People looking older in the past...

[QueenArseClangers]

Inspired by another thread about wearing clothes deemed ‘too young’ past a certain age.
I really think so. My grandmother (born in 1901) was dressed in a gaberdine mac and twin set once she was in her fifties and adopted using a walking stick on her 60th birthday as she declared herself an old lady!

Anyway, this photos in this article are fascinating.
www.boredpanda.com/past-young-people-look-older/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

@WitsEnding

I think that assessing people as younger or older depending on the clothes they wear is bizarre. Good posture, figure and teeth are the key indicators for me.

The right haircut for your face shape may take years off you, but jeans can be cruel on the post-menopausal backside.

I wear jeans and don't give a stuff what my post-menopausal backside looks like. I don't have to look at it!

But I also run 30 miles a week, so hopefully it's holding up well.

Teeth v false teeth. All my grandparents had false teeth from youngish age.

@Dixiechickonhols

Teeth v false teeth. All my grandparents had false teeth from youngish age.

This, also stress levels, untreated illness, weather beaten faces and poor diet would have aged people terribly.

The stress of poverty and hard physical labour is very aging. Women would have suffered terrible untreated birth injuries also (though this is sadly rising again).

Even among people of the same age there are differences.

I'm 64 and went to university and a friend from work who was a few years older didn't, only left home when she married.

I can remember about 20 years ago, she was considering buying her first pair of jeans. As if it was a bit daring.

By contrast I live in jeans, hardly ever wear makeup etc etc.

I'm almost a bit shocked to look at my wedding photos, my DM is wearing a hat, full 'face' on, neat patent shoes etc etc. The thought of her ever wearing jeans would stop the earth turning.

She was only 62!

They probably aged slightly faster. People were expected to grow up quicker, get married younger, have children younger, get full time jobs young. There wasn't the same personal care like good moisturisers, hair dyes, good make up, also cosmetic surgery and fillers.
I remember my mum telling me that when her own mum was about 30 she cut her hair short and got a perm because it was just the style. My mum thought she looked so old and dreaded getting to 30 because she thought that meant having to become an old lady. My other gran also had short hair and a perm very young. One of my grandas went bald on the top when he was about 23. But they were married with full time jobs, had one child and another on the way by 23/24. Thats not very common now either.

I think we're all a lot savvier about skincare and the importance of not sitting in the sun these days. People used to slather themselves in oil and burn quite regularly, I hope we're all smarter than that now.

Agree with teeth. Oy one of my grandparents had their own teeth until they died. The rest had complete set of falsers. My mums mum had all her teeth taken out when she was pregnant with her third child, and given false teeth. Apparently there was no real reason that she knew of for that, she just didn't question it!

DM is in her 80s longish end of shoulder length blonde hair gently curled, soft tunics, make-up, the better end of ergonomic sandals or boots.

Her mother in her as I remember her in her 70s had stuck in the lifelong adult uniform of glasses, tightly curled hair, below the knee floral dress with cardigan and sensible lace up shoes.

Fashion is far more fluid so doesn't age so quickly and become a generational uniform.
Make-up and skincare is better.
People drink more water, and not living on regimented cups of tea.
Less smoking
Better hair care products leaving it in better condition.
More reliable nutrition through life.
Dental and orthodontic treatment.

Posture is a good giveaway.

Mind you when you look at the local news and the effect heroin has, good grief, by 29, you can look like the haggared end of 59.

In the 50s/60s women were keen to be grown up and taken seriously, so perms as soon as they could.It wasn't till teenagers with spending money of their own became important in the 60s that young women stopped emulating their mothers' generation. And it spread upwards from there.

Health would have had an effect too. Living with chronic illness is never good for your looks, but was common before the NHS. My mother was one of the generation who had a large number of teeth removed in their 20s as soon as dentistry on the NHS came in.

I remember looking at photos of my mam in the 80s.I was only a teenager but the dress sense was old lady chic.

She was only in her early forties.She wouldnt wear jeans or anything.Midi skirts,tan tights and sandals.No matter the weather.

In Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Dick van Dyke was older than Lionel Jeffries who played his Dad.

I thought I was going to grow up and marry Dick Van Dyke and swan around in a giant white dress with roses stuck to my hat and own a sweet factory.

Life has been a terrible disappointment.

I remember both of my Nan’s always looking like old ladies. I was born in 1983, and they’d have been early 40’s when I was born.

I’d agree style is more fluid now. I’m fifty one. My daughter 23. There are many clothes of mine she will borrow or keep. Leather look leggings, biker jackets, trainers, tops, t shirts, blouses, skinny jeans.

Where as at 23 I’d never have worn my “elder relatives in their fifties” stuff, now there is a much less generational element to how we dress.

In addition my daughter and I’s hair is similar, we both have long curly hair, I dye mine, my daughter does not, hers is more ringlets, mine waves, which I add curl to, but it’s very similar. It’s not short grey hair v long dark hair as you’d have seen in the seventies.

I remember my mother in the 80's too. She was in her thirties, but always wore navy skirts, tan tights, cardigans etc. I also remember a head scarf going to the shops. Now she's in her 70s and wears trainers, fleecy jackets, padded puffy jackets, jeans etc. She looks younger now than she did then.

100%. When I see pictures of my mum at 23 she looks far older than I do now at 30, probably late 30s. People usually think I'm mid 20s (not a stealth brag 🤣)

We understand a lot more now about nutrition, skincare, sun damage, smoking, alcohol etc so you would expect people to look better!

Totally. I look through my parents' school photos - teenagers looked like in their 30s 😒 well fashions were pretty ugly back then, especially hairstyles

There are some photos somewhere on the internet of identical twins one of who smoked, the other didn't, the smokers all look much older.

I think live was much harder in the past, even in the 1960s / 70s.

My mum was in hospital for 6 weeks with scarlet fever, my brother had a course of antibiotics and a few days off school.

There was a lot of smoking, a lot of pollution, a lot more manual labour, even for a SAHP, my mum washed with a twin tub.

There wasn't as much time or choice for leisure.

People also left school and started work earlier, a 20 year old may have already done 5 years working.

Cosmetics were not as good and only used by women. A holiday was a week on the coast if you were lucky. And that had to be planned. My mother remembers doing to a 'guest house' the landlady cooked the meals but my grandparents (in reality my grandmother) had to provide the food so it had to be planned in advance.

Clothing was a lot better quality and lasted longer but was also much more expensive comparatively so you'd be buying clothes assuming you'd be wearing them for the longer term. It would make sense a young wife would have clothes more in the style her mother would wear, especially things like coats and good dresses & skirts that would last. She could buy things like that in preparation for marriage (before giving up her job). The average young couple starting a family wouldn't have the disposable income to spend on frequent new clothes and you'd need to look like grown ups so you'd want to be prepared.

Life was physically harder and it took its toll. It wasn't just about clothes and hair.

Whenever I see the Christmas videos by Slade and Wizzard it always baffles me that Roy Wood and Noddy Holder were in their 20s when they look 45 at the very least

Liz Taylor looks young- it's the fashion which looks older.
Keane Reeves prob dyes his hair, Nigel doesn't. There are pics of KR with a touch of grey and receding hairline.
But people died much younger, 80 was v old in the 70s and a 70 ripe old age in the 1950s.

Also pics of Americans, their skin is probably frazzled by too much sun.
I wonder if pale Brits look as old.

I used to work Ruth a woman who wore long flowing skirts and a blouse, had greying short hair and I thought she was about 64, but looked older. Turns out she was about 45!! It’s like she wanted to dress like the granny stereotype. She was obviously ok with that.

The way some people dress impacts on how other people perceive them. Most people physically age the same, ie they get wrinkles etc.... but imo the way they style themselves, wear their hair can be ecstatic Mayes someone appear older/younger.

Those pics are hilarious