This Troper usually wears cargo pants and tshirts and uses a little makeup. When she showed up at a school ceremony dressed in a long, flowy dress and high-heels one of her male friends said in a very suprised voice: 'Jesus Christ, you're a ''girl''!'

This troper never puts on makeup or dresses up as she feels it's too much of a hassle. However, she did dress up for a school dance, and EVERYONE was shocked to see her as such. Even the guys had their jaws dropped. It flattered this troper, but it hasn't had the same effect since.

This Troper is an anime loving {{Tomboy}} who mainly wears T-shirts with long shorts or jeans with Converse sneakers. However, when I cosplayed as Gray man}} Road Kamelot for Halloween a couple years ago, my guy friends, who were cosplaying as Frog}} Mutsumi and Piece}} Luffy were suprised to see me in an {{Elegant Goth Lolita}} outfit, since they usually saw me in tomboyish clothes. I didn't get the same reaction last Halloween, since I was cosplaying as Gintoki.

It was the first day of Coachella 2011, and This Troper was watching an interview 98.7 FM had with her favorite band, {{Flogging Molly}}. In the interview, they were dressed down in T-shirts, shorts, and other casual wear. Later that night, when This Troper saw Flogging Molly come onstage to do their set, she was suprised that the same band she saw in the interview earlier that day were now dressed in suits, collared shirts, vests, blazers, leather jackets, and other dressy-casual wear. This Troper knew for a long time that they always dressed like that in concerts and on album covers, but she was astonished that Dave King (the singer) wore a Mexico T-shirt with shorts a few hours ago, and here he was wearing a white, pinstripe, collared shirt with a tie, slacks, dress shoes, and a blazer. Mind blown!

This troper has been told by a workmate repeatedly "For god's sake, dress more like a girl!" due to the one time I came in with a fairly nice poloneck and a pair of jeans instead of layers and layers of men's shirts, tees and a man's suit. I appreciate I clean up nice, but I get mildly uncomfortable when men look at me differently when I dress nicely, so usually don't. when I do (year 12 prom, friend's mom's birthday party) I always get surprised "You look nice today" comments.

ThisTroper asked Mary to go dancing with him at the local dance hall were a Jazz Band was going to be playing. After all, we danced together all the time for practice. She showed up all fancied up. My jaw literally dropped open and I stumbled over my hello. Mary's response was to first blush and then smirk.

Which is a note, two other common responses are blushing (shy) and smirking (pleasure that they can make a man act a fool over them), depending on the girl's personality.

More truth in television - this troper was at the senior gala with her boyfriend when a mutual friend came up and said hi only to the boyfriend. Troper said "um, HI Chuck" causing a very humorous doubletake and "um, wow, I was just about to ask to be introduced."

Along those same lines, this troper is not in the habit of putting make-up on or doing anything with her hair and her outfits tend to be composed of "whatever happened to be handy at the moment." Needless to say, she put a great deal of effort into her appearance for her high school prom. She was quite insulted to find that all her friends were ignoring her, and when she decided that enough was enough and opened her mouth to speak, all her friends essentially responded in shock at the fact that their friend and the pretty girl were one and the same.

A boy who had paid this troper no attention but had suddenly asked me out for the prom had this reaction when I came down the stairs in my prom dress...which I actually hated, so the response was that much more gratifying.

Subverted in my case - I went to homecoming sophomore year with my best male friend, and while he was obviously thinking this, he didn't say anything about it. However, he happened to hear my worst enemy remark the day after the event, "Wow, did you see [troper's name] at homecoming? I mean, usually she just wears T-shirts and sweatpants, but she had a dress and her hair was up and everything! She looked gorgeous!" Apparently I was just that good.

Once this troper wore a tight, sequined red dress for a school play. She was just as shocked as everyone else at her own appearance because all she ever wears are hoodies and jeans with no makeup and my hair in a pathetic attempt at a ponytail. My own ''brother'' (Although he is pretty stupid) even asked who that hot girl on stage was because he didn't recognise me.

I can almost hear that question in my head:

"Who's that hot girl on stage?"

"That's... your sister." *jaw falling on the floor*

In secondary school, this troper had to wear a uniform that was decidedly unflattering and shapeless. Most of the girls shortened their skirts and shrank their shirts in the dryer, but this troper didn't really care enough to do so. Thus, on the rare occasions when her classmates saw her in something other than the uniform, particularly a dress, they were rather shocked - not so much because this troper was supermodel-gorgeous (she wasn't) but because she looked like a teenager instead of a little girl.

A more traditional example happened recently, when this troper (now in her early 20s) descended the stairs in her outfit for the Renaissance Faire. Troper's boyfriend was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, and looked stunned. This is why this troper wishes her entire life consisted of occasions to wear costumes.

This troper is in her thirties, and shares that wish with you.

It ain't just Troperettes. This troper was (okay, IS) not anybody's idea of Brad Pitt. However, said troper had an interview and donned a brand new suit, a clean shave, and a freshly shaved head. With all the head turns and sudden excuses to stop and chat, you would've thought he was Will Smith.

But on your way to the interview, you got in one little fight and your mom got scared?

LOL! The above post is MadeOfWin, in this troper's opinion.

This troper got this from her AmbiguouslyGay male friend just before a school formal - she was rewarded with bulgy eyes and a "... well look at ''you!!''" As her dress was rather cleavage-y, she now assumes that phrase means "Boobies!!"

Take it from this male troper-theres a 3/5 chance that's exactly what it means, depending on the guy.

Inversion: It seems like this troper only get compliments on her hair when she hasn't washed it in practically a week. Weird, but I'm not about to complain.

For her church's Vacation Bible School, this troper spent a week being a scurvy pirate villainess. (Note that her character was a lousy bad guy.) By the end of the week, having converted according to the script, she was asked to "take a bath" before joining the crew of good guys. Having spent the week in drab, ill-fitting ratty clothes, she took more than a few people by surprise when she emerged for the finale with her hair curled and wearing a lace-up period dress. One of the teenaged helpers did a huge double-take, swallowed, and blurted "Hi!"

Just curious: was this "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything," most likely in 2008? My sister and I played those two pirates. We didn't dress up for the end, though.

It was! My husband and I were the pirates. We just took the finale as an opportunity to wear our Renaissance faire costumes, which went over huge.

This male troper gets it a lot whenever he has to get dressed up for anything. Since he went to a private school, where 'dress up' to most is what was school dress code, he includes taming his hair and wearing contacts, which he doesn't do every day of the week.

This troper had a terrifically gratifying instance of this. I spent HS in very modest clothes (for comfort as much as any other reason) and being a fairly geeky theater techie so, one show, when the only black I had that was clean was a tight, lower cut shirt and velvet skirt, I literally made our personal pretty-boy actor, who the rest of the time wouldn't acknowledge my existence, speechless. I had to prompt him for whatever question he was asking and he finally stuttered it out. So. Very. Gratifying.

This troper recently wore a low-cut dress for a costume party. (Normally, neither low-cut nor dress is my style.) Apparently it hadn't twigged with some of my male friends before that moment that, yes, as a female, I do have breasts. They didn't have to stare for the entire night, though.

This troper is another male example. Too lazy to shave regularly, habitual slouch, haphazard clothing choices, and hair that sorta does its own thing. When I care enough to try, I can make myself look very nice.

Are you my twin brother? This troper tends to shave once a week (and my beard grows in less than a few days) and without at least 3 hair products my hair is a mess; however, when I take the time to look in my closet for something nice; shave and use said products I've made several jaws drop (male and female though I don't care for the latter)

Rider}} This Troper has a similar effect. Being a geek and proud of it, not to mention currently living a bachelor's live and being colorblind like a bat, he tends to show up unshaven, in old clothes, no haircut to speak of and crunching code and munching tech like a giddy child. Then days come around when he has to actually meet clients, so he has to wear the suit and tie, visit a barber and get that head cleaned up. Then his coworkers started flirting with him and only 2 weeks later found out he was kind enough to let them persist in their illusion. His self esteem has grown another 2 inches since that day.

This Troper lives in jeans and T-shirts, no makeup, and no hair...thingies. (I have it cut short). She does occasionally wear dresses around the house; long story short, a male friend of hers saw this and begged her to wear dresses for one week at school. She did. She has never felt more like her boobs were mentally groped as that week. But she got a lot of compliments, and a huge self-esteem boost. Yay!

Another male example. This troper's friends didn't know that he even owned a suit until he showed at one friend's wedding looking like he was auditioning for the role of 007. The groom asked if he had a Walther PPK in the jacket as well.

This troper usually lives in grungy jeans and tee-shirts, my hair is up in a ponytail more often than not, and I usually look like I don't give a damn about my appearance. I have one black dress, however, and on the few occasions I've had to wear it, it has never failed to make at least half the room turn and gawk. (Being endowed with the MostCommonSuperpower probably doesn't hurt there, I guess...)

This troper's normally a geeky and under-endowed chemical engineering student, but she managed to pull this on her girlfriend last year at a Christmas pageant at church. The look on my girlfriend's face when I showed up in makeup (a first sight for her), high heels (also a first), and a black dress that almost made my chest respectable was worth every second of the hour or so I took getting ready (as compared to my normal five minutes getting ready for the day).

Her girlfriend? Christmas? Church? uh... {{NotThatTheresAnythingWrongWithThat}}, but... church? Fortunately, few fundamentalists freaked?

It's backwater Georgia. People freaked more about my dress than that I'm a lesbian. And that my girlfriend, now fiance, was born in Russia more than that I was dating another girl.

This corner-dwelling, twin-tailed troper, who was always confused for a freshman and attracted weird stalker-guys, once donned a stereotypical "popular" girl outfit and makeup, just to play with people's minds. She's not sure anyone recognized her, and those who did couldn't seem to process what they were seeing.

This Troper garners this reaction at least once a year. There's always one fancy dress-up occasion a year at her school. And everyone seems to forget that the dork who wears pants constantly is actually a nice-looking young lady. Yes, lady. Female. Girl. Woman.

This male troper managed to pull this one off for prom night. Generally a scruffy kid dressed in old t-shirts and ripped jeans, the sight of him wearing a white suit, complete with a white fedora made this quite a shock to most of my friends, as I even combed my long curly and tangly hair for this occasion. Few people recognized me under the hat, initially.

Sounds like you went for the Michael Jackson look.

My big brother's best friend since childhood, Dan, was always a stereotypical looking punk/proto-goth. He always had long dark hair, makeup, an earring, normal vision, huge black boots, and LOTS of black leather. One day, I answered the door to discover a strange man with neat blonde hair, a sharp tweed suit, and thin gold-rimmed glasses asking for my brother. As I listened to my brother and he converse, it slowly dawned on me that '''this''' was Dan! After I picked my jaw off the floor, it turned out that my brother and he had decided to hitch a ride on the internet boom, and Dan had been soliciting investors.

This troper and her close gay friend went to prom together. Now, as a rule, I lived in relaxed jeans and oversized sweatshirts with hair scraped back in a ponytail and no makeup because I just don't care - when I wasn't in a slightly-too-big version of our school uniform (khakis and a polo). I show up in a stunning strapless crimson dress that you have to have just the right coloring to pull off, with expertly done makeup (by a dancer friend) and hair twisted up in a fancy 'do (by a friend who happens to be ''really'' good at hair). Cue this trope. He later told me, "I don't bat for that team, but [Troper's full name]... ''wow''." We also had great fun discussing the fact that my love interest, who was in a relationship, couldn't seem to keep his eyes off me and tended to scowl fiercely whenever he saw my date and me together. It was truly delicious. My date told me it was classic jealousy symptoms.

This troper has seen her friend getting ready to go out to ballet. Hot girl+Skintight clothes = IllBeInMyBunk

This troper managed to almost pull it off once - nice dress, good hair-do, etc, - and then when she realised a bunch of people were staring at her she got flustered and tripped over her high heels.

That isn't necessarily a bad thing.

A staple of high school and now, apparently university, is my ability to shock people into speechlessness when I actually make an effort. Most of this is due to a tendency to wear ancient gig t-shirts, battered jeans, and jackets which obscure almost my entire body shape (male, by the way). When I actually bother to shave, shape hair, wear a suit and change my entire body language and posture in a conscious effort, I don't come out too bad. Even been compared to George Clooney and Pierce Brosnan, just without the grey hair. Thank God for dimples.

This troper works outside with horses. My normal attire is breeches and a polo shirt, with my hair hidden underneath my helmet (it's a rule in English riding; apparently hair is evil and must not be seen). I have several friends I only know through the barn. Invariably, if/when we go out to eat or to a bar, this is the response I get. Always flattering. It's amazing how much just washing off the dirt will do for you.

This troper developed a huge crush on this one boy after she saw him clean up (sort of) nicely for a drama club production.

Inversion: Meeting a woman for the first time IRL, made up and dressed up to her sexiest best, but it was all spoiled by her extreme nervous tension. We managed awkward, dissatisfying sex that night. The next morning, she was disheveled but fresh-faced with natural beauty, looked 10 years younger and completely irresistible. We had a ''very'' good morning.

Personally played straight: most the time I'm telecommuting after rolling out of bed and throwing on a few rags. I posted one webcam shot and the response was, "You look like a German heavy metal musician!". I later posted a headshot made for my resume and the response was, "Profit!"

Subversion: This troper usually wears jeans and baggy T-shirts and it seems that all clothes start looking worn the moment she starts wearing them. When she was forced to dress up for a ball in high school, she looked (and felt) rather silly. I just look better in my normal clothes.

Completely and totally averted with this (male) troper. Not he-looks-better-in-rags, but actually a preference for girls who don't wear skirts or makeup and lack the MostCommonSuperpower. Preferably with short hair. (''AND ONLY GIRLS'', in case you were thinking what he thinks you were thinking.) Yes, he knows he has strange taste.

This (similarly male) troper apparently shares your tastes, save for the part about "and only girls". He himself also apparently manages to both play this trope straight and subvert it, according to the comments if he either forgets to shave for a while or cleans up and throws on a suit. Considering that this troper is usually asexual, the comments that result can be somewhat squicky.

This troper would like to think he qualifies. Typically scruffy haired and in whatever clothes he picked up off of the floor, but the moment you tell him he needs to look smart for something, well... he likes to think he delivers. He'll let you decide for yourselves. (sometime late April, normal; early July for prom.)

Not bad. :)

If I admit to having a bit of a crush on you now, will you get freaked out?

Am I alone in thinking the first one was better?

This tropette is the living example. I look androygnous - could be a dude,could be a guy. She gets her hair done and puts on form-fitting clothes,she's hot enough to get whistles at the mall. Ego-stoking. Her CMOA? Her prom. She didn't have a date because she decided she didn't need one. She went and NOBODY recognized her. She was standing there talking to a jerkass with a date and he didn't notice until my friend spoke up. The bastard blinked three times and visibly jumped with surprise."EDITH?!?!" "Hello,Eric." *cool smirk* ....You clean up well. Fuck that -- you evolved." Sneer/Smirk. She wasn't gonna sour the mood. She had to admit,for a neurotic asshole,he did too. "You look pretty sharp yourself." We nodded to one another out of respect. I danced so hard I broke the straps on my shoes.

This troper has lived this trope a few times. She isn't one for dressing up, she's one for being comfortable in whatever she's wearing. This usually means oversized clothes that aren't flattering. Also, a bandana over her hair keeps it from falling in her face, yay! She also wears glasses. So, one day at school, she forgot said bandana. People saw her hair, and many asked why she didn't show it more often. She does now that it's grown long enough not to fall in her face. More recently, she was in a theatre production and was taking off her makeup when one of the techies walked in and ''immediately hugged her'' because she wasn't wearing glasses. Needless to say, she was a little freaked out. Especially when the next night she received a dozen roses from said guy. Naturally, he was a JerkWithAHeartOfJerk and was obsessed throughout the cast party with at the very least making out. He got nothing.

Up until only a year or two ago, this troper would only wear very large t-shirts, jeans, and a hasty ponytail. When her brother got married and she was asked to be a bridesmaid, she consented to an updo hairstyle, formal dress, and high heels. This troper's cousin stated the trope name verbatim to the groom, causing the troper in question to roll her eyes because looking nice evidently involved being EXTREMELY uncomfortable - not just the shoes, but the industrial strength hairspray, and the fact that this troper's hair is very thick and was quite long at the time (an updo with that kind of hair hurts the neck). This troper has since learned how to look nice and be comfortable at the same time, and is now more at ease with the idea that she "cleans up nicely."

In eighth grade, this troper was invited to a school dance at her old school. Everyone who knew her from the years before had seen her pretty much exclusively in jeans and a t-shirt or wearing her school uniform, but that night she showed up in a black and blue dress ordered from one of those girlie fashion catalogs, her hair curled and with sparkly butterfly clips done in and wearing chunky combat boots (it was 2000!). According to one of the friends who invited her, the former crush of the troper stopped and stared whenever she walked in. The kicker? The troper ignored the guy the rest of the night.

Subversion: This troper once asked a girl he'd met at camp to a school dance. At camp she wore glasses and casual clothes, had messy hair, and was cute. For the dance she turned up in contacts, a pink dress and looked like Barbie. She was more attractive at camp.

This (male) troper generally attracts little to no interest when dressed casually or for cycling. Worn-out, faded jeans, scruffy black workboots, black T-shirt, long hair held back in a ponytail, and either an open buttoned shirt or a short leather jacket over the top. For more formal/social occasions, he lets the hair down, cleans the boots up, swaps to baggy black trousers with chains on, dons a floor-length black trenchcoat, and acts more dynamically to avoid snagging everything. The results tend to speak for themselves.

I know a girl who cleans ''down'' nicely. Pretty enough girl, always wore slightly dressy formal-ish clothing. Until she joined stage crew, and walked out in her paint clothes, which were tight-fitting and very... flattering. Many of the men in the cast and on crew had a very difficult time focusing from there on out.

This CloudCuckoolander Tomboy was even told by her Prom Date that he couldn't imagine her in a dress looking all dolled up. Though she doesn't want to say that she did clean up nicely, everybody else had that reaction. She nearly lost her hearing with all the squealing from friends and wellwishers upon seeing her. Even her cynical and deadpan friend actually squealed. ThisTroper still insists it was just the shock value of her in a dress more than looking pretty.

This Troper has a very bad tendency to make people double-take by doing this. She is a rather cynical tomboy that ''hates'' having to wear a dress... and, for the heck of it, chose to go to the homecoming dance anyway, even if she would go solo. A lot of her friends {{Squee}}'d when they saw her in full make up, hair done, and a dress.

I usually go out in the first shirt and pair of jeans I can find, and have hair long and unruly enough to cover most of my face, which it tends to do. But when I had to play in my music school's recital, though, I was told to dress nicely. For the occasion, I wore a nice, buttoned shirt and combed my hair so it wouldn't get in my eyes. The amount of girls who came up with reasons to talk to me (according to one of my friends there, there were even a few taking pictures of me when I was playing on stage) was... a nice ego boost. :)

This troper dated a T-shirt and jeans kind of girl. On one special occasion, we set up a date to the symphony orchestra. I was in a penguin suit, she was in...well, it's been eleven years and I still remember that dress. Never before has a cheesy line been so sincere as when I said "Wow. I knew you were beautiful, but ''wow''." Everything was a bit more beautiful that night. The girl, the sky, the Beethoven...

This troper once showed up to Pre-calculus wearing a black suit, white shirt, black tie, pants, and black shoes, when he normally shows up wearing a polo shirt over a hoodie with jeans and sneakers. I ended up turning heads for the whole afternoon, though I'd actually just come back from my cousin's funeral.

I have a tendency to wear shapeless, baggy clothing to school. So when we had to swim in gym class, my male friend could only boggle. I snarked at him about it, and he actually said "You have boobs!"

This troper is often told (ad verbatim) that HeCleansUpNicely whenever he dresses up.

This troper accomplished this twice at her school dance. Make note that this troper is a WrenchWench, owns three dresses, and would rather play with tools than makeup. This troper showed up in a dress and ballet flats, with her wild curls down instead of a in a ponytail in the base of her neck. Also, the glasses went bye bye. First time, this troper and a couple of friends were going to the bathroom. Could have sworn that one of this troper's guy friends was shocked by this troper's attire, but not sure since this troper was half-way through a door. Then, another friend noticed and remarked, "(Troper's name), you're in a dress!" My response? Smirk and the evil eye. Plus a sarcastic remark or two, seeing as this troper is also a LittleMissSnarker.

The kicker for the second time? This was after the dance was over, and this troper had talked to him at least twice since the dance started. FacePalm.

This troper somewhat subverted this at her senior prom. Sure, I'm usually a {{Tomboy}}/{{Granola Girl}}, and did end up wearing a lovely dress, makeup, pretty hair, heels, and :gasp: acrylic nails to the prom. But as for the subversion, I still wore my trademark eyeglasses.

This Troper is a Male Version of this trope. I'm very lazy 95% of the time getting dressed, and dress for comfort (Read sweat pants). When I go to Jeans and a Nice Shirt I get compliments. When I go Suit, tie and shoes I get hit on by anything that moves. The first time this happened, it squicked me out (I'm straight Much to their disappointment.) Several years later I have learned to take this simply as a compliment, and my Girlfriend is not a stranger to this trope either. Nothing Like attending a function and having the guests get neck strain as we control the dance floor.

This troper used to get this when she was younger. All she tended to wear was mismatched, boyish or very unflattering clothes with her hair constantly in a low ponytail. Her friends liked to drag her to dances and whatnot, and troper would feel compelled to style her hair differently and pick out half-decent clothes. Cue people commenting on how pretty troper looked. Occasionally subverted in that what she chose to wear sometimes still wasn't particularly flattering. Nowadays, while troper may not have any close female friends anymore to drag her to such social gatherings or doll her up, she's gotten wise to decent fashion and wears her hair down much more often (especially since she found keeping it in a ponytail for so long was damaging it). She still has tomboyish tendencies personality-wise and clothing-wise, but she's definately getting better at what actually looks good on her versus what's comfortable. But she can still have her friends doing double-takes when she shows up wearing a skirt (and a skirt-skirt, not a skirt/shorts combo) and fresh-from-the-salon hair.

Some creepy stalker guy said this to me once. Ack.

Happened to this male Troper on his third year of college. While he takes a shower everyday, he only used to shave on Mondays, which means the teacher from International Trading class on Fridays always saw him with a full growth beard and dressed casually. Then, one day, the teacher proposed to skip a class and attend a fair to which this Troper decided it would be appropriate to attend with a clean shave and wearing his best suit. Cue to every single one of his classmates walking past him and even his teacher taking several seconds before accepting his handshake.

This (male) Troper went to a high school with a dress code (Khaki pants, button down shirt, a tie, and sports coat) and never got this because its not a big flying leap from what I wore five days out of the week, for nine months out of the year and a good looking tux for prom or other big dance. It changed in college, where he kept a very scraggly appearance and rarely cut his until junor year when career stuff demanded I look presentable. Then this troper got this a lot, but only because his default standard for his appearance is "I don't have to look at myself, you tell me to change if its an issue."

Subverted by This troper. Hard. He can't clean up. Period. Every time he tries wearing something other than his usual boots/jeans/t-shirt/grungy brown leather jacket-getup, he feels like he's in some kind of costume. And his demeanor shows it.

This troper values comfort over everything. His usual attire is a pair of bermudas and a T-shirt. At school, he pretty much looks like Kyon, only without the blazer. Fast forward to the prom night, and you can guess what happens, based on the aforementioned examples. He cleans up his act, puts on something decent, and isn't recognized. Until he opens his mouth and his classmates identify him from the hurricane of references to science and anime.

Apologies for the TroperTale, but this troper's friends chose where to meet for prom pictures based on who had the most impressive staircase.

This troper usually is lucky to even use hair straighteners, let alone gel his hair and wears pretty much what I decide the night before rather than wear anything trendy (it takes me about five minutes to decide what I'm going to wear). So, when the holly ball came, it came as a great surprise for everyone that I had actually gelled my hair and that I was wearing a suit (well, the ticket did say formal dress). Possibly a subversion, since I actually suit a shirt and tie better than casual dress.

This Troper (who shall refer to herself in 1st person now) astonished my prom date when I met him at the door with a floor-length, dark blue, gorgeous dress that showed my curves, Her Hair Down}} my hair down and styled (for once), heels, and, miracle of miracles, makeup. I normally dress in a baggy shirt or sweatshirt, khakis, and ratty sneakers. Makeup is never an option and my hair is only ever in a low ponytail. When we actually got a prom, a lot of people did double-takes. It was wonderful, but I'm not going to go through all that trouble again (the hair alone took nearly 4 hours!). I did, however, keep my glasses because otherwise I walk into walls.

This troper spends most of the school year in a not particularly exciting dress or shirt and pants, ponytail and no makeup. However, showing up to formal, she had her hair in loose curls, a metalic blue dress and make up on and some people still didn't recognise her till the afterparty. She was still getting compliments a couple of weeks later.

Yet another prom example here: I didn't have a great time in secondary school, and for some reason my mother got me blazers and shirts several sizes too big for me, but then prom night came. Because I had a nice black dress, dark make-up, high heels and my hair up in curls, suddenly I had two dates and all the people who had bullied before were suddenly coming up to me and saying how nice I looked. It was a fantastic boost for self-esteem.

This female troper wore very unflattering uniforms to school, has very long, thick blonde hair which has a tendancy to just go everywhere unless she keeps it back in a ponytail, and is generally a jeans/T-shirt kind of girl who prefers comfort over style. The only exceptions were school dances, when she would actually wear makeup and a nice dress, complete with getting her very wavy long hair straightened. Cue several occasions of guys she never expected to notice giving her compliments, from her 13-yr-old brother telling her she looked hot in one case (can't remember when), to one of her best guy friends saying "Whoa!" when she showed up to Senior Homecoming in a short, tight purple dress, to a different male friend who she occasionally had political, ethical, and religions debates with telling her she looked pretty in her long red dress at Senior Prom.

This troper pulled this on her theatre class on the last day of school. Though she always dresses ''nicely'', it's usually a very modest kind of nice, on top of which she looks a bit older than her classmates and so is constantly cast in mother-roles with unflattering costumes. When she mentioned to a friend she wanted to get some more varied roles, the friend suggested that she go to her next audition in a miniskirt and fishnets... cue the entire class clamouring for her to dress like that so they could see, just because it would be funny. On the last day, she finally did, in a tiny black skirt, high heels, fishnets, and a shirt cut to show off her MostCommonSuperpower... she wound up group-hugged by half the class, and nearly every note in her yearbook made some mention of how hot she looked. Very nice day.

This Troper has had a subversion of this twice. Since I'm still fresh to Secondary school, most of my schoolmates have never seen me out of uniform, which makes me look pear-shaped and slightly overweight. Add to the fact that my closer schoolmates do school-based canoeing with me (trust me, you end up smelling a little worse than funny), so I'm not exactly known for looking anywhere close to pretty. Cue the day when I finally decide i couldn't tolerate waiting to wash up at home and take a light shower before changing into my normal clothes at our training grounds. The first time my friend blinked before saying something along the lines of "Whoa, you look...different". The second time it happened, my other friend (she had been absent previously) didn't recognise me without me calling out her name. After which, she asked me "So, what's the occasion?" Nice to have them acknowledge I'm a girl.

Happens to this troper oh so much. Because she is not girly (read: almost never wears skirts or dresses), almost never puts makeup on, and wears glasses a lot, she gets teased as being a boy or just plain ugly. Whenever she puts on some slap and pretties herself up, everyone is shocked.

Up until college, this troper couldn't have cared less about her appearance. Dowdy clothes, greasy hair, no makeup, and poor personal hygiene. Ever since she cleaned herself up, she gets a lot of compliments, but for some reason, guys still ignore her, and she doesn't know why.

Are you me? This troper was teased in high school for her looks and treated like a rodent by boys, but ever since cleaning herself up in university she has gotten "Pretty" comments. Yet guys still ignore her (perhaps it's the shyness and short height?).

This troper used to throw on literally whatever was there, which was usually not matching whatsoever and/or oversized. Her hair was quite unflattering. She started to care more in sixth grade, but was still sloppy. On the first day of seventh grade, she fixed her hair and clothes so that they were nice, and her best friend didn't even recognize her. Since then, she's had her act together. Yeah, I'd say that I clean up nicely.

This troper apparently isn't that bad looking. My main problem, I've been told, is that I put zilcho effort into it. When I ''did'' (after I got a girlfriend, actually), I learned soon after that two other girls, close friends of my girlfriend at that, had started crushing on me. Aaawwkwaaaarrd.

This Troper's best (male and Straight Gay) friend turned out to be this. None of us had seen him for six weeks over the summer, and when he turned up on the first day back he had put contacts in, got the braces out, styled his hair, got a fashion sense and was officialy drop-dead gorgeous. The part we love most is that all the 'popular' girls who were complete bitches to him now have major crushes on him.

This troper played with this trope once. She allowed a friend to give her a makeover, and got complements from several people on how "nice" she looked wearing makeup. Unfortunately, to this troper, she was ''uglier'' when she saw herself in the mirror wearing such thick goop on her face, and refuses to ever wear such awful face paint ever again; the stuff does ''not'' agree with her, no matter what the rest of the crazy world says.

This trope immediately came to mind when I saw a poster of a "normal looking" {{Kesha}} at a Wal-Mart.

This troper doesn't wear makeup every day unless you count chapstick. She went to prom as a sophomore with a guy from large group of people who usually brushed her off and didn't particularly notice her. When she showed up for the before-dance dinner, a few girls took it upon themselves to say she looked beautiful and her date said she was "very well dressed" and this guy doesn't hand compliments out easily (although I suspect he was merely being nice for that evening). I could almost see this trope pop up into their minds. /gloating

This troper was helping his little sister get ready for a formal party, doing her hair and helping her with her dress and helping her pick her shoes and that (can she be my FagHag if she's also my sister?) and she looked simply ''lovely'' when we were done. Not that she isn't usually a very pretty PaleSkinnedBrunette, but her date went non-verbal upon seeing her. Must run in the family, because our parents look absolutely ''fantastic'' when they bother dressing up, and this troper will gladly admit that he looks pretty darn shiny when he makes the effort.

This troper. ''Apparently.'' I still feel ridiculous.

This troper almost excusively wears boy's jeans, men's collared shirts, and geeky t-shirts. When she changes into one of her two outfits that emphasize her figure, jaws drop. Literally. I am not kidding. Literally.

To let you all know this male troper usually has hair that goes down to his shoulders and keeps it unkept, when he got a hair cut a few weeks back, which shortened it to his ears and had it styled, to make it looked as if it were chopped, a lot of heads turned his way, usually female... He felt good that day.

This Troper usually wears slightly-too-large t-shirt and jeans, with an avowed aversion to dresses and skirts. And makes sure that everyone knows it. For a particular instance of the RockyHorrorPictureShow, she had to wear a sparkly gold dress for a bit part. Comments on the Facebook picture included things like "are you padding". Also happens to people who've known her for more than a couple years, because they're used to the jeans and a t-shirt combo, so when she puts a dress on they become cavemen. This troper is definitely of the smirking type as well, unless it's a reaction from someone she's crushing on, in which case her immediate reaction is to blush bright red and find a place to hide.

Gender-inverted for this troper. I usually wear plain T-shirts and jeans, to the point where my dad wants me to throw them all away to wear nicer clothes. But if I'm going to anything formal, it's suit, tie, jacket, cuff links, and dress shoes. I've also been doing this for a long time, since I went to a lot of funerals when I was younger, and was surprised to find out most men my age don't know a thing about suits or ties.

Throughout school, this Troper was constantly bullied for being ugly. Then prom came round and all of a sudden she had classmates calling her "beautiful" just for that night. This troper's reaction to the attention was pretty much "Wow, it's amazing what changing from school uniform into a pretty dress and electronic hair-rollers can do to a person". Although saying that, a lot of the people who picked on her for her appearance in the first place were of lower school-years and therefore too young to attend prom that year anyway. Still, it was nice.

I ''used'' to be the shy computer nerd girl who just wore anything. Then Matt came along. He helped me find my own style with sweaters and black clothes. I cut one of them up because at first I was afraid of being "edgy" but now I think that DarkIsNotEvil. I also want to cut up my black stockings so I can wear it with my little black skirt and flannel shirt.

This troper was in field biology for the spring. To sum up the class itself: get up at 4:30 a.m., leave at 5 a.m., arrive at class by 6:10 a.m. stay outside for four hours trudging through mud, heat, and/or rain to observe 30,000 species of warblers, and a lot of other stuff she doesn't want think about. So you can imagine that you don't exactly dress up to go to this class. This troper consistently wore the same ensemble, which were black cargo pants, black combat boots, a hoodie that's too baggy and made me look boobless with a t-shirt underneath, and a bandanna to cover her entire head o' hair. She looks like a crumb-bum in this outfit, but it was expected. Lucky for us, we had a class indoors one day so we could wear our "civilian" clothes, so this troper took glee in wearing her normal clothes (which is, being a goth, wearing a mini skirt, stockings, and flare-sleeved lace cardigan, all in black, and wearing her turquoise-highlighted hair down). So to say the least, she got stares. Not sure if they were staring because of the goth get-up or because they were surprised that under all of those baggy clothes was a girl with a 38C cup, but one guy eventually approached her and said, "you look so phenomenally different today, I had to look twice to tell who the heck you were." Heh.

This troper was a middle-schooler with bad acne, buck teeth, and bushy hair and usually wore dark clothes. Then I discovered make-up and various hair products in ninth grade... though that didn't help at all. While I receive tons of compliments when I'm all dolled up, I usually just feel ridiculous and just want to crawl back into my jeans and T-shirts and put my hair back into a ponytail. Strangely enough, now that I'm 19, guys don't seem to care if I'm wearing make-up or if my hair is straight...

This Troper has seen and/or been a part of HeCleansUpNicely twice, on both sides of the gender line. The troper in question is a tall, gangly dork of a late-starting college student who is NotGoodWithPeople on account of being RaisedByWolves (re: homeschooling, and not in a very well coordinated, socially interactive kind of way). Said troper almost always walks with a slight slouch and speaks softly because his family (a single JewishMother and two sisters) always flipped out on him for having a loud voice, to the point that this troper actually had to learn how to yell without having his voice crack. This Troper is also doomed when it comes to pursuing girls who are just plain out of his league. Then comes Junior year. This Troper's hard work at public speaking and other confidence building exercises pays off. He's obtained a DesignatedRival and argued the guy to a standstill in and out of class. He's also started wearing button-up shirts as light jackets, lots of cargo pants and khakis, never any jeans, and tons of comic book nerd shirts. He's mastered the Three Day Beard, stands up straight much more often, and has stopped pursuing love only to find himself ''being'' pursued by at least two girls, being crushed on by a lesbian, and being flirted with by both a married woman and a gay guy. Then comes the day this Troper puts on a business suit and ''nobody recognizes him''.

The other example is a Vietnamese accounting major who's a bit thick, dresses like a tomboy most of the time, makes fart jokes, and is generally awkwardly cute in social situations. Then comes the day when this Troper is giving her a ride to a job interview. HolyCrap. She's actually put a little bit of time and effort into how she looks and could blow most other girls at his school clear out the water. Nerdy to knock-out in less than an hour or so. I still haven't pulled my jaw off the floor.