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

Photos of impact of smoking on twins.

I was born in 1965.My mum was 26 when she had me .She was a really pretty woman One of my first memories is of her sitting at her dressing table teasing her hair as she used to wear it in a chignon bouffant style.I asked her about the long dresses in the wardrobe , they were pastel blues , pink and yellows all with matching satin stilettos.I asked her why she didn't wear them anymore and she answered that she was "too old to be going out in those sort of clothes ' .She must have been about 31 /32 years of age at the time .So maybe that was the way things were once you had kids back then.She is now 82 years of age and looks better than she did in the 80's wearing an absolutely awful perm and tweed skirts .

It's the hair, I reckon. I associate old people with perms and rollers.

No way will the next few generations of pensioners do that so to me they look younger.

When I was young it was very frowned upon to die your hair to get rid of the grey. A public declaration of deplorable vanity. I still have this prejudice & feel baffled by 80yo people with dark locks. Come on. Who are you kidding?

The neck always gives people's ages away. Hands too.

@Stripesgalore

The pictures in the article are highly selective.

Women may look a bit younger now due to skincare, but men still age at the same rate. Shaving a balding head is fooling nobody.

It’s not supposed to be fooling anyone, is it?

The old Bobby Charlton combover was the hairstyle trying to pretend the guy still had plenty of hair on top!

Women born into poverty at the beginning of the 20th century had incredibly harsh lives - labour saving devices for housework were only just being invented and were probably too expensive anyway. Coal fires and boilers produced a huge amount of dust and soot through a house. No central heating. And 2 world wars to live through (or not..). Contraception only began to be widespread in the early decades. No wonder they aged.

My gran got married at 24. If i hadn't known I would have thought she was in her 40s. I look younger now in my mid 40s thank my mum did at 30. A cousin showed me her mums wedding photo. My gran on my dad's side looked to be well over 50 when she was in her 40s too!. Whilst I agree clothing and hairstyles play a part I just think people just didn't bother. My ex mil hit 60 and began getting a perm and changed the way she dressed etc just because she was 60. People have better health care etc nowadays too.

‘Shaving a balding head might fool no one, but arguably it’s a more youthful look than a half bald head with fluffy greying hair round the sides.

To be fair, you can't just assume that they're doing it to fool you into thinking they're younger. Having no hair is a style choice just like having waist-length hair, shoulder-length hair, bob, short back and sides, pixie cut, number 2 cut etc. People are allowed to have whatever hair style they prefer, believe suits them best, is manageable and fits their lifestyle.

For all you know, a lot of these men shaving all their hair off ostensibly to fool women into thinking them 20 years younger might actually just be lazy prioritising their schedules and thinking "Right, no hair to wash - that's 20 minutes a week saved; no shampoo to buy - that's £2 a month saved and one fewer item to have to remember in the supermarket".

Perhaps everyone posting might want to avoid similar conversations with the next generation or two. I'm reminded of the 'no one knows I've had work done'. I suspect the Botox and fillers being used now will be more ageing than smoking was to previous generations.

Not completely on topic, but astundingly Reese Mog is younger than Kylie Minogue. I think he deliberately dresses old though.

Sorry if its been posted already, but watching East Enders from the 80s illustrates this point. Pauline Fowler must have been late 30s / early 40s and dressed like someone much older. Dot Cotton also seemed to look older than in recent years!

I remember watching an old episode of Bullseye on Challenge (don't judge me) and seeing Jim Bowen, this little elderly man presenting it and I didn't think any more of it. Then, at the end, I happened to notice the year it was made and I Idly checked his birthdate online and realised that he was actually 45 then. There are photos online of him looking just as old, if not even older, when he was doing stand-up comedy and would have been 30 at the most.

People didn't live as long as they do now. Food was a different ballgame altogether, and life was harder, people were poorer and grew old because they knew no better. They also stayed in dreadful marriages because it was not the done thing to separate or divorce. Remember - children born out of wedlock were called 'bastards' and both child and mother were discriminated against.
The scope of reasoning and thought was governed by the BBC probably :)
We all stood up in the cinema at the end for the National Anthem and we were conditioned to a way of thinking and living and had no informatuion other than what the government thought was good for us; so yes, we were old before we should have been.

My mum looked young until she had me. After I was born she cut her hair short and started dressing like her mum. Literally aged herself 30 years overnight.

@Silvercatowner

Women born into poverty at the beginning of the 20th century had incredibly harsh lives - labour saving devices for housework were only just being invented and were probably too expensive anyway. Coal fires and boilers produced a huge amount of dust and soot through a house. No central heating. And 2 world wars to live through (or not..). Contraception only began to be widespread in the early decades. No wonder they aged.

I remember seeing ladies on our street using the dolly and posser and mangle. My mum and my grandmother had lots of conversations regarding mangles. I was fascinated by this domestic instrument of torture :)

Funny, we were watching Only Fools and Horses just the other day, and my son nearly spat his brew out when he asked me how old David Jason (or 'Del Boy' was then) and I told him he was the same age as me!

People of my age DO tend to look younger these days than they did in the past (not just me!)

It's like a couple of years ago me and my bestie dug out all our teenage photos, and our mum's were on some of them. Both of our mum's were 18 when they had us back in the very early 80's, so this works out that they were only 33 on these pics, but they seemed to look in their mid-late 40's!

This is something that we'd never considered or even thought about previously, but we were flabbergasted at the fact that they were actually several years younger than us on the pics; but I actually have a theory, as to why this is... I think along with changes in style and access to more revolutionary beauty products, I believe their 'mature looks' could have had a lot to do with the 'expectations' imposed on women in those days.

A good example of this, would be my DM truly believing she was a middle aged frump at 28 (I kid you not!) And because she told me this I believed it too! In turn, I think this self belief may have turned into a self fulfilling prophecy, because the second she hit 30 she began to dress 'old' act 'prudish' and completely stopped maintaining her formerly slight figure; because she gathered, "What's the point, now I'm passed it..." And I'm not putting words into her mouth here - these were the exact in things she said to me!

And just to emphasise the 'ageist' attitude of some women of her generation, I also remember Mariah Carey in the late 90's - early 2000's music video's. Personally, I thought she looked absolutely fantastic; but my DM would beg to differ (at the time!) as she believed Mariah was dressing too 'far too young' for a woman in her early/mid 30's

Incidentally, my mum regrets her former attitude now, and realises she was sooo young when she wrote herself off as 'past it' and she no longer believes that Mariah looked like 'mutton dressed as lamb'!

And finally, let's be realistic here - there wasn't nearly as many fillers and cowboys brandishing Botox needles back in the day. Even Joan Collins kept her wrinkles iyswim.

People didn't live as long as they do now.

I know we're largely westerners here discussing our own experiences, but many people in the world still don't. It's a sobering thought that the average age of a person across the whole planet is just 25. Once you reach 26, there are more people younger than you than there are older.

Wilferd Brimley in Coccoon is the same age as Paul Rudd now. no way!! Checked - it’s true! Wtf!

But yes when this phenomenon hit me was when I properly realised that when I turned 18 my mum was 6 years YOUNGER than I was when dd turned 18 and of course lots of family photos of both of us at this point and she definitely looks a good 15-20 years OLDER even though she’s slimmer and fitter than me mainly because of hairstyle and clothing choices. She had a short not dyed really 50’s style bouffant perm at the time (the 80’s were not kind to middle aged women!) and wore calf length skirts with sheer tan colour tights and low heeled shoes.

Whereas me at the same stage of motherhood, long, dyed hair, straightened (mine is naturally wavy/curly), jeans, casual top, trainers - looked much younger.

That said, me at 18 with bubble perm (I stupidly thought more “uniform” curls looked better than my natural “messy” ones), “pearl” earrings, “androgynous” suit and tie get up (complete with yuppie dayglo braces!) also looked a right bloody state much older than dd at the same age!

So fashions in hair and clothes definitely have a part to play!

My mum massively disapproves of my still having long hair and wearing jeans and trainers “at your age”

Anna Karen was 33 when she started on “on the buses”

Reg Varney was 51!

Smoking too definitely had an effect - active and passive! My parents both heavy smokers and it shows, but even their siblings who’ve never smoked but had to live in an era when most others did and so were very much exposed at home and at work show some effects.

I had it at home as a child and as an adult in my first few jobs as I’m old enough to have worked in hospitality etc before major smoking bans came in.

Dd and her generation, most of the parents non smokers or gave up before becoming parents, so much less at home and certainly not exposed in their workplaces.

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. yes!

I got teased a LOT as a kid for hating being in the sun (redhead, very very pale NEVER tanned in my life! Burned a lot as a kid though!) but my peers who were tanners and therefore loved being in the sun definitely look older now.

It obviously wasn’t my main concern as say a 9 year old, I just hated being itchy, flaky and in PAIN!

Weirdly my mum now thinks she is less easy to place age wise as she no longer has the perm and wears “slacks” (still doesn’t own a pair of jeans) but she has a bob which where I am at least is what almost all the women her age here have, still wears the low heeled shoes and “cardis” usually over a fine knit sweater - so essentially her own version of a twin set!

People also left school and started work earlier, a 20 year old may have already done 5 years working. yes my parents both left school at 14 and went straight into working full time, it was the norm for their families and class.

I stayed on until 16 then left and worked full time but also went to evening classes to do a-levels

Dd left “early” at 17 and did an apprenticeship, long story as was unusual for her generation and peers and wasn’t what either of us thought would happen but she’s now gone back into education almost 3 years later.

My parents definitely find children staying on until 18 then going to uni and not getting a full time job until 22/23 very much outside their comfort zone.

By that age they were married, with 1 child and another on the way!

My grans the headscarf thing - instantly aging! But was the fashion of their youth which I think we forget! Probably also they were thinking a cover up for bad hair days?!

Contraception only began to be widespread in the early decades. No wonder they aged.

I was just gonna say bigger families/more pregnancies too - and close together! My mums 1 of 6 (and there were stillborn twins and a few mc too) and dads 1 of 5 (also mc there too) which definitely has an effect on women’s bodies AND minds which affects the effort we make with our appearance.

Maternity clothes even back in the 90’s were awful frumpy tents!

I was looking at some photos of my lovely M.I L when she was dressed up for a wedding when she was expecting her first child at the age of 28. She looked a good 10 years older.
When you look at for example, wedding photos of people who are now aged 70+ they always look a lot older than they are.
I assume that diet and lifestyle had a lot to do with premature aging.
The majority of women really were drudges back in the day. Not much money and no modern conveniences.
It's no surprise that they looked much older than they were.
I was looking at a photo of my great grandparents, all dressed up in their finery, with my great grandmother sporting what looked to be a fruit bowl with the contents and a dead bird parked in it.
According to the date on the back of the photo, they would have been 31 and 34. They looked more 71 and 74!
( Although the fact that they weren't smiling didn't help I suppose )

My dsis sent me some pics of our dad when he was 14 and in his 20s. 14 he was in a double breasted suit and tie. He looked way older than a boy in his teens. I look at pictures of my mum when she was younger than me, grey bubble perm and crimpalene. My grandad and grandma in their early 60s looked like a couple in their late 70s. My nan nan never wanted to live more than 60, because to her, that was elderly. They all grew up or were adults in the depression, worked long hard manual jobs or in the home, with limited financial means, served in both wars. It’s no wonder they looked older.

I was fascinated by this domestic instrument of torture

Mangles were hideous machines - hands and arms were squidged quite redularly.

Wilferd Brimley

I read that as Wilfrid Brambell! If ever a man must have been born 90 years old, it was him

My mum never really had any greys-my dad was greying & balding at 30.

My MIL was mid 50s when I met her-short, greying hair, tweed skirt or slacks & twinset type jumper.

All (imo) very aging.

She's tall & slim.

I'm mid 50s now-not tall or slim!

What I could wear if I had the figure at this age that MIL had!

My grandparents were elderly when I was little (as in my mum went round weekly to change the bedding and did their big shop). Looking back they were in their early 60's. My parents are older than that now and were travelling the world until covid stopped fun.

Wilferd Brimley in Coccoon is the same age as Paul Rudd now.

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