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

Babs03 I used to care what I looked like, wearing high heels that wrecked my feet and pencil skirts that I couldn’t walk in but I just go for comfort and colour now I am older.

I do not think that caring how you looked ever meant wearing uncomfortable clothes. When I was working, a rare woman at management level in engineering firms I always dressed well, and it was commented on, but high heels, straight skirts never formed any part of my wardrobe. Jaeger suits and fashionable shoes, with tiny heels, usually Russell & Bromley, were my style and a good line in surprised hauteur should anyone ask me whether I could take shorthand or do some copying

Casdon

I’d say I look about the same age as my mum did, but she was very different to her own mum. My mum wore trousers in the sixties, and had her hair coloured, but it wasn’t ever permed that I can remember. She kept up with trends too. Even now at 95 she’s very fussy about what she will wear, nothing that she deems ‘for old people’.

😂love it.
My Mum isn’t stylish but doesn’t care and wears what she feels comfortable in.My Nan wasn’t stylish either, or my other Nan who wore black a lot and hair in a bun.Harder lives back then and women didn’t have the time or money usually to keep up with what Mum calls ‘the fashion pages’.So I do think we look better generally and a but younger than our actual age.On the other hand I’ve got a friend who constantly smokes and she’s as wrinkled as a kipper, a bit like Queen Camilla, another smoker.

I think and hope that people dress and look how they want no matter what age they are.
I used to care what I looked like, wearing high heels that wrecked my feet and pencil skirts that I couldn’t walk in but I just go for comfort and colour now I am older.
My go to style is comfy jeans which are a cotton mix, brightly coloured top and cardigan, and sketchers slip ons. Have stopped dying my hair and now is grey/white, which I clip up on top of my head, it usually looks a bit messy.
I suppose I look old but maybe not as conventionally dressed as my old mum used to be with her twin sets and brogues.

My mum looked wonderful until the beginning of the pandemic when hairdressing etc stopped at her care home. Before that she was the only resident who had her hair coloured regularly and never looked her age. I don't colour my hair, too much faff! I'm quite happy being grey.
My grandma definitely looked older than I do at the same age (I'm 65) but I don't think I've ever considered it before.

My grandmothers and mum were beautiful women. Gorgeous skin, thin, glamorous silver hair -- all down to genetics and exercise.

None of them wore jeans - they dressed well. I'm thin, have lovely skin and silver hair, can't be bothered to wear anything apart from jeans or Church dresses. I look the same age for age, wearing vastly different attire.

At the moment I am wearing denim shorts and a t shirt an attire my mother would never have worn at my age, 69! I think I look ok. Am just waiting for my two young grandchildren aged three and five, so need comfortable clothes to run around after them!

My frien'd's mother, aged 91, was recently admitted to hospital for emergency investigations. The first thing she packed? Her make up bag!

My mother always looked younger than she was and my dad was referred to by people in business as "the man with the very young wife"! There was about a year between them.

She was a tailor by trade so all her clothes were altered to fit perfectly.
She stood tall and never had "granny curls" which her mother did. At 70 plus she had a hairstyle I'd be happy to copy if my hair would do it!
She did wear trousers now and again. And shorts on the beach.

She was pretty glamorous when I was young.

She died in her 70s though.
She was remembered by others for her kindness and her laugh. Her "style" was incidental.

I would aspire to be more like my grandmother than my mum. She looked 20 years younger than her age at 80 and would never be seen without make up or dressed nicely.
She was full of life and had a pretty face even when old. I would like to be seen like that but hey ho.

My beloved late mother was always stylish and youthful looking and I have inherited ( lucky me) her good skin and hair.
So no I don't look younger than my mother at 71 , probably about the same.
The massive difference I have noticed is between late mum'n me and my maternal grandmother who is the only grandparent I really remember.
My Grandma at my age was in a "pinny" over her long , shapeless floral dress and had plaster-pink thick wrinkled stockings ( Norah Batty-like) and black , round-toed sensible shoes. Her glasses were thick and "NHS". Her grey hair was short and cut roughly in a "bob".
We visited and loved our Grandma but at 71 she really presented as an "old lady".
Nothing odd about her. Many older ladies at that time looked the same.??
Or is it my particular background ?
And she was happy and content.

My mum looked younger than me, I think.
Genetics, not clothes or hairstyle.

GrannyGravy13

I was blessed with two stylish Grandparents and a glamorous Mother.

My darling Mum was so concerned about her grey showing that in the week before she went into a Hospice I took her to the hairdressers for a colour and cut, then we went shopping (I hired a wheelchair) for new slippers and knickers, stylish to the very end 💔

Likewise. I had a very stylish grandmother and very well dressed mother.

My grandmother grew up in poverty and was widowed in WW1, but she was a professional dressmaker, with both skill and an eye - and also self publicity! We have several portrait photos of her taken in her 20s - and she was a stunner! So you do not have to be well off to be well dressed.

As a child people were always commenting approvingly on my my mothes dress sense, I always felt this approval also contained the question of how come she ended up with me? with my plaits constantly coming undone, and somehow always looking out of place.

I also completely agree with eazybee The reason most of us do look better than our mothers at the same age is down to better health, nutrition, dental, eye and skin care and hair dye!

But especially health and nutrition. All of us over 80s were born before and during the war, where the nutrition of children, especially young children, was given high prioirty and there was the science to show what was needed.

For the first time, children from all families, especially the poor, were getting food rations, vitamins and minerals on an equal basis, and I am sure that this good nutrition in our childhoods is why life expectancy has risen so much and why so many of us who had this very good staart in life are living into our 90s.

I have inherited fantastic skin from my mum / nan. I think I look very similar to my nan at this age, if I allow for the difference in clothes. My mum kept her very dark hair (family tradition said it was from gypsies) until her death, and until her final illness, that helped her to look very young.
I, however, went grey in my 30s, and I think that has always made people think I look 'old', but my face is still quite youthful.

eazybee

The reason most of us do look better than our mothers at the same age is down to better health, nutrition, dental, eye and skin care and hair dye!

I agree, plus more natural and less aging hair styles and a big choice of clothes

With out a dout we look younger.
Our attitude is younger too, I maintain it's all depends on your outlook in life as well as your health.

I was lucky my Mum was always a lady who took care of her hair, make her skin was amazing and she looked after it, she dressed amazing too. Dad too said in his head he was only 29yrs both had a modern outlook in life.
I did all the things I wanted to do before I had my first baby at 33, then my children kept us younger in mind.
I'm 70 in October, but I don't act or feel that age. I still work, we have a great social life, very young Grandchildren they are always keeping us on our toes.

I think I'm dressed pretty similarly to my mother ie for comfort rather than style. I'm happily long past trussing myself up in uncomfortable clothes or shoes. Just not worth it. I hate the feel of slimy make up on my skin. I try to keep well hydrated and as fit as possible with Aquafit classes three times a week.

Gosh yes.
They looked pretty old at 55. So did their comtemparies.
Old in looks/hairstyle[I cant say anything[, old in dress style, old in temperament.

My mother was 39 when I was born, and looked always so much younger than other, much younger mum. Always slime, very classy in a simple, well cut style. And this well into her 70s.

I’d say I look about the same age as my mum did, but she was very different to her own mum. My mum wore trousers in the sixties, and had her hair coloured, but it wasn’t ever permed that I can remember. She kept up with trends too. Even now at 95 she’s very fussy about what she will wear, nothing that she deems ‘for old people’.

To add, my mother had the luxury of retiring at 60. I won't be able to for another 7 years. Working full-time is tiring and ageing.

Baggs

I don't actually care how old I look. Never have. Never will.

Same here.

My mother was very glamorous. I don't aspire to it. I was more concerned with my appearance when I was young, but now revel in the anonymity of old age.

I look older now than my mother did at this age.

I think on the whole we are looking/dressing younger than previous generations. We now understand better the damage caused by smoking and the Sun. More access to a greater variety of healthy foods. Cosmetics and hair care products have improved.
Although I have read that experts are concerned about the health of younger generations due to long term use of chemicals etc in processed, junk food and pesticides used in crop spraying.
But saying that my Mum was very stylish, she was always slim, dressed beautifully and loved clothes and makeup. She was only 4ft 11 and wore stilettos/high heels all her life. Amazingly despite smoking all her life she had very few wrinkles (although the smoking caused chronic heart and lung disease).

Shinamae

We have the benefit of make up and good skin care which our grandmother certainly did not have( or hair dye)
Also, they did not have the benefit of washing machines and hoovers, and other labour saving devices
I think our grandmother‘s worked so hard the last thing they thought about was how they looked..

My Grans definitely had vacuum cleaners, I also clearly remember one with a spin dryer and the other with a twin tub washing machine (along with fridges with small ice/freezer compartment)

One definitely dyed and permed her hair the other was happy to go with the flow and had beautiful steely grey curls.

(I was born late 1950’s for context)

Of course we look younger. I’m a granny to 5 GC, ages ranging from 22-16.5. I’m early 70’s.

I look younger then my mum did at 40, because she had frizzy permed hair, frumpy clothes, and a hard life.

I am soon off to aquacise, poor mum never had the opportunity to do things like that.

I am wearing shorts and a sleeveless top, and am reasonably trim. Never ever saw Mum in trousers.

I hope I will still be wearing jeans all my life.

Hardly ever wear any make up, Mum had good skin though, not wrinkled and I hope to emulate that.

As my mum never reached the age I am now, I, very sadly, can't speak for her. Maternal Granny became quite stooped in her 80s and went to live, alternately, with my parents and my aunt and uncle. I can't remember her with anything but curly silver hair and in that I do resemble her. Paternal Granny, in her 80s was upright and, at a good age still walked to and from the shops - and she lived at the top of quite a steep road. Her white hair was scraped backwards into a scrawny little bun. I think I look younger, but am nothing like so energetic!