I've not yet, i might try though now you've said it! I wear various cute hats and I guess I have a sortof alt / punk vibe anyway so very short hair can sortof fit.
I really feel you though sister. Male pattern baldness is really brutal for us. It was actually a big part of how I realised I was trans because the dysphoria became unbearable as it started to happen. I appreciate you bringing this question up.
I'm still in the cheap wig stage and still very early in transition. I assume I will get more and more frustrated with the quality (right now still just happy to have hair, oh to have been on E 10 years ago). I'm also interested in what the pricey ones might be like.
This made me audibly squeel with joy.
You handled it incredibly well. They're really very scary. I had my first one in ages this week too!
I saw a documentary on Hayley from Coronation Street (first trans character on a long running UK soap opera). She was (for the most part) reasonably sensitively portrayed and her actress (a cis woman) was at least very careful to listen to trans voices at the time and I believe has been a decent ally since (if I'm wrong please correct me). She ended up becoming a core cast member that stuck around for 16 years.
The thing that struck me was how the public conversation was really different to how it would be now. The right hadn't yet re-organised and rallied against "woke". The anti trans mob wasn't really a thing (of course transphobia was very real, just seemingly less organised). There was a lot of language that feels icky now but it just didn't seem like the same level of toxicity we have to deal with in current year.
Disclaimer: I have no fucking clue what I'm doing.
I like that the first reaction was phrased as a question, not a statement. It's kinda sweet. Also a very polite correction and an appropriate response.
Congrats on the surgery!
I experience that same feeling. Before I cracked, i thought this was just sortof sexual or physical attraction but now I realise that a huge amount of the of the way I felt looking at women was some kind of envy of their aesthetic and nothing to do with sexuality or attraction (don't get me wrong, still very much attracted to women, i just never realised that there were two seperate feelings happening and that it's perfectly possible to feel one without the other).
I don't know if these match your experience but things I've been trying to focus on:
Remembering that basically every straight, cis woman in my life has expressed to me that they feel that same way about other women (comparing, envy, self-doubt etc). It's just a really common experience. Most women feel it. I'm certain men feel it too, but it's harder for them to talk about maybe? I never felt envy for another man's appearance (surprise surprise) but I don't doubt that they do feel it.
The level of self-hatred I experienced when I looked down at my unaltered testosterone body is so much worse than any feelings of inadequacy i have when i compare myself with other women. As other commenters have mentioned, I've been trying to only compare myself with my past self. The bar for that is so low that I win every time :).
Realising that whatever I want to look like, however far away i might feel from that, I can actually make small changes all over the place (tattoos, piercings, makeup, jewellery, clothing, hair styling, hair removal, etc.) that make me like my appearance more than I did before. It might never be exactly what I want, but I think I'd internalised this silly idea that I should just have to play the cards I was dealt and try to accept everything as it was. The small wins are great and worth it.
Get it girl!
Jamie you cutie! I feel the same way about this place.
You have awesome energy :3