Thai monk sticks eyebrows on as facial recognition system couldn't recognise him without eyebrows

Any beauty guru will be able to tell you that the shape of your brows changes your entire face.

For a Buddhist monk in Thailand, his lack of brows turned into a funny hiccup when his welfare payment app could no longer recognise his face.

He resorted to having to create makeshift brows, as seen in security footage shared on Facebook by the store owner on Dec. 2.

What happened

The monk had visited Thien Thong grocery store in the central northeastern province of Thailand when his welfare card payment failed due to facial recognition issues.

According to Khaosod English, the 45-year-old monk was a regular customer before he got ordained.

However, without his hair and brows, the facial recognition system could no longer recognise him as the same person displayed on his welfare card registration, despite attempting numerous tries to get the system to work.

Welfare card holders need to present their IDs at authorised stores and have their faces scanned by a state payment app for verification.

The store owner said they then tried sticking black electrical tape onto the monk's brow bone as makeshift brows.

Another customer helped shape the tape into more realistic-looking ones, and finally, the facial recognition system authorised the payment.

This was not the first time a customer was unable to verify their identity due to a drastic physical change in appearance.

For instance, customers who suffer immense weight loss due to cancer may have to puff out their cheeks to have their faces recognised by the app, The Nation reported.

Top image via หมอแล็บแพนด้า/Facebook