Feb24 2014. I appreciate that so many of you have viewed my photos and favourited them. However if you are going to favourite lots of my pictures without commenting on them I will block you. Or if you have pictures of your naughty bits in your photo stream then you won't be following me either.

I am a trans woman and transitioned over 14 years ago . I have finally started to enjoy having my picture taken !! Most of the pics here are taken by my hairdresser . I love getting my hair done . I go to a salon twice a week and hardly ever have to wash my own hair .

All my friends would describe me as very girly and I am a very feminine woman .

When I am able to work I am a human rights trainer and campaigner . Most of the work I have done over the past 15 years has been around LGBT equality . As a Gay transwoman I have particular passion for that .

If you like my pics or want to chat about anything from hairdressing and makeup or equality legislation get in touch or leave a comment on my pics . I am new here so please be nice !!

I posted this on the Rollup message board in April last year and thought I would share it here too ....

Since today is an anniversary for me I thought I would share my first shampoo and set many, many years ago.....

I had known I should have been born a girl for as long as I have had thoughts in my head . I remember telling adults that I was going to be a woman when I grew up . My dad , who was a very violent and cruel man would hit me and quote the bible to me about how I was an abomination in the eyes of God . He was a minister and the second most intolerant , hateful person I have ever met, my mother being the worst . They made me hate myself for feeling this way until I had my first prolonged and really serious spell of depression in my twenties . My life was going nowhere at the time and my younger brother Derek , who was the only person I had told about me being transexual , got cancer and died . He and I were really close ,he was gay and I was the only one in the family who knew . Derek died on the 20th April 1997.

I had bought a flat in my home city five years previously and within 6 months of moving in I was dressing as a female all the time I could . It all felt quite unsatisfying though inside but I started to grow my flat top ,crew cut hair out so I could see how my hair would look in a feminine style . I have never been a fan of wearing a wig .

Ladies Hairdressers have always held a fascination for me from when I was young and had to go with my mum to her salon so she could get her hair done . I remember thinking that I wanted to get my hair done like the ladies in the salon but my mum wouldn't allow it .

Anyhow I decided I wanted to have my hair permed as that was quite fashionable and feminine and I could slick it back for work . I was working in law enforcement at the time and it was such a macho atmosphere . I was so scared of going to do something so feminine and girly I waited till I was working 200 miles from home and went to a salon there for my perm !! It sounds so silly now but at the time I felt so guilty about who I really was inside .

I don't remember much about the perm apart from the feeling of nervous excitement that I was taking a permanent step towards my feminine self . I was excited about the results too and I didn't wait for the hairdresser to dry it or style it before I left to drive the 200 miles back home . The smell of perm solution in my hot car was horrible , not like todays' ,so I had my window down all the way home !! The air coming in from the open window dried my fresh wet perm to a frizzy birds nest on my head !! I am still giggling now at the memory . I collapsed in front of the mirror when I got home and saw the mess of my hair !!

A couple of months later I went for a trim and blow dry at a salon near my flat . I was secretly hoping every time I went to a hair salon that the hairdresser would do something feminine with my hair . It's so difficult to learn some feminine things when you don't have anyone to show you ,like a mum or sister .

When I walked into the salon and saw the hairdresser for the first time I was terrified . She looked right inside of my soul and could see the frightened and lonely girl behind my eyes . She knew that I knew it too . I will never forget that moment . Her name was Sarah . When I told her I had had my hair permed she gave me such a knowing look . And after she was finished drying my hair with a diffuser she took out some pins and started pinning my hair up to make it look really feminine . I was so nervous/happy that someone knew my terrible secret and were not just OK with it but were actually encouraging me to be girly . Sarah then teased all my hair up and sprayed me with lots and lots of hairspray whilst looking into my eyes . It was a wonderful experience . I was shaking as I left her salon but I remember getting into my car and checking my hair in the mirror and primping like a woman . I had never felt like that before .

The only person I mentioned this to was Derek and he could tell how happy I was for a little while . I was too scared to go back and see Sarah until 3 years later and going through a very difficult time in my life . By 1997 I had developed drug and alcohol problems as well as depression ,being unemployed and then Derek got stomach cancer . That was a horrible experience and I had already been suicidal for over a year , all because of my gender dysphoria .

Two days after Derek died and over 3 years since I met her, and had only met her once , I had this need to go and see Sarah again for some reason . When I nervously walked in her salon she smiled and gave me that look !! I have only met a 3 people in my life who look at me in such a sisterly ,maternally ,knowing but loving way . I told her that my brother had just died and I was feeling a bit down . She smiled at me and said "Why don't I set your hair on rollers ? " I blushed and nodded my head in shock . That is not something a hairdresser would normally ask a male client ,is it ? I was thrilled but terrified as she washed my hair . I had let it grow longer and was about 5 or 6 inches long all over .

When I sat down she told me not to be so frightened . A remark that she often had to say to me over the years !! She opened a lavender coloured little bottle of setting lotion and I must have looked terrified as I asked her if my hair would turn into a lilac rinse ,like the old ladies had . She laughed and I will always remember how scared but excited I felt as she pulled over her tray with her rollers on . I still love when my hairdresser pulls over that trolley for whatever service I am having . I think it's a feminine thing .

She was looking me right in the eyes as she put my rollers in and she told me about transgender friends and clients she had . It was amazing to hear someone being so supportive and although I still had this loud voice in my head telling me that I shouldn't be doing this I loved watching the rollers go in my hair . Sarah put a hairnet over my rollers and put me under a hood hair dryer for the very first time . Fortunately I was the only one in the salon because I was still terrified of someone seeing me doing something feminine . I loved being under the drier and even now I feel so safe and protected and feminine under a warm dryer with my hair in rollers or perm rods .

My hair looked amazing after the rollers were taken out and as Sarah started teasing out my pretty curls I told her about my own transgender feelings . She was so lovely to me about it and she gave me my first feminine hairstyle !! She also made me realise that everyone didn't share the same views as my parents and it was the first step on my journey to become the woman I have always been but for an accident with my biology....

Now 15 years since I transitioned I am loving my hair and hairdressing appointments more than ever. I hope my story can help others who are going through a difficult time

February 2014. I have decided that I will share some of my experiences with whoever wants to read them here ....

Last Summer during the hottest and warmest period of weather we have enjoyed in Scotland for many years I would walk up to my local park after breakfast and sit in the sun all day. It's a small narrow park that overlooks Holyrood Park and Arthur's Seat, an extinct volcano. I would read, meditate and reflect on how I had just come through the second most difficult period in my life. I had finally gone through psychotherapy at the start of last year and was finally beginning to understand and accept of all the different parts of my life.

As I sat in the sun for the first few days I realised that not once in the past 20 years had I actually felt comfortable enough just to sit with other people in a public place enjoying the weather together. For a few years before I transitioned I couldn't face being seen as a male but I didn't have the courage to start living my life as the woman I had known I would grow up to be since before I learned to speak. After I transitioned I realise now that I only went out to places that were quite controlled or safe. If I was working I was the trainer, chair or facilitator and in my social life I was always with LGBT people where I felt protected from any potential threat.

So, like everything in life there is always a first time and I realised that I would have to get some clothes to get myself as much a tan as I could in the sun. Sunbathing is different for males and females and part of me wanted to have thin white tan lines on my shoulders where my bra straps were. Girly I know but it felt like being branded in a way !!

It was wonderful to see my freckles come back after 2 decades as the sun did it's work. One of the many things I have noticed since I transitioned is that people talk to me more now that I am female. Also I find that I will share a smile with another woman much more than I ever did when I lived as a male.

One day about lunchtime a man sat down next to me and started to chat . He was in his 40s and in a suit. He asked me if I was single, (how original) and I said I was but was enjoying being on dating websites. He had told me his wife had left him recently and I recommended he try them. I told him the sites I went to were for Lesbian's and I got the usual "Have you ever been with a man before ? " question. I asked him if he had been with a man before and I loved the confused look on his face. It's the response I usually get when I challenge heterosexist questions or attitudes.

Once he had recovered he said he might if it was a very feminine man. My warning bells started ringing again at that point. He then said" I have been on some of those tranny websites and the foreign ones are nice. I don't like the British ones though. They are all ugly" I didn't say anything. I thought for a minute and went home for lunch shaking my head and giggling. I often find it funny when people talk about transgender women in my company and they don't know I am trans.

I walked back up to the park after lunch. Even though my wee park is about 100 yards from my new flat I often find it an effort to walk. I have had ME for over 3 years ago and it feels like I have had the flu for all that time. I am pushing myself physically though and have lost 4 stones in less than 2 years. When I sat in the park I used to look up at Arthur's Seat and promised myself that I would eventually be able to walk up there again. I managed it by the end of Summer and that is another of my many proud achievements in recent years.

It was another wonderful warm day and late in the afternoon I heard a male voice behind me shouting "hey, sexy shoulders" . I had a gypsy top on that I had pulled down over my shoulders and décolletage. I ignored him at first but he kept shouting. I knew he was shouting at me so I turned round and noticed that he was an ugly overweight traffic warden. He said he had seen me earlier but I just gave him a look. He then said "Maybe the next time I see you I will get your number" I was horrified. I realise now that I should have reported him for sexual harassment but with the day I had had already I couldn't be bothered