Do you look your age ?

[TheTecknician]

Not wishing to brag, but I often feel I could pass for 5 - 10 years younger. I've never asked anybody this question and I'm purely using the judgement of my own eyes. If I go back in time 39 years to when my late Dad was the same age as I am now (53), I see a man in early middle age with a full head of black hair - some greying - but a rather lined face and seemingly expanding ears! I, on the other hand, have a lot more grey hair than he did but a much denser texture and no obvious facial lines. I've always had bags under my eyes but not Peter Woods proportions! My sister is 61 but she could pass for late 40s, in my opinion.

Maybe there's no right or right or wrong answer. I could have a skewed personal perception or perhaps we're all living longer and I'm seeing that played out at close quarters.

PS. The old man had, along with Mum, raised seven children by the time he was my age whereas I have no children. So, no parental stress!

Of course people can look younger (up to 10 years ) also quite ableist to say they can't, many autistic people look very young, which may be linked to hypermobility

Yeah JC looks old but 70 old not 90.

But I do look much younger than my age. I won't post my picture. Perhaps you haven't met someone who does look much younger than their age but I do, about 10 years younger (much more according to most people).

It's peculiar that you dont want this to be true. 😻

Agree.

@50soonouch There was a thread a while ago where people like you who swore they looked much younger did post pictures of themselves for people ot guess their age, and as it turned out peoples guesses were largely on the money and they did in fact look their age. Many, many people believe they look 10 - 15 years younger but they just don't, they are simply delusional.

I look my age, I don’t think I look older. All my friends and relatives look their age, I don’t know anyone that looks 10 years younger than they are.

I won’t be doing that as one, I don’t care enough to and two, it would be very outing.

I have worked in retail before actually and we were told to ask for ID from anyone we suspected looked 25 or younger.

I’m not desperate for anyone to think I look younger. It’s always been an issue actually. The OP was asking that question and I answered, god forbid.

Plus, I said I look mid 20s at youngest. 5 years younger than my actual age, I’m not exactly saying I look like a 12 year old!

If you’re so happy with how you look why are you so adamant that people can’t look younger than their actual age? How does it affect you?

I actually forgot about that, I’ve read/heard about it before. I’m autistic and have hypermobility so maybe that’s related.

Because I have yet to see it and I have known many, many people to make this claim and it is never true, even people who honestly look quite bad for their age seem to think they look younger than they are, the human capacity for self delusion is astounding.

You're very obviously on a mission to convince people on this thread that ALL people look their age. You might look your age (possibly older), but many people look much younger than their age. I enjoy looking younger and hope I don't age overnight now that I'm about to turn 50. But if that happens there are ways around this - I'll get a face and neck lift 😉

@YourTruthorMine & @Moro93 Autism is actually associated with a faster pace of ageing, including facial ageing https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8328948/

I also have hypermobility.

I look fine thanks, but everyone looks their age whether they like it or not. Its also deeply toxic to associate ageing as bad and looking younger as something to be celebrated. Mostly though I am just aware of how delusional most people are on this subject.

@50soonouch You're very obviously on a mission to convince people on this thread that ALL people look their age. You might look your age (possibly older), but many people look much younger than their age. I enjoy looking younger and hope I don't age overnight now that I'm about to turn 50. But if that happens there are ways around this - I'll get a face and neck lift 😉

All people DO look their age. If you are 49 then you look 49 because you ARE 49 and you look like you do. So you are what 49 looks like

There is no specific look for 49

@sqcrispsal I think you should post a photo if you ‘look fine’. You want other people to so why not you? If you don’t I’ll also be convinced that you’re delusional and look like a wrinkled, dried up prune.

I agree that associating natural aging with being bad is toxic and I hate the sexualising of youth that is pushed across in society. But to deny that there are people who look physically younger than their age is delusional…

That is a bit of a nonsense study. Did you read how they determined facial age? They asked 4 people to look at photographs of non-smiling faces and guess their age range. That's hardly scientific. Saying autism causes faster ageing is not accurate either. It is well known that people with autism have poorer health outcomes. Not because illnesses are caused by autism, but because it is harder to access care and many struggle to advocate for themselves. They go longer without treatment compared to the general population. Plus the stress and anxiety caused from coping with autism can cause issues with skin, gastric, mental health etc. Simply, poor healthcare causes poor health outcomes.

I do look younger and don't have the usual signs of aging in the skin because I have a collagen disorder. The flip side of that is that I probably experience more general pain than most people my age.

People are very odd on MN about this topic. People have a calendar age and a biological age (which can be measured, apparently) and it is common for there to be discrepancies in the two. If so, it seems reasonable some should - if they are internally, or cellularly younger or older than their calendar age - look younger or older than their calendar age.

The problem is determining the what the calendar she looks like.

People seem quite deluded and think typical people look way older at say 50 than people actually do.

This is because they picture their parents at 50 and when their parents were 50 they had clothes and hairstyles we associate with old people. So we think they looked really old. When we get to 50 we are wearing clothes we associate as current so we think we look younger. So people delude themselves that they look young for 50 where they just look like what 50 year olds look like today

The problem is determining the what the calendar she looks like.

What the what the?!

Was it this thread mentioned something about no eyelids visible past the age of 50? I am 60 and my eyelids are very much on show and alive and well!

I have no necklace lines on my neck either and only the faintest of lines.

I would say I look about 53. I can think of at least three other people I know looking the same as me if not better and they are all my age!

Sorry. 'What the calendar AGE looks like!!

Do you know several other people your age who look the same age as you. Has that not made you realise that the way you all look is around 60? It would be very unlikely that you are in a unique position of knowing a whole bunch of strangely young looking people. More likely you have a distorted idea of what 60 looks like. I'm 57. I don't have necklace lines or no eyelids or any lines around my lips or even facial lines short of laughter lines when I am actually laughing. But I assume lots of 57 year olds are the same as I am.

I be g to differ here. We are in good nick but the majority have wrinkles. We have been blessed and are the exception. Everybody else I meet looks way older than us.

I was talking to a colleague yesterday. I've worked with her for the past 3 years but never really spoken before. I mentioned my son which led her to ask how old I am.

She said she'd thought I was late 30s. Rather than late 40s.

She said I looked really young and did people think I was in my 30s a lot.

I don't ask people how old they think I am so it only really comes up if I mention my son's age but it does happen a fair tbh.

When I started seeing my boyfriend (who was 58 to my 46 at the time), his 86 year old mum and mid 20s kids all expressed concern that I was too young for him because they thought I was in my 30s.

Personally, I think I look my age. I know women of my age who look older than me and others who look very youthful.

I still think people judge on overall image. Wrinkles have a lot to do with it; style of dress and hairstyle; overall attitude and demeanour. How 'youthful' someone's face is - whether they are perceived to look like people expect a person of that age to look. That last one is hard to explain but it's more about features and face shape than skin. And how 'mature' you present yourself. Also how 'serious' people are. People assume people who are serious to be older.

It also helps to dye our hair. I will only stop covering my grey hairs once I am gone lol.