Do you think people visibly age more between 40-50 than between other decades?

[LaurieFairyonthetreeEatsCake]

Inspired by another thread I'm wondering what people think?

I think it's quite hard to be precise about age below 40 but once someone gets towards 50 you can definitely say they're over 40 - maybe

I look older than I did 15 years ago but not radically so - with highlighter and soft lighting I could still just about pass for 25 ish

kids really age you, though don't they- from sucking the calcium out of your teeth in pregnancy, to the sleepless nights, the stress, not looking after your diet/excercising because you're being spread too thin...
WOuldn't change it for the world though

Most women, no, because they start to make big efforts to not look their age at 40-50. They dye their hair, they buy better make-up, they get Botox or Facelifts, they get better hair cuts (they can afford all that), they have better self-discipline about getting to the gym, they think more about what they eat than when they were younger, they try much harder to dress to show off their true assets and hide the worst. Nowadays, most 50yo women look like 40yo women did back in the 1970s. We aspire to look like Slebs not ordinary folk.

But me in my mid 40s, yes, I am aging sharply because I can't be faffed with all that. As a young woman I found attention from strange men quite annoying, and it is liberating to be relieved of that (Dervla Murphy wrote about this, too).

Women (and men for that matter) who have botox, facelifts and other surgery generally look terrible IMO. I much prefer the graceful agers who are happy to look like themselves. Personally I think that it is happiness and stress that shape our faces most as we get older.

I've also always felt that older faces are rather fantastic. My godmother had the most amazing wrinkles, her face showed the life she had lived, and that she was a loving, giving, funny woman. I think we have lost the age = wisdom / venerability viewpoint that perhaps made aging a better prospect.

totally agree with you nooka about people who have had work done on their face. It's always, always obvious, and never looks 'good'. It might look younger but it doesn't look 'good' IYSWIM.

I remember when my aunt had a face-lift- well I'm not sure exactly what she'd had done, could have been botox, but I remember as a young teen being freaked out . All I could keep thinking was "Where has my real aunt gone"

MY only ageing wish is that I have white hair instead of grey. It looks so refined.

I quite like grey hair too - my mother went very 'iron grey' which I thought was rather distinguished. I suspect it depends on your skin tone. A previous boss of mine was from Antigua and a beautiful shade of brown, and when her hair went white at the roots it looked really quite fantastic (rather like a judges wig).

I also think that we tend to see older men as attractive in a way that we don't for women. I don't know how much of that is biology (men being fertile for so much longer) and how much cultural.

Meryl Streep's grey hair in The Devil Wears Prada was amazing. I think many women don't realise that if they let their hair go grey their faces look younger

It's starting a family at the age of 34 that's done it for me too.

Am sure I'd look fresher if it weren't for them!

Have had some grey hair since I was 21. There's just a bit more of it now.Yes, it does suit me better when I leave it natural. Just like highlights

MadameDeathStare, you've made me shiver. I think I've noticed this.

I aggree with Nooka that happiness and not being too stressed is all about inner beauty and it radiating out.Am really dissapointed with beautiful celebs who have work done and look odd. They would have still been pretty if they had aged naturally. Kylie, Anna ?
I am 41 and do think these last couple of years my wrinkles and lack of firmness around the eyes is noticable. In the past i have been very lucky that people did not believe i was so old
In the summer i had an artist start chatting to me on the train. He really boosted my confidence as he said i had fantastic bone structure so would still look good when i was older. When i said my age he just nodded so i don't look young for my age anymore.[sad ]Was lovely to get a compliment though as don't get many these days !
Happy Birthday AF hope you have a lovely day.

Also i don't think men alway age better. Look at William and Kate. William looks years older where as Kate looks even more beautiful now.

I think it is true, dh is 9 years older than me, but the age gap is more apparent now, he is 46, I think he has aged a lot in the last few years. I am dreading my forties(vanity), up until recently(August) I have been asked for proof of age in the supermarket... Not for much longer!

I think I will occasionally worry about it, but there is a saying that wisdom doesn't come before age, so I will look forward to being wise lol, it will just happen with no effort the same way as the wrinkles just appear?

Britt Ekland was a beautiful women who I think would still look beautiful if she had aged naturally. Instead I can't take my eyes off her mouth and it just looks freakish.

"You get to the point at around 50 where you stop being an old looking young woman and become a deliciously lovely young looking older woman" Higgle.

Had to repeat that because it's fab. My sister is 53 and still looking like the former imo.

I'm 43 and get glimpses of myself looking both 10 years older and 10 years younger. I don't feel I look like an older woman yet but I'm half expecting an earlyish menopause so that could accelerate things.

But I've said it before and I'll say it again, it's the sizzle not the sausage. I still feel a rather sizzly and I am very glad I had a big fringe cut in this year. You could sew a crop in my forehead lines.

This is interesting, esp about hormones. I saw a friend at the weekend who I hadn't seen for a few months & thought she had aged v suddenly. I also seem to gave developed those lines from nose to mouth literally overnight...

You should be into serious grooming past the age of 45. Good haircuts and colour, regular facials, manicures, good diet and regular exercise. Be ruthless with your wardrobe, buy fewer items but of a better cut and quality. You can look good as you age but you have to put in the effort.

It's a shame, though, with so much money and effort at 20 you could have looked fantastic. Instead it's to look passable at 40+...

I remember reading that those who do yoga always look younger - just before I took it up . Downward dog anyone?

It's certainly true that bad posture and movement are very ageing.

Agree with all those who say they'd rather look a bit crepey than dead - I knew too many people who died young.

"those who do yoga always look younger " Why would that be, though? Is it a whole lifestyle thing? I can't see how lying on a mat for 10' would improve the circulation in your face enough to tighten up your muscles and reduce frown lines.

I've just turned 40 and I think I aged a lot in the last year. I used to look much younger, but I really feel as if the last months have left a mark.
Perhaps I should start doing yoga.

I've definitely aged in the last five years, and I've noticed all my peers have done the same since they hit forty.

Now at 45, I can easily pass for 44 3/4.

Your eyelids droop overnight. Wattle neck takes about a week. And laugh lines, so cute in your cheeky thirties, abruptly become wrinkles.

I just hope I'll look the same for about ten years now. I'm beginning to feel like Dorian fucking Gray!

Yes, I developed A lines in a matter of a few months.

Yes, definitely. We had DSS2's Bar Mitzvah recently, 2 and half years after DSS1's. Same people. The women in their mid-40s, in particular, had aged very seriously in a short space of time.

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After 65 is another bad time, IME.

I hope its not just hormones - I'm heading into early menopause at 33 and I would prefer not to look fifty overnight!