ID & Passport Photos - how do you wear your hair?

[Kina]

Uggggh, the dreaded taking of a photo for a passport, driver's licence, or staff ID!

Everybody hates them (don't they?), but the dilemma for a long-hair is - what style do you wear that will be flattering in a close-up, straight-on picture of your face? (Especially if you don't have face-framing layers. ) The one taken of me today was a disaster, so I need to think of a style to wear tomorrow that is suitable for work, and will look okay in a photo of the front of my head. Or maybe I'll just have to let it down, do a quick half-up for the photo, and then put it up again. *sigh*



But enough about me, what do you do?

I have bangs/fringe so they were out, sock bun for the rest. I took my passport and driver's license photo within a couple of days of each other, both pics look exactly the same.

Can't remember who posted it, but there is an articel on softening the look of a bun by creating a light pouf, I like this and bet it would look gorgeous on you, although I think it tends to pull after awhile, especially if you don't help the pouf by back combing or anything.

[Themyst]

My husband took our passport card photos (he has a professional camera and there are guidelines for the specific size to submit with your application if you want to do it yourself). So, we were able to take several pics to test. Because of the full face pic, the ones I took with my hair straight down looked horrible, so I wound up putting my hair in a high loose-bun. Some of the bun is cut off in the pic but that doesn't matter, they want the face. But, the pic turned out better.

[camara]

I´m wearing my hair in a bun on such occasions. It doesn´t matter that much, because in my most recent passport they put a picture of a woman with a rectangular face (My face is oval. Really, it is.) and this really obvious facial asymmetry. Besides, her mouth is slanted. She does, however, wear the same pair of glasses as me, and has the same nose piercing, as well as the exact same headband.

Did I mention I photograph very badly, and my hair is the least of my problems when having a pic taken of me? :P

[redneckprincess]

I swear Im going to dye my hair pink for my next drivers lisence photo, should be fun...thats in 2-3 years, so I'll have a whole lot of hair by then

[Vermelha]

My ID has me wearing an Afro! It's cute!
Now, my hair is 3x that size...And I'm due for an ID renewal next month...I think my hair may be bigger than the square box now, so I need to pull my hair back this time, lol.

[Bellalalala]

I just make sure to wear it in a style that is very common for me and easy to get my hair into.

It's extremely stressful when crossing the border and they don't think your passport looks quite like you. I have very high and define cheekbones, which is person look lovely, but in stark lighting photos get so exaggerated that they make my face look completely different.

I once had an ID photo taken right after a salon visit, so I had all these straightened layers in my face and a sweeping fringe across my forehead. An exam proctor didn't believe my ID was me and asked me to let my hair down. Of course my hair was frizzy with major volume and my bangs were curled. My prof had to be called in to confirm that it was me. That sucked.

[LeaM07]

I wear mine up. It's not the most flattering of styles from the front, but it's how I wear it every day, exceptions being few and far between.

A couple of driver's licenses ago I was wearing my hair in a braid (which, incidentally, looks pretty much the same as a bun from the front), and the lady at the DMV asked me to put my braid over my shoulder so it could be seen in the photo, since it was something that could be used to identify me.

[janiejones]

My first driver's license has an odd picture of a 14 year old boy....wait, no, that's me, with my hair in a slicked back ponytail wet from showering after exercising and no makeup whatsoever. Absolutely no thinking ahead!

[LittleOrca]

I just wear my hair down. My pictures are a little old, from when I wore my hair down most of the time, but I figure they should recognize me with my hair up. Same face shape... just they have to look past the purple lipstick and eyeshadow.

[WavyGirl]

My face does look pretty much the same whether my hair is up or down so I have ID with it both ways. Not much help I know. I prefer photos where you can see that my hair is long though. Bet you didn't see that coming did you?

I was reading on a site about reading peoples faces and they pointed out that most ID photos look bad because the subject is not really into getting their picture taken "I'm doing this because I HAVE to..." and it shows in the staring eyes and set features. So my tip is to think of something happy even if you're not smiling. It will still show.