Boobs, I mean, Bras, and the eternal frustration

Right so went back and asked for my old band size but they said that meant I needed to go up a cup size and now somehow I have three D size bras which is just insane since I've thought I was a B my entire adult life. Ds! Wut?

Love the bras though.

E THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I JUST WENT THROUGH!!!!

Loving my smaller band/bigger-cup bras, btw. It is like the secret of life, for realz.

Also not to be crepey but from WDYLL photos I would not have said "ENBB have small boobies!" So now that I know that my not-large boobies are DD or DDD, the fact that you are tall but thin and small-framed and yet have been pronouced D is like total affirmation.

YA'LL EVERYONE GO GET BIGGER CUPS/SMALLER BANDS!

Which store did you do this at again? Was it up at Friendship Heights? Would go and get myself measured but would like to stick in cowardly fashion to the store you can already vouch for.

I went to the Nordstrom at Montgomery/Westfield Mall on Democracy near the intersection of Old Georgetown (there's no Norstrom at Friendship Heights, sadly). It is a car destination, but I am totally on board with gathering you up for a road trip, lj!

boob/bra revelation road trip! this would be awesome.

It shall be so!

"boob/bra revelation road trip!" sounds like a poorly translated frat comedy movie title, tbh

Bridesmaids 2

LOL Q! It is the weirdest thing. I am so glad you went and posted about it though because I prob never have gotten fittted and just kept wearing the same wrong size. :)

ok so with this thread in mind, i went into target to try on a few different sizes. i think i usually buy like 36C. the best fitting size was a 34DD, but there was literally only ONE bra in the entire store in that size. a 36DD was too loose in the band (even on the tightest hooks), and a 34DD still feels too small in the cups, so i think i need to go to nordstrom and try a 34DDD (none in that size at all at target). thanks for all the bra tips, ladies! i might just get a bra that actually fits, one of these days.

some of the brands at nordstrom may fit you differently--tho i've never tried a target bra, american brands like maidenform and bali tend to have looser bands than the nicer (european, wider size-range) brands iirc. which further complicates things. so it might be worth even trying a few band sizes in that range at nordstrom. sometimes they'll be labeled e and f instead of dd and ddd.

and stuff will be pricey, $60 and up around that size. if that's too daunting, take note of brands and styles/sizes that fit you well and you can look around ebay. i've gotten some nice bras on ebay for half priceish.

it can seem like a ridiculous quest for elusive overpriced bras but it's so worth it. i go on and on and ON about this stuff sometimes but it's because it made such a massive difference for me.

yeah i bought a couple of v v cheap bras at target that didn't fit completely right, but will do in the interim - the two bras are i currently own are just ridiculously ill-fitting, and i'm tired of being so uncomfortable ALL OF THE TIME. maybe i'll make a special trip out to nordstrom's next weekend.

ill-fitting bras suck, and once you start to get an idea of what fits better, they seem even more torturous. :(

but then you get a better size and angels sing and you're more comfortable and you stare at your chest every time you see a mirror for a while because WHOA you look better.

In London, found myself near Rigby and Peller. Thought of this thread. Stepped in a 34B, came out a 32D with a much lighter wallet. And the shapes address my... size disparity.

Oh OH I bought a new bra and I like it a lot and I have been meaning to post about it here:

http://www.herroom.com/elomi-8120-hermione-underwire-bandless-molded-bra.shtml

Great things about this bra:
It's lined, but it's also soft, so it feels like a garment and not a scaffolding.
So far, nothing is poking or jabbing or digging into me.
It's called the "Hermione" and I am a huge dork.
It's not massively cleavage inducing so I can wear it with a scoop/v-neck shirt and not worry that I'll look like, I don't know, Jennifer Love Hewitt while trying to teach undergrads (some people don't like this).

Drawbacks:
Probably could use a little more lining, but I'll take the comfort compromise.
It only comes in gray and fawn. HELLO? Black???

Summary: if you have large breasts and would like a lined bra that does not feel like you are strapping an actual building around your chest, this is a really good one.

The grey is nice, though!

It is! It's pretty in person, too. I just like black underthings best.

Stepped in a 34B, came out a 32D
impressive!
i need to go lingerie shopping again, i do believe...

Yeah I went in a 38B and came out a 36D. NUTS.

Where do I have to go to walk in 32B and leave with bigger boobs?

http://www.google.com/search?q=dr.+beverly+hills&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari#hl=en&client=safari&q=cheap+boob+job+chicago&oq=cheap+boob+job+chicago&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=12&gs_upl=22391l37481l0l38751l33l31l4l10l10l0l422l3391l1.7.5.2.1l17l0&mvs=0&bav=cf.osb&fp=fb41dc15b06004eb&biw=320&bih=416

:(
all you guys have to do is go to a store and poof! surprise D cups.

So guess what, for the past few weeks my regular bras (same design) have been feeling a little uncomfortable and I partly blame this thread for making me realise they don't fit too well. I went into VS (I know...) an ill-fitting 34A, probably 34B and came out a 32C. I'm sure the sizing is messed up because the Bs fit me worse (too small --> quadroboob) than my current A's which are mainly ok just a bit off.

In my new bras, certain shirts are too small. However, I'm also piling on sugar-binge-too-tired-not-to-spike-blood-sugar weight so it might be that.

BTW never underestimate Victoria's Secret's capacity for sticking the word "sexy!" on everything. There was a t-shirt for sleeping in, in the changing room', which had a sticker on specifiying the size as "one size sexy!".

this thread is like a magical portal to having bigger boobs, i just know it

lol Lech - I'm pretty sure it's just that everything we've ever been taught about bra sizing is wrong and also that it may have changed over time. Honestly there's not way I have Ds in the sense that I've always imagined D sized boobs to look like. Wait - that doens't make sense. I mean - I think in my case it's partly beucase I'm tall so they don't look big on my frame? I think that someone who was smaller all around but wore the same size would have way bigger actual boobs. idk. It's very strange indeed.

My bra today is safety-pinned and dress-taped into place to make the band about 3" smaller than the smallest hook.

Honestly there's not way I have Ds in the sense that I've always imagined D sized boobs to look like.

I feel the same way. Well, about my Ds, not yours.

lol

A friend of mine has truly big boobs and recently went through her own proper bra fitting revelation. She has the kind of boobs I would have said were Ds and had been wearing a 40 D for years. She went into the store a 40D and came out a 38 K! I honestly didn't even know they made K sized bras.

Back in the years when I cleaned hotel rooms as a summer job, I saw some bras drying in bathrooms that were...prodigious. Like it seemed misshapen to 15-yo me to even be that big.

15-yo me was kind of a jerk.

Come on, Amanda. Let's go to Isabel one of these days after work and see if we can't get you some tig ole bitties.

My bras are big enough that I can wear them as hats. And not yarmulkes. Like... full coverage hats. I know this because sometimes when I am folding laundry I put my bra on my head for lols.

My bras would definitely have frightened/horrified 15-year-old Laurel.

To be fair, and to crossover w that "things your mom said forever" thread, one thing my mom said forever was, "You're so much more...voluptuous than I ever was."

I was not at all sure whether that was supposed to be a good thing.

lol my mom always said I got my paternal grandmother and aunt's small boobs. I didn't really get boobs until i was in my 20s though which was sort of strange.

Lord, yes, my mom was always pointing out how I got my boobs from my grandmother, who is one of six sisters, five of whom were built like brick houses (the sixth was built more like an igloo).

lollll

I didn't really get boobs until i was in my 20s though which was sort of strange.

me too - i had always yearned for bigger boobs, then when i got them i realised they were really not worth the trouble.

To be fair, and to crossover w that "things your mom said forever" thread, one thing my mom said forever was, "You're so much more...voluptuous than I ever was."
laurel your mom is obsessed with talking about bodies, my GOD!

I didn't get "real" boobs until my twenties. I thought I was done at 18 but I grew an inch in height between the my 19th and 20th year, also had to start shaving under my arms. Previously there was nothing there. I went from went from a 34B to a 38C between my 21-26 years old despite losing what my mother called baby fat everywhere else. This is why I don't think young girls should get breast implants as high school or college graduation gifts. You are still growing and changing sometimes until you are 25 or so.

As you may have noticed, LL, my mom is obsessed with TALKING. Lots of things have been said over the years, many of them repeatedly!

My bra feels great today, btw, being 3" smaller!!! I can't believe I've been wearing it so loose for months and months.

Question to all: How long do you keep a bra, on average, before throwing it out & replacing? Usually my answer is "under the underwires stab me in the soft tissues" but this whole band-size thing is making me revise that estimate downward.

*Until the underwires stab me

^^

Yeah. I mean - until the other week I literally had ONE BRA that I would just wash every couple or night or so and it had been that way for at least a couple years. It was a dire situation.

It is said that if your bra has the correct band size, the underwires will stab you less because they are held snugly against the body in the right place. Also the friction of wearing a too-big band won't erode the underwire casings.

Per my email, I bought my last round of bras on July 19, 2010 and since I don't really have any plans to replace them any time soon, I'll go ahead and say two, two and a half years. I have four, wear two each week, and wash them in the god damn washing machine like the good lord intended (but I don't put them in the dryer).

Although thinking about it, I bought those bras because the underwires were popping out of my last set. I lost an underwire from one of these bras but I just sewed it back in.

When the underwires stab me, it's because they've worked their way out of the casing by breaking through the lining fabric after like 3 years of ownership or more, so that's probably way past the time when I should have jettisoned them for other fit/quality reasons.

You all sound v sensible, I will assume that proper fit would prolong the wearability and proceed accordingly.