Every time I go to check my Yahoo email I'm shown ads for anti-wrinkle preparations, with images of a very wrinkled woman or a mature woman with an unbelievably smooth face. I assume that I must see these ads because of my date of birth, which Yahoo has from when I registered my account. I know I probably have more lines on my face than many people do at my age, but I'm in good health because I've always spent more time on outdoor activities than on beauty treatments. I never was concerned about facial lines and I would rather have a healthy outdoor complexion than a pale smooth skin. I sometimes wonder why people worry so much about signs of aging and feel they must try and hold back the aging process by spending money on anti-wrinkle creams or paying money to find out how one woman has discovered the secret of removing wrinkles. I've never clicked those ads and I never shall.
Unfortunately it is the society we live in, we see looking young as the answer to so many problems, it is as if you can not be happy with the mature face that have now, you need to have that forever young face to be happy. Be truthful would you want to be twenty something again? The young face, the skinny bodies and no gray in the hair. It would be good if more time was spent on saving the environment from global warming, or other meaningful issues like cleaning the water in countries that do not have clean water to drink. I sort of remember more people caring about the envirnment when I was younger than today's youth..
I do think today's youth are more environmetally aware, but I agree that people like me were very concerned about environmental issues in the 1970s and have been ever since. What really annoys me is that politicians of my age should have known about out impact on the environment as long as I have, but most of them never showed any concern until recent years when more of the voting public started to show an interest in 'green' policies. As for looking like I did in my 20s, I did not feel attractive at that age and I'm far more comfortable in my skin now than I was then.
After living for a few years in LA, I've seen enough people in their 50's and 60's injected with botox, and having "fish lips" to last a lifetime... Someone I worked wit here got botox, and kept going on and on about how amazing she looked, but to be honest, she looked unreal.. she couldn't even move her forehead any more... that looked much worse to me than a few wrinkles!
I agree with you, Kevin. I don't like that frozen look, either. Or how it seems to make people's foreheads look bigger than normal. A wrinkle story: A dear friend of mine was relating a conversation she'd had with her grandson while the two were shooting hoops together one day. Her grandson started telling her how proud he was of her and what good shape she was in, saying that he didn't know any other grandmothers who could get out and play basketball and do other things like she did with him. Then he comes out with, "And you have such a great body, too, Mima. There's one thing that really concerns me, though." "What's that, Josh?" "Well...It's all those wrinkles you've got on your face. As good looking as you are, you really ought to think about doing something about that." My friend says she went silent for a moment, thinking, and then said, "Well, it's really good of you to be so concerned about my wrinkles, Josh, seeing as I got every one of 'em from you in the first place." I have no idea what the child thought, but my friend says he's never brought up the subject of her wrinkles again.
I know what you mean - when I was in my 20s, I was a size 7 and was very attractive. But I was always worried about how I looked - was my hair done right, did my makeup look good, did my clothes flatter my body, etc. Now that I've gotten older, I don't really care about the gray hairs and wrinkles. I don't even mind the size 16 clothes or how they look on me. I haven't put makeup on in years. I've finally reached that magical age where I realize that appearances are just that - appearances. It's the person I am that really matters - not the person I appear to be. My husband loves me for being me - my son loves me because I'm a good mother. That's what's important to me now.
Everybody worries about their looks. I say it embrace it though. As long as you have your health that is all that matters. People should worry about the inside and not the outside and if people can't accept that then you don't need them in your life.
Nope these ads are spammed everywhere, it is not just targeted at you, I know exactly the ones you mean, the ads with the awful Photoshop results. They are right up there with the ads for weight loss or to work from home and make a ton of money. I don't worry about wrinkles or grey hair, My hair went prematurely grey when I was five years old so that never bothered me. I tell people it happened when the aliens abducted me, they never know if I am kidding or not As far as wrinkles go, I consider these to be the fine etchings of a life well lived. I don't care that I have wrinkles. I do care when I look in the mirror and I feel I look tired or drawn. Being very fair I never spent time sun bathing, and I seem to have had little lines around my eyes for as long as I can recall. I know this happens from squinting in the bright light. For some weird reason I seldom wear sun glasses either.
My grey hairs are just starting to appear and I rather like the 'salt and pepper' look. It reminds me of how I remember my mother when she had that mix of grey in her hair and I always liked the look. I too have always had lines around my eyes. Possibly I did squint into the sunlight when I was a child, but I thought of them as 'smile lines'.