(Too much) fun with Photoshop

During my first art history class as an undergrad, I remember my professor mentioning that the famous Italian Renaissance painter Raphael was "quite the looker" and pretty popular with the ladies of the 1500's. I'll admit, with only the above self portrait to serve as a testimony, I was a little doubtful that this could have possibly been the case. I mean, it's hard to imagine he would have made it much past the first date with hair like that.

Still, always one to seek scientific proof, I had to wonder whether a sort of twenty-first century makeover would level the playing field a bit. So, one night in my dorm room (and I'm sure I was putting off a paper on symbolism in Byzantine mosaics or something like that) I gave the guy a sweatshirt and some ghetto head-wear, and voilà! I turned him into college-Kristy's ideal, basketball-playing, dreamboat stud.

But upon unearthing this oldie from 2004, I decided that it still wasn't enough. I mean, what was cute in high school and college just doesn't fly anymore. So tonight, to perform the ultimate test of historical hunkability, I updated Raphael's look to cater to the mid-twenties, early-thirties, young professional crowd. And, you know what? I believe it now. That guy was attractive. To think, I was about to let the beret and pageboy look convince me otherwise. It's a darn good thing I'm commited to scientific testing and have a thirst for discovering the truth.

Just goes to show how very much a bad haircut and poor choices in accessorizing could potentially cost you your dating life.