At Glamour Boutique we have many years of experience when it comes to helping crossdressers and transgender females. This makes us perfectly placed to offer up valuable crossdressing advice for any beginner starting out on their journey of discovery and delight.
To begin with it is important to concentrate on ease and cost-effective purchases at the start of your femme adventure. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself or feel like you wasted your money on something luxurious that you don’t properly know how to use or style yet. Once you have these down and are comfortable with fitting them and wearing them, you will then have much more confidence to start moving on to more stylistic touches and accessories.
Advice on How To Get the Basics in Place to Start Your Crossdressing Adventure
So, to ensure you have a pleasurable experience, our advice on beginning your crossdressing journey is to start with buying the basics first. These include:
- Basic Shaping Garments
- Dressing
- Undergarments and Hosiery
- Shoes
Basic Shaping Garments
Most male body types require some help from shaping garments to emulate a female shape. It doesn’t matter if you are lean or a fuller body type, you will need one or more of the following items to get you started looking like a woman. For example, boobs and wider hips are essential for pulling off a passable lady.
Breast Forms: Breast forms do 3 things for the male shape: first of all, they make ladies clothing fit and look much more attractive. Secondly, they help soften the look of wide male shoulders. IMG2-tileThirdly, breast forms automatically make you feel more feminine and confident. Unless you have a thing for large breasts then start with a C or B cup, so you can get a feel for them. Also, if you go too large, you’ll have issues finding ladies clothes that fit. If you can, buy silicone forms, since they are the closest products that look and feel like the real thing. You can spend hundreds of dollars on these but to begin, look for sale items like the Wider Full Teardrop Breast Forms from GlamourBoutique.com that cost from just $19.95 a pair and can be used with regular bras or even adhesives.
Corsets/Cinchers & Slimmers/Girdles: Another part of creating an ideal female silhouette is striving to achieve an hourglass figure. You can do this by slimming your waist. If you only need to smooth the waist area and lose an inch or two, then a simple slimmer or girdle will help. If you need to lose 3 to 5″, then you need a steel boned corset. These take more time to fit when dressing, but they are the only garment that can radically reduce the waist area to get the shape you want.
Hip Padding and Padded Panties: As a male, you will most likely 24-3133-SKU_Left_View-1not have wide hips, however, there are hip pads anyone can afford to enhance their hips quickly. For cheap options, you can purchase stand-alone foam pads that are held in place by pantyhose, or a good quality pair of padded panties like the Padded Rear and Hip Shaping Girdle. Most people love this product because the padding blends nicely with your natural curves. Plus, it also acts as a supportive girdle.
Dressing
Once you have achieved that perfect hourglass figure with the shaping garments, you can now focus on dressing like a woman. For beginners, I am sure you do not have a lot of clothes at your disposal, so keep it simple. Order some dresses, bigger tops, and some skirts online from a transBodycon Midi Dress for Mengender-friendly company. This will ensure the clothing will fit your body type better. Try and plan out at least two outfits when you are purchasing.
If you are particularly athletic, with a triangle-shaped body, and do not pad up your hip areas you will definitely want to shop for curvy skirts and tighter tops. The skirt will give you some added curve in the hips and the tight top will keep your top half slender-give a curvy appearance.
On the other hand, if you have that perfect hourglass shape, dresses are simple and sexy! Our basic Little Black Dress for Crossdressers is an ideal solution for many. It’s sexy, stylish, cut with wider shoulders, a longer torso, has full-length sleeves, and has a high neck to mask hair. If you feel brave enough to venture out to shop at consignment stores or even chain stores make sure to choose garments with some spandex/lycra. This will ensure that they will stretch in areas like the shoulder; 100% cotton or polyester dresses will not work for most because they are not stretchy.
Undergarments and Hosiery
Most novice dressers we meet cannot suddenly start shaving their legs every time they want to wear a dress or skirt; as friends and family would notice. So, good quality opaque pantyhose, stockings, or stay-ups will mask the hair and blemishes that need to be hidden. The other essential for a beginner would be a Crossdressing Gaff for tucking the ‘boys’. This will give you a nice flat front when wearing your dress or skirt. If you don’t use a tucking gaff then you can do the same with multiple pairs of control top pantyhose, but that can become hot and uncomfortable! So, having a couple of gaffs laying around is always beneficial to the occasional crossdresser.
Shoes
Many beginners think that they can start out walking in 4″ or even 5″ shoes. Girl, you are crazy- are you trying to break an ankle? We always say, if you’re not well practiced in walking in heels, go with a 3″ heel. Trust me, you will be doing yourself, and your feet, a favor. Heels are hard to walk in. Period! So, you need to be sure you are comfortable before hitting the town in 5″ heels. Recommended shoes for beginners would be the Divine Pump.
For sizing the easy rule of thumb to remember is to add 2 full sizes to your male shoe size for closed-toe styles and add 1.5 full sizes to your male shoe size for open toe styles. If in doubt call us at GlamourBoutique.com and we’ll make sure you get the right size. If you simply can’t help yourself and feel you must have a 4″ or 5″ heel then make sure it has a platforms sole AT LEAST. Platforms are much easier to walk in. Other good recommendations for novice dressers are pumps with ankle straps for added security, plain T-strap sandals for the same reason, or even ankle boots, which give great support. Remember, keep it simple and start out conservatively; you can always get bigger heels once you have practiced.
Crossdressing Advice: Tips on How to Further Enhance Your Look
Once you have the basics in place you may feel more empowered to further develop and refine your look. Here are our some of our suggestions on what you might want to consider if you are a crossdresser or trans female, already have the basics in place, and are looking for advice on how to further enhance your appearance.
Make Up
Another way to enhance your image to create a more feminine look is with makeup. However, if you’re starting out you will want to do some research before you start to apply any products. For this reason, we suggest focusing on the basics first. However, when you are ready to use make up we suggest that you do some research and read our blog on how to find the best make up for crossdressers and for your skin and complexion. You will also want to consider other important aspects before applying makeup. This includes researching how to shave correctly to prevent any facial stubble, how to apply beard cover and foundation, as well as how to shape your eyebrows, lipstick shade and eyelashes. A great place to start is with our handy make up guide with tips on how to apply make up for crossdressers.
Body & Eyebrow Grooming
Great grooming can be key for some people when creating a ‘passable’ feminine look. For many, this will come down to personal choice, with some preferring to maintain body hair and others unable to shave due to personal circumstances. There is no right or wrong answer here. However, if you do decide to invest more into grooming, then you may want to consider not just your beard, chest and legs, but also any nose hair, ear hair or hair on your knuckles and toes. Shaping your eyebrows by threading, plucking or shaping them can also go a long way towards feminizing your appearance.
If you do choose to shave, but are inexperienced when it comes to removing body hair, then you will want to consider investing in a sharp razor and using a shaving cream or gel. You will also want to shave in the direction that the hair grows and moisturize afterwards. Once you are used to shaving, or if you feel more confident in removing body hair later down the line, then you might also want to consider waxing or even laser hair removal.
Choose A Hair Style
Once you have the basics down you will also want to invest in great hair styles, which for many will include a great wig. There are few things like a quality wig that will help to shape your face and give it a more feminine appearance. However, there are more to wigs than people often first anticipate. For some, styling or growing your natural hair is the preferred option. However, if you do decide to use a wig then you will need to make many decisions about the quality of the wig, the price, the shape, the color and whether you want to buy a human hair wig, or one made of synthetic materials.
When choosing the style, it is also important to consider the shape of your face and the cap size, as this will have an impact on the how it frames your face with some wigs likely to make you look more feminine than others. With wigs costing anywhere from $30 to thousands of dollars depending on the quality, caring for, storing and styling your wig is also an important consideration. If you are thinking about getting a wig to further feminize your look, then we suggest reading our beginner’s guide on how to choose the perfect crossdressing wig.
Invest in Accessories
You’ve probably heard it before, and it is true. Small touches and accessories can really ‘make’ a look and take it to a whole new level. It is important to get the basics of body shaping and dressing mastered first. However, once you are confident with this then accessories are a quick and easy way to enhance and outfit and improve your confidence in your transformation. Investing a good quality bag, for example, will add a polished finish to your look. You will also want to consider other accessories and finishing touches, such as high heels, belts, jewelry, clutch bags and scarves. A great place to start is with our blog on how to use accessories to enhance your style and glamour.
In conclusion, the number one takeaway from this guide is to start with buying effective, affordable and simple products when you start your transgender/crossdressing journey. If you only dress occasionally, then buy good affordable everyday items, like the examples above from GlamourBoutique.com. Master these first and when you feel confident, move on to develop your look by investing more in aspects such as makeup, hairstyles, and accessories. If you want more tips, read the articles in our Crossdressing Tips Blog. You can also follow up with us with any questions or concerns about the right garments, or the right size at info@glamourboutique.com.