Hi! I’ve been extremely tired this week and nearly forgot that I was hosting one so I’m writing this last minute! I couldn’t think of anything so I’m going to write about one of my hamsters who is not Biggs; Meredith

Meredith was another hamster of mine from a few years ago during the early days of COVID, and she was the absolute sweetest little creature I had ever met. Very friendly, very gentle. She loved exploring anywhere I put her into and never bit me okay she did once ever. She was an absolute sweetheart and bundle of love and was with me during some of the rougher parts of my life

She unfortunately died very suddenly out of the blue one day at a terribly young age showing no symptoms of anything wrong with her prior, which breaks my heart to this very day

I never had her as long as any other hamster of mine but I don’t think I had any other hamster touch my heart in quite the same way. I miss you, girl


Join our public Matrix server!

https://matrix.to//#/#tracha-space:transfem.dev

https://rentry.co/tracha#tracha-rooms


As a reminder, please do not discuss current struggle sessions in the mega. We want this to be a little oasis for all of us and the best way to do that is not to feed into existing conflict on the site.

Also, be sure to properly give content warnings and put sensitive subjects behind proper spoiler tags. It’s for the mental health of not just your comrades, but yourself as well.

Here is a screenshot of where to find the spoiler button.

  • BountifulEggnog [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    6 hours ago

    update

    Came out to her. She is accepting. Talked about it a little bit. I didn’t tell her my name though. Don’t know why. But yea, went well and I feel good about that. Its nice not feeling so alone.

  • Boynomoder [she/her, pup/pup's]@hexbear.net
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    7 hours ago

    Trying to figure out what I potentially want to do with my hair going forward, but it’s hard because you see people with all kinds of hairstyles but you have no idea if your hair is suitable for it or what they have done to it necessarily. kel-screm

    • TerminalEncounter [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      6 hours ago

      You should try shoulder length hair or a little longer, with bangs, framing hair on the sides. Use a good shampoo and conditioner but only wash your hair every other day (still wash the rest of your body every day). Use argan oil, a small amount from mid length to ends, but only when you wash your hair.

      You should also try a blow out with curls, you should get your hair braided including braids overnight, you should try a fun loose bun, try a bunch of stuff!

  • yewler [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    9 hours ago
    family nonsense

    My mom has been absolutely horrendous to me ever since I came out. She’s refused to talk about trans stuff with me even though I have asked 6 times now. She has avoided it every single time. She’s been guilt tripping me and acting like I’m being unreasonable and needy when literally all I’m asking is for her to call me by my name, or at the very least tell me why she won’t. It’s been a thing for like a month and a half now. Since she was ignoring me when I was trying to talk to her, I ignored her when she needed information from me, and it led to a 6 hour inconvenience on her part. Now she’s gotten it into her head that she’s been nothing but supportive and great this whole time and I’ve gone no contact at the slightest push back from her, when in actuality, I actively tried to talk to her for a month and a half and she ignored me. I guess she’s getting what she wants, because I’m not planning on talking to her again after this. She’s acting like I never gave her a chance, but I did. That was it. And she stepped all over it.

    • AntifaSuperWombat [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      8 hours ago
      spoiler

      It can be truly heartbreaking to be treated like that by the person who’s supposed to love you the most. So it’s good that you’re planning on distancing yourself from that instead of falling for these manipulation tactis by her and this other person. You deserve some rest from this nonsense. cat-trans

  • Beetle [hy/hym]@hexbear.net
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    11 hours ago

    When random people I don’t know well bring up trans rights stuff while talking to me I’m always a bit suspicious that they clocked me and that that’s why they brought it up.

    • Congrats on being around people who bring up trans rights stuff. Pretty much only see transphobia expressed by people who I’m not out to.

      Did have someone blame T on me being warm whom I wondered if that was an indirect way of her asking if I’d changed hormones since I’d last seen her years ago. Can’t say I’ve heard of cis people mentioning T in casual conversation other than maybe “alpha male” types? OTOH, the more precise and inclusive language is cool.

      • Beetle [hy/hym]@hexbear.net
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        8 hours ago

        I’m really lucky that I live in a progressive area and even if people mostly bring up trans rights stuff to virtue signal it’s still infinitely better than speaking with transphobes.

    • AntifaSuperWombat [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      10 hours ago

      Something similar happened to me once. I was at a small festival with 3 other people, one of whom knew that I was trans, because I told them right before that. We were just talking about the usual stuff until suddenly the 2 that didn’t know started shitting on Rowling and talking about trans stuff.

      I was completely baffled by that, because I’ve never seen cis people bring that up by themselves, not even today. I just stood there and said nothing, while they continued. I was absolutely sure that the 3rd person must have outed me beforehand, and that the others just said that to make me feel more at ease.

      But as it turned out, it was just a really weird coincidence and me not expecting such a thing ever happening because I live in a conservative area where trans stuff is ignored for the most part.

  • Boynomoder [she/her, pup/pup's]@hexbear.net
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    13 hours ago
    think I’ve figured out what I’m gonna do for weight cycling.

    I’m gonna go up 5 pounds then down 10 then up 5 then down 10 until I’m around my goal.
    So probably like 3 or 4 times.

  • BountifulEggnog [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    19 hours ago

    Okay

    I’ve obviously not been in the best spot lately

    Is coming out to my friend/manager a good idea or no? She’s gay and has gay friends tbf. But I don’t know about trans people. Also my shave still fucking sucks. It’d be in like 9 hours, maybe a bit more. Or uh I could chicken out again. Just has been on my mind a lot.

        • AntifaSuperWombat [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          16 hours ago

          Well, if you already know every trick in the book, there’s not much I can tell you.

          You could try some different shaving techniques like in this video.

          Or you could analyze the geometry of your razor to see how it would work best. For example, I have a Mühle R41 which is really aggressive but doesn’t have the best blade support. So I always ride the cap whenever I use it to make it glide smoother across my skin

          Skin prep and lathering techniques are always something that you can always improve on (and make sure that water hardness is not a problem for you)

          Don’t scrape your blades across the paper when you take them out. That’s something a lot of people overlook.

          If you want a different experience with your razor, you could try Kai blades, which are slightly wider and thus more aggressive

          But that’s all I can think of. The rest is pretty much just endlessly trying out new gear and soaps and experiment with different razor/blade combinations to see if you can get tiny improvements. There’s a reason why most people in those shaving communities have absurdly huge collections.

          • whatnots [it/its, he/him]@hexbear.net
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            8 hours ago

            what soaps and skin prep / lathering techniques do you recommend? i don’t really know anything. i have sensitive skin that’s been getting more and more irritated with each shave lately. i’ve just been using bulldog shave gel but it does get a bit dry, i just don’t really know what’s best to switch to cause i tend to get overwhelmed by so many options blob-no-thoughts

            • AntifaSuperWombat [she/her]@hexbear.net
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              7 hours ago

              I have sensitive skin too and before delving deeper into this topic, I could only shave once a week. Now I can pretty much do it every single day, with a recovery day every once in awhile. So I cannot stress enough how important a good lather is.

              big wall of text

              If you’re overwhelmed by too many options, then I have some good news: You can ignore almost all of that. Canned foam, gel, conditioner, etc… all have subpar performance. What you want instead is a good shaving soap.

              What I do is take a guitar pick to scoop out a little bit of soap, press it down on the bottom of a small bowl and use a wet shaving brush to whip up a nice lather. The amount of water is really important. So start off with less and slowly add more until you have the right consistency, which can be up to your preference. In general you should aim for a yogurt-like consistency, but experimenting is important here. There’s also the possibility to load up the brush directly on the soap instead of scooping it out, and you can also skip the bowl and lather it on your face.

              Now to the face prep: It’s always good to soften up your beard hair with warm water before the shave, so shaving after taking a shower is never a bad idea. Using a gentle face cleanser is also advisable, as is gentle exfoliation (might want to skip that depending on your skin).

              Now the final step would be gear: There are special shaving bowls and other stuff that you can buy, but a cheap metal bowl does the trick too. Of course you also need a brush. Traditionally, they’re made with badger, boar or horse hair, but nowadays you can get really good synthetic ones that are also a lot cheaper. They come in different knot sizes and handles, and there’s differences in softness and backbone of the fibres. I managed to get a Mühle Silvertip Fibre for pretty cheap, which is very soft, so it’s perfect for my estrogenized face. Other people prefer really stiff ones. Again, it’s up to your preference.

              And of course you need a good soap. There’s massproduced classic ones that you can get for pretty cheap, which have great perfomance, like Cella, Arko or Tabac. But if you really want to get the best performance possible, you have to take a look at artisan soaps. I wish I could recommend Southern Witchcrafts to you, which I am using, because their vegan soaps are absolutely amazing and I love them, but they recently closed their business. So instead I’m just going to say that Barrister and Mann is currently regarded as the best-performing soap by a large part of the community, and if you live in Europe, you should take a look at Saponificio Varesino.

              This reddit thread might help you a bit: https://old.reddit.com/r/wicked_edge/comments/1ed6okv/honest_2024_shave_soap_tiers/

            • AntifaSuperWombat [she/her]@hexbear.net
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              14 hours ago

              My overall favourites are Perma-Sharps. They’re really sharp but also smooth.

              For my R41 I tend to go with Feathers, because I like the danger. catgirl-smug I’ve also had nice shaves with smoother blades, but I still have to experiment some more with them.

              And I’m also using random blades from my sampler packs sometimes to mix things up.

              • shallot [they/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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                13 hours ago

                Thanks! I’ve used feathers before, but never perma-sharps; I’ll have to check those out. I ordered a bazillion pack of feathers like 10+ years ago and have only had to buy one single small pack of van der hagens since then lol (because that’s what was available locally).

                Edit: wait no they were derby, not feather.

                • AntifaSuperWombat [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                  12 hours ago

                  Feathers are by far the sharpest blades available. You might want to be a bit careful when you’re used to dull blades like Derbies. My first time using them ended in a bloodbath. Not to frighten you or anything, but just saying.

                  I would highly recommend you do the same thing as me and just start out with sampler packs, because razor blades are a very individual thing, where one blade might work for me but not for you. So it’s important to just try out a bunch before dedicating yourself to a 100 pack.

        • AntifaSuperWombat [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          16 hours ago

          Sorry, electric razors are the one thing I know almost nothing about. I have an epilator with a razor head that I used for trimming when I still wore a beard, but that’s pretty much all my experience with them.

          When I was browsing through various shaving forums I saw some people praise the Braun Series 9 Pro and the Panasonic Arc 6, but those 2 are absurdly expensive.

    • Thallo [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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      18 hours ago

      It’s always a gamble with the cis, but being queer increases their chance of being supportive.

      You also don’t have to worry about things like your shave. You can say that you’re not safe at home to transition, so you may not look it, but you’re a trans girl.

      It would be nice to be around someone who knows who you are at work.

      After that, if you feel safe, you can talk name and pronouns with her.

  • buh [she/her]@hexbear.netM
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    1 day ago

    I was leaving the bathroom as some guy was going in and he had to go back out to double check that he was in the men’s bathroom lol

    • Angel [any]@hexbear.net
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      16 hours ago

      Reminds me of this time I was going to the restroom, and there was this old white dude behind me going there, too. I was thinking that he was just going to wait his turn and go in after I left, but when we got to the bathroom doors, he just tries to go into the men’s restroom first, and I let him. I wait outside for him to get out, and he sees me standing there and says, “Oh, you were trying to use the men’s restroom?” with a pretty baffled face and tone. And I just responded with a masculine voice and said, “Yeah…”

      What gets me is that this was much earlier on in my transition.

      On this note, fuck these gendered single-person restrooms especially.