Horrid at describing appearances?

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I happen to be terrible at describing people’s appearances, even with family I see every day. I can easily recognize them.....and have no trouble picking them out in pictures/crowds etc. I just can’t go into detail on what they look like.

Like I know my mom is tall, has blue eyes and dark brown hair, but when it comes to describing other features… like a high cheekbone, a hooked nose, a heart shaped face, a square jaw line/etc/etc… I just can’t go into detail. My mind goes blank.

Same with anyone really. I simply can’t describe features. I mean, unless their nose is hugely out of proportion/something stands out

This is as good as I get when describing characters/people.... (No matter if I make them up myself or else see them in real life.)

He was a middle aged man, in his late forties. He stands at around 5 ft 9 and looks of average weight. His has pale blue eyes and curly brown hair that has been cut to above his ears.

I also can never remeber what anyone is wearing. Like If I'm with my dad and we go to a store.. I tend to forgot what color shirt he had on/etc when we get out of sight..even though I was with him at home and in the car when he was wearing said outfit.

Does anyone have these issues?

I identify just about everyone by their haircut, color, and style. A guy at work is constantly changing his hair and sometimes I can't even recognize him. Facial hair too, is an easy identifier. It's all about the hair.

I agree.... hair and beards/etc I am better at rembering/describing.

Likewise. Short of basic features or unusual distinctive ones that are hard not to notice, I'm really bad at physical descriptions. It just doesn't occur to me to track such things, let alone be able to recount them to someone else later.

I'm horrible at describing people too. Whenever people ask what people look like I say something along the lines of "Um...... short light brown hair..... I think blue eyes.... or are they green? Thin and um..... kinda cute?" << Yeah that gives a clear image. >_<

That's actually a pretty good description. Facial features *are* difficult to describe, for anyone.

My problem is that I never notice anyone's appearance in the first place. My description would be something like:

"Well, he was white/black/whatever. Not super old and not super young. Maybe somewhere between 30's to 50's. He had no outstanding characteristics that grabbed my attention. He was probably wearing pants and a shirt."
Height? Not a giant and not a midget. Eye color? No idea. Hair color? Not a clue. I would be the worst police witness ever.

Seriously, we did an experiment in my cognitive psychology class where a woman came into the room at the beginning of class to tell us our professor would be late, and it turned out that the purpose was for him to test how much we remembered of her appearance after she left and how it was influenced by gender (or something like that). When he asked us to write down a description of her appearance, I drew a total blank (even though I was right at the front of the room watching her the whole time she was there). It was pretty embarrassing, but I literally had no clue as to age (beyond a *very* large range), hair, eye color, clothes, etc. And unfortunately that is pretty much par for the course for me. I've been teased about it a fair bit over the years (teased for being oblivious to my surroundings).

I have another(?) problem like that. I know what people look like, I can even draw them too.

But I can't describe most of what they look like with words.

I guess that must mean you must look at people quite well in the first place. I try to look but my mind is mostly taken up with trying to measure it out appropriately and communicating without making them think I'm weird. I could draw them, but they'd be vague cartoon-like characters with very little photographic detail.

If I'm meeting somebody for the second time, every passer-by who even vaguely resembles them will seem to be them, until the real McCoy turns up and I think "yes, of course that's the one."

I have a hard time telling whether two people look alike. Family resemblance is completely beyond me. (Everyone says I look like my sister. I don't see it at all.)

I have a hard time describing people because I don't know how to do it without sounding offensive/judgmental. I'm afraid to say that someone is black, or short, or heavy, because it might come off wrong.

Sounds more or less like me, but I don't think of them as issues.

In my case, though, I rarely notice eye color. And even though I've occasionally purposely paid attention and noticed, I couldn't tell you my husband's eye color. I do tend to notice and remember blue eyes if I'm paying attention to the person's eyes.

Clothing I may nor may not remember. Depends how much attention I'm paying, plus how bold it is (color or design).

I can remember clothing, hair & eye color, etc, but for some reason I can't remember faces as a whole. I recently visited a place where I worked about 12 years ago and though several people there recognized me, I couldn't remember any of them. My brother had to remind me.

Watching movies in which someone fell victim to attack or was an eye witness of some crime, I often hear stuff like " Now you're going to see the police artist to describe how that person looked like to create his identikit." I guess I wouldn't be helpful then. I can't describe how a person looks exactly like.

I identify people on what stands out to me. A red sweater, big nose, bushy eyebrows, funny crossed eyes, huge pimple, ugly green shoes. I wouldn't be able to describe someone any other way. This goes for everything, cars, houses, roads, etc..

I just can't see the whole thing together like that. I give horrible directions and I don't understand directions well.