@erma I feel you. I always have to back-reference my characters. Even my main character changes her look from time to time!
Sometimes I feel like I'm playing telephone with my brain on what my characters look like. I draw on one page what I 'remember' them looking like, but some detail is always forgotten or changed. It's like I need to have a character reference sheet (and a background one, too) on my other screen at ALL TIMES...