Fingernails, dysphoria, and presentation

[Deleted]

I am curious how we each deal with our nails.

My dysphoria is attached to mine.  two thirds are in the quick and the last third extends beyond the fingertips, highly clear polished, and shaped into Streisand nails, pointed curved tips.  Gorgeous, I get comments at drive throughs, the girls get jealous, and I get sweetied from them, which believe me feels so good.

I have a strong reaction to nails breaking, it sucks, feels like male finger, and I use Sally Hanson diamond care, as well as another layer of Sally Hanson nail hardener underneath.  It stops the cracking, mine want to crack.  I laid a whole tile floor this weekend and lost no nails.  Yippee!!!

How do you keep your nails my dears?  How dysphoric are you with them?

Love to all here

Satinjoy

[Deleted]

Short unfortunately. Long nails playing guitar kind of gets in the way too much. But they grow really fast and are super strong. Unfortunately its a waste for me though. Still love the color part though.

[bhhfmm]

I used to be self conscious about them and even wore acrylics for several years. But then I broke my thumb and couldn't wear them for a while due to the pain in my hand and not wanting anyone to mess with it. So I got over it and haven't bothered with them for about almost two years. Now I just eat them...

[Whisper]

i like having medium to long nails.

i used to break a lot of nails. reading the webpage FAQ of Guinness book of world record holder Lee Redmond soaked them in olive oil every day. hers broke in a car accident. they wont be unbreakable, but will be stronger, less prone to dry breakage and cracking.

mine range from a quarter inch to a half inch, though i have had them up to 1 inch long.

whisper

[TessaJames]

I love nice nails.  I have had feminine nails for many years and would buff them to a polish without color as I worked in surgery.   But I still kind of hid them and they would be purged like other things when I tried to man up.  Nails and long hair were part of my androgynous being and part of dealing with dysphoria before i really even understood why.   It just felt right and good.  I also wore a woman's watch and an earring and loved my bicycle tights.  So many clues, sigh.

Now it is so fun to have it all be everyday life and putting on some slouchy jeans and a sweatshirt is ok too.  And yes our chores can be rough on nails and it is frustrating to lose one that is in perfect shape.  I wear gloves more often to protect them now.

And then, looking at a host of cis women, we can see all kinds of nails from bitten to the quick and bleeding to some expensive manicured talons.  It takes all kinds fortunately.

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Dec 3, 2014 1:06:30 GMT 8 @julieblair said:

Lucky kids! My nails are pathetic. Biotin, Gelatin, Nail Strengthener, nothing seems to help much. They just split and break regardless. I've given up, and just trim em up to fret length. Jamie, guess I ought to get out the old Gibson and begin practicing scales.

I guess I'm lucky but it's such a waste. I can use them as screwdrivers even without breaking them but I think I would rather play.

Oh yeah. Practice makes perfect. What kind of Gibson? I got an original '66 SG, not a reissue but original, that was given to me by a family friend when I first started playing. Now it sits in the case untouched. I play Epi's now, SGs of course. I can abuse them and only cost 400 dollars if I mess them up compared to 1200-1700 dollars for a Gibson. The '66 is kind of like an heirloom. I really need to get a glass display case and hang it up in my living room. :-S

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Dec 3, 2014 1:06:30 GMT 8 @julieblair said:

Lucky kids! My nails are pathetic. Biotin, Gelatin, Nail Strengthener, nothing seems to help much. They just split and break regardless. I've given up, and just trim em up to fret length. Jamie, guess I ought to get out the old Gibson and begin practicing scales.

I noticed that my nails became paper thin and the one on my right hand index finger split vertically, this was the result of being on HRT because prior to that I had to use side cutter dykes to cut them. I began using two 400mg Citrical per day and they are tough once again. Somehow HRT depletes calcium from one's system, nails are the first to show it. Don't bite your nails Jaime (ugh nasty stuff there honey)

[Deleted]

I can't read music Julie. I learn songs by tablature. Most guitarist that I know can't read actual music and when writing something use tabs. I use a lot of 2 and 3 string powerchords so really all I need is the note where its palyed and whether it's a sharp or flat. Once I learn a song and can play it, it's just all by memory and mostly muscle memory after that. I may have to go back and check or do a hit and miss if it's something I haven't played in a while. The guitar is really simple and the hardest thing is toughening up your fingertips, learning how to pick with your right hand, coordinating what your picking hand is doing and muscle memory. I know when I was learning I was thinking that I was never gonna' get it. Taught myself and started with the same old three chords that everyone else does, C G and D. In music theory, G is five notes from C and D is four notes from G. Fourths and fifths always sound good together and why G, C and D are the first ones that are taught. Then all kind of variations come in like Dsus4, Cadd9 and G5 and with that combination the ring finger never moves off the third fret on the B string. You just move your pinky to make the D into Dsus4 or add your pinky for the Cadd9 or the G5 to the High E string or you can just mute it out naturally. I could pop off all kinds of rock songs, acoustic and electric that use power chords A and E even on acoustic and the Cs Ds and Gs as open chords. A and E is a fourth and fifth and why they sound so good together. E is five notes from A and E is four notes from A. Solos get a little tougher though. The 1st position pentatonic, hexagonic and sliding scales are the most used in solos all over the fretboard.

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Dec 4, 2014 2:42:06 GMT 8 @julieblair said:

You mean all those music lessons were wasted? My siblings are all rather accomplished pianists. I was too squirrelly to practice enough, but I can read music for keyboard and (don't laugh) accordion as well as guitar. I'm just neither fast nor practiced. I have good relative pitch and love shifting between major and minor keys but Then all kind of variations come in like Dsus4, Cadd9 and G5 and with that combination the ring finger never moves off the third fret on the B string. You just move your pinky to make the D into Dsus4 or add your pinky for the Cadd9 or the G5 to the High E string or you can just mute it out naturally. is a notation that is  new to me.  Something to look up, something to learn .

You're just fifty years of practice my senior, but I have no need to catch up.  Professional musicians are born not made.  I admire you, and think that you're half mad to enjoy near starvation and sleep deprivation.  That you have a reasonably balanced life (in an unbalanced way) is rare and admirable.  I'll just continue to plunk along in C, D, F, E flat and B flat and regret that my fingers don't stretch, are not nimble, don't always do what they are told, and that after an hour or so hurt.

What I hope for is fun, and finding out if I can play clean and sober.  I suspect so, but I confess that the association is still there.  Got to get out my Stevie Wonder song book.  Another genius IMHO.

Julie

Nah. It was just fun and I was young. I am a long way from professional though. I find it more relaxing than anything. playing empties my mind more than anything. I don't even focus that much on riffs just let it go. Everyone messes up now and then even on stage or at gigs. Live music. Most people don't even realize it unless they play themselves and know the songs.

I still paint my nails though. They're just short.

[Laura J]

I decided today to take the plunge.! 
I must admit, it felt really nice browsing these things and then ordering them.. 
Ive done nails before, not on me though, just others, but now it's my turn, I already have some ideas and a few things planned to start slow, and see what happens.. 
If it makes me feel more complete, then it's worth it no matter what anybody says.. 

 

[Deleted]

Cool.

I keep getting remarks about my nails. Since I hide so much of my mtf self, the nails have become crucially important to me.

[TessaJames]

Thanks for some practical solutions Star

[Leena]

Up until not all that long ago I always just peeled my nails, it left them semi-short and jagged, though longer than the biters, I tried doing that, my nails seem too thick for that to work. It was kind of a strange thing I suppose, lately I've been keeping them semi-long with the white part a millimeter or so and using emory boards to keep a very rounded shape. I love painting them, but if the polish gets into the cuticle, sometimes no amount of nail polish remover seems to work, so I haven't been painting them much so I feel comfortable at work.