- Could not be making this summer
tips video on a more appropriate day.
It is scorching, so hot, so hot.
(slow funky rock music)
Hello, I'm Jackson Bird and I love summer,
but it does not love me.
I get hay fever (coughing) (blowing nose).
I get sunburned so easily.
I get heatstroke and summer means warmer
weather which means more revealing clothing,
and I, like many trans people,
do not always feel A plus about my own body.
So summer, as much as I love it, can sometimes suck.
So let's talk about some ways to deal with summers,
specifically as a trans guy.
I'm talking binding, shorts, tank tops,
going to the beach, whether or not to shave your legs,
I've got tips on all of it.
But first, disclaimers.
These tips are gonna be geared towards trans guys
or any other AFAB people who want to
express themselves in masculine ways.
I'll cover some stuff that applies pre-T, some post-T,
some pre-top surgery, some pre-coming out, but remember
that everyone's bodies, comfort levels, dysphoria,
financial and living situations, are all different.
So not everything's gonna apply to everyone,
but I hope you will find some of this useful.
All right, so first, if you have started T
and this is gonna be your first summer on T
and you don't know this yet, you are about to be sweatier
and more smelly than you have ever been in your life.
I'm talking dripping sweat down the back,
feeling like you're doing hot yoga 24/7 kind of sweat.
I don't think I ever had sweat stains on the
back of my shirts before I started testosterone.
But oh, is it gonna happen to you.
So you're gonna wanna keep on top of that with extra
showers, changing clothes more frequently, deodorant.
Now especially if you're earlier on in your transition
and you haven't tried this already,
I recommend switching up to some men's deodorant.
It's just a little (sniff) musky indulgence
that can help counter the dysphoria.
Now if you have started T, again, you are going to
sweat and smell so much more than you did pre-T.
You might need to take multiple showers everyday
over the summer and really scrub that new body hair,
yes, we are going there.
And listen, I'd go so far as to recommend
a little manscaping to reduce the amount of sweat
and stench that you be getting in those places
like maybe under your arms and other places that exist.
Side note, what's a gender neutral term for manscaping?
Body hair trimming?
Why did we have to make a manly version of that phrase?
But hey, while we're on the topic of hygiene,
let's take a minute to talk about today's sponsor,
Dollar Shave Club.
So I started using Dollar Shave Club years ago
when I started testosterone and knew that I was
gonna need to shave my face but also knew that
I wasn't usually read as male, so I was kinda scared
to go out in public and buy razors from a store.
Not to mention, I had no clue how to differentiate
all the different types of razors,
and they are so dang expensive.
So I signed up for Dollar Shave Club where I can
get high quality razors sent to me every
month for just a couple of bucks.
They come straight to my door in a discreet package
so I don't have to face any dysphoria at the store.
Plus, I'm not gonna lie, in those early days I felt
super manly belonging to a men's subscription service.
I'm not making this up for the ad.
I have actually been a Dollar Shave Club customer for years.
And that is actually why I signed up for it.
But I recently found out they don't just sell razors.
They sell toothpaste, body wash, hairstyling products,
not to mention all the accessories that you for
shaving like shave butter and post-shave cream,
post-shave serum, I like that one, it's like a,
like spritz it on and you feel all nice and cool.
And I've been using the shave butter ever since
I started shaving and I have never looked back.
Makes your skin feel smoother and healthier
than like normal shaving cream does.
And it's transparent, so you can see if you are
about to shave off a pimple or a mole,
which is a real obstacle for me.
Right now you can try out a bunch
of their products for just $5.
They're basically giving away their
daily essentials starter set.
For just $5 and free shipping, by the way.
New members will get three trial size versions
of Dollar Shave Club's most popular products,
plus the executive razor.
Look at the quality of this razor, feel the weight on that.
So in that first box you get some of that
shave butter that I was talking about,
you'll get some body wash so you can smell clean
and masculine like I was mentioning before.
You also get a handful of these butt wipes,
One Wipe Charlies, which, awkward to talk about,
but remember what I was saying about how much
more you're gonna smell on your first summer of T?
Use these, get rid of your stank.
And finally, in that first box you're gonna get
your executive razor and a full box of cartridges.
And this isn't their selling point,
but I love that every box has a new pun on it.
I mean, that just helps.
So you get four razors in this first box and then after
that replacement razors are a couple of bucks a month.
And again, you can get all of that in this
first box for just $5, which frankly blows my mind.
You can sign up at dollarshaveclub.com/jacksonbird.
I will put a link down in the description box,
and again that is dollarshaveclub.com/jacksonbird.
Thank you so much to Dollar Shave Club for
sponsoring today's video and for giving all of us
the gift of grooming confidence.
Let's move on to another summer challenge, binding.
Binding sucks during summertime.
I mean, you've got this thick fabric compressing
your core and adding an extra layer to the heat.
It's not gonna be fun no matter what,
but here are some things that helped me over the years.
First of all, if you've got any older binders that
are maybe a little looser and thinner laying around,
wear those as often as you can.
I know they're probably not gonna bind as well,
but all of summer is just give and take on your
dysphoria versus not passing out of heatstroke.
Also, if you usually wear the full length binders
that help bind your hips, maybe try going for the shorter
ones on Underworks, they're called tri-top.
The ones that just kinda stop like
right at the bottom of your ribs.
Also, take your binder off even more than usual.
I was totally guilty of being too dysphoric
even when I was home alone by myself,
I would keep my binder on because I just could not stand it.
But during summertime, when it's as hot as it
is in this apartment right now, oh my gosh,
I would have that binder off.
I'd just be walking around shirtless if I were home alone.
And if you're out and about,
take little bathroom breaks in the stalls,
just like take it all off and breathe for a couple
of minutes if you can get it off because it's
so hot the binder's gonna be sticking to your skin,
it's gonna do that thing where it rolls up
and then you can't even grab it.
Uh, binding is the worst.
On more of a mental, emotional note,
you can try to focus some of your discomfort into making
top surgery plans and fundraising if top surgery is
something that you're interested in down the line.
Summer of 2015 was when I got fed up and put
all of my top surgery plans into motion because
I could not take another summer in a binder.
And as we all know, a big part of summer is sleeveless-ness
and tank tops, which don't play well with binders.
It can be pretty tough to find a tank top
that will cover the binder straps or how far
it'll come up under your arms or like the neckline.
So generally look for tank tops with higher
necklines and wider straps that go
almost to the end of your shoulder,
which would have been dress code at my high school.
One thing I started doing is to just buy
t-shirts that I liked or take old t-shirts I
had and just cut the sleeves off.
That way you can control the measurements.
You can literally measure it up against your binder
so that it is definitely going to be covering your binder,
if that is something that you care about.
Some people rock the binder look.
You know, if you do the cut off t-shirt thing not
only is it gonna cover your binder,
you also get the bonus of looking super punk rock.
And before we move on,
just the usual disclaimer about binding safely,
please use an official binder from one of the reputable
companies like Underworks or gc2b or FLAVNT.
Please don't use any DIY methods,
those are things that can seriously hurt your
ribs or your lungs, sometimes permanently,
sometimes so badly that you aren't even eligible for
top surgery down the line, so just don't do it.
If you're having trouble getting
your hands on an official binder,
there are tons of scholarship programs and stuff out there.
That's a whole other video that I could make,
but there's already tons of them,
so just Google it, you'll get the info.
All right, now let's talk about the beach.
So I love the beach, I love swimming, but yes,
when you can't take your shirt off yet it is not fun.
It never stopped me from actually swimming,
but it always made me miserable.
Your main options are swim shirts,
which some people call rash guards,
or tank tops with or without a binder
or a sports bra underneath, or a swim binder.
If you go that route, I definitely recommmend
FLAVNT's swimwear, they come in a whole spectrum
of skin colors and are just made so well and beautifully.
I tried all of these different options at different times.
I personally preferred the old
binder under a tank top option.
Didn't look the sexiest, didn't dry the quickest
after being in water, but for whatever reason,
it's what made me feel the most comfortable,
and that ultimately is what is most important.
I'm also gonna link to Ashley
Wylde's video on nonbinary swimwear.
It has some practical tips as
well as some philosophic advice.
If you have had top surgery and have visible scars,
don't forget to be slathering those scars in
tons of sunscreen and don't be staying shirtless
the whole time if it's your first year out.
Or maybe ever, the sun is terrible.
And if people ask about the scars,
honestly, you should just say, it's personal.
It's part of your medical history and you don't wanna share.
Unless you do want to share,
could be a good teaching moment.
Or you could try on a few of these lines.
Bro, what are those scars from?
Yeah, I fought a shark.
What, oh my God, how did those get there?
Trust me, you do not wanna get on a dolphin's bad side.
These, you should see the other guy.
And then after the aliens beamed me back down to my house.
I had heart surgery.
On both sides?
I'm a time lord?
Now, a quick note on swim trunks.
Ty Turner discovered a great hack a couple of years
ago which is that board shorts without the elastic
in the waistband make your hips look smaller.
It's a miracle.
I think it's because the elastic
isn't there to like squeeze your body.
But, I have found it difficult to, one,
find this type of board short at all.
Maybe it's a northeast problem.
And two, when I do find them,
to find them with a short enough inseam.
Board shorts are a style of short that are
usually longer and long shorts on short guys
tends to just look like normal pants, JNCO shorts,
capris, it just doesn't look good.
So actually, let's talk about shorts for a minute.
A lot of trans masculine people are shorter
than cisgender guys and that means that a lot
of men's shorts are too long for us and look silly.
Ideally, you want your shorts to fall above your knee.
Not only is that just like the rule of fashion
for grown-up people and people wanting to look
more grown-up, but it will also make you look taller.
If you're wearing shorts that go longer than
your knees it makes your whole frame look shorter.
It's one of those optical illusions just like
how horizontal stripes make you look wider.
So you wanna do is look for the shortest
inseam that a store has available.
And I will say that more fashion forward stores
like H&M are going to generally sell shorter
shorts and swim trunks than say, American Eagle,
which caters to teenage boys,
or Costco, which caters to my dad.
And if you can't find any shorts that are short enough,
you can take the DIY approach again.
Hem them yourself.
It's not that hard to pick up a sewing kit
at any grocery store and look up some YouTube tutorials
on how to sew, if you don't know how to sew,
and then how to hem.
I will even link in the description box to my
favorite tutorial on how to hem things while
keeping the factory seam so no one will know
that you ever tailored your clothes.
Or forget the hemming and just cut your shorts
the length you want and let the threads ravel
because jorts are are totally still in, right?
Am I right, jorts are in, right?
Cut off shorts is that not in anymore?
I have no idea.
And since we are talking about shorts,
we've gotta talk about shaving your legs.
So most trans masculine people like to
grow out their leg hair, but if you're not out yet,
it can be really tough to decide should you shave
your legs in front of people who don't know that
you're trans, especially maybe parents and family,
or do you keep that leg hair because
shaving is really dysphoric for you,
or because, let's face it, when you're not on T
it can take a really long time to
build up that luscious leg hair forest,
and so shaving it would just seem like such a waste.
I don't have a great answer here.
Some suggestions I have would be comprising with yourself.
Say, okay, I'll only have to shave up to
my knee and wear some longer shorts.
Or if you are gonna stick with pants so that
you don't have to shave, at least get some light linen
or some other type of light fabric pants so that you
aren't totally dying from the heat in your jeans.
Or you can just come with a hella good excuse
about why you're not shaving your legs.
I recommend just mentioning the patriarchy.
That always works.
And now let's start wrapping up with just a
couple more miscellaneous summer tips.
Number one, baseball hats are great.
They'll keep you shaded, which is important if you
are as translucently pale as I am.
Or you know, some days when your hair is doing
the thing or you feel like you're getting read
as a girl more often and you don't know why,
so just put on a baseball hat and grunt a lot.
Passing tips from Jackson Bird.
Next and probably the most important tip I can give
you for the summer, hydrate, stay hydrated.
I mean, this is important for everyone,
but especially if you're gonna be wearing more
clothes than seasonally appropriate, if you're binding,
whatever you're doing where you're probably
not dressing as coolly as you should.
Make sure you are hydrating.
The other thing if you're not dressing as coolly
and seasonally appropriate as you should be,
make friends with goths.
I'm serious, they always know where the shade is
and like where the coolest air is 'cause they're
always dressed in so many layers of black.
They'll give you all the tips you need for cooling down.
And for real, the more queer and trans friends
that you can make, the better because they'll
understand what you're going through and you
can relax a little bit around them.
You don't have to worry about what body hair
you're shaving or if you need to take your binder off
for awhile, they'll be chill about it.
And if you do need to stay indoors and not
participate in as many outside activities,
or if you need to turn people down for certain things
that would make you feel dysphoric, that's okay.
And I would also hope that you're not missing out
on too many experiences because of dysphoria.
It's just gonna happen sometimes,
but if it becomes a habit for like years and years,
I would hope that you find a way to reach out to
a support group or a therapist or community center,
someone that can help you find the change that you
need to be able to live your life to the fullest.
'Cause we all deserve to enjoy summer.
And summer is always gonna be tough for anyone who doesn't
look exactly like society tells us we're supposed to look.
And you know what, even they are probably gonna
face street harassment, so summer just sucks for everyone.
But it is especially hard for trans people,
so just know that we're all in this together.
We've all been there or are there
and we've all got each other's backs.
So let's use this comment section today to swap tips,
commiserate, and encourage each other.
Bonus points for any funny trans summertime memes.
If you liked this video, please subscribe for
more videos roughly every Wednesday.
Share it with friends, give it a like,
you can also follow me @jackisnotabird on Twitter
and Instagram to keep up with my summer adventures.
And thank you once again to Dollar Shave
Club for sponsoring this video.
And thank you for watching.
Stay cool out there, and I'll see you next time.
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