Congrats on the self-confidence, my dude! I still fret about my appearance from time to time, but y'know? Yeah, kinda, I know what you mean. Do you smile more? Because happy looking people look more attractive and that might be making you like your photos more.

Currently I inspect every picture for every little possible change due to HRT 😅 4 months now!

How long did it take to get to that point? I'm 7 - 8 months in and it feels like I'll never not see every little detail that makes me not pass 😭

Yeah kind of. I still hyper focus on a few parts of my face that give me dysphoria, but overall I am a lot happier with my appearance than I used to be.

You're most beautiful when you're comfortable with yourself. There's no point checking every little detail, as long as you like yourself overall, I would say.

Same, but for me, it came with a change on perspective on passing too. I live in a safe area, and I found that once I started passing, I felt invisible to the queer folk that I didn't want to be invisible to. And that meant that I didn't fixate on things in the way I had previously

For sure. At first I really needed to be in the right mindset to be able to see myself. I only saw myself in my eyes occasionally.

And now, in transition, it's the other way around. It's more like gender dysphoria gets triggered occasionally and wreaks havoc. And I am trying to figure out what triggers this so I can avoid it.

For example a while back I had to sign a contract, so I had to use my dead name. This fucked me up for a good week.

When I first stare at my upper lip in the mirror, I see an unmistakable shadow and the roots. However, when I close my eyes for a second and reframe it in the context of my entire face, it basically disappears.

I realize that I won't be able to accurately judge myself; that I'll always see problems no one else does. I just need do my best and move on, as I'll never think the work is done otherwise. I do better at most things when I give a good effort and don't worry about my shortcomings.