And shaving your face is pretty easy. I haven't gone more than a day or two without doing it since becoming Andrew and by now it's just part of my morning routine. At first, it was really important - neither of us wanted to be the guy who grows a full beard in high school, it was an unwanted reminder of my new masculinity every time I looked in the mirror, and it's just itchy and annoying when you miss a day. Some guys get really into it, heating up foam and using a straight razor, but when I was a girl, I just took a bath rather than a shower and used a pink disposable every few weeks, since it's not like I was wearing miniskirts to school or on the swim team. As a guy, I've basically been doing the same, just keeping a razor in the shower and doing it by feel while the steam and hot water has my pores or follicles or whatever open. Don't even need shaving cream.
There's some downsides to this, of course. I'm basically doing it blind and shaving the sideburns off entirely rather than have them wind up uneven, and that wasn't really a big deal at first, and even desirable - I was still thinking of myself as a girl and didn't want 'em - but now I'm starting to look a little more baby-faced than I really want to, and it kind of feels like the sort of thing a grown man should be able to do.
So, when a couple guys in one of my study groups came in looking a bit scruffy and mentioned that they were growing their beards out for "Movember", I figured what the hell? If I don't like it, I can shave it off, and it's dumb to not see what I look like now that I've more or less accepted that this is who I'm going to be .
Right now, I look like a caterpillar is clinging to the very bottom of my upper lip for dear life.
It's apparently hilarious.
Don't take my word for it; Hildy apparently didn't even see it the first time she leaned in for a kiss and came away saying yuck, although she then said it was promising for just a few days' growth, with only a little detectable insincerity. Griff was walking by and asked what was so funny and said he would try that. He woke up the next morning with more than I'd managed in three days.
And I just got off a Zoom call with Andie, who saw what was on my face and then immediately started laughing, putting her head down on her desk to smother it, holding up a finger after a minute to say she needed another few seconds when I asked if she was done, and then letting out one last snicker when she sat up straight again.
"Sorry, man, I just feel like I dodged a bullet, you know?"
"Har har. But did you? Do you think I might suck at growing hair because of some Inn thing, like it didn't make me male enough?"
She snorted. "If it worked that way, I wouldn't get the cramps I do."
I allowed that, and talked with her a bit more. She insisted on taking screenshots to show Mom & Dad, and that reaction will probably be interesting.
-Ande
