I just renewed my passport a few months ago. In the picture I have long hair, pulled back in a pony tail. I have a small goatee.
Since that picture was taken, I’ve shaved my head. I let my facial hair grow out into a full beard.
So, on my next trip will I have problems at the airport (other than the ones that always happen, of course:D)??
Nobody looks like their passport photo.
FWIW me = passport/ID card photo plus beard plus 8 years minus 47 kg, and have not had any difficulties yet.
I have once travelled with a passport where I had short hair, glasses that just weren’t me, white shirt and a tie while having long hair and beard, completely different glasses and generally sloppy clothes. At the border between Denmark and Germany it was confiscated for a couple of minutes while they checked that it wasn’t stolen or something.
Are your ears visible in the passport photo ? If they can’t go by anything else, they will look at your ears.
My passport photo was taken about 8 years ago, and makes me look remarkably pretty and demure. It does not look like me, and particularly not like the very rough-around-the edges me that comes out when travelling.
In the photo, my hair is hooked back behind one ear. About 70% of the time at Russian and British passport control, I’ll get asked to show my ears. (Russian officials usually want to see both; British officials ask to see one.) I then get my documents stamped, and get waved through with no further questions.
Never had a problem at a European or American airport.
Many countries want to check your ears for some reason. When I applied for a visa, I had to provide a picture of myself taken at an angle so they could see my right ear. Supposedly this was because some countries mark the ears of criminals, but I don’t know if I believe that.
I doubt very much that it’d be a problem. Anyway, if it were, they wouldn’t just turn you around and send you home without double-checking - they wouldn’t send a fraud on their merry way with no repercussions, so they wouldn’t do that to you either - so you’d just have to prove you really are you. Maybe they’d make you shave. 
It’s because ears are pretty good identifiers:
A Google search for ‘ear biometrics’ turns up a fair few more recent scholarly articles.
UK passports require all photos to have the ears showing.
Ears, huh? Well, I’ve got a dozen CBRs in my left ear and a tragus CBR in my right. Huh.
I dunno. I used my passport twice yesterday (at a border crossing, not at an airport) and the photo was heavily scrutinized both times. And it *totally *looks like me.
I suppose it depends on who (whom?) you run into.
mmm
Yeah, that probably would happen, but I don’t think having to wait an extra few seconds while they look closer counts as a problem.
I’ve lost about 60 lbs since mine was taken - but I don’t think you’d have trouble recognizing me.
My passport photo was taken when I was about my heaviest; I’ve since lost a good 40 pounds or so. When I crossed from Russia into Finland, I definitely got some odd looks (It was more like 50 pounds difference then) but nothing worse than that. No comment at all that I can remember leaving Finland or coming back into the States.
You can tell my passport photo is me, but it’s unbelievably bad