Is there a word for when you look weird to yourself in the mirror after shaving?

February 1, 2009 1:51 PM

You know when you haven't shaved your face for about a week, and then when you do finally shave, you look weird to yourself in the mirror? Is there a word for that (in English or any language?)
posted by tumbleweedjack to grab bag (15 comments total)

Jamais Vu?
posted by The Whelk at 2:03 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]

Stubbleganger.
posted by fish tick at 2:07 PM on February 1 [19 favorites]

I could've sworn there was this exact same question around here a few months back. I just have no idea how to go about looking for it amidst all the other past questions about shaving.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 2:19 PM on February 1

I'd call that surprise or confusion. Or Monday morning.
posted by knile at 2:32 PM on February 1

My friend always referred to this as the "Will Riker Effect", which comes from Star Trek and the freakish difference between Jonathan Frakes with and without beard.
posted by picea at 2:46 PM on February 1 [7 favorites]

Freud had a notion of the 'unbeardlich' (I think...)
posted by Chairboy at 2:46 PM on February 1

Shavenfreude.
posted by Schmucko at 3:03 PM on February 1 [7 favorites]

Cleanshaven?
posted by robotot at 3:04 PM on February 1

I've no idea if there's a word for it, but it is exquisitely described by James Merrill:

I'd watched my beard sprout in the mirror's grave.
Mirrors are graves, as all can see:
Knew this emerging mask would outlast me,
Just as the life outlasts us, that we led ..
And then one evening, off it came. No more
Visions of the deep. These lines behave
As if we were already gone -- not so!
Although of course each time's a closer shave.

('Tony: Ending the Life')
posted by verstegan at 3:07 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]

A ha!

From a thread of just over a year ago, although they never did find a true answer, unless you count Schmucko's here.

In order to counter the Will Riker effect, you could employ the Dave Grohl effect... Growing and shaving your beard on a constant basis so neither change comes off as jarring.
posted by TheSecretDecoderRing at 4:06 PM on February 1

If the Germans don't yet have a word for it, just ask. They're normally quite obliging on that front.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 4:10 PM on February 1

The general German word for this kind of dissociation and inability to identify something that results in unease is 'unheimlich', literally 'not homely'.
posted by Happy Dave at 4:33 PM on February 1

I don't know what it's called, but generally it means you've got a new album out.
posted by turgid dahlia at 6:25 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

In English I think the best word for this is incongruous. You are expecting to see one thing and you are seeing something else.
posted by ninebelow at 2:56 AM on February 2

This happened to me this morning after four day's growth. I count myself among the facial hair disabled, so it was really surprising to me to see that the smooth chin and slightly chapped reddened lips, with their barely obscuring shadow of whiskers that would embarrass a 16 year-old removed, would appear to belong to a really hot girl. "Ooh, she's hot," I thought. Apparently, I have a pretty mouth. Very disconcerting.
posted by Barry B. Palindromer at 12:13 PM on February 2