The Unseen Battle: Energy Drain with Age
Aging is like fighting an unseen energy battle. Our metabolism hits the brakes, sleeping becomes a patchy affair, and recovery from exercise? That takes its sweet time. We’re dealing with a slower energy release here, folks.
Stress: A Different Beast in Later Years
Think you’ve mastered handling stress? Try it when you’re older. Experience might give us resilience, but our bodies beg to differ, becoming less tolerant of stress over time.
Teeth: The Aging Yellow Brick Road
Your pearly whites aren’t fooling anyone.
Years of coffee or red wine can wear away enamel, revealing naturally yellow dentin beneath. The result? A telltale age indicator right in your smile.
Posture: The Silent Narrator of Age
Age can alter your posture, causing your head to lean forward and your spine to curve – a subtle but eloquent tale of the passing years.
Shrinking with Age: More Than Just a Myth
Here’s a little-known fact – we literally shrink as we age! Spinal disc distance shortens, making us ever so slightly shorter in our later years.
Eyelashes: Unsuspected Victims of Time
Thin, brittle, greyer lashes aren’t just a makeup issue – it’s aging. As active hair follicles decrease, your lashes bear the brunt, slowly changing over time.
Elbows: The Unexpected Age Barometer
Want an age giveaway? Check the elbows. As we age, they become drier and rougher, acting as an unlikely age barometer. Pass the moisturizer, please.
The Incredible Shrinking Butt
Aging doesn’t just impact the face.
As we grow older, our bodies produce less fat, leading to a less voluptuous derriere. It’s the incredible shrinking butt effect.
The Lip Thinning Phenomenon
Forget crow’s feet. Age thins out your lips as your body produces less collagen and elastin. The result? Less plump lips that hint at your true age.
Armpits: Unseen Harbingers of Age
Think sagging skin only hits the obvious spots? Think again. Even armpits lose their elasticity as we age, becoming a subtle sign of the march of time.
Dullness of skin
The cycle of renewal for our skin slows down as we age, meaning the moisture in the top levels of the skin depletes. As a result of this, your face can look less glowy, less vibrant, and all around more dull. You can try to fix this with makeup, but a good skincare routine and dewy products should help things.
Uneven skin tone
A dewy, bright, even skin tone is instantly recognizable as youthful. If your complexion is beginning to look a little uneven it may be time to step in and do something about it before it starts to reveal your age. An uneven skin tone can be caused by multiple things as you age including fluctuating hormone levels or the skin holding onto more melanin.
Dry skin
Just like your elbows, the rest of your skin will experience natural moisture depletion as you age. Cell membranes become more porous and itchy, giving your skin that flaky look. While you may not have had to slather on the moisturizer as much in your 20s, as you get older prioritizing feeding your skin adequate moisture will ensure it looks and feels super soft.
Age spots
The first time you saw that flat, dark area on your skin, you might have been a little freaked out. But developing sun spots (otherwise known as liver spots or solar lentigines) is a very natural part of aging – especially for those who have spent a lot of their life in the sun. Regardless of whether they’re natural or not though, they indicate age.
Blotchiness
A little red flush across your cheeks can actually be a sign of youth, but as you get older that redness turns into blotchiness and your complexion becomes the biggest indicator that you’re entering the second act of your life. The occasional blushing can turn to blotchy red patches due to overexposure to the sun’s harmful UV rays.
Visible pores
There’s a reason why models and celebrities seem like they have the skin of a doll, with no visible flaws or pores. It makes you look more youthful. But the loss of skin elasticity and facial fullness as we age can cause the skin to loosen, thereby making the pores larger and more visible.
Gaunt hands
While many celebs opt for expensive facial treatments and surgeries, one dead giveaway of a star’s age has and always will be their hands. It’s even led to speculation that some A-listers like the Kardashians are now wearing fake hands or gloves to hide how gaunt their hands are looking due to the natural loss of subcutaneous tissue, bone, and muscle.
Irritable skin on the neck
Some people swear that the neck can tell you all you need to know about a woman’s age. It’s often an area neglected when people pamper themselves, even being forgotten when moisturizing your face. Therefore, the effects of aging show on the delicate skin even more, leading it to be irritable, dry, and blotchy.
Loose jawline
Jowls isn’t usually a word that we would use to describe the appearance of someone young and in their prime. That’s because they’re a facial feature that tends to develop as someone gets older, meaning that your natural jawline can be obscured by the loose skin in the area.
Less rounded eye shape
Big doe eyes are a sign of youth which some women may try to hide at first, but as you age you’ll be pulling out every trick in the book to get that rounded shape back. The muscles around your eyelids start to weaken as you get older and your lids will droop, creating a new eye shape.
Duller tastebuds
You may notice as you enter your 30s and 40s that salt and pepper on the dinner table are a necessity. You may have found your tolerance for spicy food increasing. You may have even found that a McDonald’s breakfast isn’t as delicious as you once thought. These are all signs of your age dulling your tastebuds.
Dangly earlobes
Decades of wearing heavy jewelry like dangly earrings are sure to affect the delicate skin of your earlobes. That’s why as we get older we may find that your earlobes will tend to hang lower and lower – a sign to anyone who notices that you’ve been around the block a few times. Consider switching to studs now and then to give your lobes a break.
Freckles
On your nine-year-old niece, freckles can be an adorable sign of youth – but as you get older, they’re a reminder of the damage the sun is doing to your skin. Large clusters of freckles can add to uneven complexions and look blotchy. However, on the other hand, a scattering of light freckles can actually help take years off your face.
Eyebags
You may have noticed that eyebags aren’t just the sign of a really heavy night anymore. Instead, they’re a daily reality as the skin stretches. If your eye bags are a serious problem, there is surgery that can tackle them, but for a less invasive solution, you can try drinking more water, adding retinol to your beauty routine, and sleeping more.
Turkey neck
A snatched jawline is a coveted feature in today’s world, with companies even selling certain exercise products to strengthen and define the jaw. But as you age, the skin around your neck with naturally sag and the muscles will loosen giving you what the beauty industry has deemed a ‘turkey neck’.
Thinner hair
You may have prepared yourself for grey hairs and be armed with the number for your local salon, but you may not have considered that when you leave your youth behind you, you may be saying goodbye to your head to thick, full hair too. The rate of hair growth slows, strands become smaller, and you may even see some actual hair loss.
Grey hairs
One of the most obvious signs of ageing, grey hairs are completely natural as your hair loses pigment. Usually, this process starts around the age of 35 but can differ based on a number of factors, including when your melanin production slows. Of course, you can always fight off the signs of this with a simple box of dye.
Matte makeup
You might not think wearing matte makeup should be considered a sign of getting older. However, as we age our skin loses moisture, and matte makeup can just accentuate the look of this, revealing your age or even adding years on. It’s also an outdated makeup trend. If you’d like to look more up-to-date, chose a dewy finish for your products!
Overplucked eyebrows
They may have been trendy in the 90s, but overplucked eyebrows have been out for a while now. Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell rocked the look at the time, inspiring millions to embrace the tweezers, but these days they’re just dated and reveal your age. Thicker eyebrows are a much more youthful choice too and a sign of natural beauty.
Wearing trainers with formal outfits
Maybe for a short period of time magazines showed models donning funky trainers with formal dresses for a cool juxtaposed look, but middle-aged moms took this style and ran with it. Sure, trainers are comfortable, but they’re an instant sign of your age. Comfortable flat shoes do exist so take a look through your shoe rack before grabbing your Sketchers.
Metallic makeup
Another older trend that is still being embraced by women of a certain age is metallic makeup. It’s harsh, highlights fine lines and wrinkles and feels dated. You can achieve a glowy, shimmering look with more subtle products. A soft highlighter and a simple shimmer utilizing light colors will be much more flattering.
Only wearing dark colors
While we’re told at a young age to wear black to show maturity and look stylish, the benefits of black making you look more mature just aren’t needed when you reach a certain age. Updating your wardrobe with neutrals, and a few pops of color can help you look more youthful.
Lost facial volume
Buccal fat removal might be all the rage right now, but many beauty experts are worried about the long-term effects of this procedure. Facial volume and fat help to keep your skin retain its youthful fullness, preserve skin texture, and even fight wrinkles. So removing fat from the face may just reveal your age or even make you look older.
Smile lines
Smile lines, just like most other wrinkles are totally natural but can be exaggerated by bad habits. These wrinkles develop as you age, meaning they’re an instant indicator of your age. Smile lines or laughing lines can be treated with anti-aging injections but are worsened by smoking, genetics, dehydration, or sun damage.
Sticking to comfy clothing
Comfortable clothing might be seem sensible as you age and your whole body starts aching – but be wary of it exposing your age! Remaining in hoodies and sweats seems practical but can seem as if you’re done making an effort, or you have nothing to dress up for. Throwing a comfortable dress or maxi skirt in the mix can be the key to looking youthful.
Clumpy mascara
Full lashes are always on trend (just look at the recent boom in lash extensions) but take care not to rely too much on mascara for this. Excess mascara can make the lashes look super clumpy – which not only looks bad or like you don’t know how to apply makeup, but it can also make the eyes look smaller and less open.
Sensible shoes
You don’t have to wear your heels every day to look a little younger. But sticking with hefty, sensible shoes is very much a subtle detail that can give away your true age. Choosing practical over stylish is a mature decision that can suggest that you’re past the point of prizing your appearance over comfort.
Unflattering short haircuts
When your hair begins to thin, cutting it into a shorter style can make it seem more full and thick. However asymmetrical cuts, cuts that are too short for your face, or cuts with extreme layers can all be very unflattering and make you look a little like a middle-aged ‘Karen’. Take inspiration from the younger generation and go with a middle part at least.
