YouTube star Jaime Raines was 18 when he decided to take testosterone, a hormone that helps transgender males masculinise their appearance, voice, and body. He found himself caught in the wrong body and this decision was going to be life-changing for him. He decided to document his transformation to show how he finally had the body he deserved. Jaime had thought of documenting his transformation for a year however, the kind of results he wanted took longer than he had expected and so, his transformation was recorded for 3 long years.
This is him holding the medicine. Jaime was 18 when he started.
He decided to take a selfie every day. “I initially intended to just do it for the first year,” he told BuzzFeed News. “But then I didn’t get any facial hair in my first year.”
The changes he saw on his face were not too drastic.
Slowly, the baby fat from his face started to disappear.
Can you spot some changes too?
The second year came with really big facial changes. “My face started to get longer and I lost the chubby cheeks.”
His nose changed drastically!
After 2 years of medication, Jaime spotted facial hair for the first time on his face. “My face started to get longer and I lost the chubby cheeks.”
The facial hair kept growing.
And growing.
After being on testosterone for more than 3 years, Jaime got a fully grown beard on his chin. Wow!
This is Jaime wearing the same outfit 3 years later!
Raines had around 1400 pictures of himself after the 3 years. He decided to turn them into a short film. After looking at his film, a TV producer added Raines in a new documentary for Channel 4 about transgender men.
Jaime’s entire family and his girlfriend have been supportive in his decision.
My whole family and my girlfriend [Shaaba] have just been really supportive and really excited for me because of the changes. I told my mum first and then she told my dad and brother and they’ve all just been really great with it. My mum thinks this was always how I was supposed to be. She doesn’t feel like she’s lost a daughter, because I’m the same person to her – I’m still her child, but now I’m just her son.
This is Jaime, enjoying the life he wanted!
