Did people look older in the 90s?

[pontipinemum]

Not really AIBU - More so a what do you think

I'm watching a 90s movie right now and I think people that are supposed to be early 30s (my age now) look older than me. When I look at pictures of my family from the 90s they all look older, even though my mum was in her 20s most of the 90s.

Is it the style maybe? Do I associate the clothes with 'older people' because when I saw those clothes IRL I was just a small child. I think a lot of people my age still dress sort of young, trainers/ jeans/ hoodies/ casual. Where as people in their 20s/30s back then dressed more grown up.

YABU - People in the 90s did not look older
YANBU - People in the 90s did look older

A lot of the actors were a lot older than their screen age. It was common back in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Look at Grease and Dirty Dancing!

No, ordinary women looked younger than they do now. Botox and fillers make people look older, I think. If you ever watch a very old edition of Big Brother, with Jady Goody etc in, then all the women there look really young and fresh-faced.

I think it's partly because we usually think we look younger than we are, while everyone else looks their age or older 😁 Also, if you're looking at pics from when you were younger, mentally you'll always see those people as older than you even if, in the photo, they're younger than you are now.

Some styles are ageing but I don't think the 90s were too bad for that. The puffy 80s hair that lasted a bit into the early 90s was terrible though. Heavy makeup can be ageing too.

I sort of think possibly they did.

We watched old episodes of the Krypton Factor (from the 80s, so even older) and contestants in their early 20s looked so much older. It seemed to us that as soon as one hit 21 one was required to Dress Like an Adult.

I know that when I went to university in 1997 my mum told me it was time for shorter hair and to wear skirts more, as I needed to dress more maturely now.

I look at young women now and think they look older. The contouring, fake kips, fake nails fake tan etc all somehow age them

when I went to university in 1997 my mum told me it was time for shorter hair and to wear skirts more, as I needed to dress more maturely now.

Good god!!! Was this in the UK? (Circa 1955)

The fashion was very ageing. Thank god for the spice girls 🙌

I think a lot of it has to do with hair and fashion.

I was watching some old footage from the 1990's recently, and the school girls (15/ 16 year olds) would have passed for women in their 20's.

It's not a look I like, but I don't think it's ageing.

I think women look younger now than in the fifties and sixties. Partly because it wasn’t till the 60s that women continued to look like girls into their 20s rather than emulating their mothers and getting a perm to look grown-up, partly because, compared with average life expectancy, older women were older, into their last decade at 62 rather than 72.

The fashion for natural looking hair makes women look younger.

I agree with that also. I look at some women much younger than me. I've cousins in their early 20s who wear so much make up it really ages them. When I see one in particular without make-up she looks about 16.

@DrSbaitso I think there is a lot of truth to that as well!

I think its the style. Late 80s, very early 90s I remember my sister and her friends getting ready to go out, wearing pencil skirts, blouses, permed hair, heels. The men had tailored trousers and shirts, with "proper" (dress?) shoes . It'll changed in just a few years.

I think that this happens with every generation because of hairstyles and clothes. I have a school photo from, I think, 1965 and I look so old at 17, I won't show it to anyone else! Even the teachers who we knew were only in their mid twenties look like they're in their 40s or 50s. Being a black and white photo doesn't help it at all, I looked a lot younger on my wedding photo 4 years later!

It definitely does make them look a lot older imo.

I don't think so. Most people I knew were a bit grungey and looked very laid back and fresh faced.

It was only in the 60s that clothing and hairstyles specifically for teenagers came into fashion, until then we were dressed and styled like our mothers.

I remember coming home from uni and my mum telling me I shouldn’t be dressing like a teenager. I was 21. The offending item was a denim jacket.

I went to University in 1980 & it was all dungarees & Indian skirts & cheese cloth. Not a pencil skirt in sight!

I think it's a mix really. Some thirty something women look really young. Those who cake on the make up seem to look a lot older.

....when DS1 was born (2009) my DM told me to start dressing differently and like a mum... whatever that meant to mean 🤔

In the 90s I wore suits, heels, pussy bow blouses - very ‘done’ By late 90s I worked in the US and added professional manicures, pedicures and facials. Hair was always neat.
I am much more casual/ relaxed in my dress sense now - don’t own a suit, not expected to wear one to work, hair is messy bob. Still love a pedicure but not one for gel nails.
I am 61 so cannot say I look younger ( I wish) , but I think I have a younger attitude if that makes any sense.

Interesting. I was in my 20s in the 1990s, and I feel i dress the same then as I do now. (Jeans, t shirt, non branded trainers or ankle boots)

I suspect the style of jeans and t shirt has changed over the years, but essentially the same.

Certainly I didn't then, or now, dress like my mum who is almost 80 now.

I was 15/16 in the 90s and teenage uniform was DM boots, tasselled skirts, checked shirts and baggy t-shirts, with heavy black eyeliner. I don't think we looked like anything other than teenagers!

And Beverley Hills 90210, all those high school kids played by actors in their 30s!