the third sex

Honey, one of the regular models on the main site, has just gone to the island of Samui where she has a new job working in a ladyboy cabaret. I’m going to miss her. She certainly is one of the cutest ladyboys I’ve known in recent years, which is why I took so many stills sets and videos of her. A lovely face, perfect honey-coloured skin without a blemish to be seen, continually changing hair styles and colouring so that she never looked the same from one shoot to another, a tight little bottom, and a hard little cock with a pronounced foreskin. What more can one ask of a girl? But Honey’s looks have been changing. I had first taken her photograph when she just turned 18, and she is 20 now. Plus, as I know the family, I have actually known her since she was 16. So I have watched over the past four or five years how she has changed. I remember the outbreak of teenage spots on her face that so embarrassed her she stayed indoors until they had gone. I remember the teeth brace, a rather pretty green effort which were fine in reality but which looked like she had a mouth full of spinach when I tried photographing her. Don’t smile! I remember the dark-brown contact lenses that changed her eyes from being a clear light brown to a foxy glitter. Not a good look, Honey. Seeing her closeup so many times I came to know every square inch of her body. Her flat, boyish chest was not very photogenic, but the nipples stood out and looked sensual when shot from the side. Her bottom was tiny and very firm, but assumed a lovely oval shape when she was on her elbows and knees, looking bigger and plumper than it actually was. I watched with great interest how the light pubic hair growth of an 18-year-old continued to grow until by 20 her pubes were long, thick and silky. I noted also that she seemed to have a permanent hard-on. There was always a goodly bulge in her knickers and when the pants came down her cock would spring free without any need at all for stimulation. The foreskin was long, hanging naturally over the glans even when her cock was fully erect, but leaving an enticing opening through which the moist pink head could be seen. She could slide it all the way back, but usually preferred not too, as the skin was tight. Having observed her so intimately through the second half of her teens, I have seen the changes a ladyboy goes through. We all of course change dramatically at that age, but with a ladyboy whose main desire is to be as feminine as possible, the changes are acute. In Honey’s case she has gone from a winsome-faced youngster to, in recent months, a more masculine looking person. She doesn’t take hormones – says they don’t agree with her – and so consequently she has simply been following the path to natural maturity. Don’t get me wrong. She is still very feminine, because she embarked on the ladyboy lifestyle before she even reached puberty, and to her it is entirely natural. But the cuteness she had in those early shots when she was 18 has matured out of her: she is taller, leaner, and her facial bone structure has become more pronounced. Still very attractive, yes, but different. I was very much aware of it at the time, but going back through the sets to select the photos for this piece, I was even more aware of the changes. I have placed the pix here in chronological order, so you can see for yourselves.

Ageing is a problem that ladyboys face more acutely than anyone else. I see them in extreme close-up, and I can usually work out roughly how old they are at first glance, before I even check their ID. Female hormones will of course distort the appearance in some ways, plumping out faces and bodies and keeping the skin soft and supple, but I can usually tell when the ladyboy before me is 25, rather than 22, and certainly 18. This is especially so when the clothes come off. I very seldom photograph a ladyboy in the upper-20s age range. This is mainly through personal preference. I do know some of the older ones of 30 or so who have matured well, mainly through good genetics rather than any systematic attempts to stay young. But the bloom has gone, the sexuality of a young ladyboy beginning to realise just how desirable she is, and the mature person standing before me will look a lot different to the way she looked ten years previously. But by that age anyway, many ladyboys have removed themselves from the scene. They have gone past the stage of working in the bars and have graduated to either being taken care of by a regular partner or have gone into business, gone back upcountry, or joined a cabaret, which tend to prefer the more seasoned and reliable types, rather than the youngsters who will disappear at the slightest chance to make more money.

If they are cabaret performers, then their free time is limited, with evening shoots usually out of the question, and although I have taken photos of many cabaret girls, they have generally arrived late in the afternoon and been in a great rush to get to the theatre in time for costumes and rehearsals. So, when you go to see a ladyboy cabaret in Thailand (and I do recommend it as hugely entertaining, although almost entirely free of sexual innuendo), be aware that these are mostly mature ladyboys, more so than those you will meet in the go-go bars such as Cascade and KC3. I am sure that Honey will do well at the Samui cabaret. She has always been a cabaret performer, but usually it has been with travelling shows, of which there are many in Thailand. Often I have received a call from her, sounding full of fun, telling me she is in Phuket or Hua Hin or out in the sticks somewhere taking part in a friend’s travelling show. She is a natural mover, and being about five-seven in height and very slender, I am sure she will look fantastic on stage.I asked her why she is moving to Samui. She told me she has no money, and that in Bangkok she was finding it difficult to get regular work. Because of her cabaret work over the years she has plenty of contacts in the business, and when the offer came up to go down south, she took it. She told me that she wants to have a boob job done, and to try and save. She can do this by working in Samui. I’m going to miss her.