Why do you think most people have younger looking skin these days than in the past?

[dianamoonyan]

Looking at pictures of actresses and family from the 70's and 80s it is noticable that women (and men) often looked older than people of a similar age now. I am not talking about them having old fashioned hairstyles, hair dye or clothing but the actually quality of the skin and facial contours.

I know that today some women have botox or filler but most women and men do not, I don't and yet my skin at 47 is still pretty much as it was when I was younger (plump, no lines, sagging or discolouration) as is that of my husband and many of my friends and colleagues. I do think that looking your age is more than just what your skin is like but in this post I am referring strictly to skin ageing quality.

I am just wondering what people think the main reason for people actually looking younger or at least having much less aged skin is outside of cosmetic surgery or injections, which if anything I think are more popular in much younger people and seem to be pro-ageing on them. It doesn't seem popular at all in most women my age in real life.

Is it down to better diets, less pollution, people not smoking, use of SPF or other topical skincare, improvements and availability of HRT, better diets, less stress, less drinking, people having less children than in the past?

When I go back even further I do notice that my parents generation look younger than say their parents at the same age and this is again not just down to hair colouring or styles but how the skin actually looks, Obviously that generation saw 2 world wars and the stress must have been massive.

I don’t know any younger people who use sun beds - many teens / early 20s do weekly fake tan, but not sunbeds.

and yes to SPFs all year round - most foundations contain it so it’s not even a conscious choice.

And pollution - be it car fumes, factory fumes, coal fires, or cigarette smoke make massive difference.

I honestly think it's genetics.
I know a 38 year old who easily looks early twenties. Has pale, freckled skin and just a very baby type face. Her parents especially dad look at least a decade younger too with the same type of skin.
This lady has never used any anti ageing face creams. It's just genes.

We’re fatter now - peoples skin looks better with a bit of padding behind it. Those of my friends who are obviously aging are the ones who are really small - size 6-8 territory. Those of use who are 10-12-14 ish look younger facially.

Also smoking. Smokers always look haggard before their time.

Not everyone smoked… I certainly didn’t.

@Petrine - but you were exposed to smoke. I started working in an “enlightened” work place so you could only smoke at your desk if you had your own office, not in the main wider office space. Or there was a smoking room for everyone else. The window of which would be open unless it was cold (north of England so normally closed or only open a crack) and the door would be left open to the wider office. No air extraction. This was the 90s.

teachers could smoke in classrooms. People smoked in pubs and in restaurants there would be people smoking on tables next to you. You could smoke on public transport. Indoor smoking was the norm, so everyone was exposed to smoke.

Teachers couldn't smoke in any of the classrooms I went in. I was at school from 1960 when I was 5 onwards. I went to quite a number of schools as my family moved around a great deal - no school had teachers smoking.

Yes people did smoke up until relatively recently in offices, pubs and restaurants and we did inhale smoke.

Certainly people who socialised up until fairly recently will have inhaled smoke in pubs, etc., people in the 60s/70s would have skin no worse than those.

Botox, fillers etc. People are a lot fatter now which makes your face look less wrinkled.
I can say with absolute certainty that the average person was much thinner 50 years ago than they are today.
Just look at any footage from say 50 years ago.
A medium mens jumper for example would have been at least a large in the past maybe even an extra large.
Also poor dentistry and lack of spf cream.

Weight.
Spending less time outside.
Smoking.
Some of it has to do with better skin care but not much.

Teachers could not smoke in classrooms. I started teaching in the mid 1970s when it was still allowed in the staffroom but never in classrooms. By the mid 1980s it had been banned in staffrooms and by the late 80s it was not allowed anywhere on the premises.
Nobody smoked in our family or many of my friends' families.
i think much of what is being described on this thread sounds more like the 1950s and even then it is inaccurate.

There is a much prized photo of a family member of my husbands beaming with his newborn baby with a pipe in his mouth inches from the baby's face right outside the hospital and the family all joke that they took the same photo on the hospital ward but it wasn't as good a picture.

Were you really allowed to smoke in hospitals in 1970?

I had my children in the 70s and the maternity wards were non-smoking but I am not sure about elsewhere. A family friend was in hospital in the late 80s and by then the smokers could be seen huddled outside in that hospital.

There is a photo in my possession of the annual family picnic in the early 60s where every single adult in the photo is holding a cigarette including my mother who was 6 months pregnant with me! I was born pretty much full term weighing 5lb 12oz. All of the adults in my childhood smoked, every Aunt and Uncle. We would go to family gatherings indoors and there was a grey haze and your eyes watered. My parents both smoked in the car! Ffs.

That may be the case with schools but my lecturers at university smoked in supervisions and seminars into the late 90s.

When I left primary school in 1983 my teacher still smoked in the classroom in between lessons and had an ashtray on his desk, legally or not.

Flipping heck @LindorDoubleChoc

Different times indeed!

It must have varied dramatically because when I trained to teach in 2005 my London school still had two staff rooms, one smoking and one non-smoking. Smoking remained permitted in the former until the statutory smoking ban was introduced in 2007.

Honesty think it is SPF and skincare. Smoking maybe but i know people who smoke and look young but they don't smoke 40 a day like in the past plus they really take care of their skin. SPF is the biggest one. Look at the face neck differences or skin on your stomach where it is not exposed.
I also know someone who invested in a v expensive skincare regime and they look younger now than they did 7 years ago. Glowing skin. Looked lined and dehydrated before

Lack of central heating and poverty had a lot to answer for.

Without central heating, people contracted illnesses more often.

Also skin conditions arise in cold, damp homes - dry, scaly skin. You can get Chilblains from damp air, which is cold but not freezing. Makes you look rough at a younger age.

Poorly heated homes may lead to mental or stress related illness, physical conditions like asthma, circulatory problems, diabetes, arthritis.

The impact of chronic illness will show in the skin. Stress shows in your skin.

I'm often surprised at how old some women look! My skin and that of many of friends is still fairly youthful at age 50. We are all fairly well off though- good diets, don't smoke, exercise and use good skincare and and makeup with spf- no botox or fillers though. Women I see online, often in newspaper articles, look far older. It usually turns out they smoke, drink, eat badly, don't wear spf etc.

Our teachers had to go out to smoke since I was in sixth form, so early to mid 90s. I think it was the head's decision.
I worked in a school on the continent in 2000 and was surprised to see teachers smoking in front of pupils on a school trip. I can't remember if the pupils were also smoking openly.

But the OP is talking about most people looking younger so do you think there has been a genetic change in the whole population?

I agree with all this. All meals apart from the occasional fish supper were cooked from scratch using fresh, mostly local, in season ingredients.
Living through world wars didn’t help much with looking young for our parents & grandparents either
People in general are much larger now, you only need to watch old films or newsreels to notice.They may not have looked older but we’re generally fitter mainly from most families not being able to afford a car so exercise wasn’t a hobby it was a necessity.

They were not we’re , sorry

Yes, I remember smoking rooms on the ward in the 1990s.

Lack of central heating and poverty had a lot to answer for. Without central heating, people contracted illnesses more often.

I think folk have got muddled as to how life was in the 60's & 70's.

I had central heating in the 60's - it wasn't out of the ordinary.

Poverty... OK some people were living on benefits but probably not as many as today.

Reading some of the statements on this thread makes me think that people are confusing that era with a much earlier time.

I would also say that people didn't contract illnesses more often without it. I think the advent of having homes centrally heated produced a more unhealthy environment.