Just wondering, what's the maximum number of years younger you think it's possible to look in real life?

[HepburnKNotA]

I'm just pondering this in my idle moments (clearly I have too many!!)

Without actual 'work', obviously.

It's just that I often see people claiming (and I have no basis to disbelieve them!!) they are eg 35 but look 25.

HONESTLY, if I think about my very lovely and gorgeous friends, all roughly aged 35-50 and all very different women, NONE of us look any more than roughly 5 years younger than our actual ages.

I'm 43, and I take very VERY good care of my skin inside and out, and I think probably most people take me for about 38/39, no younger.

One stunning friend who is 50 and looks absolutely amazing, and does a lot of non-surgical stuff - honestly she still looks about 45, no younger.

This is absolutely not a criticism of ANYONE for getting older (I mean, what the fuck else are we meant to do) or of anyone for doing whatever they can/want to look younger. I'm just ever so intrigued as here I am eating avocado and using retinol and sunscreen and never smoking and never sunbathing... and I hear people saying they look a good 10 years younger than they really are.

SHOULD I BE DOING MORE???!!!

Really I just want to look well, and rested, and not puffy and grey. I see no way I could look 33 right now. Apart from literal time-travel.

I’m glad I started this thread!! Never expected so many replies.

Agree totally that usually when you actually spend time with people you can begin to form a pretty accurate idea of their age. It’s not all about skin ageing/lines. Voice, style, hair, outlook... all contribute.

I also agree that most people that don’t ‘look their age’ it’s not so much that they look that much younger it’s more they look good. My 50 year old friend (who looks minimum 45): if you really study her closely her skin is pretty much what you’d expect for late 40s/50; her hair is dyed rather than her actual grey (she tells me she is very grey; I’ve never seen it!); she just looks ‘good’ rather than ‘young’.

I do think style plays a part too. Everyone I know who looks ‘good’ or ‘just a little younger than they really are’ are those who dress fairly ‘young’/ casually. Not too young, they’re not dressing like teens (which would just make them look older and/or a bit foolish after a certain age imo), but certainly with a deliberate effort to stay current.

I know a woman who is nearly 50 but honestly looks mid 30s. I'd post a photo of her but for obvious reasons I won't.

Jennifer Aniston looks 50, she doesn't look early 40's at all.
Nicole Kidman doesn't have one line on her face and looks every day of her 50 odd years
I have a friend who I think looks much younger than me (we are the same age) but what I really mean is she looks much better than me as I don't think she looks 10 years younger than her age, she just looks much better on her age than most.

I know a woman who is nearly 50 but honestly looks mid 30s.

I have a relative like this. She had very oily, greasy skin her whole life and it finally paid off.

I'm 44 and nobody guesses my age past 32. I don't look after my skin particularly well but my mum also looks very young (early 60's at 75) so it's just genetics.

It's great now, not so great in my twenties when I was id'd for lottery tickets and struggled to make a professional
Impression on clients.

I'm not grey, very few wrinkles and dress very casually eg: ripped turned up boyfriend jeans with baggy sweatshirts and trainers.

I have one friend who is 40 who I genuinely thought was in his mid 20s when I met him.

It's less to do with looks and more to do with style and personality though. So many people become extremely boring and conservative as they get older and it ages them. If you still retain your hobbies and interests rather than sit around talking about mortgages and how much breakfast the kids eat, you seem younger. If you adopt the mum language of "picky bits" and "goodies" and "naughty cake", you will seem older.

Also keeping up with trends to some extent. I don't mean dressing like you're 20 when you're 40 but at least recognising that it's no longer 1995 and certain styles have changed. Like I'll see a lot of women with very over processed hair and harsh eyeliner and fake tan and it is really aging.

Maybe it doesn't bother some people to look older though, so I'm certainly not criticising them.

Well I do know one woman who looks remarkably young. She is a parent at the school where I work. I met her at a parents' evening and was really taken aback - I did briefly wonder if she was a step mum as she looked to be in her mid twenties yet was there for her teenage son but decided she looked too similar to her son to not be related by blood. I privately assumed she'd just had him very young and was maybe actually a young looking 30ish year old. A few months later, I found out a member of staff was friends with her outside of school and she was, in fact, 40 (member of staff had been to her 40th birthday party which is how I found out). I couldn't believe it. I don't know what her secret is. She's white, blonde, blue eyes and has the skin of a 20 year old I swear.

Jennifer Aniston looks her age, no way she looks 20 years younger.

I think it's a combination of :

Having oily skin helps
Being slim
Sleeping
Eating really, really well
Dressing 'young'
Not having grey hair

When I was 36 I went on a work trip with some new colleagues who assumed at first that I was on the grad scheme and fresh out of university. It was only once we had spoken for a while that they twigged I was actually older than they were. I don't really understand to be honest as I see clear signs of ageing on my face (generally saggier and loads of fine lines) but I am small and slim (and shorter than them ) so perhaps that sums it up? Makes me wish I'd appreciated how absolutely bursting with youth I must have been when I was 24 more than anything!

To answer your question, op, I think it's very hard to look much more than 5 years younger. Easy to look older though!

I don't understand how people say that others think they are younger. How do they know your age? I can't think of a single occasion in the past couple of decades when an acquaintance has asked my age. Do you go round saying "I'm 24/36/55/88 you know" and wait for people to looked shocked?

the waiter very clearly thought we were in our early 20s (and made this clear in several comments he made, rather than any attempt to flatter us)

What kind of comments?

I think it's nigh on impossible to make a judgement on how Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt have aged. Unless you've actually seen them irl.

I think you can look very well for your age and people mistake that for looking 'younger'. With living conditions and diet etc improving all the time, our idea of 'looking your age' has probably been skewed as we are ageing better. With someone sitting in front of me, I'm generally correct to within a couple of years even when they've had work done. There are times when people look 'older' - hard life, smoking, drinking, drugs and they age very badly. Proof perhaps, that decent diet, living conditions, not smoking and SPF make a difference.

I think Tess Daly looks 15 years younger than her age.

@Rainingdogsandcats my mum is a very young looking 59 (looks about 50) and you look a couple of years younger than her to my eye!

I am nearly 36 and still ID’d. I don’t drink anymore but have been asked for ID whilst buying Christmas crackers and non alcoholic gin 😂 I also had an old lady give out to me for having kids! I think I look my age. Maybe a couple of years younger. I think I have quite a shy/nervous demeanor and that is probably more to the point.

I'm 44 and nobody guesses my age past 32

Who and how many of these people are you asking to guess your age?

@ClientListQueen I think you look 37? You have great skin.

Tess Daly genuinely looks fantastic for her age although sometimes I think her styling makes her seem closer to her age.

@ScarlettBlaize it really wasn't a ruse (and we didn't find it flattering since he assumed that we still lived with our respective parents among other things). We concluded the waiter was just a bit dim really. And slightly odd. And it was quite a dimly lit restaurant too.

Because obviously we don't look like we're in our 20s. This much is obvious. DP looks younger than me though, which means people tend to assume I'm younger (probably than they think I look).

My ds was frequently referred to as a girl in his first few yrs despite often dressed in blue. I've come to the conclusion many people need glasses.

That is true @parsnippoop!

It must be funny to have conversation with a waiter. A few pleasantries, yes, but conversation about where you live, no way.

I'm almost 45 and frequently get taken for early 30s. It's purely down to genetics - my mum is 73 and could pass for late 50s.

Thinking about it my sister could pass for early 20s (she is 30). Proper baby round face & dresses like a East London hipster (she is one)

I'm 44 and get taken for 35 - 37. I have taken good care of my skin since I was a teen and have barely any lines. I think it happens more these days perhaps due to better skin care products and research, diet etc!?

I think looking actually younger than you are
is geneticss. Me and my brother are often mistaken for teenagers. Especially if we are out together. I am 32, brother is 30. We both smoke and the age thing usually comes up when we get ID'ed buying cigerettes. A bus driver asked me my age recently and when I asked why he said it was because he thought I was young enough for a child's ticket! Looking young like this is just embarassing btw, not a boast by any stretch. I think generally when people talk about looking young in a positive sense, they aren't thinking of the baby faced kind of young looks that my family seems to have, rather they mean well preserved, few wrinkles, healthy looking etc.