If you wear a bra, how do you put it on?

[dotchan]

Somewhat inspired by the men's underwear (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=631563) thread, here's one for the ladies (and drag-queens): are you dexterous enough to clip your bra on by reaching behind you, or do you have to do it from the front?

I was a late bloomer and I have a terrible time reaching behind myself (dunno if it's just because I have short arms or because I'm not very flexible), so I've always put the bra on with the clips facing forward, then turning it around to lift the shoulder straps up.

[Cinnamon Imp]

I've been told by a bra fitter that if it's loose enough to hook at the front, then slide round to the back, then it's too loose. I dutifully dislocate my arms and hook it at the back on the tightest hook I can reach....

So. Why don't more bra's have a front fastener? :P I had a wonderbra as a teen that clicked between the boobs - it was perfectly comfy and ruined at least one teenage boy's plans for the evening!

[Rhiannon8404]

I've never heard that about it being too loose if you can slide it around back. I mean, it doesn't have to be "loose" to slide it. I feel like I'm stretching it out when I try to hook it in back.

[slm2955]

I clip and turn

[AngelSoft]

I always put mine on upside down, reach back, button it and the flip it right side up, putting my arms through then. I can't imagine doing it in the front. It's not THAT hard to do back there XD

[sandra_nz]

I wouldn't have a hope in hell of turning my bra after putting it on backwards. I guess it's a boob size issue.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

I've been told by a bra fitter that if it's loose enough to hook at the front, then slide round to the back, then it's too loose. I dutifully dislocate my arms and hook it at the back on the tightest hook I can reach....

Sweet Lordy, I usually like to breathe while I'm wearing a bra. Isn't that why most bras have lycra in the band? If I were to clip it that tight, it'd bite into my skin, leaving an angry red ditch, and that wouldn't feel right at all. What century is that sadistic bra fitter from, anyway?

I voted clip and turn. At my age, the girls won't stay holstered until the bra is secure, if you know what I mean.

[Lacunae Matata]

I put my arms in, bend over a bit to let gravity help me situate my boobs in the cups, and then hook in the back. When I was young enough that I was still perfecting my system, I tried the hook in front and turn it around method, but that chafes a lot! If I lose enough mobility to be unable to hook in the back, I'll switch to front closures.

[Farmer Jane]

I do what Lacunae says. I was told to do it that way, so I do.

[elfkin477]

I picked "throw the whole thing over my head" because I use these (http://www.amazon.com/Braza-Happy-Strap-3-XL/dp/B00008677F/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321742439&sr=8-1) (one of the best things I've ever bought. seriously) and you have to when you do. Well, some women don't understand and complain that they're impossible to fasten, but the vast majority figure it out.

[Lynn Bodoni]

So. Why don't more bra's have a front fastener? Back fasteners usually have three or more positions, so that as the elastic loses its stretchiness, you can go to the next tighter setting. Front fasteners usually have the one setting, which means that the bra won't last as long.

[Taomist]

I've seen lots of bras with front fasteners. I'm not sure if they're that viable for those who need serious support, though.

ETA: I've also had them come undone up front; it's only the one little twisty-plastic thing, usually, and often that...kinda gets untwisted if you're moving around a lot.
Or if the girls are.

[Eve]

Like everyone else, one leg at a time.

[Chicken Fingers]

I voted other, since I only buy front fasteners. My front fasteners are industrial strength and do, indeed, have two long rows of hooks. Hideously ugly, though.

[Sparky the Wonder Spirit]

I do the clip-and-turn. I don't think I could reach the other way.

I wonder if there's a correlation between boob size and methodology?

[Palo Verde]

I have a front-fasten kind. It makes it soo much easier!

[Ludy]

I always put mine on upside down, reach back, button it and the flip it right side up, putting my arms through then. I can't imagine doing it in the front. It's not THAT hard to do back there XD

This.

[CatherineZeta]

I put my bra on like a shirt. I usually fasten it on the middle or the tightest hook, pull it over my head and below my boobs, then put my arms through the straps.

I'm an A cup which probably makes this easier/doesn't completely stretch the bra out.

[Brown Eyed Girl]

I put my bra on like a shirt. I usually fasten it on the middle or the tightest hook, pull it over my head and below my boobs, then put my arms through the straps.

I'm an A cup which probably makes this easier/doesn't completely stretch the bra out.

DD cup. I'd probably strangle myself if I attempted this method. :D

[EmAnJ]

I put the shoulder straps on, boobs in the cups, then reach up my back and clip it. My husband watched me do this one day and commented on how flexible my shoulders were. I suppose the only reason they are that flexible is because I put my bra on like this.

[Pyper]

What the? I didn't even know there was a way to put your bra on apart from the clip it in back method. For me, this is an internet revelation comparable to when I learned pineapples do not grow on trees.

[Freudian Slit]

Sweet Lordy, I usually like to breathe while I'm wearing a bra. Isn't that why most bras have lycra in the band? If I were to clip it that tight, it'd bite into my skin, leaving an angry red ditch, and that wouldn't feel right at all. What century is that sadistic bra fitter from, anyway?

I voted clip and turn. At my age, the girls won't stay holstered until the bra is secure, if you know what I mean.

I do clip and turn as well and had the same reaction -- I don't think I've ever owned a bra that was so tight I couldn't move it around. That doesn't sound like good advice...

[JoThrive]

I clip and turn. I doubt if I am flexible enough to manage the procedure any other way. :D

[Drain Bead]

Clip and turn. No way could I fasten 4 hooks without being able to look at them.

[Scathach]

Clip and turn - I've tried reaching around but I always end up only getting one hook in.

[elfkin477]

I picked "throw the whole thing over my head" because I use these (http://www.amazon.com/Braza-Happy-Strap-3-XL/dp/B00008677F/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321742439&sr=8-1) (one of the best things I've ever bought. seriously) and you have to when you do. Well, some women don't understand and complain that they're impossible to fasten, but the vast majority figure it out.Um...I think I should have voted differently now. While I do put it over my head, it's not actually fastened at the time, I do reach behind me for that still.

I had no idea some women turned bras around after fastening them. That sounds...chaffing. I'm tempted to try it because that doesn't even seen possible without it being so loose it'd be useless or so painful that it'd be unbearable.

[overlyverbose]

I put my arms in, bend over a bit to let gravity help me situate my boobs in the cups, and then hook in the back.

This is how I do it, too. I usually end by sticking a hand down each cup and lifting my boobs up to situate them further in the bra.

[PandaBear77]

Clip everything then throw it over my head.

[missred]

Currently, I do the clip and turn. Normally, without the rotater cuff issue, I would fasten in the back.

[Mona Lisa Simpson]

I am a reach-around the back person. Oddly this shocked my first (university aged) boyfriend, who assumed everyone did them up at the front and then twisted it around. He knew about that trick because that's how his mother did it.

Yes, then and now, some twenty plus years later I find that a disturbing level of knowledge for an 18 year old to have about his mother. But that is a different post for a different thread.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

I've been told by a bra fitter that if it's loose enough to hook at the front, then slide round to the back, then it's too loose. I dutifully dislocate my arms and hook it at the back on the tightest hook I can reach....

So. Why don't more bra's have a front fastener? :P I had a wonderbra as a teen that clicked between the boobs - it was perfectly comfy and ruined at least one teenage boy's plans for the evening!

Uh--I hook it in the front at my waist level, then slide it around to the back, then pull it up. It's loose enough to hook at waist level.

Actually if I'm wearing a two-hook bra I can hook it in the back, but my favorite minimizers have six (count 'em) hooks, and that's a bit much getting them all in the right places in the back. I always reach back to unhook them, though.

[lavenderviolet]

What the? I didn't even know there was a way to put your bra on apart from the clip it in back method. For me, this is an internet revelation comparable to when I learned pineapples do not grow on trees.

I had the same reaction (except that I'm a pretty serious gardener so I had already found out that pineapples are bromeliads*). It never crossed my mind to try to fasten a bra any other way. Although I can see how it could be difficult for someone with a torn rotator cuff or arthritis to reach behind to fasten it, if I were in that situation, I'd just switch to front-fastening bras.

*Pineapple sidenote: You can grow a pineapple plant from the top of a store bought pineapple, as a novelty houseplant:
http://www.bsi.org/brom_info/growing/pineapple.html

[faithfool]

I'm a DDer myself who has to wear her bra uncomfortably tight so everything stays in place, yet I do the clip and turn thing. I agree that there's no way I could hook all those latches without being able to see them first. No chafing so far.

[alice_in_wonderland]

I'm a DDer myself who has to wear her bra uncomfortably tight so everything stays in place, yet I do the clip and turn thing. I agree that there's no way I could hook all those latches without being able to see them first. No chafing so far.

This, only I'm a G. My waist is a lot smaller than my boobs/ribcage so turning has never been an issue.

[Antigen]

Clip and turn - I've tried reaching around but I always end up only getting one hook in.

I do clip-and-turn too, because it's too damn hard to reach back and get those hooks lined up. I don't feel like I'm stretching it out by doing that. D, if size matters.

[Jenaroph]

Clip and turn here, and yes, the bra fits, and no, it doesn't chafe horribly if you drop it down a couple inches. I've tried doing the hook-behind-the-back thing, and I usually end up hooking one hook, and then while trying to hook the other, I pull the first loose, and then I manage to hook the second hook in the first loop, and that's about where I give up and hook it together in front.

[chizzuk]

I put it on like a shirt because I am incompetent. Clip & turn never occurred to me before. Maybe I will try that.

I can unhook it without looking, but hooking it is an entirely different matter.

[ZipperJJ]

I'm a fat girl with little t-rex arms but I can still reach back and clip my bra. Perhaps because I've always done it this way is why I still can do it this way. My twice-a-day shoulder stretches.

I don't remember what I did when I injured my shoulder. I know I told my therapist that I most noticed my injury when putting on a bra. I think I may have just winced through the pain but it was just "an injury" not something serious like "rotator cuff issues" like missred.

[Lacunae Matata]

This is how I do it, too. I usually end by sticking a hand down each cup and lifting my boobs up to situate them further in the bra.

My husband thought that the bending over bit was kind of odd the first time he saw me getting dressed. I just think it's sensible to let gravity do a bit of the work. But now I can tell him it's not just me, that some of my imaginary friends who live in the computer do the same!

[phall0106]

I always put mine on upside down, reach back, button it and the flip it right side up, putting my arms through then. I can't imagine doing it in the front. It's not THAT hard to do back there XD

My boobs always fall into my face when I try to put on my bra upside down.

[Annie-Xmas]

I always put my sports bra on over head and down over my 32A's. And you can image how grateful I was to be able to do it when when my left arm was encasted from fingers to halfway up my upper arm

[Freudian Slit]

Won't it be inside out if you do it upside down?

[Maiira]

Reach around back and clip it. The hooks just sorta fall into place.

I'm a 34B, for reference.

[Heckity]

Won't it be inside out if you do it upside down? I'm spatially challenged and can't for the life of me figure out how it works out if you start the bra upside down. In fact, I can't visualize that process at all.

I clip in front and turn. Like others my waist is smaller than my ribcage so I clip, turn, slide up into place. I un-clip with one hand at the back though.

My revelation in this thread is that some people were 'taught' how to put on a bra? Huh - that's interesting.

[dotchan]

Won't it be inside out if you do it upside down?

Nope, I flip it on the way up to put arms through the straps. (Or at least that's how I do it.)

[Dr. Girlfriend]

I do the clip and turn. I'm a DD, and most of my bras have three hooks. I'm not coordinated enough to manage three hooks behind my back. That and a bad right shoulder makes reaching around behind myself difficult.

[Buttercup Smith]

I voted clip and turn but after reading this thread I just got out of the shower and tried the clip from the back method. I have a bum shoulder (right) that I had rotator cuff surgery on in june 08. I was able to hook two out of three which is good enough as i am just putzing around the house. I would not even wear a bra at home but we have a male house guest for tonight. Very interesting poll. I am a big girl wearing a 40 D. Going shopping this week for a new or a few new bra's. Any suggestions on where to get front closing big girl bras?

[chiroptera]

Clip and turn. I take it off the same way. Unless it's a front-clasp bra, of course.

I'm mostly pretty flexible (can sit comfortably in the lotus position, etc) but I can't easily get to my bra strap by reaching behind me. I just tried...I can get to it, but it would be fiddly and cumbersome trying to get the clups lined up and attatched.

Buttercup Smith - I'm a 36 D/DD and Bali has a great selection of bras in all configurations for we well-endowed women. Also Victoria's Secret.

[missred]

I voted clip and turn but after reading this thread I just got out of the shower and tried the clip from the back method. I have a bum shoulder (right) that I had rotator cuff surgery on in june 08. I was able to hook two out of three which is good enough as i am just putzing around the house. I would not even wear a bra at home but we have a male house guest for tonight. Very interesting poll. I am a big girl wearing a 40 D. Going shopping this week for a new or a few new bra's. Any suggestions on where to get front closing big girl bras?

Check out Lane Bryant. They even fit you there.

[ProbablyProcrastinating]

Clip and turn? I did not know people did that.

I clip behind my back. Little bit of yoga in the morning, right?

phall--LMAO.

[Miss Mapp]

I don't wear bras with clips. I just step in through the torso-hole and pull them up to slip on the shoulder straps. Sometimes I try putting them on over my head, but that tends to be more of a stretch and more of a struggle.

[rhubarbarin]

Clip around my waist (which is 4" smaller than where my bra fits, so it's roomier), turn -then lean forward and manually adjust into the cups as I pull it up and don the shoulder straps. It's a whole process.

I have little boobage so my bras, their straps and their fasteners (one hook) are all tiny, and fit very high up on my back - right under my shoulder blades. I find it impossible to fasten (or unfasten) any of them behind my back.

ETA: I just tried the pull-over-the head method - HOW does anyone do that regularly?! I got stuck. My shoulders are much bigger than my bust and middle...

[thirdwarning]

I do have a couple of front-fasten bras, but mostly I fasten behind my back. Now that I'm a bit older I have to grab the boobs and settle them into place in the cups after the hooks are fastened, but it's still pretty easy to fasten the hooks behind me.
I credit my mother, who insisted that in order to go to school I had to be able to button my dresses up the back.

[OpalCat]

I put my arms in, bend over a bit to let gravity help me situate my boobs in the cups, and then hook in the back.

Exactly what I do. Put it on, bend over at the waist so the boobies are hanging straight down ("forward" if you were standing up) then hook in the back and stand up. It's not difficult.

[OpalCat]

I don't wear bras with clips. I just step in through the torso-hole and pull them up to slip on the shoulder straps. Sometimes I try putting them on over my head, but that tends to be more of a stretch and more of a struggle.

My hips are too wide for this to do anything but ruin the bra. 32DD FWIW.

[ProbablyProcrastinating]

I don't wear bras with clips. I just step in through the torso-hole

Can you provide a link to the type of bra you are talking about?!? Do you mean sports bras?

[Rala]

I do the clip and turn thing. My mum told me to do it that way when I got my first bra, so I did - I thought everyone did it that way. It doesn't hurt, my bras are made of fabric, not sandpaper or anything.

[Ann Onimous]

Did the clip and turn before I switched to front hook.

[corkboard]

Not female but I've watched my wife do it for so long I'll chime in on her behalf- she's a C cup and she puts her arms through the straps, clips it in back and positions her boobs in the cups. I think I've only seen her clip in front and spin it around once or twice.

She doesn't like front-closures for some reason. I miss my dating days when I dated girls that wore them- I could unclip it in about a second with two fingers.

Good times.

[OpalCat]

I will hook in front and turn if it's something like a bustier with 20 hooks or something. Those are almost impossible to turn once they're hooked, but even more impossible to hook behind you. I don't wear those very often, thankfully.

[Foxy40]

Hook in the back girl here. I can't imagine it being comfortable to twist it around under the girls but that method seems really popular as well. My daughter, who has just started wearing a bra, does the clip in back thing too. I guess she got it from me but I was surprised she didn't put it over her head like I remember doing at first.

[jem~]

My mom demonstrated the hook in front method to me when I was a 30AAA 12 year old, and I assumed that she had to do it that way because she was a 36 DD. I have always hooked it in back. However, my 34B 2-hook bras have been a bit more difficult to hook in back because my shoulder has been acting up. Oh, and my sports bras have been painful to pull on and off lately. I recently tried on a tight workout tank top (Reebok Easy Tone) at a sports clothing store and almost couldn't get it off! Just about had a panic attack - picturing some store worker having to cut it off of me!


My daughter taught me a neat trick on how to get a bra off without taking off your top. (she found it hard to believe that I never knew this until she showed me!) You unhook the back and slip the strap down one arm at a time, then pull it off through the front top of your shirt. Now, I just tried this with long sleeves, and it was pretty difficult. Short sleeves - no problem!

I hate bras and never wear them at home unless I have company or yard work to do.

[Lacunae Matata]

I just asked my daughter, who has only worn a bra for a year. Her reply: "I started off just hooking it and then putting it on like an undershirt, but now I do it the right way. I hook it in the back." She'll be 11 next month.

And jem, I thought everyone past puberty knew the "take off your bra without removing your shirt" trick!

[brainstall]

I'm a hook it up in the back girl. Multiple hooks have never been a probem, they seem to line up somehow. It never even occured to me to do it up in front and then turn it around until a bunch of us started talking about it in the office one day. I think the split was about even.

If I could find front closure bras, I would buy them.

[Malleus, Incus, Stapes!]

Does it count in the poll that I only wear sports bras and other stretchy bras? (And a few hooked ones where I sewed the flap over the hooks).

[Nava]

Uhm, I would'a needed multiple choice... or does the poll refer exclusively to bras hooked at the back?

Those, I reach back. The fancy one which looks like you don't have a bra on needs some strange doings, I may need to ask for a helper. And sports bras don't get tied, so they go on like the tightest T-shirt ever.

My sister in law has some which get hooked up front, but I don't.

[purplehorseshoe]

Long ago I learned the term for clip-then-turn-around was "the middle-school way" so I always feel vaguely ashamed when I have to resort to that method.

I never even know of the bending-over/gravity thing until I saw the scene where Nicole Kidman is getting dressed in "Eyes Wide Shut." See - it was an edumacational movie! :D

[ProbablyProcrastinating]

My daughter taught me a neat trick on how to get a bra off without taking off your top.

I thought this was what everyone did as soon as they got home...

[corkboard]

My daughter taught me a neat trick on how to get a bra off without taking off your top. <snip>

Ah, the ol' Flashdance move. I used to have a female (platonic) roommate who did this every day when she got home, much to the amazement of the guys in the room. It's like that magician's trick where he cuts a piece of rope into three pieces, palms them, and then miraculously they reattach themselves and he ends up with one long piece.

Voila!

[jem~]

Ah, the ol' Flashdance move. I used to have a female (platonic) roommate who did this every day when she got home, much to the amazement of the guys in the room. It's like that magician's trick where he cuts a piece of rope into three pieces, palms them, and then miraculously they reattach themselves and he ends up with one long piece.

Voila!

Too funny - thanks!

[KarlGrenze]

I've always been a clip and turn, I'm surprised that "hook it in the back" seems to currently be the most popular (by a slight margin).

[Lacunae Matata]

I've always been a clip and turn, I'm surprised that "hook it in the back" seems to currently be the most popular (by a slight margin).

And I'm slightly surprised that clip and turn is almost as common as clip in the back!

[BetsQ]

I always clip and turn. The couple of times I've tried to clip a bra in the back I couldn't manage. I have very flexible shoulders, so that wasn't the issue, but I just couldn't get everything to line up.

[Tastes of Chocolate]

I'm a fat girl with little t-rex arms but I can still reach back and clip my bra. Perhaps because I've always done it this way is why I still can do it this way. My twice-a-day shoulder stretches.

I don't remember what I did when I injured my shoulder. I know I told my therapist that I most noticed my injury when putting on a bra. I think I may have just winced through the pain but it was just "an injury" not something serious like "rotator cuff issues" like missred.

I'm another hook-it-in-the-back woman. A year ago, I broke my wrist, and I couldn't reach behind me. For the 6 weeks I was in a cast, plus another couple of months after that, I couldn't twist my wrist enough to hook in back. My most frequent worry during that time was that I would permanently lose the mobility to reach behind my back and hook a bra.

[alice_in_wonderland]

Long ago I learned the term for clip-then-turn-around was "the middle-school way" so I always feel vaguely ashamed when I have to resort to that method.

:confused:

My 66 year old mother does it this way, and has ever since she needed a bra. In case it isn't obvious, she's no longer in middle school.

Why do threads like this always end up with one group slagging of the choice of some other group? For God's sake, it's putting on a damn bra. Just the fact of needing it suggests one is no longer in middle school.

[ProbablyProcrastinating]

:confused:

My 66 year old mother does it this way, and has ever since she needed a bra. In case it isn't obvious, she's no longer in middle school.

Why do threads like this always end up with one group slagging of the choice of some other group? For God's sake, it's putting on a damn bra. Just the fact of needing it suggests one is no longer in middle school.

She wasn't slagging, she was just explaining her own associations.

Jeez. Wild guess here... nobody on this thread is in middle school, and yet nearly half do the clip and turn thing (that's a whole extra step, is what gets me). So it's not like we think you all are immature. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that nobody really thinks ANYTHING of you based on how you put on a bra, except... that that is how you put on a bra.

[OpalCat]

My daughter taught me a neat trick on how to get a bra off without taking off your top. (she found it hard to believe that I never knew this until she showed me!)

I'm with your daughter. I thought everyone who had ever worn a bra for longer than a week or so knew how to do that!

[elfkin477]

And I'm slightly surprised that clip and turn is almost as common as clip in the back! Imagine how surprised those of us who never heard of anyone doing it are! :D

[coffinjumper]

I've long been a clip and turn girl, but after reading this thread i decided to give the other half a try.

Bending did help some to keep it lined up but it just took entirely too long to clip. Not to mention how hard it was to get it to clip and how difficult it was to get all the clips to line up in the correct way. I had to redo it at least once. It just isn't worth it when my method is so much easier and faster.

42DDD if it matters.

As a bonus, my method can be done easily under clothes when in a huge room full of people and changing without flashing anyone, as I've had to many times in the past.

[purplehorseshoe]

:confused:

My 66 year old mother does it this way, and has ever since she needed a bra. In case it isn't obvious, she's no longer in middle school.

Why do threads like this always end up with one group slagging of the choice of some other group? For God's sake, it's putting on a damn bra. Just the fact of needing it suggests one is no longer in middle school.

Holy cow, I wasn't slagging on anyone! I apologize if I offended anyone, your mother especially. What I meant was, young girls just learning how to deal with a row of hook-and-eye fasteners usually find it easier to start out by clipping it in front where you can see it and then turning it around. As they get older and get more used to them, many "graduate" up to reaching behind and hooking it by feel.

Anyway, it wasn't my term - I didn't make it up. Just passing along something I'd heard once, that's all.

[Miss Mapp]

Can you provide a link to the type of bra you are talking about?!? Do you mean sports bras?

Yeah, a sports bra. Hanes Her Way, since they have cups rather than that breast-squishing single front-piece that many sports bras do. I hate that almost as much as I hate metal clips digging into my shoulders or spine.