My Adventure

I want to share my experiences over the past few days with others, like myself, who have this….curiosity with neck braces. I have had this interest since puberty and have been visiting NBAK almost daily since the very beginning of the site. My main excitement is seeing an attractive woman in a restrictive neck brace, or even better, a neck/back brace like a ctlso, although the only time I have ever seen those was many years ago when my wife’s little brother was in the Shriner’s Hospital with a hip problem. We went to visit him almost every weekend. I was stunned to find out that on the same floor was the ward where young girls with scoliosis were fitted with their Milwaukee braces for the first time. They would stay for several weeks while becoming accustomed to their new braces before being sent out into the world for the next 2-4 years. This was in the days before the neck ring was used, instead, high chin pads that actually held the head high, almost looking at the ceiling were the standard. You can imagine my delight at being in the same area with eight to ten young girls wearing Milwaukee braces.

I am an otherwise normal guy. I have been married for many years to a very understanding woman. She has known about my unusual interests for years and has been very understanding about it. She has accepted wearing a neck brace for me at home on occasions and even in public at times while away on a trip. I have never told her, until recently that another side of me wants to feel what it is like to wear a neck brace myself.

I have had several braces over the years and have secretly tried them on when she would go out but it was never long enough to satisfy my curiosity. Several months ago I bought a brand new Aspen Collar on E-Bay. The Aspen is a fairly restrictive brace and I originally bought it with her in mind but when it came I found that it fit me perfectly. A plan was developing in my mind. I wanted to get away for a few days with me wearing the brace 23 1/2 hours a day, (the half hour out was to shower and shave). I found that for a man wearing a neck brace, shaving was very important to reduce chin irritation. I “fessed up” to my wife that my neck brace interest, while mainly centred on female wearing, also included a burning desire to experience what it would feel like to wear one myself, in public, for an extended time.

We both had Thanksgiving, as well as the Friday after off work so I suggested that I try out my “great adventure” on that extended weekend. This was decided a couple of months in advance so I had plenty of time to think about it. I wanted to set in advance the exact time that I would put it on and when I would take it off. I wanted to do this as a challenge, to see if I could take it, and I figured if I set a length of time and wimped out I would probably never forgive myself for blowing my chance. Up until this time the longest I have worn a neck brace was 4 1/2 hours but by then it had started to become a drag. I was constantly wondering what it would be like to HAVE to wear one for weeks!

I decided that I wanted to take advantage of all the time possible to wear it so this was my plan, set in advance. I would put it on after work on Wednesday and only remove it for no more than thirty minutes each morning to shower and shave, until we arrived home on Sunday afternoon. This was a big step for me and I didn’t know if I could do it but I had to try. So, after so much planning and thinking the day finally arrived. On it went at five o’clock exactly! We had said that she would treat this as if I had been wearing the brace for weeks and we wouldn’t talk about it, as if we were both accustomed to me wearing it. I even developed a “story” in case anyone asked me what happened. I would say that I had cracked two vertebrae and had the choice of surgery to screw the bones together or this brace for 12 to 16 weeks.

We didn’t leave home until Thanksgiving morning, just before sunrise so none of the neighbours would see me. I understandably hadn’t slept very well but well enough. I drove, I found that the only help I needed from her was backing out of parking spaces, and I figured that if I really had to wear one, my macho tendencies would tell me to drive anyway since I always do all the driving. After we had gone about fifty miles it was time for breakfast, and my debut in public. We pulled into the parking lot of a Waffle House and I have to admit my heart was pounding. The thought crossed my mind to take it off right there and end it but I overcame that knowing that I would not ever forgive myself so I took a deep breath and got out of the car and we went in. We took a table and I found out that one of the things that I hadn’t thought about was that as I sat there I was wondering if people were looking at me but I couldn’t easily turn my head to find out so I just developed the attitude that it didn’t matter anyway.

This would be much too long to write about every little experience but we checked into the motel about noon, went out to do some shopping at a Walmart that was open on Thanksgiving day, went to dinner at a Crackerbarrel restaurant. That first day I felt VERY self conscious and I was uncomfortable, not moving my neck for so long but I didn’t quit. When we got back to the motel I had the strongest desire to take it off and just roll my head around because I had been wearing the brace for over 13 hours by then but I didn’t take it off until the next morning, a little over 24 hours! We went to breakfast and then to the Zoo on Friday. I was finding that my self consciousness was fading and although I was very much aware that I was wearing a neck brace, somehow it was not bothering me as much. Was I getting used to wearing it? After the Zoo we did some shopping at a very crowded mall then dinner and a movie, back to the motel and another night sleeping with my neck brace on.

The next morning while my wife was getting ready I was sitting watching TV and I noticed something for the first time. I couldn’t feel the brace on my neck unless I moved my head slightly. If I sat there and didn’t move my head at all I couldn’t feel it! Is this what happens after a couple of days of wearing a neck brace? I noticed this a couple of times later in the day, once while driving and looking straight ahead I forgot all about it until I came to a stop sign and tried to look to the side. I can’t say that it wasn’t a drag, I was VERY aware that I was wearing it most of the time but it made me wonder how accustomed one would be to wearing a brace after say a week, or two weeks or more.

The first day, any time I would go out of the motel room for anything I would look out the curtain to make sure no one was outside but by the next day I didn’t even think about it. I WAS getting used to it! I had thought that if I stuck to my plan of wearing it for three days and doing everything with it on that perhaps I would satisfy my curiosity. Well, I did stick to my plan, 81 hours with only about a total of an hour off for showering & shaving. Did I satisfy my curiosity? No. Would I like to do it again? Yes.