Does anyone think it’s possible for one to disguise one’s self so that a person, who knows you well, wouldn’t recognize you during an interaction? And would it also be possible to have multiple interactions over a sustained period of time with this person without them ever knowing who you really are?
To answer this question, we need to address a few things.
“Someone who knows you well” is subjective. What would you consider someone knowing you well? Someone you’ve known for 6 months, years, etc. What if you stopped seeing this person for a few months, would they still be able to recognize you if you had a well enough disguise?
I realize that alot would be invovled in making this happen, you would have to change your voice, demeanor, gait, movement, etc to really pull something like this off.
But if you cant change your facial appearance, then all of that doesn’t really matter. How effective would something like a facial prosthetic like a nose or a chin be in disguising yourself?
Think Mrs Doubtfire. That exact scenario, I realize it’s a movie. But it describes exactly what I’m talking about.
I have know knowledge on the subject, but I find myself really really hoping to hear from people with practical, first-hand experience as either fooler or fooled. With details!
God, how I wish that was possible. Mr.Wrekker knows or is related to everyone. They seek me out like a heat seeking missile, wherever I go. It’s very awkward, for me.
IMO, you usually cannot.
In college I sat next to a guy with a ZZ Top style beard and long hair. One day I came in and there was a clean-shaven, short-haired guy sitting in the chair. I asked him who he was as I no idea and I figured my friend would be along shortly to sit in his usual spot.
How long I would have been confused if he didn’t tell me I don’t know, but he sure as hell wasn’t recognizable anymore.
That’s wild. While it’s pretty elaborate, there’s one caveat,
“The jury heard that the complainant not only wore the blindfold during sex but also for at least 100 hours when the pair were just hanging out – going for drives, sunbathing and even “watching” films together.”
Of course if you can’t see the person’s face, then you won’t be able to recognize them. I don’t know if this story really counts.
My father, for basically my entire life, has had a moustache. Well about 30 years or so ago, upon finding out that he was going to be meeting up with his sister and BIL in DC, my father decided to have a little fun.
He shaved off his 'stache right before leaving for D.C. to meet them. He just had to pick me and my sister up from school and take us home first. In hindsight i believe he did this as a “practice run” of sorts, to see how shocking his new appearance was.
Well, it worked on us kids. My sister started fucking bawling and screaming and i refused to leave with this man claiming to be my dad. I dont think he was expecting it to work so well, because it took him the better part of 10 minutes to calm us down and convince us he was really Dad. He looked SO fucking weird and different!
Anyway, my father says the look on his sister’s face was priceless when he met them in the D.C. restaurant. She was just staring a confused stare as he approached their table and when he got right up in front of them, she just continued to stare in awkward silence for at least a minute. Finally, “John??” “Is that John?” At that point my dad couldnt hold back any longer and just burst out laughing. He had lived so much of his life donning a big, bushy moustache that just about everyone who’d ever known him knew him that one way. So he fooled some of the closest people to him, simply by shaving his 'stache.
I worked with a local guy on numerous occasions occasionally for 20 years, with frequent personal interactions, including personal interviews of and by him, and sharing committee membership. I would say we know each other pretty well.
A few months ago, I began to grow a beard for no reason. At a funeral for a mutual friend, he sat directly one row behind me for the entire event and watched me standing up behind the video camera the entire time. After it was over, he leaned over the pew and said, “You look familiar, but I don’t know your name.”
And his wife, who could be excused as I didn’t see her as often, said she didn’t know who I was, either.
So an unintentional disguise worked better than I planned. However, the age of both was 80-90, so maybe that was a factor.
Me too. There have been times where people I’ve known for a while have made a simple change like dyed their hair, or shaved off a beard, and I didn’t recognize them.
Long ago, my aunt and her husband spotted her cousin across the room at a bar. The husband walked over, chit-chatted and asked her to dance. After a minute or two he asked, “You don’t recognize me, do you?”
I know someone like that. His moustache is so large and distinctive, I don’t think I could recognize him without it. I once spotted him on TV in the crowd at a baseball game based on that moustache, which I confirmed by a phonecall to his daughter.
The person who I’ve been thinking of pulling this disguise prank on has only ever seen me with a trimmed beard for the last 5 months, never clean shaven. And 90% of the time wearing a hat since I’ve been experiencing male pattern baldness.
I wonder if shaving my beard entirely and having one of those realistic looking hair systems installed would be enough. Maybe perhaps throw in some fake eyeglasses and color changing contacts?. There’s something about distinct characteristics of people that allow us to recognize ones we know. What is it for some of you? Eyes, mouth, nose? Somebody today told me that all they needed to hear was my voice to recognize me.
I had a similar experience with a good friend in college. He had a heavy beard and mustache. We were supposed to meet in the library and I walked right by him because he’d shaved. I didn’t recognize him at all–he said my name and then seeing my blank look told me who he was.
A friend was married to a man who was almost completely bald; after 6 years he decided to get a wig/hairpiece and went shopping for it with my friend’s younger sister. They came home to a family dinner with him wearing the hairpiece and thought that they’d have some fun, so the younger sister introduced him as a friend of hers, giving him a fake name, and they sat down and ate. His wife and in-laws didn’t recognize him for 15 minutes or so. In fact it wasn’t his wife who spotted him; it was one of her brothers who realized who it was.
Sometimes you don’t even have to wear a disguise or really change your appearance beyond clothes and context. Happened to me in the army enough, both ways. You spend everyday working with someone, eating next to each other, getting to know each others family through
stories, sometimes sharing a two man tent. First time you see each other in civilian clothes at the grocery store you exchange looks of puzzled and vague recognition