Comfortable After 60
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We Asked 3,200 Women Over 60 What They Wear Instead of a Bra. These Are the Answers You Hearted Most.
Last month Sharon asked a question that got more replies than anything in this group's nine years. Over 1,800 of you answered, and a lot of you said things you've never said out loud to anyone.
I've pulled the most-hearted answers together so you don't have to scroll through all of them. Grab a coffee, ladies. Here's Sharon's post first.
Honest question for the ladies here. It's 91 degrees, I've got the rash under my band AGAIN, and I'm sitting in my living room at 2 in the afternoon in a bra, with nobody coming over, thinking: why am I doing this to myself?
Going without isn't the answer either. At my size, everything ends up at my waist and I feel sloppy. What do you all actually wear??
Sharon, you're not alone. The band is where all the sweat sits, and then it rubs all day. I've had that red raw strip under there every summer since I turned 60 and I thought it was just me.
This is what mine looked like every single night by the sink. Soaked through. And the skin underneath was worse.
Hot flashes on top of it. When one hits, the first thing I want to do is rip the bra off, and you can't exactly do that at the pharmacy.
After menopause everything changed. Smaller round the ribs, fuller in the cup, and everything sits lower. Not one bra in my drawer fits the body I have now. The band rides up my back and the cups gape.
My shoulders slope more than they used to, so the straps slide off all day long. I spend half my time pushing them back up under my blouse.
Can I say the thing? The band makes rolls on my back and under my arms that I don't even have when I take it off. I stopped wearing anything fitted because of it. It's the bra doing that, not me.
Terri, thank you for saying it. Every one of us has stood sideways in the mirror and felt that.
This is the part that surprised me. I went through every answer, and one thing came up more than everything else put together: a soft tank top with the bra built into it. No band, no wire, no hooks. Members kept naming the same one, the Freeform Tank.
Here's what they said about it.
Bagged up every bra I own last week after my 3 tanks came. 40 years of bras, gone to Goodwill. Nothing digs, nothing rides up, nothing to unhook at night.
No band means no sweat line under the bust. That was the whole thing for me. The rash is gone and it's been a hot one out here.
OK but does it actually HOLD you up? I'm a DD. Every shelf-bra cami I've tried had a strip of elastic and a floppy pad that ended up in my armpit after one wash.
Janet, I thought the same. Turned mine inside out for you. The cups are SEWN IN all the way round. Shaped cups, not pads. Nothing to fish out, and they come out of the wash the same shape they went in. I'm a DDD and it holds me better than my bras did.
Why it holds without a band
A normal bra holds you up by squeezing a tight band round your ribs. This one holds you in shaped cups that are stitched permanently into the front of a fitted tank, and the whole top carries the weight from your shoulders to your hips. The straps are two inches wide and flat, so they stay put on a sloping shoulder. Nothing presses under the bust, so there's no damp line for a rash to start in, and no band to make rolls.
Update for the rolls ladies: it's smooth all the way down the back. I wore my fitted green blouse to my grandson's graduation. First time in three years.
You pick your size off a plain chart, S to 3XL. No cup letters, no band numbers, no girl with a tape measure. It fits the shape I have now.
So many of you asked for the link that I'm putting it here once. It's only sold on their own site, not in stores.
The Freeform Tank
- Cups sewn in, no band, no wire
- Six colours, S to 3XL
- Mix colours in one order
Tip from the comments: order a few. Most members say they ended up wearing one every day and wished they'd got more colours the first time.
Well ladies, you were right. 93 today and I'm on the back porch in the white one with the fan going. No rash. Nothing digging. And I don't look like I've given up, I look dressed. Thank you all, I mean it.
Sharon you look so happy! Just ordered the 5 so I can mix the colours. The nude one for under my white blouses.
Mine came Thursday. The straps don't move. I haven't pushed a strap back up once. Why didn't anybody tell me about this 10 years ago?