| Hair Do's and don'ts for maintaining your mane |
| I would like to start off by saying, the way you wear your hair is just another way of expressing who you are... not just "what" you are. I will admit here that I have gone through some pretty bad... no, no let me rephrase that HORRENDOUS hair styles, on the path to finding the right one. Keeping this in mind, never forget to stay true to yourself and not guage your appearance totally on what other people think. (This of course spills over into all other areas of life). With that said... let's get to the 'dirt'. Generally, males keep their hair shorter cropped and neatly trimmed. This is a narrow generalization however, as there are plenty of men with long hair, less 'groomed' hair, choppy hair, dishevelled hair, and everything in between. As a trans guy however, I tend to keep my hair in the shorter more upkempt category. Probably one of the most distinct differences between men's and women's hairstyles is the 'sideburn' and 'bangs' area. I'm sure we've all been there when the stylist asks, "do you want these triangular, or straight across?" in regards to the sideburn region. Typically guys will opt for the squared off look. This is a big key in 'passing'. Guys don't often have bangs either, although they may have their hair slightly longer in front so they can have the "I just woke up, look at my killer ski-jump look", or the run-the-fingers-through-the-hair and run out the door look. Thoroughly confused yet? Hope not. Let me back up a little bit here to another important element... while guys AND girls get their hair cut at salons, BARBER SHOPS are traditionally a place where guys get their hair cut. So a good tip when wanting to avoid some kind of ambiguous or androgynous hairstyle, visit a BARBER SHOP where a man's man will know how to cut your hair. *keep in mind there are a lot less variations here though RE: they may either want to buzz your entire head, or give you some other form of miltary style cut.... so make sure you are SPECIFIC about what you want* It will also be extremely helpfull if you familiarize yourself with clipper guard #'s and what they represent. I.E. a # 1 is BARELY anything, a # 2 is like 1/4", # 3 5/8" and so on up the line. If you walk in and say something like, "I want an inch and a half up top faded down to a # 2 starting from about midway," you will get just that. And so on. Another great way of avoiding the chaos of getting a haircut from a 'professional' is to either A) do it yourself, or B) have someone close to you, who has a pretty good idea of what their doing do it for you I go with option A) myself. I've been doing it this way for 5 years now. In the last 5 years, I have 'gotten' a haircut once. I will never do it again. Anything I can't do myself isn't worth it anyway. And hey, if its totally fucked, I can always shave it down to nothing and start over with no one but myself to blame. (check out my webshots under 'pictures' every single hair style you see there is a one of a kind 'Trevor masterpiece' HAHA.) |
| to be continued.... |