# Is It Possible To Disguise Yourself From A Person Who Knows You Well? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 18, 2009, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-disguise-yourself-from-a-person-who-knows-you-well/496875 "2009-05-18T17:27:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-disguise-yourself-from-a-person-who-knows-you-well/496875/41 "2009-05-21T22:19:13Z")
When I graduated undergrad, I weighed 155 pounds and had two foot long dreadlocks. The night of my graduation I cut off my dreadlocks, and in the following months started working out regularly and eating much better. When I went back to my college town for a party five or six months later I had short hair and weighed 185 pounds, and many people I had known for years didn’t recognize me. ---
**Author:** ![Kiante\_83](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9fc29f/32.png) [@Kiante\_83](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiante_83)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-disguise-yourself-from-a-person-who-knows-you-well/496875/42 "2009-05-22T18:20:55Z")
I believe the main component would be the environment and the mindset of the person you’re disguising yourself from. It appears that it is a lot easier to get away with a disguise if you’re in a unusual place where the person is not expecting to see you as opposed to all the makeup, voice, body and character changes you would need to make to fool somebody in a familiar place where they would expect to see you. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-disguise-yourself-from-a-person-who-knows-you-well/496875/43 "2009-05-22T18:37:58Z")
> [@JThunder](#): > > Bruce and Clark have managed to pull it off for years. Yeah, and all Clark has to do is take off his glasses. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-disguise-yourself-from-a-person-who-knows-you-well/496875/44 "2009-05-22T20:16:45Z")
When I was working on film sets, as a prank, one of my co-workers went to a cast party in drag. One of the make-up experts did his make-up and body padding. I worked with the guy on three shows back to back and saw him pretty much every day for three or four months. I did not recognize him _at all!_ He was a really skinny guy with small features and long, scruffy hippy-hair, so they added curves to his hips and cut his hair into a really girly shoulder length bob (he’d been planning to shave his head anyway) and they ironed it smooth somehow. The transformation was incredible! I was standing right in front of him and his girlfriend (who was in on the prank) and asked: “Where’s Rob?” Then he said: “Hi.” and I went :eek::eek::eek: He did _not_ make a pretty woman, but he also did not look at all like a guy in drag. Even if I’d have recognized him as a guy and thought he might be trans, I never would have recognized him as the guy I worked with. He seemed to be a completely new human being to me. As soon as he opened his mouth though, you knew who it was. (And his falsetto was ridiculous). A few straight guys asked him to dance too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-disguise-yourself-from-a-person-who-knows-you-well/496875.md?page=2)