Androgynous style: haircuts and clothes

Androgynous describes a look that mixes masculine and feminine codes, or sidesteps them. It is a style, not a gender. [[androgyne|Androgyne]] is an identity, and the two do not have to meet: an androgyne person can dress in a completely conventional way, and someone with a binary gender can look androgynous every day of the week. This page is about the look.

What androgynous means as a look

The masculine and feminine categories in [[gender-expression|gender expression]] are socially constructed. They rely on shared ideas about clothing, behaviour and presentation, which is why they keep moving. Trousers only entered women's fashion around the First World War, and in the 1920s a bob cut on a young woman was still seen as a somewhat shocking statement of independence. Both are ordinary now.

In practice there are two broad routes, and most people mix them. One is combining: a sharp jacket with painted nails, a buzz cut with earrings, a long skirt with heavy boots. The other is neutralising: choosing shapes, colours and details that do not signal much either way. Neither is more authentic than the other.

The most useful sentence on the subject comes from TransHub, ACON's Australian resource for trans and gender diverse people: clothes do not have a gender, people do. Everything below is a set of tools, not a dress code.

Haircuts with names

Hair is one of the quickest ways to change how you are read, and one of the easiest to undo, because it grows back. Knowing the names of cuts makes the conversation with a hairdresser much shorter. Here is what each name usually describes.

• Buzz cut. Short hair, especially the same length all over the head, usually done with clippers.
• Pixie cut. Short at the back and sides, slightly longer on top, with very short bangs. It is a variant of a crop.
• Caesar cut. Short, horizontally straight bangs, with the hair layered to around 2 to 5 cm all over.
• Undercut. Longer hair on top, often parted at the side or centre, with the back and sides buzzed very short or shaved.
• Curtained hair. A long fringe divided by a middle or side parting, with short or shaved sides and back.
• Shag. Hair layered to various lengths, full around the crown and thinning towards the edges. It became popular as a unisex style in the early 1970s.
• Mullet. Shorter at the front, top and sides, longer at the back. In the 1980s it became part of lesbian culture, as a way of identifying yourself to others in public.
• Bob. Cut straight around the head at roughly jaw level, no longer than the shoulders, often with a fringe.

Long hair is not excluded. How you wear it does as much as its length: tied back low, worn loose and unstyled, pushed behind the ears, or with the sides cut close underneath. TransHub puts it plainly: it is not as simple as short hair being masculine and long hair being feminine.

What to ask for at the hairdresser or barber

Bring pictures. TransHub recommends showing a photo of the style you want rather than trying to describe it. Take several angles if you can find them: front, side and back.

Describe the result, not the category. "Short at the sides, enough length on top to move" gets you further than asking for a men's or women's cut. Say whether you want the edges soft or sharp, and how you want the hair at the nape of your neck finished: tapered down to the skin, or cut in a straight block line.

Learn your clipper number. If clippers are involved, ask which guard was used and write it down. Most guards are numbered in eighths of an inch: a number 1 leaves about 3 mm of hair, a number 2 about 6 mm, a number 3 about 10 mm. Once you have a number you like, you can ask for it again next time.

Say how much time you will spend on it. A cut that needs product and a blow-dry every morning is a different cut from one you can leave alone. Tell them which you want.

Find someone you do not have to explain yourself to. TransHub suggests asking other trans people for recommendations of trans-friendly stylists and barbers. Local groups are a good place to ask; how to find a trans support group has some starting points.

Clothes: the cut does more than the label

Shape first. Most of what makes an outfit read one way or another is silhouette: where the shoulders sit, whether the waist is marked, how wide the trouser leg is. Straight lines, boxy tops, structured shoulders and straight-leg or wide trousers tend to flatten the usual cues. Fitted waists and flared hems add them back. Neither is wrong; it depends which way you want to push.

Layering. An open shirt over a T-shirt, a waistcoat, a long coat, a cardigan over a collar. Layers change the outline of the whole body without asking anything of the body itself, and they are the cheapest way to make a plain garment look deliberate.

Colour and fabric. A neutral palette of black, grey, navy, white and earth tones is one well-trodden route, but colour has no gender and a bright or pastel piece in a plain cut works just as well. Sturdy fabrics such as denim, twill and heavy cotton hold a shape; soft drapey ones follow the body. Choose according to which you want.

Buttons and details. Classic clothing puts the buttons on the right for men and on the left for women. It is a useful way to tell which department a shirt came from when you are shopping second-hand, when a label does not tell you.

Fit across departments. Men's and women's ranges are typically cut for different body ratios, so the same size label means different things on each side. TransHub's advice is to take your chest, waist and hip measurements, compare them with the size chart, and buy for all of them, or at least the largest. Garments such as T-shirts are often made unisex, while things like jeans may be cut differently for each range, so trousers are worth trying on.

Tailoring. An alteration can turn a nearly right garment into a right one. Ask a tailor what is simple and what is not before you buy something that only fits with work.

Shoes, glasses, jewellery and accessories

Footwear. Boots, loafers, derbies, trainers and flat sandals are made in both ranges and read very differently depending on the sole and the toe. If you shop across departments, check the size system: in the US, women's sizes run one size above men's on the standard scale, and one and a half on what is called the common scale, so a men's 8 is a women's 9 or 9.5. TransHub publishes a conversion table between men's and women's sizes that is worth keeping on your phone.

Glasses. Frames sit in the middle of your face, so they change how it reads. Round, square, thin metal, heavy acetate and clear frames all give different results on the same person. Try on more than you think you need, and take photos so you can compare them side by side.

Jewellery. A single earring, a chain, signet rings, a plain watch, stacked bracelets. Small pieces are an easy way to add or subtract a cue without changing anything else, and they are easy to take off before a room where you would rather not be noticed.

Accessories. Bags, hats, scarves and belts carry a surprising amount of coding. A structured tote, a crossbody bag, a flat cap or a beanie are all ways to shift an outfit for very little money.

Shopping across departments

The labels over the rails are marketing categories. Clothing is assigned a gender through how it is sold, and garments do not know which side of the shop they hang on. Shop both.

Fitting rooms are where this can get uncomfortable. TransHub suggests taking a trusted friend, who can be a buffer between you and any nosy staff. Online, look for shops that publish garment measurements rather than just size names, and check the return policy before you order, so that trying something on at home costs you nothing.

Give yourself time. TransHub makes the point that cis people have their whole lives to work out their style. Every item you try on and reject is part of finding what works, not a sign you are doing it wrong.

Doing it on a budget

Second-hand is the best friend of anyone experimenting. Charity shops, thrift stores and op shops often have lots of different styles and sizes to try on, and a mistake costs little. Look in both departments every time.

Build around a few pieces rather than a whole wardrobe: one jacket that sits the way you want on the shoulders, one pair of trousers that fits, one pair of shoes you can walk in. Most outfits are variations on those.

Swap. Ask whether a local trans or queer group runs a clothing swap, or start one with friends: a shirt someone else has given up on costs nothing to try. Shop your own wardrobe too: a garment you already own can look completely different sized up, tucked in, cuffed or layered.

There is no body it is for

If most of the pictures of androgynous style you have seen show one kind of body, that tells you who tends to get photographed, not who the style belongs to. It works on fat bodies and thin ones, tall and short, young and old, disabled and not, on every skin colour and every face.

It is also not a test. Androgynous style does not require being unreadable, and it does not require looking like anyone's idea of non-binary. You can look androgynous on Tuesday and not on Saturday. What you are after is closer to [[gender-euphoria|gender euphoria]] than to a costume: the feeling of catching your reflection and recognising it.

Binding, tucking and other ways of changing how the body sits under clothes are outside what this page covers, and belong with a clinician or a trusted trans community health service.