What age did your looks start to fade?

[SalJ90]

Do we really become less desirable as we get older? Why is this?

About 47. When i was younger i was very beautiful. Now i look good for my age but i am no longer very beautiful. Age does that. The only people who genuinely look great over 50 ie still youthful and could compete with a 30 year okd in the looks departmenthave had work done. Not just botox and filler but facelifts and eye lifts.

I'm 70, so obviously look my age.
I have never felt beautiful or even pretty or attractive, but looking back at old photos made me realise I did actually look bloody gorgeous. Pity I didn't see it at the time. For me it is lack of confidence. However I've had a happy life, good career, and been happily with my husband for 50 years. I realise I'm very lucky.

It slowly creeps up on you til one day you catch sight of your reflection in a shop window and it's your grandma😳. 🤷 Nothing you can do about it🤦

I turned 40 last April and think I look ok but o noticed a few weeks ago where my forehead lines were at the sides I now have one that goes completely across the middle. Also my eyes easily get black circles and lines after a few too many late nights. That said I stopped drinking four months ago and that's definitely helping my skin look better.

About 43/44

I'm 41 and it's happened in the last few years. My teen son has mental health issues and the worry has made me haggard and exhausted looking.

Wouldn't trade it for anything. He is still here and holding on.

As long as my face is washed, hair is brushed and I have clean clothes, ill be fine.

Weight is another matter now I'm perimenopausal but that's a health issue rather than a looks one.

Up until my mid thirties I always looked much younger than I was. On my wedding photos at 30, I look early 20's. Twenty years later I definitely don't look that much different from my actual age although I still have good skin. My mum in her late 70's still has lovely skin so it must be genetic.
I am more concerned now about staying as healthy as possible.

@Yoyokitten I also had that thing of thinking most of my life that I was not even pretty, never mind beautiful (not helped by some unthinking comments by family members in my teens). Well I never had conventional beauty or anything, especially as my face is somewhat assymetrical, but boy when i look back at pictures of me in my 20s do I want to tell that girl how gorgeous she is, and actually beautiful in an unconventional way.

The thing is, you always look more attractive in the old photos.

In Germany, when people get together, they say they should have fun "because we'll never meet as young as this again".
Even if you're 70, you'll never be as young as this again. When you're 90 you'll be looking at photos from now, thinking you looked pretty good in comparison!

Might as well enjoy being as young and beautiful as we are now.

I feel uncomfortable that we think looks 'fade'. Fade brings with it an assumption of lack, of looking less than before. Yes, looks of course change. I'm 50, my skin and hair are both different than they were in my 20s and 30s. I certainly look older. But I don't think I look 'less'. I think I look good for my age, but at the same time, I don't much care if I do or don't. I'm glad to be fit and healthy, I'm glad I can wear what I want, and not feel I have to impress anyone, other than myself.

@ravenmum

The thing is, you always look more attractive in the old photos.

In Germany, when people get together, they say they should have fun "because we'll never meet as young as this again".
Even if you're 70, you'll never be as young as this again. When you're 90 you'll be looking at photos from now, thinking you looked pretty good in comparison!

Might as well enjoy being as young and beautiful as we are now.

Excellent point. You will never be younger than the age you are today.

I’m early fifties and am looking better than I ever have! I’ve sort of grown into my face and my skin is amazing! My ex hubby who I’m very great friends with said the other week that he think I’m looking better than I ever have done too! This age obviously suits me!!

I don't think age affects beauty. I do think health, diet, stress or lack thereof, etc, can.

I started to go downhill when I reached 30. I’m 32 now and I feel like I’ve aged a lot over these last two years. All through my 20s I felt and looked 21.

Stress, grief, lack of sleep and poor mental health has started to ruin my face. My eyes mainly. They just look so tired and I can see the pain and stress they carry whenever I look in the mirror. Also started getting floaters in them when I reached 30 too.

@Purpleavocado

I feel uncomfortable that we think looks 'fade'. Fade brings with it an assumption of lack, of looking less than before. Yes, looks of course change. I'm 50, my skin and hair are both different than they were in my 20s and 30s. I certainly look older. But I don't think I look 'less'. I think I look good for my age, but at the same time, I don't much care if I do or don't. I'm glad to be fit and healthy, I'm glad I can wear what I want, and not feel I have to impress anyone, other than myself.

Good attitude to have

Well, I’m 41 now and it’s probably been about 5 years since a stranger paid me a compliment/chatted me up. I used to look ‘young’ for my age but now look tired, wrinkly and definitely middle-aged.

Mids 40s, I've always been very happily not a 'looker'! Never had the 'men stopping paying me attention' thing, as they hardly paid me any attention anyway which I was glad of, hearing what it's like when they do...

I work at a smart dress office and at 38 I decided to start wearing light makeup to the office as I felt I was not so 'fresh faced' anymore, so maybe you could call that 'losing my looks'. I just felt that without make up and in smart clothes I was looking a bit severe and like I'd not finished getting ready, whereas a young woman might look fine without make-up. Still forgot it some days and it didn't bother me, but reckoned it looked a bit better if I had a bit of slap on.

Genes and stress play a lot more than you think. I smoke, lived in the sun all my life and am 50 but people think I am younger. My parents were the same. We age slowly. I have very few wrinkles but have definitely noticed some aging around my mouth. I saw a plastic surgeon about a tummy tuck and he remarked that my face had held its fat very well. And that is genes not lifestyle

when I haven't had a run or done anything nice for myself for a few days I find

30. Literally bang on 30. I went to bed aged 29 looking average but do uppable with time spent on hair and makeup, constantly being told how young I look/asked for ID etc and woke up the next day aged 30 looking old and ugly. My 30th also coincided with a period of immense stress and even now, X years later, it surprises me how much this changed my appearance in such a short amount of time

After I got ill in my late 40s. Up until that point I'd always been able to get away with being at least 5 years younger than my calendar age. I look back at photos of my 40th and I can't believe how young I looked! I definitely look my age now - my hair's a lot dryer, and despite the fact my mother had gorgeous skin until she died in her early 80s, and in many other ways I really resembler her physically, my skin just looks sad and tired these days.

I've noticed that so many of us have been aged by the last two years in particular, though of course it could just be lack of sunlight and/or grooming combined with comfort eating and Zoom/Teams bottom in my case....!

When I was young, and even into my twenties I could never wait to be older, and look older. I used to look at photos of mature French ladies in magazines, who always looked so stylish and self possessed (yes, I know it was marketing) and think that would be much more preferable to youth.

As women age, they often develop a self assuredness and confidence, and a comfort in their own skin that makes them shine more brightly than any youth or beauty ever does. Its that being at peace with yourself, and accepting yourself which makes people seem beautiful I think. That true inner self confidence and self worth, and not giving a fuck, is impossible to mimic.

So I suppose that's a flowery way of saying that despite age, I think all women look most radiant when they are happy just being themselves without bending to anyone else's ideals. It sounds pompous to say, but I really don't think it has anything to do with physical looks.

Some younger women have it too, but I think it often takes life experience and whole lot of being trodden on to truly develop the not giving a fuck. and to truly love yourself, faults, flaws and all.

I'm in my mid-50s and I'm surrounded by friends taking HRT and doing yoga - they look like amazing hot, young sex goddesses!!

Hello GP...

I have hardly any grey hair, and some (very very) fine lines on the side of my eyes started appearing Mid 50’s. Family all look younger than we are, and we all have great skin. I will add that I was never one for getting a suntan, even when on a fly and flop holiday I would always be under a parasol. I have noticed the skin on my jowls is not as tight as it used to be. If I got it fixed could probably pass for mid 30’s.

About now, sadly (late 40s). Saggy face, slightly overweight and a big facial hair problem developing.