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 not posting a photo here but I think I often “look good for my age” (49) but occasionally catch sight of a knackered old bloodhound on a bad day if my chin is down and I’m not smiling.
I think consciously and unconsciously we all arrange ourselves when we look in the mirror, never mind having a photo taken, so it’s only when we catch sight of ourselves unawares that the true horror is made known
I always looked older as a teenager and in my early 20s as I have strong nose to mouth lines, however my oily skin, relative lack of sun exposure and never having smoked been I’m not bad now.

Random male attention has dropped off a cliff to practically zero (men in service roles being flattering doesn’t count). Unwelcome as that always was, it’s disappearance is probably a much more reliable indicator than new acquaintances telling me I don’t look 49. It’s such a common trope, people say it without really meaning it.

Peachmelba I do think you look at least 10 years younger in that photo. You are also very beautiful. You have great bone structure so even as you age more obviously, I think you be remain beautiful.

So many typos!

I’m 43 but look around 30-35. I don’t do a skin care routine or anything. My mum and sister all look young as well. No one believes me when I tell them my age

I posted a frustrated rant about this on one of the other 'guess my age' threads. Due to genetic lottery some people do not look their age. Not all of us enjoy this fact because it makes it hard to be taken seriously in professional situations, and because I think age is more interesting than youth. It is internalised ageism and mysogyny to think everyone aspires to look young - they don't. Being taken for younger than you are is not delusional or flattery and nothing to do with fishing for compliments, it comes up incidentally in conversation. I've lost count of the number of people who say 'you don't look old enough to have three kids/a 12yo', or IDd me in supermarkets, or who've made some patronising comment about how I wouldn't remember the 1980s or that I'll understand when I hit 40, or other similar comment that clearly assumes that I am much younger than 43. Recently I'm getting it a tiny bit less - at long last I reckon I'm catching up with my age (after 12 years broken sleep the genetics couldn't win out for ever), and hurray for that. You can keep your wanting to look 25, I want my life experience, such as it is, to show on my face.

1. I agree with unusualsuspicion I wish we didn't all care about looking younger.

1. Whoever mentioned Paul Rudd a few pages back, he is a vampire. HTH

How old do I look? (I think I look about my age).

Saj22 45?

Surely this thread illustrates that we all look for different attributes when accessing someone’s age.
I was buying an item for my 40th birthday celebration and when I told the server it was for my ‘big’ birthday he said “ oh my sister did the same when she was your age’ and showed me the photos, with a clear balloon and banner saying 30. I relayed this story to a male friend who fell about laughing, convinced the guy was not being genuine; I sincerely think he was.
The first photo on this thread I guessed about 10 years older than the actual and scoffed at some of the lower guesses, but all of us have no reason to lie so we must all be using different markers of age.
I have clashed on here before about how great, or not, celebrities look for their age (SJP) and concluded we have a variation of opinion.

Do I look my age? YES, I think I do. It's OK to look your age, I've earned every one of my years. I don't want to look younger. I just want to look good

Yep. Same. Although to be honest, I'm not too bothered about looking good. Strong and healthy, that's good for me .

When you see celebs in real life most of them look their age. I saw Joan Collins years ago and she had deep facial lines on her cheeks. I think upper arms give your age away, bingo wings. Look at Anna Wintour, not much you can do about it either.

I think that all the photos prove the Title

Y'all are fabulous looking but not any younger than 5-10 years younger than your real age

Saj, going by your neck and your 90's brows, I'd say you're a similar age to me, so 45?

I’d say about 10 years younger for me, but bear with me
I had the most awful rosacea which is triggered by sunlight, even in bloody winter. So I wear an all singing all dancing very high SPF every day, and have done since just after my mid 20’s.

Well that was my point Laurie, only a fool or a youth would think I was any younger than I am.

DH and I went to a festival last year (sans children) and were chatting to a group in their early 20s for ages. They found it quite mad that we are the age we are, but that's not because we look preternaturally youthful, it's because to a 22 year-old a 45 year-old is ancient, so it was the fact we liked a particular dj, weren't doddering around and just had a good old chat with them that confuddled them slightly.

I do think that there's a slightly unhealthy deification of youth that hampers actually being grown-up and revelling in being a bonafide adult and enjoying being older and the grounding that brings.

@Annasgirl I'm 36

Very few people look more than 5 years younger than they really are. Those that do tend to have black or Asian heritage and are judged as younger by people who are from a different ethnic background.

Having said that I think we underestimate how little other people really look at us - if you are short and slim and don't have grey hair most people just assume you're young without really looking at you.

Most of the cues to age is clothing, hair colour, posture and freedom of movement. If you dress young (which can be scruffy), dye your hair and keep supple so you move easily strangers will assume on a casual glance you are a lot younger than you are.

My sister is in her 60s and was recently congratulated on her 40th birthday (she was leaving a venue with her daughter's 40th birthday balloons!) And she's a hard core smoker My sister-in-law who is 60 looked a good 20 years younger until she lost 4 stone and now she looks like a little old lady. It's quite startling.

I think black women (and men) almost invariably look much younger.

I look every year of my 55 years but hopefully my best version of me at 55.

As others have said it's not just the face that makes people guess your age younger, yes I have good genes but I follow a skincare routine that doesn't make me look younger, it does however make my 55 year old face look glowing. I do wear makeup but it looks so natural despite me actually having a shit ton on See me without that makeup and my face does look uneven and a bit blotchy as happens to some of us over the years.

I do dress with modern not fashion in mind. I flatly refuse to adopt the 'Wallis' style because I think it's ageing. My hair isn't grey because the small amount of grey I have is artfully disguised by my hairdresser, no full head of highlights because I think the highlight/box dye/ bleach job in your mid 40's plus is very ageing.

So I don't really give a shit that I look my age, post menopause my body feels over 50. I just like to be the best version of me that I can be

I’m mid forties and am always taken for early thirties, I think it could be down to good genes, my parents are taken for around ten years younger than they are too

My DHs family all look a good ten years younger. It’s their skin. They just don’t get wrinkles until their fifties. My DH and his siblings are all in their 40s but have skin like 19 tear olds.

You know what gives it away too?
The eyes. Not lines etc... the experience. It shows. It can’t be disguised either.
Like l said earlier, l always guessed at 12/15 years younger than l am. I’ll be 50 next year- l haven’t gone through the menopause yet... so l am coasting!

I really do look at least 10 years younger and my mother has always been the same. I really don't want to look young, because it's not actually a compliment at all in most contexts i.e. when you hope to get taken seriously in a work context at 35 and people assume you're 22 and at the beginning of your career... And often it's just annoying, for example recently I ordered a pair of kitchen scissors in my Ocado order and the driver made me get my ID before he believed I was old enough to buy scissors.

I don't do anything to intentionally look younger but I think it's a combination of a number of factors and mostly genetics. I don't have kids so I'm not as exhausted as mums of young children my age are. I also don't really drink, never smoked and don't really stay out in the sun (never without sun cream anyway) so my skin hasn't suffered much damage. I'm short and a bit chubby and I think that adds to the impression of being young, if I compare to tall and slim friends.

Saj22 so how old are you?