Being a bit older myself -I’m 55- regular readers will know that I’ve turned up on the pages of SLN to write, almost exclusively, about the ‘older avatar’. With SL fixated on being full of young and beautiful avatars, there’s sometimes a sense of me being a bit-part player in SLN, and that’s correct. I’m a semi-regular player and when I started writing for the blog I wouldn’t even have classified myself as naturist.

I’d have skinny dipped if opportunity had presented itself, and I occasionally did with my late husband, when we’d head down to a dark bit of beach on holiday, strip off and splash around in the water like people who’d stripped away 20 years with our clothes. Equally I felt comfortable fully nude in the changing rooms of my local swimming pool when other, younger women were occasionally giving me scornful looks. But I wasn’t one for social, mixed gender nudity.

I joined SL following my husband’s death around five years ago, simply as a form of social interaction, and fell into the naturist element of SL by accident. One of my SL friends invited me to an SL naturist venue for a dance and it was there I slipped out of my pixel clothes for the first time. It was also where I first met Ella. (Ella adds: I’d forgotten that! Yes, we met at Manatee Naturist!)

I enjoyed the very social aspect of the location, and it didn’t feel embarrassing. After all, it was only a cartoon ‘me’ on the screen. I became familiar with naturist etiquette through socialising, in SL, with some of those RL naturists. I still wasn’t a particularly regular SL user. I’m still not. But I did enjoy playing it sometimes and I was drawn back to the more sociable naturist venue my friend introduced me to.

Last year I met a wonderful man and found the chance to find love again, another reason why I’m not so regular a contributor to these pages. I honestly felt that love, cuddles, feeling attractive and sexually active with someone else might have been a thing of the past.

My new love is 60 and also widowed and while we were in the stages of getting to know one another he confessed that he’d always harboured a desire to be a naturist but his wife would hear none of it. It was his big secret, his big desire. I laughed when he told me this, and confessed to being an occasional writer for a blog that dealt with naturism in a virtual world. He loved the idea and, last year, joined Second Life. His work meant that he was located some distance from me during the week, and so our face to face meetings were confined to weekends. During the week, however, we would talk on a daily basis, on the phone, on Skype and yes indeed, through Second Life.

In time, our relationship developed, emotionally and physically 🙂 and not only were we enjoying a renewed and possibly unexpected sexuality for real, but also -should I blush here?- cybering when we were parted during the working week. (Ella adds: Barbara! You dark horse! 🙂 )

Last summer, we went on vacation together and yes, indeed, we plotted part of it to be naturist, spending time on the La Jenny complex in France. Naturist with each other, naturist within sight of our neighbours, and eventually naturist by the pool and on the beach. It was wonderful! I wished I’d been naturist years, decades before. 

All those articles that Ella and Pookes had contributed almost ended up as a guidebook. Of course I read SLN, even when I’m not contributing! Through their experiences I felt I knew a little of what to expect. Their words very much had a truth running through them. Yes, the first time is daunting and yes, you quickly become unaware of your nudity and, yes, it does get to be a totally natural way of being.

One thing we noticed was that many naturists our age and older (and younger) are shaved, while neither of us were and it made me feel a little out of place from time to time, as if I wasn’t quite properly (un) dressed. I got talking to one lady who said that she’d made the decision to become fully shaved due to thinning pubic hair, an inevitability of age and the menopause.

At Christmas we decided we should repeat the experience, and we’ll be jetting off to Croatia this summer to enjoy our second naturist vacation. We also made a New year resolution to be fully depilated this year, and thus we both went ‘bare down there’.

It itched, it left us with razor rash, we wondered if it was right for us, but we persevered, and I have to say that we’re now delighted with the look and feel of being fully shaved.

And of course my avatar must reflect real life 🙂 In that respect, too, I’m delighted with my avatar’s new, permanent look.

Second Life offers us the chance to re-invent ourselves completely. Sometimes, real life offers us the chance to do the same. 🙂

Barbara.