Image Changes

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Have you ever drastically changed how you look? By this I mean anything from plastic surgery, fairly large tatooing or obvious body modifications, a new way of acting, to just a new way of dressing, a drastically different haircut etc. How did/does it make you feel about yourself?

Myself, I'd never been interested in fasion, until a few months ago, but I saw a leather jacket in a store back in early Dec. and I just had to have it. I got it for x-mas, and wear it almost everyday whenever I go out. I'm on my second haircut of my new style, I'm letting the bangs get long but trimming some on the sides and combing it over. Since mid. Dec. I've been on a diet, and I've slowly been increasing my physical activity. I'm doing long walks, push and sit-ups etc.

These few changes make me look fairly different, at least to myself, and I feel really good about it. For the first time in my life I actually feel cool. I've never felt nerdy, because even though I've always had a science fetish, I was never one of those shy kids with skin problems, glasses and no friends. But, likewise, I never felt cool.

I'm not sure what I'll do in the future, but leather jackets will be in there. Probably no ear rings, tats or body moding. For reasons such as they hurt, cost a lot to be undone or can't be undone. I do have ideas for tats, geckos , neat shapes and so forth, but, did I mention tatooing hurts? And costs an assload to get taken off?

[pescifish]

I think you look great in the photos you've posted recently, including the leather jacket. But looks don't mean much to me; perhaps I'm sensing the fact that you feel better about yourself. That's the great thing and can be the real attractive thing.

As for me, I don't really care much about how I look. However, a couple of years ago, a hair salon 'accident' caused me to go from shoulder length hair to a bonafide short cut. I never would have imagined I could carry off short hair (well, ok, I probably can't in a realistic sense). But I liked it so much for how it felt, I managed to come to decide it looks ok. I guess. But it was a big 'difference', perhaps not in looks but in my continued liberation from caring about appearance to simply enjoying 'what/who I am'.

[Leesifer]

Originally Posted by SkepticJ

These few changes make me look fairly different, at least to myself, and I feel really good about

Good for you! Really!

Originally Posted by SkepticJ

I was never one of those shy kids with skin problems, glasses and no friends. But, likewise, I never felt cool.

Get past this attitude and you're laughing.

Not all three of those necessarily go together you know.

[Waluigi]

I got contacts a few years ago, numerous people have said that makes a big difference in the way I look. I think it's because the glasses accentuated my big Jewish nose.

Last fall I grew my hair out. After 10+ years with a crew cut, I now sport a part on the left side. I've gotten a lot of comments on that, too. People say it makes me look older (not sure if that's a compliment or not).

I spend almost nothing on clothing, so my style hasn't changed much over the years. Well, I used to do the T-shirt with a flannel almost every day. Then I switched to sweatshirts and fleeces. More recently, I've worn sweaters. So, yeah, I guess it's changed a little. But only during the winter, when I need to wear something more than just a T-shirt and shorts.

The other change in appearance has been the weight I've gained in the last year, but I'm hoping to reverse most of that this year.

I think it's important to let your style evolve, and to shake things up every now and then. Hair styles, clothes, and other non-permanent changes are refreshing, and it's nice to see a change sometimes.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Originally Posted by pescifish

As for me, I don't really care much about how I look. However, a couple of years ago, a hair salon 'accident' caused me to go from shoulder length hair to a bonafide short cut. I never would have imagined I could carry off short hair (well, ok, I probably can't in a realistic sense). But I liked it so much for how it felt, I managed to come to decide it looks ok. I guess. But it was a big 'difference', perhaps not in looks but in my continued liberation from caring about appearance to simply enjoying 'what/who I am'.

Hair is an interesting thing. For example I can't picture my friend Andrew with another type of haircut than what he has. He'd look just weird with something different. It's long(about 3/4th the way down to his shoulders), black(his natural color) and parted down the middle. Or Devon, with longer hair(it's about 1/2 or maybe 3/7ths the way down to her shoulders, when it's not done up in her really cool looking "liberal emo look". Her natural hair color, I don't know, it's dyed some color and way she can't possibly have the genes for.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Originally Posted by Leesifer

Not all three of those necessarily go together you know.

I know. But a lot of the nerds I've ever known have had bad looking glasses and skin problems. It's a stereotype, but there's some truth to it. However, glasses of the right kind can look cool. Andrew and Devon(this is one of those gender ambiguous names, she's a she) would look very much less cool without their reading glasses.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Originally Posted by Waluigi

I got contacts a few years ago, numerous people have said that makes a big difference in the way I look. I think it's because the glasses accentuated my big Jewish nose.

When I was little, my mother wore contacts much more than she does now. Actually I'm not sure if she even has in many years. Whatever, even as a litte kid I noticed she looked very different and I thought she looked better. This was the late 80s, so part of it might be she had some really ugly glasses(but not nearly like the ones she wore in the 70s, my god, those old photos are funny), unlike the ones she wears now.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

^
^
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Three in a row, tick tack toe.

[Corona688]

Glasses. I could have gotten contacts, and people keep telling me I'm crazy not to get my retinas carved by lasers, but I think I simply look better with them. My face doesn't have much in the way of features at all, and looks totally bare without them... When I started needing correction for myopia I chose glasses at once, got used to them instantly, and have worn them daily ever since.

[Lauri D]

For sure, this one time I went from chest-length hair to pixie-cut in a fit of boredom (and because I was sick of blow-drying for what seemed like forever). I experienced a few moments of "OMG what have I done" as soon as the deed was done, but was pretty happy with the decision in short order. I ended up growing it back and keeping it that way but I still often think fondly of those "wash and wear" days. Very liberating.

The only other "drastic change" was in my early twenties - while I was married the first time I gained weight, from 125-ish to 150+ in about a year. That wasn't the drastic change though, it was when I decided to take the then-popular diet drug combo "phen-fen" and went from 150+ to barely 114 pounds in the course of just a few months. At 5'7" and with a medium frame, 114 lbs. was definitely not a good look for me and it was the first time in my life that I didn't even recognize myself sometimes (like when you catch a glimpse of yourself in a reflective window or a mirror).

[Ari]

Well a couple years ago I grew my hair long and dyed it blue (it's still blue) does that count?

Eyeball goo
A small correction, it's the cornea that gets carved with lasers. Carving the retina with lasers would be fun torture though. I don't know how far they have come with it but they also have permanent contacts where they carve a flap in your cornea then insert a special lens. Since you don't really lose any material it is supposed to be reversible.

[viscousmemories]

I went through a blue jean jacket phase in jr. high, and a leather motorcycle jacket phase after that. When I joined the Army they shaved my head, that was different. When I got out I let it grow until it was over two feet long, that was different but not sudden. I had to get it all cut off to get into rehab, though. That was sudden. I don't have any tats or piercings, and I dress fairly conservatively. I need a haircut, but that isn't going to change me much. Inside I feel like Henry Rollins looks; I need a makeover.

[Ymir's blood]

Through my my junior year of high school, I gave no thought to how I looked. Being as I was almost completely introverted and asocial, clothes were really of no importance to me. Sneakers, indigo jeans and button down shirts, total uber-nerd except for the lack of pencils and pocket protector. (I wasn't very studious, just lost in a world of daydreams.)

Then the first real friend I had turned me on to 'power' metal bands and I started taking an intererest in my image. I started wearing printed t-shirts, ripped jeans and a denim jacket with a 'Live After Death' back patch and obnoxious buttons all over the front. I also wore a long black raincoat a lot.

Started letting my hair grow out as well and ended up quitting my first job when they wanted me to cut it. By my first (and only) year in college, it was down below my shoulder blades. I started wearing boots then as well, mostly hiking boots but occasionally black engineer boots.

As the Eighties passed and I got older, that started to get toned down. My hair got cut, the jeans were no longer ripped and patches and buttons disappeared from the jacket. In the early to mid-Nineties, I wanted to look more professional at work and abandoned the printed tees, opting for polo or button down shirts.

I started drawing a line between the real me and who I was at work, essentially trying to lead a double life. After a while, the real me started to disappear and without going in to details, I ended up having a near total emotional breakdown. Picking up the pieces of my psyche, I emerged pretty much back where I started, jeans and button down shirts, though this time in an effort to simply be invisible.

Over time and especially after getting online and seeing people who didn't dress to conform, my desire for self expression slowly eclipsed my fears. I started adding more and more black to my wardrobe, eventually abandoning the blue jeans and khaki shirts and going for a darker overall look. Over time that has become less conventional. I'm still working on my 'new look'. It changes constantly as I find something new to add to it.

My hair is dyed and I wear some makeup. At the moment, my nails are painted. I suspect my coworkers think I'm either crazy or gay, but *whatever*. Most of them have pretty much avoided me for years anyway.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Originally Posted by Ymir's blood

My hair is dyed and I wear some makeup. At the moment, my nails are painted. I suspect my coworkers think I'm either crazy or gay, but *whatever*. Most of them have pretty much avoided me for years anyway.

Looks black in your photo, what's the natural color?
What kind and where?
Nails painted black, I guess?

What I think would be cool would be to have metal fingernails. Like a titanium tungsten alloy, surgically screwed into the fingertip bones. But only if the technology to undo that was around i.e. we can make stem cells do whatever the fuck we want.

[Ymir's blood]

Originally Posted by SkepticJ

Looks black in your photo, what's the natural color?

Brown. That's what it was when the picture was taken. The colors aren't quite right due to the lighting.

What kind and where?

Foundation and smudged eyeliner.

Nails painted black, I guess?

Yes, but now natural again.

What I think would be cool would be to have metal fingernails. Like a titanium tungsten alloy, surgically screwed into the fingertip bones. But only if the technology to undo that was around i.e. we can make stem cells do whatever the fuck we want.

You'd have to find a way to shut off the normal growth of the nails. Otherwise it could get messy.

I'm pretty sure you can find metallic nail polish. It would be a lot cheaper and easier.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Originally Posted by Ymir's blood

You'd have to find a way to shut off the normal growth of the nails. Otherwise it could get messy.

I'm pretty sure you can find metallic nail polish. It would be a lot cheaper and easier.

That'd be easy enough, remove the tissue that excretes the keratin. You can't grow hair without follicles, you can't grow nails without the cells that excrete the nails.
Another way to do it would be to get custom made nails out of said metals and glue them onto one's nails. Like how some women, some transvestites, some gay guys etc. glue plastic nails on top of their real nails.

[Julie]

Most drastic changes I ever did was Almost elbow length hair to pixie cut. That was over 10 years ago, i've never grown it longer than 3-4 inches long since then.

Going from dyeing my hair almost natural colours for 26 years to purple was fun too. (It's currently pink) But even my mom admits i look better with the purple hair than anything.

[erimir]

When in middle school I used to wear large t-shirts and pants/shorts and so forth and have medium length hair parted to the left. I didn't care about my clothes and I was generally unstylish.

Now I have short, unparted hair and I don't buy t-shirts over size small if I can help it. And I have some tight jeans too... And generally my clothes are more fashionable.

That's pretty much the extent of my change in appearance. Well, I might note that before I switched to the current hairstyle I had actually grown my hair out to a longish length.

Since it's more interesting this way, I attached a couple pics to show the difference - which isn't all that extreme, but still.

Now:



Not that I dress like that every day...

Then: see attachments - I'm not exactly proud of that pic with the long hair. Oy.

I'd rather see some pics to compare people who made more interesting changes.

[cappuccino]

For a moment I thought your shirt said "University of Virgins" erimir.


I've undergone quite significant image changes from my middle school through to my college years. Think braces and big glasses to braceless perfect teeth and contact lenses along with different hairstyles and the blossoming of my innate fashion sense. But I also went through a big change when I hit my 22th birthday. All of sudden I no longer looked young for my age, I had matured and looked older. It was weird, because comparing pictures from when I was 19, 20, and 21 with pictures after I turned 22, you could see a big difference there. I also had longer and curly hair for a year before I cut it last spring. I'm contemplating growing it out again with a different hairstyle this time. Should be interesting.

Tattoos are in the future but other than that, I don't anticipate radical cosmetic changes anytime soon.

[Dingfod]

Let's see...

In high school back in the early 70s, I wore Dingo boots and boot cut Levis, usually with a tapered shirt, often Western style. My hair always conformed to the school dress code, but I let it grow long in the summers. When they dropped the dress code between 10th and 11th grade, I was ready on the hair front.

In college and after, I wore what we called jeans, flannel shirts and waffle-stompers, thick lugged sole boots much like Doc Martens are now, only denim. My hair got longer, almost shoulder length.

After dropping out of college in 1975, I worked jobs in retail and auto sales, which had dress codes of their own. I conformed to the norm, right down to a polyester leisure suit, white patent leather shoes and belt and shorter haircut.

I had no style at all after that. I usually wore the same kind of clothes at work (oilfield and chemical plant) that I did everywhere else, jeans, t-shirt, Dingo boots, flannel shirts when the weather allowed.

When I lived in Wyoming, I let the hair grow long and grew an unruly mustache, trying for the cowboy/mountain man look.

I found some Hawaiian shirts on sale during the Magnum PI tv show era, then it was jeans, tennis shoes, and brightly colored Hawaiian shirts most of the time when I lived in Colorado.

When I moved to Salt Lake City, I had to wear shirt and tie at work all the time, so I went even more casual in my casual clothes, cargo shorts and oversized t-shirts with sandals most all the time. That's still the norm for me. Comfort is more important than appearance now.

So, I've not made a lot of drastic changes in appearance in my life except for the Herb Tarlek look in the mid-70s and the Thomas Magnum look in the mid-to-late-80s.

[thoughtlife]

Over the last couple of years, I've gone from 158 lbs. to now 112. I've always been "little", so when I gained weight it changed my personality somewhat. I was always known as "cute little Josie", and you know?....your personality wraps around that in some ways. When I wasn't "cute and little" anymore, I lost some spunk and really had some soul searching going on as to who I really was. It made me dig, which was a good thing. Then shortly after I lost most of the weight, I abruptly went through deconversion. Changes?

Before picture: Overweight Christian




After picture: Skinny little Agnostic!

[Adam]

The biggest change in my appearance came when I was...oh...21, I think, and cut my hair. I went overnight from looking like Jesus to looking like an ordinary person.

Other than that, I haven't changed much. I've had a goatee as my 'default' mode since I was 16, and I shave it off once in a while just to be a little different, but it usually ends up returning within a month or two, simply because I don't like the way it feels to shave around my mouth. I replaced it with a ridiculous looking soul patch a few years ago, mostly as a joke, and that ended up sticking around for a few months.

Oh, and It's recently occurred to me that I miss my glasses. I had my eyeballs carved up with lasers not quite a year ago (which was a lot of fun, coincidentally...I'd like to do it again), and the convenience is great (don't have to remember to put my contacts in on days that I'm planning to work out, or have a game, don't have to worry about fallling asleep on the couch with glasses on and rolling over and squashing them, etc.), but I miss having glasses on my face. I liked being able to tip my face down a bit and look over the top of them.

[godfry n. glad]

I was a pencil-necked geek in high school. I even had a pocket protector. I grew a beard (goatee) my sophmore year in high school. I grew my hair out to shoulder length, too. Since I went to a public all-boys' polytechnic, and it was 1969, it was a big deal and I had to cut my hair (for shop safety). However, there were no rules about facial hair, so my junior year, I grew a full beard and kept my hair length within expected norms (fighting the dress code the entire way). It got me exiled to study hall. My senior year, I got disgusted with the arbitrary authority wielded by the principal and took my bearded honors-student self to another, and experimental, high school. I didn't cut my hair for three years.

During my college years, I lived in flaired denim Levis, chambray work shirts, and Hush Puppy desert boots. The summer of '73, I took a job where I had to shave my beard off. The job lasted two weeks; after that I grew the beard out again. During the clean-shaven time, I felt naked and cooler than usual and even fairly close friends didn't recognize me until I opened my mouth and said something.

After college, I got an desk job in a central city business non-profit. I didn't shave, but I started wearing suits and ties (aka "leashes"). That lasted as long as that job. I would return occasionally to sports jackets and ties while trying to tack down a full-time teaching job.

In 1980, I went clean shaven again for a summer, this time for a role in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Again, I felt naked and cold for at least a month. And, once the play was over, I grew the beard back and haven't been clean shaven since.

I like my spectacles and consider them a basic part of my image. These days, I live in khaki trousers and teeshirts (usually from travel destinations)...at work, at home, at play.

Prior to my wife's death, I had lost about 50 of the pounds I'd gained since leaving college. That's where I was when I did the "across Asia" gig. Since returning, I've put 30 of those pounds back on. I liked it at the lighter weight and actually got some compliments from co-workers on my success....but the bottom line is I'm disgustingly lazy, particularly about exercise.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by thoughtlife

Over the last couple of years, I've gone from 158 lbs. to now 112. I've always been "little", so when I gained weight it changed my personality somewhat. I was always known as "cute little Josie", and you know?....your personality wraps around that in some ways. When I wasn't "cute and little" anymore, I lost some spunk and really had some soul searching going on as to who I really was. It made me dig, which was a good thing. Then shortly after I lost most of the weight, I abruptly went through deconversion. Changes?

Before picture: Overweight Christian




After picture: Skinny little Agnostic!

I can't see the images!

[Ymir's blood]

Originally Posted by Adam

Oh, and It's recently occurred to me that I miss my glasses. I had my eyeballs carved up with lasers not quite a year ago (which was a lot of fun, coincidentally...I'd like to do it again), and the convenience is great (don't have to remember to put my contacts in on days that I'm planning to work out, or have a game, don't have to worry about fallling asleep on the couch with glasses on and rolling over and squashing them, etc.), but I miss having glasses on my face. I liked being able to tip my face down a bit and look over the top of them.

I bought my first pair of sunglasses the day after getting contacts. They get worn all the time as they just seem natural to me. (having worn glasses since age ten)

My eyes are very light sensitive so that factors in as well.