Oh god, I’m going to have to be the Old Trans explaining why everyone else’s guesses on this one are wrong, lmao.
Back In The Day, before prosthetic soft penises (‘packers’) were widely available and cheap, a common substitute was to take a condom and fill it with hair gel. I never did it, but it was a tip around the time I came out in the mid 00s (although by then it was already starting to fade out in favor of silicone packers used today, it was mostly an affordability thing at that point). These weren’t for sex, it’s just to have something in your pants during your normal day that’s penis shaped.
Oof, yeah, $45 in the 90s (? E: yeah, just saw '97 on your OP!) was a nonstarter for a lot of trans men! Condoms and hair gel were way cheaper in the short term.
Also Jesus Christ, I thought $40 for a binder now was highway robbery! $85?! That thing better be embroidered with gold.
Water is too liquid and flowy, that’s not how flesh acts. Hair gel isn’t 1:1 either, but it’s closer and readily available. It will also take slightly longer than water to make it look like you pissed yourself if the condom pops.
Oh god, I’m going to have to be the Old Trans explaining why everyone else’s guesses on this one are wrong, lmao.
Back In The Day, before prosthetic soft penises (‘packers’) were widely available and cheap, a common substitute was to take a condom and fill it with hair gel. I never did it, but it was a tip around the time I came out in the mid 00s (although by then it was already starting to fade out in favor of silicone packers used today, it was mostly an affordability thing at that point). These weren’t for sex, it’s just to have something in your pants during your normal day that’s penis shaped.
Ah, that makes far more sense than the T-gel explanation. Probably a more realistic feel than the balled up socks.
Here’s an ad for a packer from the same issue of the magazine.
Oof, yeah, $45 in the 90s (? E: yeah, just saw '97 on your OP!) was a nonstarter for a lot of trans men! Condoms and hair gel were way cheaper in the short term.
Also Jesus Christ, I thought $40 for a binder now was highway robbery! $85?! That thing better be embroidered with gold.
And being sold out of Conroe Texas is wild - it still is a very yeehaw area north of Houston now and would have been 10x so back in the 90’s
Why hair gel and not something like water?
Water is too liquid and flowy, that’s not how flesh acts. Hair gel isn’t 1:1 either, but it’s closer and readily available. It will also take slightly longer than water to make it look like you pissed yourself if the condom pops.
The thought of a hair gel water balloon that lives on your crotch terrifies me. I’m glad there are better options available now~
Same as DIY breastforms, I would suspect; the squash ‘n’ stretch doesn’t work as well with water as it does with something thicker.
Wait, is that why a dick is sometimes called a ‘pecker’?