Do some people genuinely not notice their own lines and wrinkles?

[stetha]

Just read on another thread a woman claiming to be mid 40s or older with not a single wrinkle and using no skincare other than a cheap £1 moisturiser. Hey I can’t see her but so many times I’ve had people say this to me in person, how they don’t have any wrinkles and yet I’m looking at their face and yes, yes they absolutely do!

Now I don’t mind lines and wrinkles I have a few myself but what is going on! Why do so many people, even those who are quite heavily lined and sun damaged insist that they haven’t any lines and everyone is shocked to hear they are a day over 21? Do other people have magic mirrors? Or perhaps there is an epidemic of untreated long sightedness?

Ooh ooh I have the answer! In my case, I did know at 40 that I was already a bit crinkly, but when I finally got round to getting new glasses after several years of failing to get my arse in gear and go for an eye test... My GOD was I wrinklier than I realised, I actually look quite ancient for my age!

So there you go. They do have wrinkles, it's just that their eyesight has deteriorated with age and they can't see them.😄

Good news is, it literally doesn't matter. Though being able to read without squinting lots is nice!

Well I have a strict policy of only looking in the mirror with my glasses off, as Im blind as a bat I have no idea how bad my wrinkles are 🤷‍♀️

I feel that pain 😆

I’m a wee young whippersnapper so I personally have no idea. However, my poor mammy tells me she looks young for her age. She absolutely does not. She doesn’t even look young for my grandmothers age (which is 90) but she definitely can’t see very well and she rarely looks in the mirror. She’s simply blissfully unaware.

If I take my glasses off I can barely see my own head in the mirror, let alone features or wrinkles.
Imagine those who have no idea their eyesight is going have no idea they have wrinkles.

I'm one of them. Always looking to my better/blurry image of my face. I look like on my early 30s. Lol

I can’t deny my wrinkles, but moisturiser is moisturiser and a £1 version broadly does the same as a £300 one.

I think its poor eyesight and maybe not spending much time with actual 20 year olds?

But I remember my aunt telling me once that her and her friends dont get older, other people just get younger. I thought what a stupid thing to say but now I am 50ish, the age she said it, i get what she means. I feel me and my friends are the same as ever, but my son and his mates who are 18-20 look very young, like children.

Wrinkles and lines don't show as much, or potentially at all, when viewed close up in the bathroom mirror in strong light, which is how many of us mostly see our own faces. We also see our own ageing very gradually whereas with others we tend to have gaps in between seeing them.

I sometimes think I don't look my age when I look in the mirror, but then I see a photo (or that bastarding front facing phone camera, fuck it to hell) and realise that I definitely do. I don't look terrible for it, or older, but yeah, I look like the age I am.

Yep, I know a few people like this. And online is full of them, MN included.

I've seen so many times on here: 'my mum is 70/80/whatever, and has no wrinkles' - yeah, riiiiiight. Or 'people are regularly gobsmacked when I tell them my age, they say I don't look a day over 30 and I'm 50!' - riiiiiiight. Or 'I'm 45 and get carded in shops' - righto.

And inevitably if there's a thread about botox/facelift, those beauties in their 40s/50s/60s with not a single wrinkle and Nivea moisturiser flock there like bees to honey.

When I meet people like this in reality, they inevitably have wrinkles and look exactly their age or often older. If younger, then max 5 years no more, and that's not often. No one looks 30 when they're 50, not even Hollywood A-listers.

Delusions and vanity. When asked to guess someone's age, people usually downplay and guess much lower, not to offend. And obviously they're not going to tell you're wrinkled as a prune to your face, even if you are.

I'm 38. Sometimes people tell me I look younger (unprompted). I really don't. I look exactly as I am. If younger, then by a couple of years maybe, and that's thanks to my chubby cheeks and oily skin. I don't look to be in my 20s, not by a mile. The aforementioned cheeks and oily skin have an advantage wrinkle-wise; I don't have a lot of them, but lines are starting to form around my eyes, faint for now. And forehead. And all my friends who are my age are the same, unless they have botox. No one is smooth as a baby or Nivea Mumsnetter.

And never in my life have I seen a woman in her 50s/60s/70s and wrinkle-free. Ever. Unless botoxed and face-lifted to the absolute max.

Because they creep Up gradually and people don’t notice the changes unless they look at photos from years ago compared to recently perhaps?

It’s like weight isn’t it, most people are in denial about how heavy they are despite mirrors and wearing big clothes. Then get a shock at photos.
The wrinkles thing is annoying though because there’s nothing wrong with having them, and why is looking younger better?

I haven't got any though! 😝

I went to the opticians last week, and seeing my neck in one of their mirrors nearly had me in tears. I went online that night and ordered a shed load of cleansing/moisturizer for mature skin my mirrors at home clearly didn't get my neck at the right angle. I'm 55 and have never ever used anything on my skin other than hot water.

When you say lines and wrinkles I think of deep ones. I’m mid 40’s and would say I don’t have either! Maybe the very odd fine line but tbh mid 40’s isn’t really old so I wouldn’t expect lots of lines and wrinkles at that age?

I agree with this. When I'm washing my hands in the downstairs loo I'm bloody impressed with how I look for nearly 60. In my bathroom I think I look about average. When catch an accidental glance in somewhere like Next I think I look ancient.

@Speakofthedevil that is so true. I remember a poster on here saying that she was in her 50s but regularly mistaken for a 30 year old. I can only think she doesn't spend a lot of time with people actually in their 30s. Even J Lo doesn't look 30!

Seriously though @stetha I don't actually really notice other peoples wrinkles...

Unless they're really deep/noticeable. (Often when someone has been a smoker for many years, if they've spent a lot of years on sunbeds, or if they've been a heavy (alcohol) drinker.)

Its better to have that positivity than be full of self loathing or the self critical feeling given to aging, however if they're going on about it I can see uts annoying. I have a family member in her 60s who spends a fortune on creams and always has, talking circa 250 pound a month on it, and she will talk so much about it and how she has no wrinkles at almost 70 etc, when she has plenty. I'm happy she's happy with her skin but when she says it she wants us all to reply with stacks of compliments too and after the 4th or 5th time it becomes insincere and tedious.

I am not sure why anybody would care about what people say about their own faces?

I have an asian friend who is 50 and he does not have a single line or wrinkle. Different skin.
Wild to think but people are different.

Same as everything… people see things differently. To some only deep set lines are wrinkles, they don’t include fine lines, dynamic lines or marionette lines only forehead lines or 11s.

Also many wrinkles only appear when you move your face and when we look in the mirror we don’t tend to talk/laugh/smile at ourselves.

I don't really spend any time looking in the mirror beyond checking I look presentable

Plus I don't see wrinkles as something to be sad about. Aging is a luxury some of my dearest friends didn't get to experience

I have never had a conversation about wrinkles with anyone and I don’t particularly notice them on anyone else. I agree about the deteriorating eyesight though and I am guilty of that.