Where I Fit In

I left Korea several months ago. All the good and the bad are physically behind me now. Behind me also, a culture of hyper-conservative appearance draped over a very complicated attitude towards sexuality. So, boobs? No.

Now I live back in the States! A beautiful place, awash in bikini-clad tourists and strapless dresses and low-cut shirts. Boobs? Yes, very many.

But me? I’ve been trying to find myself in Korea for three years! I found a style for me that was right. Rephrase: I found a style that worked for me who lived in Korea. Transplant me to a part of the States where the weather is always amazing and it’s constantly tourist season, and it works less perfectly.

I’m still trying to find a style that works, but I’m really happy to find that my mindset is still very “I love my body!” I am astonishingly comfortable walking around in my bikini top (yay, Freya!!) at the beach, so really all I have to figure out is what to wear when I finally get a job!

Discovery: Spokesperson

I’ve written about George Takei before, and he’s back again with a less jokey bit of outreach. Recently, he’s reposted a video highlighting the struggles that large-busted women face. His page reaches a really big audience, so I’m hopeful that it will inspire more people to check out bra-fitting and having empathy for those of us who have to wear bras!

Laser Hair Removal 1.5

It’s been a bit over two weeks since my first appointment. Many of the online sources I found for aftercare prescribed aloe vera gel and sunburn care, but I was lazy and did none of those. My doctor suggested no exercise for a week, and I participated in an Ultimate Frisbee beach weekend three days after the appointment.

I’m usually much better at listening to authority, promise.

For the first week, it really seemed like there was no difference. The hair was just there! Didn’t feel any different, didn’t look any sparser. In the past week, though, the hair’s just been falling out! A scrub in the shower just shook a bunch off. I want to say that about 20% of the hair is still down there, if even that. The doctor quoted an average of 70% hair off with 5 visits, so the hair that has come out so far might grow back. I’ll let you know. Underarms have changed significantly less, but I scrub those areas much less in the shower. Tickle reasons.

A Jab at Personal Blogging: The Antelope Blog

CurvyHK is my platform for discussing the intersection of Curvy and HK, and my revelations about physical health, body image, and beauty that have stemmed from studying that intersection.

Then it got deep and personal. Really personal.

Which was great for me, because it helped me identify and confront my thoughts. But it wasn’t great for what I had planned for this website. So here’s the separation.

I’ve moved all of my too-personal posts from CurvyHK over to my new personal blog, The Antelope Blog. I haven’t made it pretty and presentable with images yet, but that’s my new venue for introspective and lifey things. Such as… my engagement!

Hope to see you lovely readers there~

Laser Hair Removal in South Korea

I’ve done several of the hair-removal methods.

Shaving, check. Giant raised follicles and stubble-like results, check.

Epilator, check. Pretty good, actually. Still using my first epilator that I bought about ten years ago.

Waxing, check. Relaxing music in a clean environment, being single-mindedly fussed over, smooooooth vagina, check. Only issue was ingrowns from hell, and the tsk tsk every time my waxing expert saw them. Enjoyed these times.

Well, time for the next level: laser hair removal. The thought of permanent hairlessness is appealing. I very much prefer to be smooth. I found a place in Daejeon (a major city in central South Korea) called IAAN clinic with an English-speaking doctor and booked myself for a 7pm weekday/night/evening appointment.

Generally, Dr. Jung explained, it took 5 sessions to get 75% of the hair, varying by individual, and he would recommend more based on the situation, but I’m leaving Korea soon and can only fit in three sessions.

I’m receiving treatment for my underarms and Brazilian area (vagina, but they don’t call it that in the office).

I went in quite early, at 6:45. The front desk doesn’t speak fluent English but the nurses are good enough to communicate very reliably. I filled in a simple form and the doctor brought me in to talk. He explained a little about pre-care and after-care and asked if I had any questions. I changed into the provided tank top and gown. The doctor lasered my underarms and then the nurses did the Brazilian.

So I thought that I’d be in pretty good shape pain-wise, having done waxing for the past year. The extent of pain is similar but the pain is of a different kind. It felt kind of like tweezing the hairs, but with tiny lightsabers as tweezers.

Anyway, I was out by 7:30, and I’ll have my next appointment in a month!

Mirena

Was not very sexually active.

 

Then was.

 

Therefore, needed birth control.

 

Do not have a reliable enough schedule to be responsible with pills.

 

Therefore, alternative.

 

Walked into a clinic to ask about options, having read up on IUDs, rings, and implants.

 

I walked out forty minutes later with a Mirena in my uterus.

 

I’m really glad I didn’t know what it looked like before agreeing to stick it up my body. I knew what it did, just not that it looked like… that.

 

Insertion was painful but not unbearable. I let out a bunch of groans and calm vocalizations to let them know that HEY THERE I FEEL THAT.

 

and I kept feeling it for a few hours. They shot me in the butt with something–maybe a safety round of birth control since I later read up on the ideal dates for Mirena insertion and I was a couple days out of it.

 

It was a little over 350,000 won. That’s a bit over 280 US dollars, 255 euros, or 200 British pounds.

 

Spotting immediately following–they gave me a pantyliner.

 

They sent me to the pharmacy to pick up a day of pills. There I really started feeling it. Low, heavy, concentrated cramps right where they worked on, cold sweat and slight nausea. I was leaning back on the chair waiting for my prescription to be filled, and breathing slowly to try to avoid jarring and putting pressure on that part of my body.

 

I’d planned to walk home and run errands on the way. Usually, if I don’t walk, I bus. I couldn’t even do that, knowing the walk home from the bus stop. I took a taxi and must have looked like shit, because the taxi driver was being super nice-uncle-y.

 

“We’re almost there.”

“I think it’s a bit more tha-“

“I know, I mean you should wake up.”

“Oh.”

He took me straight up to the lot.

“You should go in, take your medicine, and rest right away.”

 

Sometimes people are super sweet.

 

As soon as I dragged myself up the stairs (there was actual dragging here), I called up a friend and asked him to buy me porridge. Again, must have sounded like shit because he sounded worried and offered to help more. Whimpered my way to my door and inhaled two Advil right away. Lots of bloaty cramps and all that.

 

I tried some period-cramp methods. Hot tea-good. Hot water bottle-heavenly. Bed-no other place in the world would suffice. Also caught up on a football game. My underdog team winning helped immensely.

 

 

In perspective, though, my pain threshold is incredibly LOW. I suck at taking pain.

 

 

 

Second day. Mild, very very mild cramps resembling gas cramps.

 

Third day… I feel on top of the fucking world.

 

 

A month in: I’m happy knowing that I’m not going to get pregnant. But the constant spotting is a little annoying. I wanted to be one of those people who completely lost their periods. I do have my trusty Lunette, though, and I have some sea sponges on the way that I want to try out.

 

Several months in: Spotting went away after about two weeks. I had a short period, and stuck in the sea sponge in. Worked pretty well! More in-depth writings about the sea sponge to come (I promise). Amidst the mildest of mild anxiety episodes, the secure knowledge that I am protected from pregnancy is sweet, sweet comfort.

Lepel Fiore

Let’s get back to bra things!

I haven’t bought anything new for a while because my current drawer, with my staples like CK Romances and Cleo Lucys, have been taking good care of me. But because of some of them falling apart, lots of them getting discolored, and me just also wanting some shiny new playthings, I hopped back onto ebay to see what was going on.

Hey… where’d all the Lucy’s go?????

When did Freya come out with all this stuff???

Who’s this Lepel character and why’s she all over the place?

I clearly have not kept up.

I vaguely remember seeing Lepel during my last stage of bra-buying, but wasn’t it all non-professional photos on mannequins?

This time around, they were professional stock photos, models and all, and sold by one of my usual ebay stores (shout-out to the ever-reliable Belle Lingerie!) so I grabbed a nice black padded Fiore balcony.

It’s good.

Really, it’s good.

It’s comfortable and supportive, and simple enough to be a reliable day-to-day bra, while detailed enough to work with slightly fancier occasions.

There’s a small, barely visible stretch of rubber elastic along the top of the cup, but it doesn’t push down at all.

I’m relieved that it’s solid black. I’ve been snipping off the colorful little decorations at the top of the cup of almost all my bras lately, and it’s great that I don’t have to worry about that here.

One caveat is that the straps are a little too far apart, but not unbearably so.

The caveat is so negligible, in fact, that I went and bought two more Fiores (a red-and-black, and a blue, full-cup, both unpadded and just as comfortable). Yeah, it’s a good bra. I usually don’t like full-cup, either, but they feel great.

I should have gone with my normal 28GG, though. I bought all of these in 30G, feeling like I’d gained weight and needed the extra length in the band. Nope.

This is probably why I found it, actually. I went back to search 28GGs, and well, hello again Freya!

I guess the selection for my actual size hasn’t really changed.

 

Happy New Year, and best wishes for all of us!

Review: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying

The book by Kondo Marie

Books claim to be enlightening, mind-opening and life-changing all the damn time. In fiction, in histories, in science books, I’ll readily believe that my perspective on something will be different by the end of a read. On a self-help book, on a lifestyle book, I’m more doubtful. Aren’t they just trying to sell themselves? However, this one I’ve read and applied has so far proven influential for at least one big sweep. It’s one of the best turns my lifestyle has taken, and I’m working on making it last.

As the title indicates, the book is about making your living space clean and organized (and how it will greatly and positively impact the rest of your life). Keeping any space organized has never really been my thing. Clothes and hairties and socks and cups and random things everywhere! Slightly better when I have a roommate, but only for courtesy’s sake. Not in my nature to keep thins in visual order, right?

Wrong, according to Kondo Marie. She might be right.

In her book, she goes through her personal journey in discovering her foolproof method of tidying, and then describes gently how to use this KonMari method. It’s not a long read, and the tone is light and unassuming. I lent the book to my neighbor and recent best friend as soon as I finished it.

The method boils down to this essential–as you go through every object you own (there’s a system for this–again, I recommend reading the book!!). Hold it in your hands. If if gives you joy and fulfills you in the now–not once upon a time, and not in some hypothetical future, then keep it.

Anything you don’t specifically choose to keep, say thank you to it for fulfilling your life at one point (especially for sentimental objects that you kept for no other reason) and throw/donate it out. It’s done its job.

What’s left is a living space of only objects and ideas that specifically pertain to your current self–which is a lot less /STUFF/ than before, most likely. At that point, you assign places to things and things to places and let them live in their peaceful homes, homes that they go back to after they do their jobs for the day.

It’s one big event, by the way, not a “spend five minutes each day of your life on decluttering your home”. The throw-things-out party is one, big emotionally-draining project that may span days, perhaps weeks. Mine–just a single-person studio, living initially out of a suitcase, abroad–took nearly two weeks. I was stunned at the sheer amount of clothes I donated.

Here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal about her book:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/marie-kondo-and-the-tidying-up-trend-1424970535

and an interview:

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/02/27/tidier-in-chief-marie-kondo-id-like-to-tidy-up-the-entire-planet/

I haven’t had the chance to watch it, but she had a Google talk as well!

Well worth the read, well worth the change. Give it a try!

Happy New Year

This blog is not one of those that you check your schedule to see, “Hey, it’s Monday! Let’s go check out CHK’s new post.” It’s one of those that keep information up so that people can find me through search engines when they want specific information. I may not have intended it to be this way, but I’ve built this system to work.

(The above is just something that I’m trying to keep in mind for myself.)

Honestly, I don’t have the passion or expertise to blog regularly. And I only want to write when I have both.

That’s what I’m going to do!

That means that I may step a bit away from bras and breasts. The name of this site is CurvyHK, not Bras from That Girl. What I write should be what’s relevant and what’s current to me, as a woman, as a Chinese-American, as a person who’s in the life situation that I am now. (And just for the record–it’s a darn good life situation.)

Being Active (Panache Sports Review)

I keep saying to myself, to my friends, and to my family: Korea has changed me! Korea is changing me!

Who is this person I’ve become, and what kind of life is this that I’m living now?

And it’s not at all bad. I’m LOVING the drastically different direction that my life has taken.

I’m much more social than I’ve ever been. I’m more direct. I’m trying to become more knowledgeable about beauty and fashion, working on my appearance and prettying up for work and hanging out.

No, that’s not me. I do have this lip product though and have enough of an opinion about it to review it later.

Another thing is that I’ve become much more active.

I don’t want to say that I was necessarily inactive before. I spend a lot of time sitting around but through my life, I’ve usually been involved in some kind of sport a few hours a week.

Right now, though, I’m practicing martial arts every weeknight, and I play a somewhat rough game of Ultimate Frisbee (which I’ve fallen completely and utterly in love with) every weekend.

It’s not much considering many people do the equivalent of my weekly exertions on a daily basis, but it’s a lot more, and a lot more consistent, than what I’ve done before. And I love it! I don’t put every ounce of strength into it because I do need to keep an able body with workable muscles and joints for work but I go at these things hard enough to feel it really good. And does it feel good! Plus, I’ve met, and I keep meeting, really great people.

But, you know. Bras.

The normal underwired ones (say, Cleo Lucy, CK Romance, CK Emily) actually work totally fine. I do regularly use these for exercise. However, when I foresee a tougher workout, and for Ultimate Frisbee when I’m sprinting and leaping and crashing into people, I definitely prefer my sports bra.

I prefer it so much that I have several of the same one.

And that same one would be… the Panache Sport!

Yes, it’s a bra review. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

I really like the Panache Sport (clearly) but one thing I didn’t know when I first tried it is that it seems to run large in the cups. The 28GG that I started out with was pretty uncomfortable. Once I sized down to 28G, though, we were best friends!

It’s quite pricey, and I don’t imagine that people are super comfortable with selling/buying used sports bras, but I definitely recommend it! I’ve bought mine from a few sources: ebay, zulily, and largecuplingerie.

It’s very durable and very comfortable. The material is sturdy and the cups are thick. The bra tacks all around each breast, so you have encapsulation preventing bounce rather than compression (+10 for comfort). In order to provide the encapsulation, though, the bra comes up rather high, so if your workout top is a normal tank or tee, there’s a good chance it’ll show. For martial arts, I usually have a higher-neck tee over the bra and then my uniform. But, since it comes in fun colors (I actually don’t have a black one… if I decide I need another, I guess I’m going for black!) showing really doesn’t matter in any other situation.

As for washing–I do wash it after every wear. Since I wear it for more hardcore sessions, it’s usually soaked in sweat (it and my first top), so there’s no way I’d put it back on later. Same method as other bras, though. Handwash, soak and scrub the wires especially, press water out, let out to dry.

There is a J-hook to connect the straps in the back but I’ve been happy with the standard formation.

I went hiking and outdoor climbing yesterday (for the first time, and I had an absolute blast!!) and decided to try the J-hook but I had to undo it and go back to standard straps before I even left the house. Even with the straps lengthened all the way, it was simply much too tight for me.