Childhood aside, which decade do you think you age fastest in?

[TableNiner]

I swear everything has accelerated since I turned 40, five years ago.

Is this par for the course and does it just carry on at this pace?!

I watched a TV show about a local vicar in Burnley (I think). His work was very inspiring but I was horrified to see what a 52 year old woman looks like after a tough life, and so was DH. He thought she was at least 70, and possibly older. TBH, it shocked me rigid.

I'm 44 and my skin has been looking older lately I feel, so I've experimented this week by actually starting an evening skincare routine for the first time in a year.
(I get really tired in the evening due to night time meds so it takes a real effort to start any kind of routine).

2 nights in with my usual Clinique serum followed by Boots No7 protect & perfect night cream and my skin is definitely more hydrated looking already!!
I'm pleased.

Next I've got whitening gel for my dental trays to start using at night, as I noticed all the younger women I know have whiter teeth.
Plus I'm trying hard with my diet & getting a walk in each day although got a couple of days off it cos Christmas.
I think if I lose a stone or two I will feel better physically which will be less ageing.

I think after 50/menopause

Am 49 and still hanging in there

Have started focussing less on looks and more on health (really stepped up outdoor exercise and sport and eating more healthily) and funnily enough that has had more impact on looks than any potions or make up!

So am planning to accept I become wrinkly/grey/whatever but also strong and having fun and dressing how I like (if nature/God allows me )

Like Shrikeattack, my family are very active (mum is 82 and still works, dad at 85 cycles an hour every day and volunteers two days a week)

ThomasinaTiers I hear you - I’m 51 and find that my running is the best beauty treatment now; that and the fact that I drink a lot less alcohol than I did when I was younger.

@ShrikeAttack

Nothing too bad so far at 48, it seems slow and steady. I'm in deep peri-meno so ask me in five years. Health-wise I feel fine, looks-wise, my hair is pretty much all silver now, but I still think I look ace, and probably always will!

I'm not too concerned about aging, it happens, no point getting distressed about it.

And it's not downhill, I keep seeing posts on S&B with posters asking if they're 'too old' to wear or do something. I think that's mad. You're never too old to do anything, as long as it's within your physical capabilities, and you want to, then just bloody do it!

I still feel entirely vital and attractive. My father is nearly 80 and still climbs, travels globally, does yoga, stands on his head! My mother dances and dyes her hair vivid shades and dresses up in all kinds of fancy. My oldest sister is 59, has a colour of the week, and matches her nails, makeup and clothes, and deadlifts like a fucker!

I see so much negativity about aging on this board, I feel much more attractive and brilliant than I felt as a young woman, I feel powerful.

Let's stop all this bollockry. Yes, aging can be a pain, and yes, we're not as fecundly rounded and plumped and glowing, but let's be honest, I bet all the most stylish women you know are the older ones, there's so much to be said for older women.

I have regular chats with my other sister's MIL, who was 'Miss Belize' i(Queen of the Islands!) in her youth. She has so much wisdom and so many tales to impart.

Older women are beautiful and resourceful and fucking brilliant.

Shall we stop worrying about the minutiae of aging and celebrate ourselves?

Great post!

I'm 49 and my face looks a bit greyer and my teeth seem to be developing small gaps between them, due to movement I guess.

I've been overweight for most of my adult life so far which has meant my face has always been rounded and full so no wrinkles.

I've lost 3 stone this year and while I feel much better for it, my breasts have lost their oomph and I have some very odd wrinkles along my jawline.

Periods still as regular as usual sock not sure I've hit peri yet. From what I've heard I may end up piling the weight back on

Teeth are a problem unless you have loads of money😢

44 for me- my crow feels came on in a matter of weeks and the skin on the back of my hand suddenly went crepey. However, I am working with it and have tweaked my make-up accordingly

@rawlikesushi

Whenever you hit menopause. Anything before that is a little dress rehearsal.

Word, sister. Toddlers are tiring, but the menopause can be a game changer. Yes, yes, some of you glided through it, your babies probably slept through the night from birth. For many women it is a hard old haul physically, mentally and emotionally.

I think it is the peri-menopause that all this shite steps on the gas.

Biologically speaking, peri-menopause and menopause define the dividing phases of a woman's life. Before it, you are cute and fertile, and after it, women need to concentrate on clever and influential.

Women are always interesting and clever.

It's not something that happens as one approaches 50.

I agree with all those saying 50s. Its the reduction of the youth hormone, oestrogen.

From 40 you realise there's no improving what you see, only preserving or slowing down further ageing. That's the truth. You can serum yourself to death but it's not going to wind back years, it can only slow or improve the appearance of natural progressive ageiing. If you want drastic you need fillers, Botox, minor surgery.

I hit menopause at 44 and that took its toll on me. I don’t have wrinkles as such but my face just looks tired and dull all the time. The aches and pains are very noticeable too. I turn 50 next year so really looking forward to another decade of more of the same!

I try to be positive about ageing and I hate the way it's used as a casual insult. I am also realistic. I know far too many people around my age - 60+ - with health conditions that are incapacitating / life threatening / terminal to idealise it. My main advice to my younger self would be to stop wasting time.

I'm vain about trying keep my body in shape because I love clothes and I can't imagine that ever changing. But as for my face, I worry less and less, especially after this year. Mind you, I may change my mind when the next symptom hits. That's the other thing about ageing - it never stops.

I think my 50s for sure

I had my first DC at 32. Now at 34 I look like I've aged a decade from the lack of sleep, crap diet in the early days, less exercise (because time and childcare have been an issue) and just the sheer relentless of it all. I would say it seems fairly typical of women in their 30s with young children. I hold out hope that this is worst of it and mu 40s may be better! Maybe not with a teen!

50s when the oestrogen drops !
Rapid decline
Still better than the alternative.

It depends when menopause hits. Everyone I know who looks young in their 50s is still menstruating and once it stops, they age rapidly.

I am in my late 40s and I think it will be 50-60 for me. So far this decade I have gradually aged, but also responded to the message my body has given me that I can no longer get away with an unhealthy diet and insufficient exercise. That has definitely helped, but I see a point in the next five years when the mitigation it has brought will be less apparent.