Passionate nudists often want to share the benefits and joys of their nude way of life with the people closest to them. It’s only natural. However, the pitfalls of this can include sometimes coming off as proselytizing, or always being “that guy” who talks about nudism too much among textile friends (I am definitely “that guy”).
In this #UndressedThread, let's discuss our experiences with introducing friends and family to nudism and the challenges or successes that came with it. 🚀
Have you ever introduced a friend or family member to nudism?
If so, how did they react, and did they ultimately embrace the lifestyle?
What advice would you give to someone considering introducing nudism to their loved ones?
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We're excited to hear your stories and insights. Leave a comment with your thoughts and experiences! 🪐
I’ve now been nude around all my immediate family members. It took a few years to accomplish but opportunities presented themselves. So far everyone in my family has been accepting. My advice, start with the one who you feel is most likely to accept it, and go from there.
In a way I introduced the woman who went on to be my wife to nudism, even though she was already a home nudist.
We met online in 2000, we both had online adverts for friends (it wasn't a site designed for sexual activity), and she actually contacted me initially because my headline said I am a nudist.
Friendship turned to more, our initial physical meeting we were naked within 10 minutes, and over another couple of months we decided to try being together.
But before we did we went on our first holiday together, a long weekend at a naturist finca in Spain.
I was initially worried that she might have problems stripping off with others, but she was actually nude before I was.
A few months later and we were living together with her children, both of whome were also home nudists, one of whom came on our next holiday to a naturist site in Cornwall. (Her only naturist holiday until she went with a boyfriend years later.)
Unfortunately about 10 years later she passed through the menopause, and despite not physically changing her body image took a dive, and now her only public nudity since 2014 is at home with me.
Apart from that the only person I've helped to discover public nudity was a young woman in my class at college.
I'd made noo secret of my nudism, and she came one day to ask my advice. Her boyfriends parents were nudists, and they'd invited her to join them on a naturist foreign holiday.
Whilst she had no problems with going topless in front of them she was a bit reticent to go fully nude.
I asked if she shaved, she said yes, I suggested she let it grow as a decent growth would cover her as well as a bikini bottom would.
Returning after summer she said it had worked perfectly, but after a day with them she had been relaxed enough to shave again.
Parents are open to my being myself if they’re in my home and the temperature calls for it. In-laws are not, at least when I asked after they rented a beautiful rural property last year. But they all know now, so it’s on the table. I’d not expect anyone to join in though.
My parents brought us to a nude beach when I was in 6th grade. They said we could go nude if we wanted but I was too shy at the time. As soon as I came home though I became a home nudist. When I was 18 I convinced the family to return to the island and tried being nude on the beach near my family. Afterward, my family (mom, dad, sister and I) would layout form time to time in the nude on a secluded deck at our house. Since then, they’ve all changed and as far as I know none of them participate in any form of social nudity. Now I have a family of my own and I am working to establish nudity as an option within our home and creating opportunities to visit campgrounds and beaches.
I’m just not close enough with my family to be spending much time with them in the first place, and that relationship is already… strenuous. It’s never felt practical or helpful to open myself up to them about my hobbies, joys, relationships, or the fact that I enjoy taking my clothes off. I’d like to think I’m not actively trying to hide anything, either, but I think it’s fair to say I avoid opening up in general with them.
That being said, my first experiences being socially nude were with family: skinny-dipping in the hot tub or some neighbor’s swimming pool with my cousins as a kid. I have really fond memories of those moments because it was one of the few times I felt included in something.
Shortly after we were married my wife and I went to visit her family in Finland. The first evening there they introduced me to the sauna. Her family consisted of her parents and a sister. As the sauna heated up they explained that the sauna was best experienced naked and that they would all be naked but that I didn’t have to if it made me uncomfortable. I was a bit nervous about it, but since everyone else was going to be naked I didn’t want to be the odd duck.
After we finished the sauna we took part in the after sauna ritual of sausages and beer.
I soon found out that the entire family seldom wore clothes at home and enjoyed our 2 week visit clothes free for most of the time there.
I’m not familiar with Barely Proper. But spending 2 weeks with your wife’s family including her younger sister was definitely bordering on being barely proper. I know they say nudism is non-sexual but hanging out naked with your wife and her younger sister was sexually stimulating.
As a teen I’ve been skinny dipping in the pitch blackness of midnight once or twice with friends where my brother was involved. But this coming Sunday I’m taking my brother to our local naturist park. Working on getting through to the rest of my family as well.
I envy those who can answer yes. I rarely see most of my family members, except at big events. They know I'm a nudist and seem to be fine with it, but no one has expressed interest in exploring nudism themselves. If we were to spend time together at a private pool or in a similar situation, I think I'd be able to be nude with minimal awkwardness. It would be a meaningful breakthrough for me.
Went nude often growing up, usually when I was home alone. As a teenager, went skinny dipping with friends. Now that I’m married, I’m nude at home. My wife is reluctant to join in, and I don’t pressure her to be nude. Hopefully some day…
My partner comes from a nudist family, her great-grandparents were nudists and each generation since has continued to live as nudists with very few dropping out of the nudist lifestyle when leaving home etc. I'm the only nudist in my family. My parents and sister guessed that we are nudists from where we went on holiday and our suntans, we found out quite some time ago in a conversation with them after we'd decided to tell them, they laughed, shared knowing looks and said that they'd guessed we are. We'd wanted to be open with them, as we are with good friends, as nudism is an increasingly big part of our lives and we see nothing to be ashamed about it. It also makes life easier not needing to worry about leaving nudist magazines and other associated literature and brochures around our home when they visited, or removing photos we have at home from nudist holidays.
I was quite strange at my first meeting with them in a nudist setting, for about 10 seconds! It soon became more or less like a day at a nudist club or beach. I pinched myself when I first knew that her family were nudists, I couldn't believe my luck in making a connection like this that was centred on nudism.
We told my parents about my partner's family being multi-generational nudists. Both my mother and sister were curious about nudism, we talked with them both about many aspects of it, but my father was not very keen to talk about it and we never found out why. My parents are no longer here, my sister lives several hours away so if we visit each other we tend to stay over. She has been to local nude beaches with us where we met various nudist friends, she seemed very at ease with us all being nude with her, she was top-free most of the time but never nude. The first time we went to one of the beaches with her we'd made certain that she felt OK with us being nude and meeting some of our nude friends. This was the first time that I'd been nude in front of her since we were small kids sharing baths, I didn't really think about this until we were walking home and my sister remarked on that fact. I am so used to being nude there that it hadn't really occurred to me that my sister was there that day. We live nude at home year round as long as its not really cold, textile friends who are bothered by nudity know to let us know when they're coming here so we can 'cover up' with something minimal. Otherwise we stay nude with visitors, some join us naked, so we're very used to being here in all nude or clothing optional situations. So we've introduced my sister to social nudism but not managed to convince her to try nudism fully, yet. There will not be any pressure on her, or other people, to join us nude. She accepts that we're nudists, we accept that she's not quite a nudist!
With friends there have been a few whose curiosity about our nudism led to us introducing them to it at the beaches, it seems that if they're curious enough to want to try it they'll take it up once they've joined us nude there. We might take them to a quieter spot where there are less people passing by, so as they can relax more fully in their first steps into our way of socialising. Some of these friends had experienced nudism on holiday beaches, but none had tried it locally before.
As for advice to give someone about introducing loved ones to nudism I think that it depends on the person(s) involved and their locations and situations. Beaches are out of the question possibly to those who live long distances from any. Clubs/resorts can be the best location for an introduction, as everyone else there is likely to be committed nudists to some degree, so everyone will be nude if its warm. Seeing this uniform nudity can be a strong tool for encouraging the 'if you can't beat them then join them' attitude. A public nude beach might seem intimidating for that first public nudity, there will likely be passers-by, some nude, some clothed, but on the other hand that true liberation of being on a beach and going into the sea/lake completely naked can be a very powerful way of convincing people why nudism is so good.
This is a great topic line Evan. I’ve always enjoyed hearing how naturists have, or haven’t, shared their naturist time with friends and family. That decision and process is a common link we all share. So, great idea to get people telling their stories. Definitely a book in this!
I have several aspects of my story I could share. But I’m afraid my comments would be longer than you’re shooting for. I will highlight one — discussing naturism with my mother in law.
My MIL lived with us for an extended time, about 7 years, through multiple moves. Sometimes she was in the same house, other times just nearby. It gave her, and us, a great chance to remain close, particularly with her grandkids.
But, it certainly impacted my ability to be nude. However, I gladly adapted. Her happiness and comfort, and close relationships in our family, were much more important. So, I kept my naturist time on the “down low”.
Eventually, that became frustrating. So, after discussing with my wife, we decided it was time to have “the naturist talk” with Mom. I won’t go through the blow by blow, but a few weeks later on a family vacation, there were Mom and I, the early risers, in our rented beach house kitchen chatting with our morning coffee/tea, she dressed, me nude. So, it obviously went well. Not an exact quote but a good description of her position — I’m glad you shared it with me; the love and trust it signifies means everything; your nudity is natural and beautiful; doesn’t bother me a bit.
This coming out process taught me a valuable lesson — trust your gut (you generally know who will react positively and who won’t), trust your family (they generally won’t disown you over being naked), trust your beliefs (don’t let fears run amok in your mind — naturism is wonderful, even if others disagree)
While I have you -- I took the plunge and set up a Substack (David - Natusit4life) my personal one. It will be very naturist focused, probably entirely. Haven’t broken the code on how to share it with other Naturist Substack’ers. I posted a generic note, thinking all I subscribe to would see it. Either they didn’t or aren’t interested. Figured I’d try this as well. I’ve added this to a few other comments on other pages so you may see this request here and there. Sorry for taking your thread a bit off topic.
Once my sister got a house with a pool,it didn't take long before swimming nude became the norm for me,my sister and her husband.Finally,we told our Mom about it.She was OK with it but never swam nude herself until years later.We were nervous about telling our Mom,but it turned out to be no big deal in the end.
I read the article along with all the comments & really fascinated knowing as to how each naturist case differs from one another. Your article topic itself is of very interest & vast one.
Regret to say that up till now I have never experienced nakedness with my family, except my wife. I have shared my naturism passion with her & tried to convince her to embrace this awesome lifestyle. Though she doesn't objects to my naturist lifestyle, yet, she is not fully ready to embrace the naturism. Hope that someday she may embrace it & will join the naturism journey. During my childhood, in young days, in a countryside small town, I always used to see many a Jain saints on streets who were naked 24X7 (& is one of the main principals of Jainism) & from there on wards I had a deep impact of this lifestyle. This Jainism principal may be the main reason because of which I may be inclined towards naturism. Though I had an attraction towards this Jainism principal, I couldn't practice naturism when I was living with my parents, siblings & later on with wife, son & daughter-in-law. I was never nude with any of the family members as a naturism practice. This is may be because of non awareness of naturism as lifestyle, shyness & cultural barriers. Also because of the many responsibilities & life requirements, I could not spare time to practice naturism, except naked sleep time & naked bathing. Four years back I got retired to have leisure time & actually from there on, revived my naturism passion. Only my wife knows about my naturism passion & because of the local laws I have to practice naturism at home only. My son & daughter-in-law lives at other city because of their jobs. Let's hope that someday I may first share my naturism passion to my son & daughter-in-law & then may convince my wife, son, daughter-in-law to embrace this soul soothing lifestyle.
Have you ever been nude with family?
I’ve now been nude around all my immediate family members. It took a few years to accomplish but opportunities presented themselves. So far everyone in my family has been accepting. My advice, start with the one who you feel is most likely to accept it, and go from there.
In a way I introduced the woman who went on to be my wife to nudism, even though she was already a home nudist.
We met online in 2000, we both had online adverts for friends (it wasn't a site designed for sexual activity), and she actually contacted me initially because my headline said I am a nudist.
Friendship turned to more, our initial physical meeting we were naked within 10 minutes, and over another couple of months we decided to try being together.
But before we did we went on our first holiday together, a long weekend at a naturist finca in Spain.
I was initially worried that she might have problems stripping off with others, but she was actually nude before I was.
A few months later and we were living together with her children, both of whome were also home nudists, one of whom came on our next holiday to a naturist site in Cornwall. (Her only naturist holiday until she went with a boyfriend years later.)
Unfortunately about 10 years later she passed through the menopause, and despite not physically changing her body image took a dive, and now her only public nudity since 2014 is at home with me.
Apart from that the only person I've helped to discover public nudity was a young woman in my class at college.
I'd made noo secret of my nudism, and she came one day to ask my advice. Her boyfriends parents were nudists, and they'd invited her to join them on a naturist foreign holiday.
Whilst she had no problems with going topless in front of them she was a bit reticent to go fully nude.
I asked if she shaved, she said yes, I suggested she let it grow as a decent growth would cover her as well as a bikini bottom would.
Returning after summer she said it had worked perfectly, but after a day with them she had been relaxed enough to shave again.
Parents are open to my being myself if they’re in my home and the temperature calls for it. In-laws are not, at least when I asked after they rented a beautiful rural property last year. But they all know now, so it’s on the table. I’d not expect anyone to join in though.
My parents brought us to a nude beach when I was in 6th grade. They said we could go nude if we wanted but I was too shy at the time. As soon as I came home though I became a home nudist. When I was 18 I convinced the family to return to the island and tried being nude on the beach near my family. Afterward, my family (mom, dad, sister and I) would layout form time to time in the nude on a secluded deck at our house. Since then, they’ve all changed and as far as I know none of them participate in any form of social nudity. Now I have a family of my own and I am working to establish nudity as an option within our home and creating opportunities to visit campgrounds and beaches.
I’m just not close enough with my family to be spending much time with them in the first place, and that relationship is already… strenuous. It’s never felt practical or helpful to open myself up to them about my hobbies, joys, relationships, or the fact that I enjoy taking my clothes off. I’d like to think I’m not actively trying to hide anything, either, but I think it’s fair to say I avoid opening up in general with them.
That being said, my first experiences being socially nude were with family: skinny-dipping in the hot tub or some neighbor’s swimming pool with my cousins as a kid. I have really fond memories of those moments because it was one of the few times I felt included in something.
Shortly after we were married my wife and I went to visit her family in Finland. The first evening there they introduced me to the sauna. Her family consisted of her parents and a sister. As the sauna heated up they explained that the sauna was best experienced naked and that they would all be naked but that I didn’t have to if it made me uncomfortable. I was a bit nervous about it, but since everyone else was going to be naked I didn’t want to be the odd duck.
After we finished the sauna we took part in the after sauna ritual of sausages and beer.
I soon found out that the entire family seldom wore clothes at home and enjoyed our 2 week visit clothes free for most of the time there.
I’m not familiar with Barely Proper. But spending 2 weeks with your wife’s family including her younger sister was definitely bordering on being barely proper. I know they say nudism is non-sexual but hanging out naked with your wife and her younger sister was sexually stimulating.
As a teen I’ve been skinny dipping in the pitch blackness of midnight once or twice with friends where my brother was involved. But this coming Sunday I’m taking my brother to our local naturist park. Working on getting through to the rest of my family as well.
I envy those who can answer yes. I rarely see most of my family members, except at big events. They know I'm a nudist and seem to be fine with it, but no one has expressed interest in exploring nudism themselves. If we were to spend time together at a private pool or in a similar situation, I think I'd be able to be nude with minimal awkwardness. It would be a meaningful breakthrough for me.
Went nude often growing up, usually when I was home alone. As a teenager, went skinny dipping with friends. Now that I’m married, I’m nude at home. My wife is reluctant to join in, and I don’t pressure her to be nude. Hopefully some day…
My partner comes from a nudist family, her great-grandparents were nudists and each generation since has continued to live as nudists with very few dropping out of the nudist lifestyle when leaving home etc. I'm the only nudist in my family. My parents and sister guessed that we are nudists from where we went on holiday and our suntans, we found out quite some time ago in a conversation with them after we'd decided to tell them, they laughed, shared knowing looks and said that they'd guessed we are. We'd wanted to be open with them, as we are with good friends, as nudism is an increasingly big part of our lives and we see nothing to be ashamed about it. It also makes life easier not needing to worry about leaving nudist magazines and other associated literature and brochures around our home when they visited, or removing photos we have at home from nudist holidays.
I was quite strange at my first meeting with them in a nudist setting, for about 10 seconds! It soon became more or less like a day at a nudist club or beach. I pinched myself when I first knew that her family were nudists, I couldn't believe my luck in making a connection like this that was centred on nudism.
We told my parents about my partner's family being multi-generational nudists. Both my mother and sister were curious about nudism, we talked with them both about many aspects of it, but my father was not very keen to talk about it and we never found out why. My parents are no longer here, my sister lives several hours away so if we visit each other we tend to stay over. She has been to local nude beaches with us where we met various nudist friends, she seemed very at ease with us all being nude with her, she was top-free most of the time but never nude. The first time we went to one of the beaches with her we'd made certain that she felt OK with us being nude and meeting some of our nude friends. This was the first time that I'd been nude in front of her since we were small kids sharing baths, I didn't really think about this until we were walking home and my sister remarked on that fact. I am so used to being nude there that it hadn't really occurred to me that my sister was there that day. We live nude at home year round as long as its not really cold, textile friends who are bothered by nudity know to let us know when they're coming here so we can 'cover up' with something minimal. Otherwise we stay nude with visitors, some join us naked, so we're very used to being here in all nude or clothing optional situations. So we've introduced my sister to social nudism but not managed to convince her to try nudism fully, yet. There will not be any pressure on her, or other people, to join us nude. She accepts that we're nudists, we accept that she's not quite a nudist!
With friends there have been a few whose curiosity about our nudism led to us introducing them to it at the beaches, it seems that if they're curious enough to want to try it they'll take it up once they've joined us nude there. We might take them to a quieter spot where there are less people passing by, so as they can relax more fully in their first steps into our way of socialising. Some of these friends had experienced nudism on holiday beaches, but none had tried it locally before.
As for advice to give someone about introducing loved ones to nudism I think that it depends on the person(s) involved and their locations and situations. Beaches are out of the question possibly to those who live long distances from any. Clubs/resorts can be the best location for an introduction, as everyone else there is likely to be committed nudists to some degree, so everyone will be nude if its warm. Seeing this uniform nudity can be a strong tool for encouraging the 'if you can't beat them then join them' attitude. A public nude beach might seem intimidating for that first public nudity, there will likely be passers-by, some nude, some clothed, but on the other hand that true liberation of being on a beach and going into the sea/lake completely naked can be a very powerful way of convincing people why nudism is so good.
This is a great topic line Evan. I’ve always enjoyed hearing how naturists have, or haven’t, shared their naturist time with friends and family. That decision and process is a common link we all share. So, great idea to get people telling their stories. Definitely a book in this!
I have several aspects of my story I could share. But I’m afraid my comments would be longer than you’re shooting for. I will highlight one — discussing naturism with my mother in law.
My MIL lived with us for an extended time, about 7 years, through multiple moves. Sometimes she was in the same house, other times just nearby. It gave her, and us, a great chance to remain close, particularly with her grandkids.
But, it certainly impacted my ability to be nude. However, I gladly adapted. Her happiness and comfort, and close relationships in our family, were much more important. So, I kept my naturist time on the “down low”.
Eventually, that became frustrating. So, after discussing with my wife, we decided it was time to have “the naturist talk” with Mom. I won’t go through the blow by blow, but a few weeks later on a family vacation, there were Mom and I, the early risers, in our rented beach house kitchen chatting with our morning coffee/tea, she dressed, me nude. So, it obviously went well. Not an exact quote but a good description of her position — I’m glad you shared it with me; the love and trust it signifies means everything; your nudity is natural and beautiful; doesn’t bother me a bit.
This coming out process taught me a valuable lesson — trust your gut (you generally know who will react positively and who won’t), trust your family (they generally won’t disown you over being naked), trust your beliefs (don’t let fears run amok in your mind — naturism is wonderful, even if others disagree)
While I have you -- I took the plunge and set up a Substack (David - Natusit4life) my personal one. It will be very naturist focused, probably entirely. Haven’t broken the code on how to share it with other Naturist Substack’ers. I posted a generic note, thinking all I subscribe to would see it. Either they didn’t or aren’t interested. Figured I’d try this as well. I’ve added this to a few other comments on other pages so you may see this request here and there. Sorry for taking your thread a bit off topic.
Once my sister got a house with a pool,it didn't take long before swimming nude became the norm for me,my sister and her husband.Finally,we told our Mom about it.She was OK with it but never swam nude herself until years later.We were nervous about telling our Mom,but it turned out to be no big deal in the end.
I read the article along with all the comments & really fascinated knowing as to how each naturist case differs from one another. Your article topic itself is of very interest & vast one.
Regret to say that up till now I have never experienced nakedness with my family, except my wife. I have shared my naturism passion with her & tried to convince her to embrace this awesome lifestyle. Though she doesn't objects to my naturist lifestyle, yet, she is not fully ready to embrace the naturism. Hope that someday she may embrace it & will join the naturism journey. During my childhood, in young days, in a countryside small town, I always used to see many a Jain saints on streets who were naked 24X7 (& is one of the main principals of Jainism) & from there on wards I had a deep impact of this lifestyle. This Jainism principal may be the main reason because of which I may be inclined towards naturism. Though I had an attraction towards this Jainism principal, I couldn't practice naturism when I was living with my parents, siblings & later on with wife, son & daughter-in-law. I was never nude with any of the family members as a naturism practice. This is may be because of non awareness of naturism as lifestyle, shyness & cultural barriers. Also because of the many responsibilities & life requirements, I could not spare time to practice naturism, except naked sleep time & naked bathing. Four years back I got retired to have leisure time & actually from there on, revived my naturism passion. Only my wife knows about my naturism passion & because of the local laws I have to practice naturism at home only. My son & daughter-in-law lives at other city because of their jobs. Let's hope that someday I may first share my naturism passion to my son & daughter-in-law & then may convince my wife, son, daughter-in-law to embrace this soul soothing lifestyle.