This is my experience as well. Most of my short stories well appreciated by the readers have little to no details about the physical appearances of the characters.
But I do have to be honest with you, I used that situation to "sneak" a description into the story. It was just a ploy to make the information I wanted to convey part of the story as opposed to just inserting something that might slow down the plot or look out of place.
As for "sneaking in" descriptions - if you force it even a little, the reader will see right through the ploy. Better to leave out appearance completely than to have the reader rolling his or her eyes at a clunky description. Always assume your reader is perceptive and intelligent.
I have to wonder why character description is so important to writers? Why does the reader have to see the characters the same way the writer did? Or maybe that's a derail...
It's not important to all writers. It's a matter of style. Some writers want to paint a word picture in exquisite detail, and go to great lengths to describe everything and everyone to photographic clarity. I'm closer to the other end of the spectrum. I prefer a minimalist approach, on the theory that the reader's imagination will fill in details appropriate to the author's intent. What is beautiful, loathsome, or frightening to me will not be the same images evoked for a reader for the same mold. So I put in sufficient details to make each character unique and identifiable, and leave the rest to the reader. There isn't a right or wrong in that regard. However, when a writer compromises the flow of the story to slip in a description, I feel that is a mistake.
A very good rule is 'show don't tell' so keep that in mind too. The reader has imagination and will happily conjure up his or her own picture of your characters without too much info.
There is a place for telling as well as for showing. In the case of character appearance, you are mostly limited to telling. Showing is more about describing the perceivable indicators of something rather than the thing itself. For example, you could say Jasper was enraged, or you show him turning red, then jumping out of his chair and stalking back and forth across the room with his fists clenched. You may find this helpful: Show and Tell
I should have also added earlier that describing how a character looks can be used to move a story forward. Like say that your main character is at a coffee shop and the town that he has been living in for the past 20 years has a certain "style" to it that the towns people have been accustomed to, such as all the men have short hair, they keep their facial hair trimmed and neat, etc. All of a sudden this man with a long beard and long hair comes in the shop asking for directions. It could be important to convey how foreign he is to the town through his looks.
I don't really like describing my characters either. Only if it's something that bothers them or is apart of character interaction. For example, my main character always complains about his height and he gets teased by one of the other main characters because of his hair colour. Anything else, I leave up to the readers, since I know they'll imagine things in their own way. I've read a story that didn't describe the main character at all and I fount myself completely okay with it and I was able to built up an image overtime. Usually, I like something small that I can build up my imagination on. A little description wouldn't hurt x3 I think it just depends on the reader really.
I have two MCs and had their description scattered about, usually in comparison to others - especially when I introed their mutual father (their half-sibilings). It felt more natural this way. Though I personally like descriptions, loose gernalized traits, unless they're important to the plot/personality, are the best route IMO.
I tend to go overboard with details or be extremely terse, so I try to stick with the most vivid identifiers for a particular individual and let the rest go. Most of the time I don't have a clear mental picture, anyway.
I don't like when authors provide too much character description, so I don't do it myself. I like one or two important details, and then I can supply the rest of the image in my mind. The addition of details by the author never changes the image in my head, and instead just pulls me out of the writing when I come across a detail that conflicts with what I am envisioning.
I tend to put in descriptions of my characters as I go along with the story. I've never really enjoyed info-dumping (although in some cases it's perfectly fine and fits). Such as if a character moves and their shirt rides up showing a bit of their stomach--they could either have a belly button ring, abs, too skinny, too fat, and someone who sees could say something, or the character themselves notice and pull down their shirt, or flaunt it.
I think you should explain the looks gradually, naturally. Instead of saying, "She had long, curly brown hair and blue eyes that complimented her creamy skin," say "...and Emma couldn't help but notice how her intense blue eyes seemed to flash as she said it...she wouldn't have looked twice at the girl had it not been for her hair; a light brown color and almost all the way down her back, it was the very picture of perfection." Stuff like that.
Making my earlier post a little clearer... I feel I must add that when suggesting the making of a character description (on paper), this is purely for the author to picture the character his/her traits, weaknesses & strengths, and really get to know them; certainly not for inclusion within the story word for descriptive word. I remember being told - can't think of the wording specifically unfortunately, '... was drawn to, and had a strong desire to jump into the saphire pools which...' The saphire pools were his eyes! Does that make sense? I would certainly not advocate using absolute descriptive wording unless absolutely necessary.
Ah. For your own purposes, you can do whatever works best for you. I start out with a general picture of each character in mind, but I don't really write it down. The more I put the character into scenes in the story, the clearer MY image of the person is. But I never forget how much I've told the reader, so I don't contradict myself. As I write, the manuscript has all the details I need to remember. If it ain't in the MS, it's subject to change. I call that flexibility.
