I am not entirely sure of this! But it depends a lot on writing style, and what you mean by "what they look like."
I think as long as there's some hook for the reader to attach to the character it's helpful, but that doesn't necessarily have to be a description, even. Super-detailed "I look in a mirror and see" or "the man was 6'2", about thirty, dark-haired and blue-eyed, with an unusual crescent-shaped scar running through one eyebrow" suspect report style descriptions seem to be awfully popular, and the opposite of effective, at least for me as a reader.
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I think as long as there's some hook for the reader to attach to the character it's helpful, but that doesn't necessarily have to be a description, even. Super-detailed "I look in a mirror and see" or "the man was 6'2", about thirty, dark-haired and blue-eyed, with an unusual crescent-shaped scar running through one eyebrow" suspect report style descriptions seem to be awfully popular, and the opposite of effective, at least for me as a reader.