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

My gran was a mum at 18 and a gran at 43. I wasn’t even a mum until I was 40! Life stages have been delayed so people seem younger for longer. People in their mid 30s are only just reaching the point of being able to afford a house and have a baby - previous generations would have done that in their late teens or early 20s. I suppose the sad part is that I’m unlikely to meet my grandchildren and certainly won’t see them grow up, because I’ll probably be approaching 80 when they’re born.

I saw a pic of my DM in the late 80s. She would have been late 30s, but was with some ladies in their 60s and they were all dressed very frumpily similarly. Think muted colours floral pleated mid calf length M and S dresses or skirts, court shoes etc.

I'm in my early 40s and wouldnt dream of wearing that.i live in jeans, skinny tshirts and trainers. I dont think my DM ever owned a pair of jeans

@Bluntness100

Anyone remember the old comb overs that blokes used to favour to cover their bald patches. Now they shave it all off, but then they desperately tried to cover it with long strands of hair, hair sprayed into place, it was an awful look.

I recall a lecturer at college. He was walking down the drive one day in the wind, and his comb over had lifted snd it was so stiff it was just literally vertical on top of his head,

Arthur Scargill had a brilliant one of these.

Also, the first 5 minutes of American Hustle is of the main character, a fraudster, arranging his strands + hairpiece into place with great care.

Could be that alot of people in the past smoked heavily, which obviously really accelerates the aging process.

@NameChange84
was reacting to a poster who said you shouldn’t be taken seriously in the workplace with long, “sexy”, “Cinderella” hair
I said I felt it would be hard to be taken seriously at work.
Most men don't strive to the lengths women do to look attractive, Why don't they need to?

I realise now that I was feeling a bit got at with many of these posts, having lived through many of the fashion styles over the years (and suffering from general covid grumpiness). The attitude in some posts that didn't everyone look awful in the past, but thankfully we've got it sorted now, irritated me. That Lycra, trainers, jeans is somehow a big improvement on 'frumpy'dresses. I've lived through some fun fashion styles, now the casual, sportswear look/jeans is quite dull imv. It doesn't make sense to criticise women as looking old if it's because they are wearing what was fashionable at the time. Pre 70s people strived to look respectable and definitely not different or quirky.

A relative of mine posted lots of old photos of a big family get together. My great aunt in my mind has always been an old woman, and I really haven't see much change in her from when I was a young child to 30 years later. The photos really surprised me though! She dressed then virtually as she dressed now in her nineties she must have been early 60s in these photos and beyond the perm and the deidre glasses, she looks AMAZING! Seriously young face, no wrinkles, really pretty. If she was born a generation later she would be wearing jeans and converse in these photos and pass for a woman 20 years younger. I don't think the fashion of that generation was great for aging though. All big glasses and short perms and unflattering skirts and blouses. I think everyone looked the same, a bit shapeless and not making much of their natural features/beauty.

Disclaimer that I also think that some current fashions are equally as unflattering!

I agree that people did look older at a younger age in earlier times, but some of these generalisations don't work. I have short hair, it's not in a funky cut (it's wavy/curly), I've never dyed it (and there are greys), I always wear flat comfortable shoes and comfortable clothes, don't go to the gym, never wear make up - and everyone thinks I am 10 years younger than I am!

I said I felt it would be hard to be taken seriously at work. Most men don't strive to the lengths women do to look attractive

Well it’s not. Being taken seriously at work is nothing to do with the length of your hair and you also said it was sexy and you didn’t like it in the same post.

And not having short hair is not women striving to look attractive. We can present as we wish, And even if it was an individual striving to look attractive , what is wrong with that, why do you take issue with women looking attractive, it’s in your previous post too, should we all do our utmost not to look attractive, cut our hair, so you feel better.

Once again, we can present as we wish, it is nothing to do with our ability to do our jobs, having long hair is not detrimental to how we are perceived at work.

My daughter has a first class law degree, she passed her lpc with distinction, she is a trainee lawyer with a large global law firm, right now just to talk to her and get her advice you’d pay well over two hundred quid an hour.

And guess what, she’s long curly hair.,,and she wears it down often. Is she striving to be attractive, should she cut it off to make a point, is it “sexy” hair, do you really think people can’t take her seriously because of it? Because I can assure you you’d be very wrong, she’s taken very seriously and doesn’t need to cut it like hyacinth bouquet to make a point.

Isn't some of this just related to fashion and perspectives, though?

My mum has a photo of herself with teenage friends in the early 1960s - they've all combed their hair into huge beehives. We'd see a beehive as an 'old' hairstyle nowadays, but in the 60s it was hip and happening.

Similarly, people see short, permed hair as an 'old' style now because it's most popular with old people. But go back 40 years and it wasn't an 'old' person's style.

In 30 years people might well be popping up saying how ageing balayage, long hair, straightened hair etc. is because they associate them with people who are in their 60s by then.

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.

A twin tub is hardly manual labour!! I loved my twin tub and would happily have it back.

@eaglejulesk

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.

A twin tub is hardly manual labour!! I loved my twin tub and would happily have it back.

Happy memories from the 70s of sitting on the kitchen floor watching my mum at her twin tub!

It's worth noting that there were a lot more SAHMs back then, and not just those with children below school-age, so while some appliances might not have been quite as labour saving, more people had more time to spend on housework without juggling a job alongside - and the 'breadwinner' came back to dinner on the table, not the vacuuming to get done.

I'm not advocating that lifestyle, just saying it's a myth that everyone was worn out with housework in the past.

I was born in 1960, when my mum was 28. Looking back at photos, it's as though she went straight from being 'young' to 'middle aged' as soon as she had children. And, from pictures of her with her friends, that's what happened; as soon as you had a child you began dressing like YOUR mother.

I was born in 1961 when my mum was 38. She was already setting her hair in a Margaret Thatcher style coif and dressing matronly by the time I was 10. Though I do have memories of her wearing stirrup pants and trouser suits - not trousers and jacket, but matching trousers and jerkin type top with a coordinating blouse underneath. I’m 59 and wear skinny jeans, denim jacket etc. And mid neck length hair.

@SerenDippitty

I was born in 1960, when my mum was 28. Looking back at photos, it's as though she went straight from being 'young' to 'middle aged' as soon as she had children. And, from pictures of her with her friends, that's what happened; as soon as you had a child you began dressing like YOUR mother.

I was born in 1961 when my mum was 38. She was already setting her hair in a Margaret Thatcher style coif and dressing matronly by the time I was 10. Though I do have memories of her wearing stirrup pants and trouser suits - not trousers and jacket, but matching trousers and jerkin type top with a coordinating blouse underneath. I’m 59 and wear skinny jeans, denim jacket etc. And mid neck length hair.

But @SerenDippitty you are just wearing the fashions of the day. Princess Di's hair didn't make her look prematurely old in the 80s because it was the height of fashion - I was a teen and we were all getting Lady Di haircuts. It looks aging now because it is out of fashion.

I do think some posters are forgetting that what looks old fashioned and aging now did not look so then. People could look at photos of women in skinny jeans and trainers in 40 years time and think OMG, how aging and frumpy they look .

Regarding men's comb overs, my DF had one and was so fed up of it blowing around when he was in the car with the window down one summer he bought a hairnet. Unfortunately his head got sunburnt and according to my delighted cousin he had criss crosses on his bald head

I'm old. As a child l never had any trousers. I think my first pair was when l was about fourteen years old. My mother never had any. ( I very much try to keep up with fashion suitable for oldies now. People do think I'm younger than l am)

I feel a bit sorry for the youth of today.
I am in my 50’s and did the punk look in the early 80’s and my mums generation wouldn’t dream of wearing dm’s, having multi coloured hair or wearing ripped clothing.
Now if you want to have a harmless rebellion with what you wear and colouring your hair pink you could well be standing at the bus stop with someone my age looking pretty much the same.

It's a good point that today's fashions are not necessarily 'flattering'. In the 2060s, 60-year-old women will be looking back at old Instagram (or whatever has replaced it) photos of themselves and reacting with horror on Mumsnet (or whatever has replaced it) at all the fake eyebrows, fake tan, glossy hair, tight dresses and pouty faces.

I think that is why the, much decried on here, look favoured by young girls of huge brows, inflated lips and false eyelashes is popular. Their mums are all in skinny jeans and trainers, so they rebel by looking like a stripper. Good for them

There is a danger to duckface. This is more than 20 years ago mind but I knew someone who decided to make duckface her default facial expression such that she looked strangely expressionless all the time and looked like she had a beak from the side.

To be honest, I never thought Diana’s hair was very flattering snd didn’t think it fashionable at the time. I didn’t know anyone with a lady di or who requested one.

It was the Rachel cut that was in fashion at that time, everyone was getting it, the Diana, was not popular by any manner of means.

@Bluntness100 maybe you are younger than me and also grew up in less of a backwater (both are true for the majority of people). The 'Lady Di' was popular in the 80s and predates the Rachel, which was the quintessential 90s cut.

In my wee Scots town in the 80s, all the girls were blowdrying their hair and hair spraying into place and wearing pie crust collars

The navigator, Maybe, I’m from Scotland, and I am fifty one. So when they married in 81 I would only have been 12 nearly thirteen. So yes possibly I missed it,

@Bluntness100

To be honest, I never thought Diana’s hair was very flattering snd didn’t think it fashionable at the time. I didn’t know anyone with a lady di or who requested one.

It was the Rachel cut that was in fashion at that time, everyone was getting it, the Diana, was not popular by any manner of means.

The Lady Di cut predated the first episode of Friends by about 13 years.