Have you found ageing hard?

[Grasshopper12]

I'm only 31 so probably going to get shot down by people older, but I've still had some changes.
The skin under my eyes has definitely thinned, so now I've got more obvious dark circles no matter how much sleep I have/water I drink. Someone even told me I looked tired the other day when I'd had a great night's sleep. :/
I'm contemplating tear trough filler as apparently it's the only thing that fills out the hollows.
Currently I haven't got any other signs, small crows feet around my eyes and slight under eye lines but nothing else, however it's the under eye hollows that bother me.
However this is just the start of it all I imagine. I wear SPF 50, use retinol, tretonin, vitamin C etc.
I'm not bothered about looking older in the future, it's not realistic to look 20 forever.
However I'm scared of looking haggard, washed out, sagging and so on.
Yes it is shallow to say but I like my looks, I do get validation from them which I know is sad.
I know it's better than the alternative, but this doesn't mean we aren't allowed to care about how we look.
Has anybody else found ageing hard physically? What was the hardest thing about it?

I'm late thirties and think I look better than I did a few years ago. I have recently had botox but a small amount (I can still move my eyebrows) as preventative, as I don't have facial lines and would like to keep it that way.

Exercise is the thing that has made the biggest difference. I was never overweight but I'm much fitter and stronger nowadays. I've increased the amount I do year on year.

It sux. Constantly need to Dye hair, hairs sprouting up in odd places, dry feet/heels, pores on face now visible. Sore bones/muslecs/back. Wtf. All down hill after about 35 I reckon. It feels like the morning after, but you haven't been anywhere!

55 here. One great thing about getting older is my ladyballs are getting huge and my dgaf attitude is increasing daily. I have more and more confidence. As for the looks thing I'm an ugly bugger anyway so meh

I'm late 30s. I've had 2 children in the last few years, by c section, difficult pregnancies and a couple of spells in hospital. I've definitely aged a bit from 4 years ago! Sometimes it bothers me a little, but right now I'm focused on being stronger (that's definitely taken a hit with so much time pregnant nd moving to/renovating our forever house over the last few years) and healthier for myself and my family. I saw a recent photo of me holding my baby and smiling. The lines are 😳! But that photo is precious and makes me smile more, because the doting love and happiness on my face shines through and is worth absolutely everything.
In time I'll get back on the beauty regime I seem to never have time for anymore, but I'm not bothered about getting/looking older. Or colouring the few greys coming in (got to stop colouring someday and basically go grey overnight 😂). And my lines are mostly big expressive smile lines (aside from 1 big frown line!!). It's all signs of a life lived, even though there have been a lot of hard times lately.

There may be a tummy tuck in my future if I can save enough (because the loose skin is actually uncomfortable as well as unsightly to me), but I'm not one to inject stuff into my face to try and stay young. At some point you stop, and then people would be shocked at such drastic aging change, no?

I am 70, still looking good, could be a bit thinner, my neck is a tad scary. My DH still fancies me. Being old is not as bad as you think. Perhaps the middle years are more challenging when you lose the bloom of youth.

Op I remember having a meltdown when I was about your age! Like suddenly ...you can't take "this" (gesture nice face and bod) for granted anymore.
Hotness is in the eye of the beholder, they don't give a fck who you really are and we've absorbed their judgements all our lives and it's made us feel shit when we change.

You will need to readjust your inner priorities if that doesn't sound too pretentious. Who are you really, who do you want to be, what's important to you, what do you beleive in, what do you enjoy?

Chin hairs - you know you’re getting older pluck one then a whole army appear.

I have suddenly aged due to stress. I used to look young for my age. People my age who looked older by 40 were the thin, fit people who had lots of holidays and jogged in the sun.

31 is still so young. I get it though, I cried when I turned 30, and I'm not looking forward to turning 40 in a few weeks...

I've not had Botox yet, but I do plan to when I think I need it. I still occasionally get ID'd, and have been mistaken for my DC's sister or girlfriend on a few occasions recently (they are late teens). I have to dye my hair as I would be quite grey, and I do need to lose a couple of stone though but I'm worried it's the fat that is puffing out the wrinkles

Nowhere near as hard as I thought I would. I'm 53 and by dint of some effort and a lot of luck, I look way better and younger than I expected to. Much better than 15 years ago. I'm actually very pleased with it all to be honest!
I've got a way better, easier and more fun life than I did in the past two hard working decades. I can treat myself, look after myself and thoroughly enjoy it.
I'm never ignored, get told I'm beautiful by men and women of various ages (I'm not, but the bar for my age is lower) and to top it all, I'm over half a century old, with all the memories and experience that brings.
Truly, if I'd known it would be this way I'd have skipped from late 20s to right now, as its my best time.

Up until I had kids I was really lucky. I'm naturally relatively slender and have always looked young for my age.

At 33 I looked a hell of a lot better than I did at 23. Had my first child at 35. 40 now and the last two years haven't been kind.

I'm still a healthy weight but my skin and hair has aged horrifically - not just greying but the arrival of a straw like texture. I must admit to not trying very hard with skincare etc as I have always had adult acne and almost all routines/spf just instantly cause painful flare ups. But I spot myself in the mirror sometimes and am shocked at the furious looking middle aged woman I see scowling back.

I need to sort it out but my youngest is only 2 and I'm exhausted/have a load of other priorities

Only from the perspective of a few things..

I would like to go back and fix up a few situations I mucked up for others and myself.

Health wise, my eye sight is deteriorating and I'm getting a type of arthritis between my thumbs and wrist.

I found myself in a bad situation employment wise 14 years ago that I should have walked away from sooner than I did.

As far as looks go, I have always looked after my skin and not necessarily with expensive treatments or skin care, just what I could afford sensibly at the time.

Needless to say I caught on fire 15 years ago burning rubbish so in an odd way, my wrinkles are matching some of the scarring and I'm at the age where I just look like I was out in the sun for too long when I was younger.

And I'm more thicker about the waistline and resembling an apple on matchsticks. Hard to get jeans to fit without creating a muffin top or using a hairtie to hold the button near its hole...

That's what I dislike about aging. Not having periods has been fantastic!

38 here, and veer between caring and not caring. I've never been pretty, never attracted attention. I think I always secretly believed, through my teens and twenties, that I'd suddenly become beautiful. Nope, never happened.

My skin is ok and I have a nice figure. But I have the sort of thin, scratty hair you can't do a thing with (with lots of mad short tufts, whhyyyy) and I can't wear eye makeup for medical reasons. I also have a not-very symmetrical face.

I try to dress nicely but sometimes I think I might look silly, like I don't look good enough to wear nice clothes. I really hope I lose that worry as I get older. I love older women with interesting style. There's a lot of stuff I never dared to wear when I was younger so I do love the idea of becoming more confident.

Plus, I now live in a nice part of the country where people are friendly, and I do think people react well to my general demeanour. I'm very happy and cheerful here and I know it shows on my face. So I seem to get a lot of warmth back, which is new to me, and I love it. It's not a gorgeous or even pretty face, but it's obviously nice enough. That's something that really helps me if I feel down about ageing.

I've been fat and ugly my whole life. Getting older makes no difference to me because I've always been invisible

@greenhousegal

🙌

We are born, and we die...two basic facts of life. What we do in between those two events is important. When my parents died, it made me focus on my own life and make a resolution to make the most of the time I have left. So, at 51 I removed all mirrors from my bedroom, and celebrate the fact I survived a terrible accident two years ago that should have killed me. I stopped caring about looks post-accident and focus on what is important in this life. I focus on the good people I know, the financial security, my kids, my pets, and taking time out of the rat race to do fun stuff. In my view, all that time people spend worrying about their looks could be spent doing something more meaningful like living life.

@greenhousegal I'm totally with you on that- I was 61 last week-can I be your friend!!

Don't like it in terms of mortality but looks wise it's no biggie. You lose friends and you get things into perspective -it's a blessing to be alive. However, having to put on glasses to read instructions or use by dates and things is a bit of a pain! You spend more on your eyes and teeth so start saving

No I haven't found ageing hard.
Every time my dad (80) moans about getting old I resolve to be as little like him as possible.

I'm 59, never had any beauty procedures, never wear make up, I don't have a skincare routine apart from a dab of Lidl moisturiser on a morning after my shower.
My hair is grey under the bottle of dye, I have a few wrinkles, my arse is trying to mate with the back of my knees, my boobs just hang around, and I'm post menopausal.
However.....I'm fit and healthy, I have a fab family and I'm happy.
So I don't care what I see in the mirror.
Age is just a number, it's how you feel within yourself. If you keep yourself as fit and healthy as you can then the rest is academic.

I’m 30 on my next birthday, so still young but have noticed the same things you had.

It’s normal, getting old is a privilege and all that. But what I find frustrating is that I only really started looking after myself in the past five years. It’s a shame that I wasted so much time being fat and inactive, particularly as a teen, very young adult!

Of course you can, the more the merrier! Us 60+ gals have it all once we have reasonably good health and can walk and talk at the same time lol!

At our age we have seen it all. Mostly happy but often sad too. Makes you appreciate the good things in life, and they are not about good looks either. I've been through it I can tell you, but out the other side now fingers crossed. So onwards and upwards.

I’m 53 and look about 46. How you age is 80% genetics. My mum is 79 and could easily pass for 10 years younger. My 44 year old brother looks like a tall boy, with a full head of thick dark hair - not a single grey hair on his head. We’re not especially beautiful or glamorous, we just look younger than we are. I’ll not use Botox or fillers - I know people swear by it, but it doesn’t make people look younger. It just makes them look like they’ve had Botox and fillers.

I'm doing all right
but someone mentioned dry heels - yes, why is that? Even when you haven't been on a long walk?!

Also, my hair wants to do something different every day, it's weird.

and finally...I might need an optician visit, but glasses at 46 isn't that surprising.

I'm exactly the same but I'm a bit younger, 42

I spent far too long in my 20s and 30s desperately wanting to be "cool" and caring what everyone thought of me

I think it’s easier to be the better looking one among your contemporaries as you age if you fight the obvious obstacles. I was an extremely average twenty something/early thirty something woman but now I’ve knocking on fifty I look pretty good!

So for me it hasn’t been hard. I’m lucky enough to still be fit and gave good health. I’m not harping back to the ‘good old days’ as they weren’t good. Times have never been so good as now to be honest.