: Eye of the beholder :
The first part of this week I've been in San Antonio with my friend Kyla. Kyla is a T-girl, 24, and transitioned in high school down in Brownsville. Just take a moment to imagine how hard that must have been. If you think Houstonians don't get TG people, you can be sure that people from Brownsville think we are from another planet. I asked Kyla permission to post her picture here, so here's one I snapped of her a few weeks ago:
Most people who meet Kyla in person would never guess she is anything other than a genetic girl. She works as a makeup artist, so she is an expert at makeup and I'm learning a lot from her. In San Antonio, we stayed with Kyla's best friend, who is a stylist at an upscale salon - we stayed with him during the Hurricane Rita evacuation, and he offered to do my hair for my birthday when we came back. So on Tuesday I got some brown highlights that match my natural highlights, and a bit of a trim. The result is subtle and quite natural, which is what I was looking for.
We also went shopping at Sephora so Kyla could help me pick out some new makeup to replace the stuff I've been using, which is mostly still stuff cobbled togther from donations after the fire in April. We started with a moisturizing tint from Smashbox, then spent some time picking out a four-color eye shadow palette from Stila. And I got a beige glitter pencil from Nars.
Presenting a nice appearance is important to me obviously, but it's not my mission in life to be beautiful. I have to accept that there will always be people who "clock" me (recognize I'm TS) no matter what I do. Even Kyla gets clocked on rare occasions. I remember earlier this year when I came out to my parents, my mom said something very hurtful to me at the time - she said that while I was handsome as a male, I would never be attractive as a female. She said it as if that would deter me, as if the realization that I'm ugly to her would override a lifetime of feeling unable to express my inner self. If being beautiful was that much more important to me than being myself, I wouldn't be a transsexual - I'd be a fashion model. I'm glad I'm not that vain and egotistical.
Most people who meet Kyla in person would never guess she is anything other than a genetic girl. She works as a makeup artist, so she is an expert at makeup and I'm learning a lot from her. In San Antonio, we stayed with Kyla's best friend, who is a stylist at an upscale salon - we stayed with him during the Hurricane Rita evacuation, and he offered to do my hair for my birthday when we came back. So on Tuesday I got some brown highlights that match my natural highlights, and a bit of a trim. The result is subtle and quite natural, which is what I was looking for.
We also went shopping at Sephora so Kyla could help me pick out some new makeup to replace the stuff I've been using, which is mostly still stuff cobbled togther from donations after the fire in April. We started with a moisturizing tint from Smashbox, then spent some time picking out a four-color eye shadow palette from Stila. And I got a beige glitter pencil from Nars.
Presenting a nice appearance is important to me obviously, but it's not my mission in life to be beautiful. I have to accept that there will always be people who "clock" me (recognize I'm TS) no matter what I do. Even Kyla gets clocked on rare occasions. I remember earlier this year when I came out to my parents, my mom said something very hurtful to me at the time - she said that while I was handsome as a male, I would never be attractive as a female. She said it as if that would deter me, as if the realization that I'm ugly to her would override a lifetime of feeling unable to express my inner self. If being beautiful was that much more important to me than being myself, I wouldn't be a transsexual - I'd be a fashion model. I'm glad I'm not that vain and egotistical.
