How do people with BDD try to camouflage their defects?
There are a lot of different ways. It depends upon what people are concerned about. Hair is a common concern. If it is a man they think that their hair is thinning or it doesn't look good some other way, they may wear hats all the time or sometimes they shave their head, so they think that will just get rid of their hair problem because there is no hair. People may camouflage by putting makeup to cover up what they think are blemishes, wrinkles or freckles. People may wear loose baggy clothing to cover up if they think they have something wrong with their body. For example, people may cover their arms if they think they have too much hair. I have had people wear gloves because they think their hands look horribly ugly or are too masculine. Covering up in almost every way. There are other ways that people try to manage what they consider a defect about their appearance. They may think they look better at a certain angle. For example, some people think their profile looks really ugly so they will always try to position themselves in a room so that whoever is there is facing them head on; or they will back themselves into a corner so no one can see them from the side. Or they may think fluorescent lights make their skin look very pallid, so they will try to avoid fluorescent lights. Other times when they think they really can't do anything about it, they want to try to draw attention away from it. So they may enhance some other part of their body. They may get breast augmentation because they think it will draw people's attention away from their face. Or they may wear provocative clothing to take people's attention away from what they think is defective.
