Ageing in Figures

According to Unilever research, these are the factors that bring about good ageing in 40 – 70 years old women.
In China
Less sun exposure – 2.9 years younger
Working indoors – 6.5 years younger
Pre-menopause – 3.5 years younger
Frequent use of moisturiser – 2.4 years younger
Frequent use of night cream – 2.4 years younger

In Spain
Eating fruit and veg every day – 2.1 years younger
Healthy diet – 1.8 years younger
Never using a sunbed – 5.7 years younger
Ever used HRT – 2.5 years younger
Frequent use of moisturiser – 2.8 years younger
Non smoker – 1.8 years younger
Falling asleep quickly – 2.5 years younger

Also in my practice – healthy lifestyle, lots of sleep and a good skincare routine accounts for 80 % of success in delaying skin ageing.

The Art of Ageing

“People believe that old age starts at 54 and youth ends at 32. The Government calls for reappraisal of attitudes towards age, given Britain’s rapidly ageing population.”   A survey by the Department for Work and Pensions

How To Age Well

“If I feel good, I am more confident and function better. I’ve learnt to love what I have. I’ve learned that as I age, less is definitely more. I decided never to change my face and embrace how I age. You have to do it with joie de vivre.”

“The great news about ageing is that you’re living and that you have had a full life and have wonderful memories. The sad thing is that you have less time ahead of you. Every day that goes by I look a little less good – that is the truth. My advice to women is:

• Don’t hide your age, either by saying you are younger than you are or hiding it by erasing features in your face. It is all about acceptance.
• Embrace who you are as soon as possible when you are young. Like yourself. Have a discipline. Try to be alert – have your body follow you, have your mind follow you.
• Embrace where you are at in life, every age brings a different pleasure. Feel relevant, active, working, curious. Live fully so that you cannot pretend you have not lived.
• I am afraid that changing my face surgically would make me feel insecure. I would rather be me, without erasing the life that can be seen in my face, erasing me.

  Diane von Furstenberg for Sunday Times

Famous Women on Beauty and Ageing: Quotations

In any culture, beauty has been about perfection but concepts of what constitutes “perfection” have changed over the centuries. As the population ages, it could well be that concepts of beauty will shift. We live at a time of great variety of age, gender, style, background, culture and attitude and contemplating beauty brings pleasure to each of us yet it comes in all shapes, colours and sizes.

Chic, Autentic and Natural

“Being an English person, and having lived in France for 40 years, I am not as nicely turned out as the French but I don’t care like the English.”  Jane Birkin 

“I never put my face in the sun. I am determined not to go the way of my contemporaries and get surgery. I have a lot of facials and take scrupulous care of my skin.” Joane Collins OBE

“Self image is a complicated thing. I campaign against cosmetic surgery because it a grave act in which you don’t necessarily foresee all the consequences. The people who have it are lacking in confidence.” Emmanuelle Beart, French acress by Matthew Campbell for Sunday times.

“The more healthily you live, the better you look. We still want to look like ourselves when we grow older. We lose our sensuality when we have surgery, it takes away a part of who you are. If you look after yourself and use good products, you won’t need surgery or any other intervention.”   Sharon Stone for YOU, January 2012.

The Botox Lovers

“Botox, lasers and fillers have given us new control over ageing. Not by making us look younger but by slowing down how we age. Now, if you choose to, from your early to mid thirties you can enter a twilight zone of ageing in which you are in a reverse version of dog years – for every seven years you will only age one.” Newby Hands for Harpers Bazaar

“The psychological effects of Botox and fillers have been as profound as the physical – the elongation of the life span in which we can feel good about ourselves. Psychologically, women feel empowered by the knowledge that they have this as backup. This may have contributed to a more relaxed approach to ageing, women beginning to feel more comfortable in their own skin. We want to take care of ourselves but we do not mind a few wrinkles or few signs of ageing to show we have lived.” Betty Catroux for Harpers Bazaar

“You can get an instant snapshot of a woman’s character by looking at from whether she says yes or no to Botox… Just from that one apparently superficial decision…Botox lover likes to keep up appearances, is insecure to some extent in either in her relationship, social circle or work. She is competitive, keeps secrets from her partner, is a natural townie, on a diet of some sort, permanently, and not actively involved in the community. She does not have men friends, only admirers. She has women friends but the sort you meet for a glass of bubbly before shopping at the sales, not the sort you watch TV in bed with. She dresses for bed, exfoliates regularly. The un-Botoxed are brave. They will not be coerced – even by the threat of looking uglier than everyone around them – and that suggests a degree of courage as well as confidence.”  Shane Watson for Sunday Times

And Going for Surgery

“Another facelift? I’ll do whatever’s required.” Anne Robinson for Sunday Times

Ageing Face & Lifestyle

Bad Lifestyle Habits Impact on Your Facial Ageing
These photos speak for themselves. Drinking, smoking and junk food affect our appearance in the long-term. The 42-year-old freelance journalist Anna Magee worked with a forensic artist to create images of what she’d look like 10 years from now adopting different lifestyles.  She admits to having cheek fillers and Botox injections in the past.

The three projected images show her face 10 years from now:

SMOKING

After 10 years of smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Please note the deep wrinkles, dark under-eye circles, and sagging brow, eyelids, and cheeks.

A survey of over 1,000 Yahoo! users found that only 28% of smokers admit to being addicted and dependent on cigarettes with 72% claiming “I choose when I smoke and can go without at any time.” 41% of the people ages 18-34 said they only smoke in a social setting, but if you want to avoid these nasty signs of aging, every cigarette may count. Fifty-six percent of people ages 18-34 said they smoke when drinking.

Beauty Pays: Make Most of Your Assets.

According to social scientists, beauty pays. Contrary to the old feminists’ beliefs, it is not degrading to be groomed and look attractive. Beauty and intelligence are not mutually exclusive – recent research shows a link.

• Learn to invest time and effort into looking your best.
• Learn to smile and the world will smile back at you.

The past two decades have seen research documenting the economics of return to good looks. Attractive people earn up to 20 % more than unattractive people (all else being equal).  They are also seen as more competent, more persuasive, attract cooperation and have smoother relationships with colleagues. But beauty pays off in friendships, in social networks and in the politics of private life.

“Beauty is not superficial, trivial, insubstantial and futile. Investing time and effort into looking good is not an indicator of vanity or frivolity – for men or women.”

Everyone can highlight what they have to present themselves in the best light. The French insist that style allows even the ugly to become attractive – the jolie laide. But ugliness and beauty are also about attitude and a state of mind. Why let the uglies win, she asks?

Catherine Hakin is a social scientist at the London School of Economics and the author of Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital. www.catherinehakim.org

Source: Know Your Assets. The Sunday Times Style 11/09/2011.

Look At Me @ Sunday Times

According to Jane Shilling, author of The Stranger in the Mirror, a book about her own experience of becoming middle aged “you go through a long process of testing if your allure is still there, in the same way that, as an adolescent, you test out whether it has arrived.”

She says that usually on the cusp of turning 40 - I will be 40 next week – you are going to lose your allure in a culture that worships the youth. One minute you matter and will be noticed, the next, you are filed under “wasn’t bad when she was younger”. 

We all want attention on some level – but we dont want to try to be the same person we were 20 years ago. Our culture says being sexy and successful equals looking and acting youthful. But look at the French. Being attractive is art & fun there – long past the age of 40.

Sunday 23rd January 2011; Look At Me by Shane Watson.