to secure the balloon end and anchor the "balloobs" in your bra to stop them falling out.
• I would suggest going for the natural color that is almost like a skin tone, otherwise white would do.
• Before wearing, I suggest warming balloobs in the washbasin, but if you don’t they soon reach body temperature.
• A search on the Internet for meteorological balloons will bring up many sites. Prices can be way over $150 (£100), but you should be able to find a suitable balloon for $15-$20 (£10-£15). The only considerations really are color and more importantly, uninflated size.
• They may contain latex and if you have an allergy. then consider making a pocket in your bra to keep them away from your skin.
• The balloons are manufactured to be highly durable and tough so you should be able to lie on them without fear of bursting, but do watch out for any protruding under wires from your bra.
• I am still on my first pair of balloobs that I made almost 20 years ago. They can lose a bit of water in time and it is a good idea to wash them after wearing in warm soapy water to keep the hygiene level up.
• Finally, I can add that if you have only experienced birdseed or socks for a breast shape, your balloobs will feel quite amazing and worth the time and effort.

Regards and Best Wishes,

Catherine

(If you are interested in birdseed breast forms, the recipe appears at the end of this post. – Stana)

Wearing BCBGMAXAZRIA.

Drag Ball in the UK, circa 1970.

CQ

It snowed here Saturday. About 4 to 5 inches, but at one point , the forecast was as high as 12 inches. I do not travel in snow (or potential snow) if I can avoid it, so I did not drive to the Boston area to attend First Event.

One of my regular correspondents, Alison, WA1YKL, did attend. She is a ham radio operator like me. She wore a badge displaying her call sign while attending First Event to see if any other ham radio operators in attendance would take notice and make a connection with her.

Her strategy worked. Another ham noticed the badge and they had an “eyeball QSO” (translation: meeting another ham in person rather than via the radio). Alison also ran into another trans ham who she knew previously from Tri Ess.

I have been attending ham radio conventions and meetings as a woman since 2010 and I always wear a badge displaying my call sign, as do most of the hams attending such events. I blend in as a middle-aged female ham and other trans hams who no know better, don’t pay me much mind.

But hams who read this blog and attend the same ham events as I attend have made an effort to find me at those events for an eyeball QSO. In that scenario, I have had eyeball QSOs with about 20 other trans hams including a couple who attended as women.

And over the years, I have had encounters with perhaps another 20 trans hams. Two were local hams who I had known for years — we were in the same ham radio club — then one day, they each showed up en femme at my support group’s meeting!

So, I am curious: how many trans hams are there? If you are a trans ham radio operator, just leave a comment saying so (with or without your call sign) or do the same with an e-mail.

-.. .  .-- .- .---- .-.. --- ..-

Wearing Veronica Beard.

Alex Lutz and Bruno Sanches in French television's Catherine et Liliane.

Weekdays and weeknights, too!

Bendeac Anuta femulates Amy Winehouse on Romanian television's Te cunosc de undeva!

Getting Fabulous

Ginger Burr at Total Image Consultants publishes Nurturing Beauty Fashion Secrets Newsletter, a weekly missive that contains useful articles and tips on how to present a more fabulous you. For example, this week's lead article is "10 Ways to Mix Prints with Beauty, Style & Grace."

I have been a subscriber like forever and I think I am more fashionably fabulous today than before I began subscribing, so I have Ginger to thank for that.

If you don't already subscribe to Ginger's newsletter, fill out the subscription form at the bottom of the Total Image Consultants home page and you will receive Ginger's free e-book as well as a newsletter subscription!

If you already subscribe, be sure to let Ginger know whether you prefer her newsletter's current weekly schedule or her proposed biweekly schedule. (I need all the help I can get, so I voted to stick with the weekly schedule, but your mileage may vary, so vote accordingly.)

Wearing Suno.

Libor Landa (right), professional femulator

in the Dress

Actor Billy Kennedy portraying The Boy in the Dress
in a BBC made-for-television movie.

The Boy in the Dress

The Boy in the Dress is a children's book written by David Walliams, a British comedian best known around here for his femulations on television's Little Britain. Published in 2008, The Boy in the Dress presents the story of a crossdressing youth in a very positive light.

I was aware of the book, but did not pay much attention to it until recently, when I came across Internet images of young boys and their teachers going to school en femme to celebrate World Book Day. On that day, students and teachers attend school dressed as characters from a book.

Evidently, Dennis, the boy in The Boy in the Dress, was a very popular costume choice this past World Book Day, at least in the UK. I did not notice any Dennis costumes in the USA, but they might have slipped under my radar.

The Gurl in the Dress

I post images on Pinterest and I just created a Pinterest board titled "Stana Does Halloween." The board contains photos of all my Halloween femulations going back to 1976! Some of the photos have never been published anywhere before, so they are quite collectible, i.e., they have been collecting a lot of dust.

Enjoy!

Wearing Brahmin.

She wears the pants in this relationship.

Hair – Get Real!

By Amy

Looking back at my high school years, like most, I had long hair. It had a single stubborn wave from front to back, with a little curl in the nape area. It was very thick and healthy, but it did pretty much what it wanted to do!

After college, it went very short and corporate. Short was easy and surviving in business was more of a priority than maintaining any vanity. Besides, as I learned about good quality wigs, the transition was an easy one. Now I am quite a bit older and can do pretty much what I want with my hair. So my first visit to a salon explaining that I wanted to grow it into a feminine cut went much better than expected. Who knew? My stylist even suggested some extensions to get me where I wanted to go. I did try them, although that will be another story.

I expected my old wave to return, with the curls in back – and they did; maybe worse than I remembered them. So my stylist recommended I try a keratin straightener. This was totally new to me, but I was all in. I really had no idea how things would turn out but I started with these treatments with every trim about every two months as my hair grew. This gave me a manageable way to grow my hair out and allowed me to comb it boy-style to boot without the work of fighting my wave. What was truly amazing was the new texture of my hair. It became as soft and smooth as any young woman’s – really!

When the length was long enough for a cute pixie, a bit of gray (which few women would stand for), was showing and obvious. Of course my stylist pleaded with me over a few visits to color it and do highlights. This really scared me. I had seen men color their hair, and I always noticed the flat brown look. I sensed I would be no different, but I gave her the go ahead.

The result was awesome! I have now been coloring it with highlights for nearly two years, with no negative comments. The combination of keratin and color makes for wonderful feeling hair that styles beautifully! My hair now moves and shines. Although it is long, I can still comb it for a longish boy mode, but mostly it just looks great. I walked into a new salon last week for a quick blow out and style before meeting a friend, and I was dressed androgynously; jeans and button shirt. The girl who styled me said the minute I walked in she liked my hair and thought I must be transitioning. We had a great talk!

I will let your stylist explain all the details and procedure of straightening and color. But you can look forward to a real game-changer in how your hair looks, feels and how it can be styled. Give this a try!

Wearing Jason Wu (skirt), Narciso Rodriguez (jacket), Rag & Bone (top) and Maiyet (shoes).

Timur Rodriguez femulating on Russian television's Your Face Sounds Familiar in 2013.

Girls on YouTube

Sunday some friends and relatives stopped by for dinner (deep fried turkey with all the fixings) and to watch the NFL playoff games.

After the company left and we cleaned up, I collapsed on the couch and surfed the channels looking for something entertaining and/or trans-related. I ended up watching Boat Trip figuring it had some femulating potential. There was some drag in the film, but nothing to write home about.

With my laptop lap, I began surfing the Internet looking for any womanless pageants and male-to-female transformations that I have not seen.

There was one pageant and one transformation that were worth noting (this pageant and this transformation), but the highlight of my late night surfing was this video of a tween-aged boy being transformed into a tween-aged girl at the hands of his sister. The boy's enthusiasm is addictive and his reaction to his transformation is priceless.

I don't have a clue if he is trans. He has a couple of other transformation videos online and at the conclusion of this one, he thinks he looks pretty and "wants to stay like this."

So, you go, girl!

Wearing Dion Lee (dress), Alice & Olivia (coat) and Rachel Zoe (shoes).

Boys will be girls, girls will be boys.