Sudden ageing

It’s called an age spurt
I do it every 2 years or so ?

Yes, and I can't plead lockdown as I've been lucky and had lots of interesting stuff to do. All of a sudden I realised I was walking as if I had arthritis (I haven't!), lines and wrinkles have deepened, vertigo has surfaced, and other little things.

I eat proper food, and take supplements to ensure high levels of good vitamins, but I guess there is no escaping it.

Well I'm 72 and I look quite good. I'm not overweight really. I have lovely thick hair and straight white teeth. Not many wrinkles.
Now for the sad truth. My hair is false, I have alopecia totalis. The teeth are false, all of them. I have contact lenses. So I don't look too bad but unfortunately it's not me, it's someone else!

You never see much of Captain Toms other daughter or grandchildren, you only see the pushy one and her family

Smiling makes you look younger...it lifts the looser skin on the lower cheeks and that bit under the chin. So I recommend it to make you look younger

My face hasn’t changed much in the last few years and my hair is still blonde with a few highlights. What has changed is my weight. Having been 8.5 stone for most of my life which at 5’9” is underweight I’m now 10.5 stone! My diet hasn’t changed but I have been taking steroids for PMR and can’t wait to get off them as I’m sure that’s what’s made me fat. The extra weight and my hunched posture from the pain make me feel and look so much older. Having read previous comments about posture I shall try hard to stand up straight now.

Having had oily skin for many years I haven’t got many wrinkles but I let my hair go grey during lockdown and I quite like the colour so will probably keep it that way. The main thing that I feel makes me look much older is the fact that when I had my bone density scan last December I found I have lost 2.5 inches. I was always 5 feet 8 inches and I used to be almost as tall as my DH when I wore heels until relatively recently. I always liked being tall but with my grey hair and shorter stature I see a little old lady when I look in the mirror or catch sight of myself in shop windows.

Yes. It's a well-known phenomenon. Like growth spurts in a baby perhaps!

I feel as if I have aged 10 years in the last two years. DH's cancer emergency in spring 2020 and ensuing series of operations and treatments, coincided with the start of the pandemic and all its scares and lockdowns etc.
It knocked me for six and I have gone steadily downhill healthwise ever since. DH, though, has made a great recovery and is fitter and more active than he has been for some years. It has felt like a seesaw in that I have gone down as he has gone up!

A dear friend of us both, who cared for his wife who had Parkinsons until she died told me that carers always suffer like this as they are giving so much to the one they are caring for. I think that is true and coupled with the covid scares and worries it does tie in with my feeling old and decrepit!

Just hope I recover a bit as the better weather arrives.

I have!
I don't know if it is because that since lockdown I haven't bothered with make up , extra weight or what but I try to avoid looking in any mirror at the moment!

Not being able to have had my hair cut and styled for the past 2 and a half years hasn't helped!

My problem is that I haven't been able to get my annual botox injections for the last 2 years, so I get a shock on looking in the mirror.

This is very timely as on Monday I met a friend I hadn't seen for a few years (she had been elsewhere looking after her elderly mother who died recently). She looked about 10 years older than the last time I saw her (2 years ago) - a combination, I suspect, of caring for her mother and a divorce. I think, as we get older, no matter how well we care for ourselves, things come in to age us - illnesses, accidents, relationship breakups, caring roles, money problems, plus outside events we have no control over (like pandemics!) They are all ageing, sadly.

I agree things do seem to change very rapidly, and I'll never forget the shock when I looked in the mirror and thought someone has stapled my mums 'old' face over the top of mine!

I agree, it happens suddenly, I also agree lockdown was very bad for aging, I look so much older and feel older too since it all started x

Definitely, I was only thinking that about myself the other day when I looked in the mirror - but I still feel the same inside.

Yes This pandemic has a lot to answer for I have been slow deciding whether or not to have my hair dyed again and today I will book an appointment. February is not a good month for me. Will be 77 on 1st March and then spring has to arrive. We all need some warm sunshine now so little steps now out of the winter and the pandemic

MissAdventure

I think Major is one of those people who looked middle aged when he was young, and they often age well.

There’s a lot of people like that. Now I’m old I can spot those people that will age well. I have a nephew who was very Harry Potter’ish when young but aged into a very attractive silver fox of a middle aged man. Look at Charlie Watts. Somewhat ignored in the early days of the Stones but aged beautifully, like a fine wine. It’s all down to cheekbones.

Exactly what I thought. Perhaps it’s because he was always grey? But still trim, upright, all his wits about him and speaking sense about Johnson’s government.

I think Major is one of those people who looked middle aged when he was young, and they often age well.

I’d like to know what John Major is on, I saw him on TV last night and he’s hardly aged in 25 years since he was PM. It’s not fair.

I barely recognize myself, I look so awful.
Not lockdown related, though.

I agree Gwyneth and I wished I could see her again when I wasn’t feeling so puzzled and she’d get a big smile.

SueDonim Thanks

This…

Howverydare you you’ve been through the mill, by the sounds of it. I hope Spring brings a fresh lease of life to us all.

I don’t particularly feel as though I’ve aged that much. I’m very lucky that my hair has yet to go significantly grey even though I’m 67. If I bother to put on make up, I can look passable.

Otoh, Dh and I went on a three week trip to Australia in late 2019. I’m not sure we could do that now, the very thought sounds exhausting.