Sudden ageing

Winter makes me old and creaky, but spring makes me feel like a bunny again! I'm concentrating on energy levels right now and have just bought a new pair of hiking boots which don't need breaking in - and a bit of Pilates thrown in daily, which keeps me supple. When the sun shines my hair and skin glows......and the energy levels are high. Maybe wintertime is a time to reflect and hibernate a bit especially when you feel and look more tired than usual and the colour goes out of skin and hair. I try to drink lots of water......and eat well and keep clean. I think wine is my downfall.....and milk! I also love a positive attitude. A "can do" rather than "can't". It makes a big difference and in every negative there is a positive, somewhere. I also think that if a bad day is today....then tomorrow is another day.

Wasn't it referred to as the 7 ages of man (or woman)
I do agree that appearances seem stable for a while and then 'move suddenly' into the next phase, where they once again 'settle'.
Until the next 7 years pass !

Before lock down (that I seriously adhered to) I was busy going out and about.
I do stick to mask wearing and not visiting anywhere that may have groups of people, shops, church, parties etc. some are not being sensible and numbers are still rising.
I have 2 injections and a booster which is inner armour but not infallibility against COVID.
I’m not going out as much as I used to and miss the interaction but old age is galloping in my direction and I blame the restraints of the pandemic. Yes still pleased to be alive.

Passport photos, now that we have to look serious and without glasses, are much more unflattering. If you wear glasses regularly, then you should be able to have your photo taken with glasses, you can spot glasses wearers as they look worse than usual. Mine was bad, but I guess my next one, 10 years on, will be ghastly!

Timpsons and Max Spielmans are under the same ownership. They provide a very good service for photographs.

The passport photo I had taken 13 years ago by a professional photographer was quite the worst i hav ever had. I looked about 90.

I had the photograph for my current passport taken in Timpsons. It is wonderful, I look much younger than in the one it replaces.

Yes I think that’s the reason our eyesight deteriorated as we age !! Sometimes blurred is good !!????

I've got lazy about putting on a little make-up and spending any time on my hair.

I can see how it can happen
In my opinion, for me anyway, it’s how I am feeling
If I’m feeling down, upset or anxious I feel I look a lot older but when I’m happy and in a good place I can look my age and if I’m REALLY lucky ?maybe a bit younger too

I put so much effort into my latest passport photo and used a lot of touché eclat. Max Spielman take very flattering photos thankfully. I did a trial run with my own camera the night before and looked about 90.I was also able to wear same top that I’d worn for my last passport photo but unfortunately have put on a stone since then.

I’ve just had a new passport photo taken and compared with the photo from my last passport, taken in November 2011. What a shock when I compared the 2 photos! Where did those jowls come from?! And those eye bags?! I didn’t realise I looked so old until I saw this photo! For passport photos, of course no glasses can be worn and you can’t smile, so I looked older than ever. I’m 66 going on 86 by the looks of it! I consoled myself with the fact that I’m reasonably healthy, although I do often feel very tired. When I smile at myself in the bathroom mirror, which is probably my “best look”, the jowls disappear - thankfully! My late mum used to say “we’d all be beautiful if we made ourselves”. I’ve never been beautiful, but I was passable - but now just “old”. As someone said, it’s better than the alternative.

Nicksmrs46

Didn’t realise how much I’d aged until I had my cataracts done ?, every wrinkle and eye bags look so much worse now !!

I always remember a scene in Green Wing where someone has new glasses, looks down at her hand and screams.

I still look OK in the bathroom mirror but when I face time my daughters I look awful. They however, look gorgeous.
I grew my fringe out , let my hair grow and wear it in a pony tail now, which doesn't help
I can't see me going back to a fringe as I was already finding that I only had a central fringe and little at the sides. Due I now realise to a receding hairline at the sides.
Oh well, I'm not too bothered anymore.

Didn’t realise how much I’d aged until I had my cataracts done ?, every wrinkle and eye bags look so much worse now !!

Lockdown was definitely an ageing patch, going nowhere so why bother? But after losing DH, BC twice, I’m going down fighting (when I go out). I have Botox, minor cosmetic surgery (eyes, neck), extensions for my thinning hair and if i painted pictures as much as I paint my face I’d be Michelangelo by now. I’ll give the trout pout a miss…
Also fashionable clothes without getting silly.
The Queen has lost a lot of weight after bereavement as I did and that can make you look haggard,

Yes, when I had my cataracts done a few years ago, everything was so much clearer, wrinkles and whiskers!!! Oh dear, I also need a facelift and work on my saggy eyes. Fortunately I have many friends who are the same age so not really bothered!

Lizbethann55
“He is tall and slim. He has a mass of white hair , it started being grey in his late 20s, and looks like a mix of John Major and Arsene Wenger.”
Well then your DH sounds good Lizbethann ! Makes a change from wives complaining that their DH are overweight! Better for his health too.

Sweetpeasue . Seeing your post, I thought about my daughter. We’ve had our up and downs, but I honestly don’t know how she’ll cope when something happens to me. She is divorced with 2 children who will eventually have their own lives. I really hope she will find some nice young man to share her life. She gets on well with her younger brother and his wife, but with the other brother, that’s another story ……..

Yes, I agree, it doesn't seem to be gradual, more a step change. I had a bad dose of covid and I seem to have gained a decade.

I aged profusely after my mother died of Pancreatic cancer. I knew I had, I could see it. It wasn't a perception formed from my grief.
My sister visited me 6 months after the funeral. On sight of me she immediately burst into tears. She said I looked so ill! I knew how I looked. A Yr after I even researched local cosmetic surgeons. I still feel sad about myself. Its now 21 yrs since her death.

Jaibee: you’ve just summed up exactly how I feel. Especially the way that so many people in society now seem to now feel the vulnerable are stopping everybody else from living how they want to.

Covid has aged me so fast - all the anxiety, stress, sitting at home, lack of going out, dressing up, meeting people, I feel about 100 suddenly - I hate all my clothes, but hate all the crap in the high street clothes shops, still comfort eat chocolate far too often, don't feel up to zumba any more, have pains in my joints I never noticed before, never sleep all that well any more - and think about ageism, ageing, sickness and death far more than I ever used to, feel like that last few good years of my life have been stolen - still haunted by the realisation that no one cared much about the elderly getting sick and dying, that the over 60s would get less treatment than the young if they got covid, basically I was profoundly disturbed by the callousness of it all, of the government, the NHS, I'm still angry and traumatised, feel I hate & fear strangers, that the police are all awful, that the world will never be the same same again - I can't believe this is just me

Secret squirrel…I am exactly the same and it’s so nice to read that I am not the only one who ages in this way! I am like you… I really do age in spurts! I look a certain way for so long and then it seems I suddenly age. There is nothing gradual about it. And I know my face… I take care of my skin religiously and wear eye makeup most days. So it’s not as though I’m not seeing my self. I honestly think for some people it’s a little like having growth spurts. In my case it’s ageing spurts! Hope that helps x

HannahLoisLuke
I too am taking steroids for PMR. I started them 1st August 2020 and am still on them now. Just over 18 months of steroids and I've got the typical 'fat face' and have put on 2 st.
I don't look like myself at all when I (stupidly) look in the mirror.
I'm only 4'10" tall and it's really discouraging to feel as I do.
I'm hoping that my next blood test in a couple of months indicates that I can stop the steroids, or at least reduce them.
I'm also disabled with chronic pain (neck, arms, hands, lower back and my left leg, since mid September, keeps collapsing beneath me! I need a walking stick in the house now which I never used to)
I'm crossing my fingers for us both to get off the Prednisolone asap.
Incidentally, I have no antibodies after 2x AZ and a Pfizer booster. Because of this I was emailed to say that i could have a 4th vaccination. I had that yesterday, another Pfizer, so hopefully it may help me, as otherwise it's as if I've not been vaccinated at all.
I will find out when the ONS COVID-19 people come and both my husband and I swab and give a blood sample which lets us know whether or not we have antibodies. My husband always has got antibodies but I don't.

travelsofar. Aww that’s so sad, so sorry