It's surprising how many people don't notice that you're flat.

Yep, that was exactly it; I wouldn't say I was personally self conscious as I was never enamored with them to start with (they were a source of chronic pain due to fibrous/dense/cyst-y tissue), but I have to admit I was surprised at exactly how few people noticed anything unless I specifically pointed it out.

It makes sense, really, as most people don't stare at someone's chest while talking to them and, to some degree, there's kind of a social 'imprint' that tells us, "That is a woman, she has breasts" and we kind of automatically assume they're there--and if they're not 'obvious' the default assumption is usually 'she has small breasts'--without bothering to look (which would be creepy anyway!) since most people are just used to even the idea of them being there.

Shirts in general are fun, because I'm not that far out from my BMX, my brain still has this, "Hey--hey, you're forgetting something, guess what it is?" thing going on after I leave the house.

"I don't need a bra anymore, brain, settle down."

"Okay, understood, got it...but...you totally still forgot to put a bra on."

I'm loving the shoulder freedom, and it's been interesting feeling different shirt textures on my chest as the feeling comes back to it. It's also nice not to have bra imprints on my ribcage at the end of the day.

For the first week I didn't have to wear the binder, I had this, "Oh--but what if people notice I have NIPPLES?" thing going until I looked around the office and realized that on every single guy who wasn't wearing an undershirt, you could see the outline of his nipples in a t-shirt and nobody was fussed by it, so no need for me to be fussed by mine!

I turned into a pear too! I mean, I had wide hips and a narrowish waist before, but it wasn't that obvious because the breasts balanced it out and made me look more hourglass.

To be perfectly honest, I knew I was a little overweight (and had a little gut). I didn't think it'd be that drastic, as I'd worn chest binders before for doing cardio and was already semi-used to how I looked with a very nearly flat chest, but man--I underestimated how different surgically flat vs. binder flat was!

There are a few shirts I've put in the, "Not until I drop about 20lb" pile because of how very obviously pear shaped they make me--and how much they emphasize that gut that was not as small as I thought it was! Looks kind of like I have a beer gut going on.

I know I'll never have a flat stomach or no saddlebags from experience; at one point about 10 years ago I got really into going to the gym and dropped down to a size 0-2 but still had (to me) a pretty noticeable lower belly pouch and saddlebags; lipo is probably all that would get rid of them but, eh, not really that much of a problem for me and after seeing how lipo is done and reading up on the possible complications even when it's a very skilled doctor doing it of it the risk outweighs the benefit for me.

Thankfully, most of my wardrobe is either mens button down shirts or mens t-shirts as I have wide shoulders (size 40 with a mens jacket) and that + the DD breasts made most womens shirts just straight up not fit me right. If they fit my waist, they didn't fit over my chest or shoulders, and if they fit my chest and shoulders it usually meant I had to go into plus sizes or a good 8+ sizes up from the rest of me so I ended up looking boxy or like I was wearing a maternity shirt, so I just switched out to wearing mens shirts.

Since I tend to wear a lot of leggings or yoga pants, most of those shirts are also oversized which helps disguise the belly a bit too.

I haven't yet tried on any of the old womens t-shirts I have, they're mostly in that 'babydoll' style and looked pretty good with the breasts to balance everything out; my guess is I'll have that look that makes people ask, "When's the baby due?" if I wear them now though.

I didn't wear them often to begin with, but I'm starting to get kind of curious as to how they look on me now; might have to take a trip away from the laptop to put a couple on and see.

Edit: Tried one of them on; it doesn't look half bad. I did notice that, when wearing that style, I no longer stand leaning out to get more 'projection' from my chest though.

It got even funnier today!

I had a lash lift and tint done today because, well, why not?
I rarely wear makeup, but I always liked the look of mascara as my natural lashes are very pale and straight.

While the procedure was being done the lady doing them and I were chatting back and forth, talking about family, her kids and my pets (as I don't have kids), general life overall and I mentioned that I had surgery done back in June; she asked what I'd had done, which initially surprised me as:

A) I was laying flat on my back on a table with...

...a fitted tank top on.

So, in my mind, it should have been super obvious that I was flat as a board in a way that wasn't just, "really tiny AA cups".

"I had a double mastectomy for cancer prevention; I'm high risk and it runs in my family, so I thought it best to just have them removed before they could try to kill me."

She got quiet, and I figured it was more because that probably wasn't what she was expecting to hear (eyes were closed, I couldn't see her), then I hear, "Oh my god! You're TOTALLY FLAT! I can't believe I didn't notice that before! Do you mind if I ask how big you were before?"

"I was a DD before."

"Oh wow, that must have been a huge change! I bet your shoulders and neck hurt a lot less though, mine grew to a triple D after I had my son and I have grooves in my shoulders all the time from my bras, it's awful and I'm considering a reduction."

Then it turned into a discussion about what the surgery was like, how healing had gone, if I liked being flat (oh man, the answer to that was a big yes for me, after having the big ones prior), and overall just a nice conversation; nothing she asked was rude or prying, she was just curious about the whole procedure as she'd never met someone who'd had their breasts removed before.