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Boobs Are Weird.
I've had boobs for more than ten years now, and I think that this is the first time I've ever just stood in front of a mirror and stared at them for any length of time.
I was actually looking in the mirror lamenting about washing my hair because it looks so good when I noticed them just hanging there. And they're just... so weird. They're big floppy bags hanging off my chest. That I have to pay a great deal of money to hold up.
So I stood there for a good 10 minutes just staring at my bare chest from different angles. And I still have no idea about shape. I've read the guides on here and on /r/abrathatfits, and I understand fully the CONCEPT of shapes, but I don't have any clue what mine fall into.
Are they conical? If I'm not holding them with my hands, they sort of make a very soft VV shape, but if I support them with my hands right at the fold, they are two very wide but very distinct U's.
Are they shallow? I'm not even sure what that looks like in larger sizes like mine (somewhere near a 36G).
Are they soft or firm? To what do I compare this? I haven't had much experience touching other boobs to have a point of reference.
If I look from one angle, they seem to be full on bottom. If I look from another, they seem full on top. Some angles make me think they're fuller in the centre, but others make me sure they're fuller on the outside. Mostly, to me, they just look full.
Are they tall? Short? Wide? Narrow? Close? Projected? I don't know.
They're big, floppy bags of tissue and fat hanging off my chest, and they are WEIRD.
Filed under Boob and body issues
7 comments
Naked boobs actually don't tell you much about shape. Other than projected vs shallow. If you describe them as hanging bags- projected.
It's what boobs do when supported that tells you about shape. Do bras always cut into the top of your boobs? Do you have trouble filling the top of the cup? Do wires tend to sit on your breast tissue under the arm, or go well past where your boobs end? In a bra do your boobs tend to look more teardrop shaped or round? These are the answers that reveal your shape. It's the reason ABTF never uses naked boobs as a reference. For fit purposes it's just not very useful. :)
And soft tissue is very pliable, it will mold to whatever bra you put it in,more or less. I jokingly refer to mine as 'pudding boobs'. Firm tissue fights more against bras in try on, where soft tissue settles over time, so fit problems become more apparent after extended wear. Firm tissue tends to be somewhat self supporting. Soft tissue rarely pairs with naturally perky boobs.
I think so many of us look at the ABTF diagrams the first time and miss the part where it says 'in a bra', and think 'my boobs don't look like any of those!' Rest assured - it's your bras that tell you about your boobs, your boobs themselves don't have much to say on the matter.
Hahahahaha! Excellent post. I agree, boobs are weird. But also wonderful. They're like play-doh--you can make different shapes with different bras :-D
I may get flayed for saying this, especially by the young bloggers who are ALLLL about the breast shape stuff, but not all of these criteria are particularly important to brafitting, in my opinion. To me, one of the great things about Bratabase is that it lets you see bra/boob compatibility objectively, in terms of actual numbered measurements, instead of trying to endlessly label this body part with descriptive terms.
The most important shape features for people in your size range are going to be lying down breast perimeter (for which you can use a tape measure) and root width (for which you pretty much need to do trial and error). Height is important too, but tall roots are a bit less common in your size range. If you have an unusually tall root, you will probably be able to see this: wearing a supportive bra, or supporting your boobs with your hands, and looking at yourself in profile in the mirror, does your breast profile look like a letter C that is fairly concentrated on a smallish area of your torso, with well-defined and obvious upper edge (usually you can even make an upper crease if you compress the boob), and several inches of lean, boobless surface separating the top of the breast and your clavicle? If so, your breast root is not particularly tall. Or does your breast profile look more like a tall teardrop shape, with the upper breast tissue tapering smoothly and gradually all the way up to your clavicle? If you have this latter shape, your breast root is quite tall and you will need to look for cups that don't cut into it.
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