Are we looking younger than our mothers/grandmothers did at the same age?

We have a photo of my gran, holding me as a baby. She has hair scraped into a bun, a big wraparound apron, and clumpy old slippers. She looks about sixty. We worked out she was actually forty-three!

No OP, you aren't delusional. When I look back at "elderly" neighbours from my childhood they looked like archetypal old ladies. In reality, some of them were probably only in their 50's or 60's. They wore lyle stockings, tartan slippers, had tight curly perms and didn't die their hair, unless perhaps for a blue rinse. They also universally wore glasses (national health) and usually headscarves and would keep their teeth in a jar at night.

We look younger partly because we are much healthier, have better skin care and we live longer. So at 60 we potentially have another 40 years to go, unlike our predecessors who at 60 maybe had 15 years left. Effectively our 60 year old bodies are younger than those of previous generations.

We also dress younger and wear things that our daughters would happily wear. Our hair is not the "uniform old lady" style either. For example, my hair is long but does anyone remember the furore about Joan Bakewell's long hair in the 1970's? She was probably only in her 30's but it was the source of newspaper articles!

I'm generalising here too but our lives have not been so hard as our forebears, especially if they were working class.

Here is a photo of my mother, grandmother and great grandmother. I'm the fat baby in the middle. My mum would have been about 24, granny 48 and great granny in her 70s I suppose.
At least in that pic I look younger than them!

Your gran looks young and stylish Aveline, I like her hair, definitely not a tight perm, it suits her.

My mother in law was actually only 17 years older than me but, after a hysterectomy in her 40s, she embraced old age with crimplene dresses, no make up and all. A friend of mine had a hysterectomy at the same age and a year later she was scuba diving in the Arctic. A totally different generation.

My mother was always smart (she was wearing Max Factor make up in the 50s and never stopped) but she still looked older than me. Her hair was always permed and she never, ever wore trousers. Jewellery was often a string of pearls and a nice granny brooch. I think a big difference was the fact that I looked after 2 grandsons from 6 months old till school age and that kept me far more on the same level as my daughter. My mother only saw my children on visits.

I have a phot of my gran on her 70th birthday and she looks ten years older . She had been a real beauty when young but had a hard life . I picture her with metal curlers in her hair with a hair net on top . She wore these wrap around aprons all the time though she did little real work at home as she had two poor daughters who were expected to go out to work and still do all the housework . She had very fine skin and sadly it passed down the generations and it wrinkes so much . I think I have kept them at bay longer than my mother and granmother did bit they are marching on . My gran never left home without a hat on but had no real style at all .
Sadly hair which goes white when you are still quite young has passed down the family as well . My mother could not remember her mother anything but pure white .

My grannies were not stylish and they looked old and happy
My mother was stylish to the end. I used to colour her hair every fifth Sunday. About three weeks before she died, she was struggling to walk. I said let’s leave your hair this week. She was rarely cross but told me in no uncertain terms, if I didn’t do it, she would. The following day, my sister took her to get her eyebrows tidied and coloured
She wore beautiful clothes, her hair was shoulder length and wavy, always jewellery that enhanced her outfit. She had a series of dresses to go ballroom dancing in, paired with special glitzy dancing shoes. Always heels, unless she was walking her dog, then smart walking shoes

One of her favourite sayings was Ginger Roger’s on Fred Astaire - I did everything he did, only backwards and in high heels 💖

My mum was 5ft 2inch she was a size 10 with a slim figure she did care very much about her appearance rather vain actually. She brought up eight children and worked various jobs. When dementia creeped up she became a totally different person it was heart breaking she was in her 90s when she died.
Both of my grans had small plump figures and had more children than my mum always wore wrap around pinafores like a uniform. They both did not work outside the home as my mum did they were paid for sewing both died in their early 70s.
I was the tallest of five girls and very slim when younger still not overweight I am well educated I worked until retirement over seven years ago. I don’t dye my hair not interested in impressing other people. I have some limited mobility because of arthritis but compared to my grans and mum when she was ill I am young at heart. I don’t sit by the tv or fire all day I am very active. If I sit my joints cease up so I don’t until evening time and I still study it keeps the mind active.

petra

My mother was very stylish. She was the first person to colour my hair and pluck my monobrow ( Frida Kahlow had nothing on me) 😂
Back in time when smoking was the norm she smoked Sobranei cocktail cigarettes when her and my father went out at the weekend. The colours fascinated me.

When I was at school we had a joint sixth form ball with the two boys' schools every summer.

We always had a new maxi dress (my Mum made mine) and we'd swap the Sobrani Cocktail cigarettes around so we had the matching colour for our dresses. We also smoked them using a cigarette holder.

We smuggled vodka in our handbags and bought orange juice at the bar.

Happy days 🤣

I think I look about the same as my Mum did at 70. Looking back at my 2 grandmothers they were as different as chalk and cheese.

Paternal Gm lived in a large UK city and worked in a millinery shop till age 70. Always dressed well in crimplene suits and a matching dressy hat. She never left home without her large earrings, bracelets etc. I remember a neighbour saying to my Mum “I thought that was the Queen mother walking up your path today” 😆

My maternal Gm was of a similar age but I don’t remember her as anything other than a worn out elderly woman when we visited them every summer in rural Ireland. When she was in her early 50s she looked 70+.

By the time she was in her early 30’s she’d had 9 children . All of them crammed into a small thatched farmhouse cottage with 2 rooms and a kitchen with a huge open fire where all the cooking and breadmaking was done. No running water or sanitation. My Mum and her siblings all had to help on the farm before and after school. I have a photo of her in her mid 20’s and she looks more like 45. It makes sad to look at it. Such a hard life.

Yes, I think that we 70 + GNetters have benefitted from NH orange juice and dentistry.
Your post resonated with me, Grannynanny, as my paternal grandmother died fairly young, possibly related to raising thirteen children on a limited income.
It's no surprise that she looked old and frumpy in photographs of my parents' wedding. She was in her late fifties at the time.

My mother's younger sister dated a GI (American serviceman) during the war. When she saw photos of his mother and aunties she thought they must all be movie stars! They were so groomed, elegant and youthful looking and so very far from the frumpy 50 year olds here in the UK. Admittedly they were a comfortably off family but even so. Sadly the GI in question was killed in action but I still have the photos and I must admit, compared to women in the UK at the time the difference is quite staggering.

My mum used to have a shampoo and set every week and whilst she was glamorous the fashion then wasn’t very complimentary . We definitely look younger than our mothers a professor said recently the 60s is the new 50 due to health nutrition and we take more care of our skin than our mothers did. I’m often mistaken for being younger than 68.

I like to think I look younger than my age and my mum always looked good too. She had lovely soft facial skin which I'm delighted to have inherited - I hope it lasts!!

I wish I did. It was only in the last year of her life that mum looked 'old'. She died last year aged 84. My kids always said she reminded them of the lady out of Disneys Aristocats film. Very upright and gently spoken.

Don't mind looking my age as long as I don't look older. Think I've succeeded so far.
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Looking at photos of my paternal Grandmother, I would say she looked old compared to my Mother and myself at the sane age. It was a photo taken when I was just walking and she looked round and frumpy, an apron
on and with tightly permed hair. She was a wealthy woman and could have looked really smart. At the

Genes and outlook on life. I was lucky to have a very stylish mother till the day she died. Great skin as did my gran,thankfully I'm the same. My mum and gran had literally no wrinkles and I'm the same at 68..no wrinkles. My mum nor gran let themselves 'go' never fuddy duddy old lady clothes but lovely appropriate and classy. Mum wore a lot of Phase 8 and lovely M&S Per Una etc. She was always referred to as a 'lovely classy lady'. Very proud of both my mum and maternal gran,2 great role models, and still miss them both very much.

I had one very stylish grandmother who died at 50. My other grandmother wore aprons, slippers and the pink corsets. She loved wearing flowery hats on special occasions. She raised seven children after my grandfather died at the age of 40 and lived to 85. She was definitely the head of the family. Life was difficult with very little money. My mother loved fashionable clothes and was always well dressed as a young woman. After marriage and four children, life was hard. She died aged 70. As a child of the 1960s, I have always loved fashion. I am 73 now and like to think I can still be stylish in spite of weight gains etc. I still somehow have kept my brown hair. My daughter has no interest in fashion so shopping trips together are rare.

....at the time of the photo she would have been late 30s early 40s but looked about 60-70!

Definitely!

Neither my mother nor my grandmother lived to be my age but I have inherited their youthful looks.

Sadly the women on my mother's side of the family all died before they reached the age that I am now (75, in case you're interested). I have always tried to look co-ordinated colourwise unless I am working in the garden!

Do you think maybe WE think we look younger but the young people of today probably still think we look like a load of old frumps? Just s thought.

A lot has to do with genes. I am 83 but many are surprised and would put me in my late 60s - thank you Ma. I wear whatever clothes I like, sling back espadrilles in Summer and heels in Winter when "going out". I try to walk three miles a day too. Wat we eat has a lot to do with his we age, yesterday I had my monthly hair cut, the hairdresser said !" I can tell you have a healthy diet your hair is so strong for your age"