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

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 💖

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 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.

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

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!

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.

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!

My mother did not look much older at 92 than she did at 52. She always had her own old-fashioned style and outlook

I like this attitude. I think it's not so much about how old one looks as how at ease one is with one's style especially if it's one that suits your colouring, build and so on.

I don't think it matters if one's style (as defined above) is 'old-fashioned' or more modern either. If you've hit on what looks good on you and makes you look and feel good it just works whatever one's age and whatever the style.

As my mum always used to say: make your own style.

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.

I should have said that women, caring how they looked, did not need to wear uncomfortable clothes to look good.

But, plenty of women did, and plenty still do. Seeing Celebs teetering on high heels, in dresses, what there is of them, that reveal all and nothing must be incredibly uncomfortable to wear.

My mother, like one of my sisters, never wore trousers, because being relatively bottom heavy, and with relatively short legs, they were unflattering. I am fortunate , I got the long leg gene and wear them a lot.

My mother did once refer to my love for the 'extremes of fashion', At the time, that meant a longish mid calf skirt, she was not talking ra-ra skirts or anything like that. As I said previously, she was recognised as always dressing stylishly, but she was a M&S dresser, so conventional in how she dressed, whereas I like colour in my clothes.

My mother died when she was much younger than I am now, but she was of the generation who had permed hair and always dressed formally. She would have been horrified at me wearing jeans and trainers at my age.
My mother did have a girlish face but the style of the era for middle-aged women made her look older compared with women now.

I like fashion and try to be as fashionable as I can.magazines etc help me along. Regularly dye my hair and wear make up everyday. My husband seems to approve even though I’m on the larger side. Good cook though😂I also work with younger girls they keep in check. My mum was quite a role model too.

JaneJudge

I think women have refused to be pigeon holed because of their age. Can you remember the beige trouser shops with the elasticated waist dresses (which seem to be in fashion now!)? There was a certain way women were advised to dress. Maybe fashion retailers have realised that those with higher disposable incomes to spend on clothing are those who are older, paid off their mortgages etc and are now marketing their goods at this age bracket

It amazed me recently to see KP in a beige trouser suit.

Some clothes nowadays are so plain. Not in a stylish way, but harking back to the beige trouser times.

When I look in the mirror I see my grandma. She was a wonderful woman who I don't recall ever wearing make-up though she did order stuff from the Avon catalogue!

I hope when people look at me they see someone as kind and caring as she was.

Looking younger/older is mostly in out genes anyway, regardless how much we try to kid ourselves with expensive stuff. People see through it I'm afraid. How you treat people is far more importnat and can't be faked.

My mother-in-law is 100.
Most people assume she's in her 80s.

She does her "stretches" every morning for 20 mins. She says she started as a young woman.

At 72 I assuredly do look younger than my grandmothers and great aunts at that age, as they dressed in brown, grey, or navy blue shapeless dresses, thick stockings and lace-up shoes! Add hats, hatpins and gloves when going out, even in the heat of summer.

My mother at my age, was immensly stout (to put it kindly) and increased her girth with loose flowing garments she concocted herself - a very odd, hippy look in the late 1990s.

Never mind comparing myself to my grandmothers - I look younger now, eight months after DH's death than I did at this time last year, when we were told he only had a few months to live. I miss him atrociously, but at least I do not have to worry constantly about him.

My mother did not look much older at 92 than she did at 52. She always had her own old-fashioned style and outlook.

I think colouring my hair makes me look younger than I am, whereas other people with white hair do not look old, to me. I know that makes no sense.
I am certainly of an age where I need to feel comfortable rather than fashionable, but I do think carefully about what I choose to wear. My children and teenage grandchildren tell me I do not look my age and they do not think of me as old, which pleases me.

AreWeThereYet

Casdon

Not sure I agree M0nica because I have an abiding memory of my mum at a dinner dance (my first) feeling faint after she’d eaten her dinner and having to repair to the ladies to take off her roll-on.

But Casdon isn't that a choice?

Lots of women now wear shapewear but you'd have to pay me quite a lot to stuff my inches inside something that's going to make me uncomfortable, hot and sweaty.

Maybe, but I think they were a lot more rigid and constricting in those days - this one had suspenders and went up above her waist. I think they are a lot more comfortable now - either that or I just choose ones which are more forgiving.

Casdon

Not sure I agree M0nica because I have an abiding memory of my mum at a dinner dance (my first) feeling faint after she’d eaten her dinner and having to repair to the ladies to take off her roll-on.

But Casdon isn't that a choice?

Lots of women now wear shapewear but you'd have to pay me quite a lot to stuff my inches inside something that's going to make me uncomfortable, hot and sweaty.

Not sure I agree M0nica because I have an abiding memory of my mum at a dinner dance (my first) feeling faint after she’d eaten her dinner and having to repair to the ladies to take off her roll-on.

I do not think that caring how you looked ever meant wearing uncomfortable clothes.

Totally agree M0nica.

I think in some ways my mother had a much harder life than I had so it wouldn't be a surprise that she looked older in general. Even more so for my grandmother.

A niece once asked me what the blue rinse brigade was so I told her it was what older women used to do back in the 50s and 60s to hide the grey. She replied 'Oh, so that's like an old fashioned pink-rinse brigade'

I'd imagine much of the difference I see reflects the fact that mum and my grans had no jeans, as not yet worn/mainstream.

I'm don't like what I see in shops - dismissing trousers, tunics, leggings as matronly. Jeans, Tshirts, jumpers - jackets if need be, is acceptable.

Well about 30 years ago my mother told me off for not wearing a twin set. I still don't.

I had a great, great aunt who died only two weeks before her 100th birthday. She wore pastel coloured, long skirted, tailored suits with starched white blouses and always a matching hat. She once told me she would never wear black because it made her look old.
I dress in a similar way to my grandsons. Tee-shirts, jean jackets, jeans. I don't it makes me look younger.

I don't want to disrespect anyone, and I realise it won't make any difference to them, but I felt really sad when a couple of folk commented that they weren't bothered at all about how they look to other people. Just me perhaps, feeling sad. I get pleasure looking the best I can when I go out- not perfect by any means or particularly young. I don't know quite how to describe it, but it's like respecting myself.