When you are told you look exactly the same as many many years ago

[StrawberryCo]

Is it a compliment?

I’ve had this comment numerous times over the years from people I haven’t seen in a long time. Some not since college or school!

(Not a boast) Most people say I look exactly the same and haven’t aged at all (I definitely have!)

I’ve remained a similar weight(slim) and I’ve never dyed my hair any mad colours so I guess my look has never really changed, does that make me very boring?!

It’s still nice to be told I haven’t aged although it’s amazing I don’t look like a haggard 100 year old with all the kid stress 🤣

I've been told this. I see it as a good thing. I know in part it's because I haven't changed my hair in many years - but I like my hair as it is, and can't be bothered to fiddle with it. Take it as a compliment!

I think it's just a thing people say after a long time apart? Either 'oh you've not changed a bit!' or 'ooh I wouldn't have recognised you, your X Y Z is so different'.

Yes I think that’s a compliment definitely. I often say it to people - I don’t mean they literally haven’t aged at all - just that they have aged well, haven’t put on loads of weight etc.

Your face shape hasn’t changed, and your hair is similar.

Some people maintain the same vibe all their lives, others lose or gain glasses, change hair length and colour, lose or gain weight, gain or lose confidence. Men get generically pink round and bald as they age. I’ve got old friends that are unrecognisable from weight gain, or girls that were pretty at school and plain now, and vice versa. It isn’t about wrinkles.

You still look youthful, definitely a compliment.

It is a compliment imo.

I've been told this. I find it hard to take as a compliment as I was pretty gawky and unattractive at school and I like to think I've improved!

I'd say that's a compliment for sure.

Compliment- apparently it’s my smile 😃 <cheesy grin>.

Some people have a particular look about them that’s recognisable as they age. Of my school cohort, one still looks quite pixie-ish, another still very calm. One is very direct, almost challenging as she looks at the camera. Others I can’t work out who they are at all!

Some have aged really well, and look much better than they did. I wouldn’t use ‘you haven’t changed a bit!’, for them.

It's a compliment of sorts, to be taken in context. People I haven't seen since leaving school in the mid 80s say it about me if we meet by chance, because my face and hair and figure are recognisably me, in spite of the expansion of the latter. I could say the same about some of them, while in others it's more difficult to identify the teenagers I used to know, not necessarily because they look so much older, but because they look different.

My 80 year old Aunt has looked the same for decades. Of course she's visibly aged but she looked much older than her years when she was in her 40s and basically stuck with that 'look' in terms of hair colour and style, clothes, weight ever since 😀

OP, it’s a nice way of saying you look well. I get it sometimes, but I don’t think it’s true.

I get told I look the same. Still short, still fat and bespectacled 😆 now grey haired, but my face hasn’t changed that much outside a few lines and I still wear excessive amounts of lipstick.

It is a compliment, I think. Recently saw an old flame of mine, and he was almost unrecognisable - he had been very ill, had become very thin and had difficulties with walking. Same nice guy but sad to see him like that.

I’d say it’s a compliment.

I had this for years but everything has slipped over the last couple of years!

Is this a stealth boast? Why would staying slim make you boring?

I would take it to mean they haven’t changed their look, not that they haven’t aged as that’s impossible! I don’t think it’s a compliment or an insult, just an observation. How you take it depends on how you view keeping to one look.

Not a stealth boast I promise! It’s more to do with my look itself-same hair colour and length, similar make up etc. Nothing drastic at all. I know what clothes suit me so I guess I’ve always dressed similar too.

I get this a lot. I have clearly visibly aged but when people say it, I think they mean more the essence of who you are rather than looking exactly the same

Haha I have been told this recently, which was nice of course but also I wanted to say ‘come on, I have definitely aged’. But yes my hair and weight haven’t changed much over the years, so that’s probably why!

Some people do though! They just have this unique look - you can pick them out in a nursery photo to an old people's home.

It doesn't mean you look the same age, necessarily.

My style hasn't changed significantly through adulthood. I don't tend to change haircut/ colour or wear much make-up to change my look around. I'm not particularly fashionable and my size hasn't changed signficantly.

I was recognised in a pub at 30+ by a classmate that I hadn't seen in at least 12 years. It was 50 miles away from where she knew me so quite a random encounter. She looked great but had matured since 18 and I wouldn't have recognised her. Not a negative change at all, she had just changed her look more over the years. But I was easy to recognise in a random context because my look had stayed consistent.

People will tend to pick up on specific positive changes e.g. I love your hair. Saying someone looks the same is generally neutral to positive in a world that values youth.

People honestly mean this as a compliment. If I said that to someone I'd mean 'OMG, you've hardly aged and you still have the same lovely way about you that I remember from decades ago'.

Also, some people's faces, even when they're much older, are just instantly recognisable. My dad is 83 and I have a studio photo of him smiling when he was a small baby, maybe six to eight months old. Everyone - everyone - who sees it immediately says 'Oh, that's your dad isn't it?' because his smile is exactly the same now as it was then. We also had a competition at work where we had to try and guess whose baby photos were whose, and everyone guessed mine immediately even though my photo was one of me that was taken when I was 24 hours old.

I get it all the time, but I think it's more because I've kept similar hair, weight and clothing styles over the years. It's not because I'm amazingly youthful or anything. So, I'd say it's a pretty neutral statement. Might just be something people say when they haven't seen you for ages, too.

I get it a lot because I have kept my figure slim, my face is holding up well and my hair is the same style other than when I used to have big permed hair in the mid 80s!