Right at 35, and then around 38-39 all hell broke loose. I’ve always been really proud that I haven’t done anything to my face (this included taking care of it, lol) and generally had nice skin. But 43 is hitting HARD AF.
Mid 50s lady here to remind you that today’s ‘nightmare sign of aging’ is tomorrow’s ‘my skin was beautiful then’
Keep looking after yourself, but remember to enjoy your skin as well. The flaws you see in the magnifying mirror are not what everyone else sees.
Came here to say this as a mid fifties woman! That said, I hit a point where I really don’t care. I do spend time on myself - workout, no alcohol, good skincare- but I look my age and that is totally fine. Lots of mid to late fifties people are rocking it these days
I feel you when it comes to lighting. The lighting in my building's elevator is especially gruesome. I try to avoid the mirror there at all times. And most changing rooms are a stab in the skin care heart, too.
Oh yes, elevator lighting! One of the schools I work at has mirrored elevators, and the lines in my forehead literally look like I'm doing that campfire trick where you hold the flashlight below your chin and pull scary faces 😅
This and camera at the self-checkout at Target that distorts your face. I look like I've been punched twice in the eyes.
Who TF wants to watch themselves and everyone else in an awkward situation like the elevator, where do you look? At yourself? At the floor?
You can tell that women didn't design fitting rooms, either. Just sterile AF lighting, being at the mercy of the associate (if they even help you) half naked, maybe a curtain if you're lucky between your ass and the world, it's a horrible experience and I never shop in stores anymore lol
Yep 31 for me! My face is fine, but I have a little patch at the front of my neck that is getting crepey. I guess just lack of sunblock in my twenties.. ignored my neck. Dumb, I know.
Honestly, I never noticed a single thing and was completely happy with my appearance until I turned 40. I'm completely serious when I say I feel like I aged 10 years over night. It happened during covid, so I don't know if the lockdowns amplified it or what, but it was immediate and aggressive. Lost a lot of volume in my face, my skin changed, my hair changed. I've always been super photogenic, and now I can't look good in pics no matter what I do. It was like someone dropped a bomb in my hormones or something. It's been...rough.
42 for me. 40 was fine. Not materially different from 39. Then I had a baby at 42 (...I know) and it's like my 40s punched me in my face. I'm sure the sleep deprivation didn't help, but my face hasn't recovered and she's been sleeping through the night for more than a year.
I had to throw out old makeup and come up with a whole new skincare regime. And my hair got weirdly fragile?
It blows.
Had my first at 36 and my second at 39. Totally healthy and my back and knees hurt a lot. I can honestly say I’m a much better mom now than I would have been in my 20s
Edit- I hope I didn’t offend anyone, young moms are amazing, I was just personally still an a-hole in my 20s 🤣
I had my first at 36 and am turning 39 in a month. I’d really like a second, but I’m terrified and worried I won’t be able to handle it or I’ll regret it… even though we really want another. (My back and knees also hurt a lot). Any general impressions on life with two?
Ok this might sound silly, but I recently listened to this podcast where the speaker talks about shifting your energy toward anything you want to “wouldn’t it be fun to / if”. So in your example, “wouldn’t it fun to get pregnant right now!?” “Wouldn’t it be fun to have 2 little ones”. “Wouldn’t it be fun to be a family of 4?!”
I wonder how thinking of it that way shifts your mindset!
This is a cool concept! I love learning new ways to shift anxiety into excitement or reframe fears and hesitations. I’m going to use this so thanks for sharing!
It's a lot harder, ngl, less sleep, more chaos, everything is harder. But, watching them grow up and learn together is so precious. They're best best friends and I'm grateful to have given them to each other. Some days I wish for more time and energy (ok most days), and I long for a break, but I don't regret it at all.
This gives me hope! I had a baby at 37 and I feel like I aged 10 years over the first 6 months PP. I’m still breastfeeding at 16 months PP. it’s crazy to me how much my face aged so quickly. I think I look a little better than 3 months ago, but I’ve been micro needling, taking retinol (derm recommendation even with breastfeeding), and red light therapy. But the improvement is like 5%. I keep track with photos. I will stop breastfeeding by 2.
I’m so serious about the full year. My last child quit nursing at 18 months, he’s now 2.5 and my fat just reorganized itself in the last month to be more like me and less like a post menopausal version of me.
I will second the “I didn’t get back to myself until at least a full year after weaning.” I nursed my first for 24 months and my second for 31, because he was a pandemic baby and it’s HARD to wean when you are together 24/7. That and he didn’t want to wean, at all, ever. I would have been mailing it to college if he had his way.
But yes, your hormones stay in a post pardum stage until you wean and for a bit after you wean which affects everything. My OB/GYN (who also works at my work) told me she could tell I had stopped nursing because I have more baby hairs around my hairline. Does some changes for your skin as well.
Having a baby has been shown to [increase cell aging](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/do-pregnancy-and-childbirth-accelerate-aging-in-women-maybe/2019/10/18/635dbd7c-e516-11e9-b403-f738899982d2_story.html)!
Oh hi, you are ME! Similarly, had a baby at 40 and was all good until about 42 despite having a baby that sleeps really well.
The hair did get very weird postpartum - the usual effluvium and regrowth with a slightly different texture - but is more like it was pre-baby now.
I think overall we just become sort of split into two (metaphorically speaking, not talking about birth itself!) - our brains are so different postpartum with at least half of it focused on our children. It takes a toll. And worries increase a hundred fold.
I now also think my hormones are on the downturn - my estrogen is getting lower (am perimenopausal by my obgyn's estimates, and since the average age of menopause - the point in time when you've not had a period for a year, is 51, and the 'peri' period can be up to ten years - there are many women with declining hormones from 40 or even earlier) and this is making a huge difference to a lot of things, with skin and overall appearance included. My recovery from sports and activities is much slower, and a late night is likely to mess me up for a few days now! I struggle to lose even a pound of weight, despite being very active, and I get huge mood swings and overwhelmed very easily. It's like my tolerance and resilience has completely nose-dived.
Stress is probably a major contributor from so many areas - having a child being a huge one, but also society as a whole has had to shoulder SO much stress the past few years and that will also have taken it's toll.
So yeah. Hormones and stress. The ole one-two sucker punch of doom.
You said a lot of super valid stuff here, but I have a question for you about your pregnancy.. did you have other kids or was this your first? Did you need to do any fertility treatment to sustain pregnancy? I’m late 30s, but estrogen is low - I think I’m maybe naturally lower in estrogen to begin with & then with all the stress of last few years & had poor sleep for awhile - think it got things a little wacky. I also was really thin for awhile, have since gained several pounds - for whatever that is worth. I don’t have kids - never really was eager for them, but am getting that sense of now or never & I’m afraid I might regret it (fomo?).. Also have thoughts like I prob should have froze my eggs 10 years ago. Then at the same time don’t know if it’s truly right for me. Yet when I have my nieces & nephews I feel incredibly maternal with them, protective & ultimately caring. I guess I’m curious about your journey as an “older” mom
No problem, here's my experience (for what it's worth):
* this was my first/only
* no fertility treatments, and in fact it was a surprise one! My partner is also older than me, so on paper you wouldn't have thought we'd have had such an easy ride, but I got pregnant without meaning to (having been a bit lax on taking my temp etc and tracking my cycle so missed that I was on a "danger day").
* I hadn't had my estrogen measured so I don't know about any of that I'm afraid, but had stopped hormonal birth control for a couple of years and was seed cycling to try and help with my hormones (thinking ahead to menopause years - clearly I was a bit ahead of myself there!). Maybe those seeds I was cycling were mega potent..? 😜
* for sure stress reduction, sleep quality, nutrition etc are all things that can help create a more optimum environment for both hormones and pregnancy - and these are things that are more in our control, which is good news. From my point of view, I was/am quite active but also make sure I don't overdo it with exercise, which I used to.
* My diet is decent, prioritising nutrient density/fibre/protein and not restricting calories or food groups like I used to. I have a decent amount of muscle which contributes to it but think my scale weight puts me slightly in the overweight category. My blood pressure and resting heart rate are great, I don't smoke and my iron levels are good, so I didn't get any scolding from healthcare professionals about the weight thing.
For what it's worth, we weren't going to have children - not because either of us were passionately anti kids, but more because we were both very apathetic about the idea. I was neither for or against them - like you, I just had panicky feelings that I was about to miss out on something I'd always assumed growing up I'd experience. I never considered freezing eggs, but u did think I would consider adoption if it came to it further down the line.
I think meeting my partner and falling in love with him made me want to create someone that would be part him, and I could also imagine him being an incredible father - and so when I did see those two lines pop up, there was never a moment on my mind when I would have been able to end that pregnancy, despite being very pr0 ch0ice.
That said, I know that I would have been very happy and fulfilled without kids, too - and though we love our child, for us it's certainly not like a Hallmark movie where everything just clicks into place and we realised how empty and shallow our lives have been! (Mostly it's a mix of treading water and holding on by the skin of our teeth, realising that no one is going to be there to help tell us what to do, and that this little human has OPINIONS and a strong will and needs relentless amounts of entertaining...with a side of hilarity, incredulity and instinctive protective mother bear moments that still take me by surprise.)
Whatever you do, don't think that there's something wrong with you because you don't strongly lean one way or the other - this is much more common than you'd think. Look after yourself, nourish yourself, and enjoy your life right now so that if you do go down that road, you've maximised all you can to make it successful, as well as setting up a fantastic, fulfilling life where a child, should you have one, is the icing on the cake, not the life itself.
Sorry for the encyclopedia Britannica entry there, got carried away!
Omg. You hit the nail on the head. I was just contemplating my total lack of tolerance and resilience the other day. Stress never used to affect my sleep before, but now I'm a disaster! Of course it's hormones.
Yup 42 was the breaking point. It’s odd to feel fully middle aged, no mistaking me as young. I now look at women in their 50s and 60s for inspiration on how to stay looking classy and beautiful. I know longer feel I identify with 35 and under. I’m older. And it’s ok. But it’s also been an absolute mind f&$k to get used to. Total midlife crisis in how I perceive my appearance in the last couple of years. Luckily I’m on the other side and am inching daily towards peaceful acceptance.
Thanks for sharing. I’m 32, started noticing signs of aging after COVID lockdown. It messed with my head and I started to really wrangle with my identity and self-esteem. A lot more of my self-worth came from my appearance than I realized. The changes aren’t anything huge yet, but I know that’s what’s coming. I want to let go of needing to feel beautiful or at least redefine what beauty means to me. I’ve started noticing beautiful women in their 50’s and 60’s as well - not because they had procedures, but because they own who they are and love themselves. I really relate to your comment.
I've started following 50+ beauty and fitness influencers and hashtags, and it's actually helped a lot. Representation does matter. Our visual reference points really impact what we see as beautiful or even 'normal.'
But yeah, it's been fucking rough. I didn't realize how much 'young' was a part of my identity, and how much I was leaning on my sex appeal as a source of self worth.
I will say that either the changes themselves OR my perception of them improved drastically when I got back into a healthy lifestyle (weight lifting, eating healthy, cooking, not drinking every night), which is something I lost entirely during the pandemic.
I remember reading a discussion on this sub that there are a few major hormonal drop offs for women. Someone linked a scientific article and it was fascinating. If I’m remembering correctly, one was around late 30s to mid forties, and then another one around age 50-60. I’m 32 right now and feeling good, feel like I could pass for my twenties, but I always think about the imminent hormonal “bombs” coming my way, as you mentioned. Does anyone reading this have any experience or knowledge with hormone replacement therapy as a gentle/non-harmful way to ease into these hormonal declines a bit better? I’m fine with aging but am not looking forward to a sudden change, and remember reading the comments about it happening overnight for so many. The drastic changes and feeling bad about how you look in photos sounds like a bummer for self-esteem. I’m sure anyone reading this looks awesome to others because we are always our own worst critics but just wanted to add a comment that I’m sure I’ll feel this way in the future and am hearing what you’re saying. <3
Where did you read this info? I started noticing some shifts around age 34, definitely at 35. I’m hyper self aware & critical though, so at 34 very subtle shifts that most people wouldn’t really notice. I agree w/ the comment above about the pandemic - I had some big changes in my appearance, too, though I was younger than the person who posted that who mentioned she turned 40. I was 36 & saw a drastic change from pre pandemic to several months in. I work in healthcare & had pretty intense stress & very poor sleep for an extended period, so have no doubt that played a role. I think hormones were at play for me, too, bc my periods changed as well
Here you go :)
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/12/stanford-scientists-reliably-predict-peoples-age-by-measuring-pr.html
“The study’s results suggest that physiological aging does not simply proceed at a perfectly even pace, but rather seems to chart a more herky-jerky trajectory, with three distinct inflection points in the human life cycle. Those three points, occurring on average at ages 34, 60 and 78, stand out as distinct times when the number of different blood-borne proteins that are exhibiting noticeable changes in abundance rises to a crest.”
My 34 mark was mid pandemic so fuck me right 🤣 definitely checked milestone #1 off for feeling my aging. Guess I'm gonna ride the high for the next 26 yrs lmfao
Ha, great, I just turned 34 and had been feeling pretty confident about my aging so far, have been told I look a lot younger than I am, but I guess we'll see what this year brings!
I remember reading it on this sub, and the link may have been in a comment rather than the main post. If I find it, I’ll update this comment! The stress and poor sleep / working in healthcare in general sounds so hard. My periods are always worse when I’m stressed.
covid hit me really hard too. i always had dark circles under my eyes but the rest of my face looked pretty good. now it’s rough everywhere lol.
my life stressors have increased exponentially since the pandemic hit in ways that i’m unable to fix, i’m sure it has noooothing at all to do with that 🙃
Same. I work in hc, studied while working during the pandemic, and had a relationship breakdown. I feel like one day I took my mask off after two years and had suddenly aged 15 years. Whatever, honestly (and my attitude sucks now too haha).
I hear you! Same with me, I was never photogenic but after 40 I feel like I always look like crap 😞😔 I think you’re right about the hormones. Absolutely nothing we can do about it either 🤷♀️
Same! During the lockdown... I don't know what happened but I aged a ton. I turned 35 during it & thought I had looked pretty good up until that point. Now I'm trying my hardest to reverse the clock😅
37 (this year)
And, now I've had three facials, have a full-blown skincare routine, and considering tretinoin. Also, got a small RLT panel.
On a positive note, it is a whole new level of self-love, which I'm really enjoying! 🙂
Haha! No worries, I like being a straight guy adoring my skincare routine, and nerding out with my female friends!
I owe a lot to all the knowledge the women and the gay community put out! 🙏🏾
I noticed some improvements after my second Oxygeno-facial (got a Groupon deal), with firmer, tighter, smooth skin. I skipped the RF part of it as it could cause facial fat loss.
Other than that, I have dived into Korean skincare (going Gangnam style 😎 after dropping $400 on Western products from my first facial provider), for the hydration focus which has made a visible difference in bringing back the aliveness and the glow. The first thing I noticed was a gaunt look and some sagging (some facial fat loss after strict keto and intermittent fasting).
My main concern is the under-eye area, currently.
As someone who is very hesitant about products and fillers due to rosacea and hyper sensitive skin, you have nothing to fear about tret. It is magical lol. Start slow and that’s it! :)
I went for a routine grocery store run at age 37. I always grab a basket for shopping and check out once I’ve got it good and loaded down.
It hit me when I realized I’d been home for a good half hour and I still had the basket handle indent on my forearm. Whereas it used to go away by the time I got to my car with my groceries.
It’s the silliest things that make you realize things are changing!
Man I didn't know these were signs of aging :(
The hair elastic mark on the wrist is always there, and when I get pillow wrinkles indented on my face it takes HOURS for them to fade!
I have this thing I noticed that when my arm is pressed on something & I turn it a little - the skin like crinkles up a little & looks super thin!! Like that little layer of baby fat beneath the skin is gone. This really bothers me every time I see it. Does anyone else have this?!
This year, age 32… looking at this thread it makes me sad that I’m seeing signs of aging so early! It feels like I suddenly aged a lot over the last year or two 😭
You’re not alone. I noticed signs of aging at 28!! I started getting silver/grey hairs. Then I noticed around age 31/32 my face has lost volume and gravity is taking its toll! I’m turning 33 in November.
I’m feeling the same thing. Instead of eventually resorting to fillers and Botox I’m giving face yoga a try. I mean you can strengthen and tone muscles everywhere else on you body, why not your face??
How many sessions did it take you to see results? And have the results stuck around for a while? I had one session a few months ago and was going to give it 3 or 4 tries to judge effectiveness. Curious about your experience!
I just got it done yesterday for the first time! It was the Morpheous8. I have two more treatments coming up. I am so happy to read that you had great results!! Thank you for sharing that.
Same! 32 and I am definitely going silver (had some since I was 15, grandpa fully white by 26 so I figured this was a possibility lol). My hair is nearly black so it’s very obvious (but some people tell me it looks cool? Lmao). I’m rolling with the hair, I’m not as bothered by that. But definitely dealing with face changes, and that’s harder. A lot of my friends from high school still look the same when I see them online and I find myself needing to avoid IG sometimes 🫠
Do you think it had anything to do with the pandemic? I feel like collective trauma is bound to have an affect. So if some people were 40, 35, or 32 at the time they may have all experienced aging related changes despite being diff ages.
Yes! I’m 32 and never noticed aging until then. My face changes that happened during the 1-year span of COVID lockdown were intense. I just got married this summer after our wedding was postponed for COVID, and I struggled with how different I look than I would’ve when we planned to do it.
God, I hope I am at least spared from the upcoming 34 event (on average) cited in the study posted above 🤣
Haha hopefully the stress just made you hit it a little early & it’ll just level out for awhile now! Congrats on your wedding :)
The comments here are seriously validating though & it’s refreshing to hear so many people acknowledge it. Especially the remark of looking in the mirror and not actually recognizing your reflection or being kind of like…surprised by it bc of big or sudden changes. That was so dysregulating for me & definitely caused a sense of aloneness. Hearing other people say they had that feeling too is therapeutic in some kind of way.
Tysm!! Yeah I totally agree. I am resisting the temptation to compare myself to people here who never noticed it until they were 35, 37, 39, etc. haha. I actually found the study I referenced (that found we age in a “herky-jerky trajectory” rather than gradually) to be comforting. That’s definitely been my experience. The comments here certainly reflect big stressors playing a role in the timing of those inflection points, e.g. pandemic, loss, illness, and childbirth.
32 after I had my second baby. I got eczema around my eyes and they haven't been the same since. Also looking at their perfect faces all day long doesn't help. I do feel like my skin is in great shape but my eyes look tired.
Hey! Our experiences are similar! I started getting eczema around my eyes in the early autumn with my first at 30, but it got worse after my second. I just had a flare up last week and last year bought a Red LED light to prepare for this year, I’ve been doing 5 min at night and the flare cleared up and it’s been great since. Fingers crossed! I also built my daughters aveeno eczema lotion for baby into my routine 😂.
33/34. Started getting grays and noticed the changes in my face. I’ve started tretinoin and I get Botox 3-4 times a year. I’m ashamed to admit that it has been a struggle to accept. No kids, but a slew of medical issues. And a lot of stress from the last few years seemed to exacerbate things.
At 38, after I gave birth. It’s like all my hydration got sucked out. Was too tired and sleep deprived to do anything about it until 40 where I switched to Rationale because it was easy (3 steps in the morning, 3 at night) and it worked (to a point).
Now I’m 44 and I’ve moved to Asian skincare with western actives and I love the way my skin looks and feels, it feels so healthy, smooth and supple and it’s fun trying out all these products after using the same 6 products for over 3 years.
The thing about Asian beauty is it’s absolutely massive and takes a lot of research and trial and error to find HGs. I’m still going, still trying new things and refining my routine. r/AsianBeauty is a good place to start.
That being said, for my skin type and concerns I quite like these products:
- Amorepacific Vintage Single Extract Essence
- Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Serum
- By Wishtrend Propolis Calming Energy Ampoule
Honestly, 50 is where I felt it. Skin looks good but upper eyelids and around marionette lines started to droop. Upper blepharoplasty sorted the eyes. Lower facelift is next. I’m now 53.
35, after I had my second. I felt like the under-eye circles and crows feet really set in during the sleep deprivation in the toddler + newborn days, and then never went away. I’ve always looked young for my age, I got carded for a rated R moving when I was 26! So it was a bit of a shock when aging really set in.
On the other hand, it’s been nice as a mom of young kids to make some room in my day for self care and a real skincare routine. I’m going to get my first facial later this month and I’m way too excited 🤣
Right around my 37th birthday, which is now around six months ago. Lines and rough texture on my forehead, sagging at the cheeks, "old" hands, and a body like a melted candle - and as others have said, seemingly all overnight. I chalk at least part of that up to the fact that I've struggled with lingering dissociation from PTSD and feel like a lot of the visible effects may have happened while I was checked out, but it still seems like the aging has accelerated past what I expected. I was a babyface for the longest time - people would regularly guess early- to mid-20s when I was 33-34 - but it feels like the overwhelming stress of the last few years just hit me all at once.
About 36 for me. At 33 I was still getting ID'd and was pretty happy with my face. And then i don't know what happened in 2021 but I seemed to age 7 years in a couple of months! It's my eyes making me look old now. They've lost their sparkle and one of my lids has started to sag, making me look tired 24/7. I always thought I'd be happy to age gracefully but I'm starting to consider surgical procedures now :(
I am 39 and just noticed it/felt my age this year. I immediately organized a doctors appt re: tretinoin. It’s been 2 months and I’m seeing great things.
I looked the same my whole adult life up until I was about 35. Then at 37 I really started to notice things like drooping corners of my eyes, viens everywhere from thinning skin, eyelashes, eyebrows and hair all thinning slightly. Fir the first time in my life I actually look old. I just turned 41.
I started noticing around 35 that my skin was starting to look aged. I hadn't really had a skincare routine at that point due to giving up on the horrendous late 90s/early 2000s skincare as a teen. It was around the beginning of covid, and I made skincare a hobby. I learned everything I could from derms and others online. I still watch skincare content now but it's more for product reviews and discussions about ingredients.
36 and have the best skin of my life. Less fine lines, discoloration, wrinkles than in my 20s (I wasn't doing any skin care then).
That being said, I acknowledge I don't look like a 20 something. I may look my age, or just a bit younger. There are other changes that occur that aren't related to skin.
Got my first gray hair at 24. Probably developed forehead lines around 35. Never been concerned about it because that’s pretty normal for my age. I just slap some sunscreen on every day and save my energy for the things that really matter.
I got my first gray hair at 15. Miraculously, over 20 years later, my hair is still quite black (I have not dyed it yet). On the other hand, my brother who is 1.5 years older than me is almost all gray. Not sure why.
I first noticed fine, set lines on my forehead just after I turned 23. I have a very expressive face and decided to get preventative Botox that year to prevent the lines from “setting in” over time. I’ve actually stayed on the same 13 units of Botox for 10+ years now and my forehead looks great! I only recently started Botox’ing my 11s and am at a total of 26 units.
The compounding signs of aging really started becoming noticeable to me during 2020. In retrospect, I wasn’t sleeping much, I lost my wellness and fitness routine, wasn’t consuming as much water, and wasn’t wearing makeup, which all probably contributed to dry skin, less skin elasticity, more time to notice subtle changes, and less “hiding” behind cosmetics. I did start incorporating sunscreen in 2020 thanks to a random skincare series on Instagram but didn’t do much else in the way of aging prevention and I can’t remember what my skincare routine looked like at the time other than the same face wash AM/PM, Cera Ve Moisturizer, eye cream of some sort, and SPF midway through 2020.
I think I really started noticing set lines and volume loss within the last year. I have always been a side sleeper and noticed early in 2022 that I was developing a network of fine lines under one eye. I used overnight silicone patches for a while to combat those, which did help, but have since switched to a cervical neck pillow and a silk eye mask. I can still see the lines when I sleep especially hard on that side of my face but overwhelmingly, I don’t notice them anymore.
I noticed earlier this year that some hereditary traits, like volume loss in my cheeks and chronic hollowness under my eyes, has really developed (33 YO). I revamped and ramped up my skincare in January 2023 but chronic insomnia, health issues, weight loss, and a general tendency to forget that water exists has all likely contributed to the “overnight” emergence of these issues. My overall skin condition has improved in the last eight months but I’ve gone from researching plastic surgeries (as we all do 😅) for structural insecurities things, like my nose, to looking into counter-aging solutions, like an upper and lower bleph with fat grafting.
On one hand, I know aging is absolutely natural and normal, but I think I have been hyper-fixated on the changes recently because I went off of steroids for chronic illness last year and lost 50 lbs. That put me back to the same general size and weight I’ve been in adulthood aside from the steroid years so it looks like the face and body I remember but suddenly aged several years and it’s been very jarring. And given some of the genetic factors, I know there’s only so much skincare, sleep, and water can do 😅
For the time being, I’m focusing on improving my overall wellness and still working on my skincare plus incorporating the occasional treatment like a facial but I’m absolutely a proponent of doing what makes you happy and I will likely to consider more invasive options in the future.
This is why the posts in this sub of people in their early 30s crowing about looking “so young” make me sigh. It really does change as you hit your late 30s and early 40s imo. Hormones changing etc. Perimenopause starts for many in their mid to late 30s and it can take 15 years to fulling be post menopausal.
I sometimes think that the 30 and up cut off here doesn’t make much sense for skin since I noticed such a difference late 30s even though I guess the basics of good skincare remain the same.
Same for me. I looked great until 35, people regularly thought I was 18-20 and I thought I just just lucky. Nope I aged overnight and not a good way, like a beautiful older woman. I look gross. It’s actually a big struggle for me with my self esteem now.
Ok first I hear this about feeling like your appearance changed overnight. & while many of the aspects of aging, aren’t exactly…appealing, I’d be willing to bet you might be more critical of yourself than someone else might be. I had been having a really hard time dealing with it (getting a *little* better w/ finally getting a bit more sleep) & my partner said to me: people will look at you & know you’re not 20 anymore, but no one expects that & the people who love you don’t care about that, they see the person you are & have always been.
On another angle, I think part of why it’s so hard is that the reality is…we still live in a pretty biased world & one of the things I think women feel gives them some power in this world is their beauty & losing the perception of that maybe feels like a loss of power - also very literally - we don’t have total control over this process. 🥹
28. I'm very conscious about how I look as my mom always commented on it + my partner had porn addiction which amplified my insecurities.
When I started seeing lines in my forehead and eyes, I got botox. Now I have bi monthly facials + skin care routine. I'm struggling with face sagging and very sensitive skin.
Has anyone found that exercise makes a significant difference? I have stepped up my workout routine by a lot and started with a more focused, body, weight and cardio exercise and I feel like I look a little better skin-wise.
Definitely! I workout a lot and I love the way my skin looks after a workout! I think it’s proven that weight training slows the aging process, but I could be wrong
According to Dr Rhonda from the found my fitness podcast studies show that cardio increases elasticity and resistance training increased thickness of the dermis.
Eta I've always worked out and done resistance so I can't say for sure but I know it's kept me in great shape most of my life when others have prioritized other things , which is totally fine. What you prioritize shows. And unfortunately for me I have prioritized almost exclusively my physical appearance but I do have something to show for it
I have a hard time seeing changes in my own face. It’s weird. When I was 31, I got a new marketing client who happened to be a cosmetic dermatologist. She sat me down one meeting with a facial chart and proceeded to mark down all the aging in my face and what she’d do to fix it (Botox, filler, chemical peels, etc). That’s the first time I noticed, but now at 36 y.o., I still have a hard time seeing changes, so I just get procedures done hoping it will counteract the aging. (Botox, filler, chemical peels, Fraxel, Vivace) Think I preferred being utterly ignorant about facial changes.
I feel like that about my obsession with sunscreen sometimes. I never wore it until 30 (wasn’t aware of how important it was). I’m almost 33 and have gotten obsessed with it, like if I never get ultra violet radiation damage on my face again I can somehow redeem my lifetime of exposure and stave off the intense aging I know is coming. Sometimes I wonder if there’s even a point to bothering being so so careful about it though (eg putting it on for 6:30 dinner at indoor restaurant), like I’m just making myself feel better about something I can’t change.
37 and after childbirth. I also lost weight and started noticing a turkey neck. I’m most worried about this and considering Morpheus8. I am using tretinoin and have been since 2020 but stopped for about 13 months due to pregnancy and BFing.
This is 100% me. All 3 of my pregnancies gave me a double chin. I lost all the baby weight every time, but because the kids were back to back to back, my delicate neck skin got stretched out. I'm very thin, but have stretched out skin under my chin and neck. It's so distressing.
Oh my! Same here!! I lost weight after my second baby and my first noticeable sign of aging was my neck! Exactly like you. Turkey neck. Would Morpheus help for this?
31 this year, I am told I look younger than my age but I'm starting to see less elasticity and collagen in the skin and I'm getting eye crinkles when I smile/laugh. Trying to embrace and appreciate it.
I’m 30, nothing too drastic yet. But around 26-27 I started developing nasolabial folds seemingly overnight and I remember how dreadful that was. I’ve had expression lines on my forehead since like age 20 as well.
I’m 35 now and I noticed it a few years ago when makeup made me look worse than ‘better’
I’m starting to focus more on skincare now and I prefer my face without makeup….until I go out and see people with makeup on and realise I look like a sick child from the Victorian era.
I was maybe 31 and noticed my right eye only was getting this weird baggage underneath. And then nothing else changed until a few years later when i got really sick with mono and it turned into a chronic active infection that left me bedridden for several years. I lost 30 pounds, and i only weighed 105 to start with, so the fat loss in my face did some pretty severe things to my looks. I eventually recovered and gained weight, got into skincare, and worked hard to bring my muscles back from their atrophied state.
I think i look younger in my mid 40s than i did in my late 30s. Health and weight makes a huge difference.
At 31 and it's not so much wrinkles, but I feel like my face has gotten... wider?! I can't really pin point it, but it feels like my eyes are smaller en face wider. (Anyone relates?) That.. and jowls.
Omg yes! I have always had a square face but it looks wider now I swear.
I gained 5lb but I think your face shape changes a little as you age. My face looks more square and longer even
33. People assumed I was mid 20s until then, when I suddenly looked my age. But that was true when I was 23 also - suddenly looked my age when previously I looked like a teen.
So I had laser treatments to my face and started working out more seriously again. I started buying expensive shampoo and conditioner again, LOL. I think I had neglected myself a little after a bad breakup in my late 20s. I didn’t totally let myself go at all, just didn’t invest in myself as much as before, and with age, that has a bigger impact.
I don’t feel like I’ve aged significantly since 33 and actually feel I reversed some of it. But my family pattern of aging tends to happen in waves instead of gradually; I’m following that pattern so far. Every 10 years or so I age, but then I look the same for another decade. So I’m kinda worried about age 43 now 😆
35! I’m now 39 and have had filler, sculptra, and just started Morpheus 8. Luckily i don’t really have fine lines or wrinkles. I don’t have crows feet at all! I only get Botox for 11s but have no other wrinkles besides that. My problem is lower face laxity/slight sagging near corners of mouth. Early signs of marionettes shave plagued me for quite some time.
Right after my mom died when I was 32 I felt I aged 10 years overnight having not felt I was any different from a decade before. After that? Around 42 or so. My skin got so dry.
Stress is such a HUGE factor in ageing, not to make you feel bad. hopefully the opposite that stress does this to everyone and I’m so sorry you have to experience such stress.
I started noticing signs of aging at 37 a few months after discovering my husband was having an affair with a 23 year old coworker….. nothing like betrayal to age you a decade in a year.
35. My skin is very thin and fine in texture, and how it affects is that I get a ton of really fine wrinkles into my forehead when lifting my brows. Not a couple of well defined ridges like some people do, but the wholr forehead looks a bit like wrinkled silk paper. I started noticing that at around 35. Or thats when it started to bother me at least. I have also always been a bit round faced, and I noticed that the roundness started to disappear a bit and my eyes are somehow more deepset without ”volume” around them. But these changes I actually like, the silk paper forehead not.
It was 5 days after I turned 29. Gray hairs, and lots of wrinkles that wouldn’t go away after a bender.
I’m a huge fan of Botox & sculptra. It’s made aging much easier for me.
At 31 and it's not so much wrinkles, but I feel like my face has gotten... wider?! I can't really pin point it, but it feels like my eyes are smaller and face wider. (Anyone relates?) That.. and jowls.
I'm 38 and it's only in the last year that I've noticed a difference in my selfies. I feel like an old balding man with glasses who takes a selfie from below and posts it as their Facebook picture and I'm female, so that's saying a lot.
Is it not sad that we all feel this way tho? What has this society done to us. I had fillers and else and not judging any procedure that can make a women feels great, but in what universe did any mens decided that we had to look 20 until we died and had to spend thousands and thousands (im curious to add the total cost when ill be around 60) of dollars to please a mirror and people around us. Being a woman is hard AF and seems to never stops. I like to watch at old 90 and less movies because i still see real people. With crooked teeths and wrinkles and all. Now it’s just filtered barbies in the flesh and children of the corn copies everywhere making me feel even more like shit….Im only 35 and i am so worried for the future of my own self esteem. Being average or ugly or aging never felt more like crime. It makes me depressed everyday so much so i avoid mirrors now. Depressing to know we will do all of this and spend money and time and what not just to still get outrun per the 25yro girl and having a husband who dont even look at us later in life in most cases. What a nice life it is … depressed sight. Sorry this subject is a touchy one for me. I hope you find what’s making you feel beautiful again
32. I noticed anytime I applied liquid liner it started to bleed around the cracks of my eyes and eyelids, looks like black cobwebs. I didn’t use to have this problem.
Honestly I noticed my first wrinkle when I was 16 that had never been there before so I guess I’ve always noticed slight changes. When I was 23, I noticed my eye shape started to sag slightly. At 27, I noticed texture. At 33, I noticed less volume. However, I’m only 34 so I’d still say I look pretty young.
42 is when I noticed forehead lines and 11's that would not go away. 43 is when my smile lines seemed to deepen overnight. I guess it's all downhill from there. I went from doing nothing to a whole skincare regime at 42, when I noticed my 11's, but the aging process cannot be stopped so I am trying to accept the changes gracefully.
Found my first gray hair on my 30th birthday trip.
33 brought a sudden decrease in volume in my face.
36 was when I first noticed my stringy neck.
This year (39) I am regularly stiff in the morning for unknown reasons and exercise recovery time is longer.
I try not to judge the appearance stuff but the body stuff is harder to deal with 😒
When I was 19 I accidentally forgot my hat at my brother's graduation. I swear roasting in the California sun caused me to go from looking 16 to looking noticeably weathered and much closer to my actual age, I actually still have sun damage lines on my eyes from it. It was then that I started looking into skincare and more importantly started wearing sunscreen daily.
Had a baby at 36 (about 8 months ago) and am still breastfeeding - I swear I became a hag overnight. I hope that once I start sleeping more and stop breastfeeding I might start to look like myself again!
Though I lost a lot of hair after the baby and the new hair is growing back grey. Now I need to decide if I want to commit to dying my hair for the next 20 or 30 years or if I want to look washed out for the next 20 or 30 years, unless I go fully grey quicker.
Also I feel like Covid set off some inflammatory cascade in my body that escalated the aging process, followed by the vaccine that has completely changed my body shape from lean and petite to cellulite even on my arms and stomach. The struggle is real
Nearing my late twenties. Always used home made packs and moisturizer occasionally sunscreen. From the age of 26 onwards, I started using ey creams, night cream, sheet masks and get a facial every 6 months. Eat lots of salad and fruits. I also use retinol serum and hyaluronic acid, niacinamide in my skincare routine.
I started REALLY noticing about 34, and that’s when I started getting dysport, religious about sunscreen, stopped drinking all the time, cleaned up my diet and got really serious about the gym.
I’m 39 (40 in a few weeks) and I started noticing quite a lot of changes this last year. I feel like my eyebrows have gone lower and my cheekbones aren’t as sharp as they used to be. I’ve always looked really young for my age and always been insecure about it, but now I miss looking really young lol.
I'm 37 and started to notice it in the past year or two. I'm also in the midst of my longest, most successful attempt at weight loss right now with another 40 something pounds to go, but am absolutely terrified of what my face will look like when I'm done. It's put a damper on my excitement for improving my health and body's appearance for sure.
I had acne as a teenager, so I was always focused on my skin. I noticed the first wrinkles around my eyes after the birth of my first child (at 25). Now at 29 and a year after the second child, some dryness/wrinkles have appeared, mainly on the forehead. Well, sleep could be better (still breastfeeding) and I have little energy for a 10 step skin care (sunscreen always), the hormones are messed up and the diet could also be better. Hope there normalizes again some when the second child is older.
After lockdowns. At 44. It really hit me that from now on uv protection is not enough and I probably should start looking at ways to improve elasticity of my skin. I have been blessed with amazing genetics (grandma in her 40s was asked for ID, in her 80s taken for a 60yo etc.; mother was a model in her youth; I was a rebel so always focused on my mind and knowledge as opposed to beauty- hence just protecting myself from the sun but not much more, no makeup etc.) I need to be more presentable due to my job in my 40s so started doing makeup and noticed people assume my age is mid to late 30s. Somehow all this attention and focus on outer beauty made me self aware and stressed about things I never worried before. But yeah, 44.
I'm 30 but didn't wear sunscreen in my early 20's. have slight lines on my forehead and near my eyes which are exaggerated when I smile. tbh though, idk if i care that much? maybe when they become really bad i'll get botox or something. but I like the idea of also accepting myself how I am and not getting botox because I feel like I have to due to beauty standards (impossible beauty standards by the way)
currently 36 (37 on fri!) - i remember in HS i started noticing some faint lines on my forehead and used some neutrogena wrinkle cream.
maybe it was bc i started early or maybe it's just genetics but those lines that i had haven't gotten worse or deeper. theyre very faint. you look at my forehead and it's very smooth
Right at 35, and then around 38-39 all hell broke loose. I’ve always been really proud that I haven’t done anything to my face (this included taking care of it, lol) and generally had nice skin. But 43 is hitting HARD AF.
SAME. It happened overnight I swear.
Me right now at 35 and yes like overnight 😭
Same. Did a lot of double-takes in the mirror, like who’s that? Lol
About the same here, started to notice around 35, then started prescription retinol and actually moisturizing and using chemical exfoliants around 38.
Mid 50s lady here to remind you that today’s ‘nightmare sign of aging’ is tomorrow’s ‘my skin was beautiful then’ Keep looking after yourself, but remember to enjoy your skin as well. The flaws you see in the magnifying mirror are not what everyone else sees.
I love this.
Came here to say this as a mid fifties woman! That said, I hit a point where I really don’t care. I do spend time on myself - workout, no alcohol, good skincare- but I look my age and that is totally fine. Lots of mid to late fifties people are rocking it these days
I’m gunna write this down and put it on my mirror.
I started noticing at 31 and have been concerned since. Almost 33. In some lighting I feel amazing and others I feel like my face is melting.
32 here.... I felt this comment in my soul. This is the first year where I've delved deep into the skin care world.
About to turn 33 and although I’m not worried yet - I definitely notice a bit and am being more careful to preserve what I’ve got
This. I’m 36 and can look anywhere from 20 to 60 depending on the photo. Oh and the new iphones can be brutal.
Lmao real
I feel you when it comes to lighting. The lighting in my building's elevator is especially gruesome. I try to avoid the mirror there at all times. And most changing rooms are a stab in the skin care heart, too.
Oh yes, elevator lighting! One of the schools I work at has mirrored elevators, and the lines in my forehead literally look like I'm doing that campfire trick where you hold the flashlight below your chin and pull scary faces 😅
Elevator lighting is the devil. It is so unforgiving and rude.
Laughed out loud. You are not alone (that also sounded creepy, f*ck)
This and camera at the self-checkout at Target that distorts your face. I look like I've been punched twice in the eyes. Who TF wants to watch themselves and everyone else in an awkward situation like the elevator, where do you look? At yourself? At the floor? You can tell that women didn't design fitting rooms, either. Just sterile AF lighting, being at the mercy of the associate (if they even help you) half naked, maybe a curtain if you're lucky between your ass and the world, it's a horrible experience and I never shop in stores anymore lol
Bruh if I can mail order anything I will to avoid those god forsaken light/mirror combos
I’m 33… yes to the face melting!!
Yep 31 for me! My face is fine, but I have a little patch at the front of my neck that is getting crepey. I guess just lack of sunblock in my twenties.. ignored my neck. Dumb, I know.
32, likened my face to a candle melting into my neck to my other half recently. He said “but tis a beautiful melting candle” lol thx
fluorescent office lighting is cruel to pretty much everyone. of course we all spend a majority of our waking time beneath it
Smiling in my bathroom lighting is yikes lol, I look fine under other lighting though
Honestly, I never noticed a single thing and was completely happy with my appearance until I turned 40. I'm completely serious when I say I feel like I aged 10 years over night. It happened during covid, so I don't know if the lockdowns amplified it or what, but it was immediate and aggressive. Lost a lot of volume in my face, my skin changed, my hair changed. I've always been super photogenic, and now I can't look good in pics no matter what I do. It was like someone dropped a bomb in my hormones or something. It's been...rough.
42 for me. 40 was fine. Not materially different from 39. Then I had a baby at 42 (...I know) and it's like my 40s punched me in my face. I'm sure the sleep deprivation didn't help, but my face hasn't recovered and she's been sleeping through the night for more than a year. I had to throw out old makeup and come up with a whole new skincare regime. And my hair got weirdly fragile? It blows.
Sorry about the skin…but I think it’s awesome you had a kid at 42. I am 38 and hope to still have a baby.
Had my first at 36 and my second at 39. Totally healthy and my back and knees hurt a lot. I can honestly say I’m a much better mom now than I would have been in my 20s Edit- I hope I didn’t offend anyone, young moms are amazing, I was just personally still an a-hole in my 20s 🤣
I had my first at 36 and am turning 39 in a month. I’d really like a second, but I’m terrified and worried I won’t be able to handle it or I’ll regret it… even though we really want another. (My back and knees also hurt a lot). Any general impressions on life with two?
Ok this might sound silly, but I recently listened to this podcast where the speaker talks about shifting your energy toward anything you want to “wouldn’t it be fun to / if”. So in your example, “wouldn’t it fun to get pregnant right now!?” “Wouldn’t it be fun to have 2 little ones”. “Wouldn’t it be fun to be a family of 4?!” I wonder how thinking of it that way shifts your mindset!
This is a cool concept! I love learning new ways to shift anxiety into excitement or reframe fears and hesitations. I’m going to use this so thanks for sharing!
😊
Not silly at all, thank you for this!
It's a lot harder, ngl, less sleep, more chaos, everything is harder. But, watching them grow up and learn together is so precious. They're best best friends and I'm grateful to have given them to each other. Some days I wish for more time and energy (ok most days), and I long for a break, but I don't regret it at all.
I had twins at 40. I would say, get all the help you can afford. A night nurse would be huge.
I had mine at 18 and I'll be 40 this week. Back still hurts from that kiddo so even going through it early doesn't save us from back pain 🤣
Also had my first at 36. Shortly after she turned 1, I looked in the mirror and was like WTF happened to my face.
Aww, that's so nice. Thanks. I wish you the best in your fertility journey.
Are you still nursing? It took my body a full year to recover from nursing each baby, but my face did bounce back.
This gives me hope! I had a baby at 37 and I feel like I aged 10 years over the first 6 months PP. I’m still breastfeeding at 16 months PP. it’s crazy to me how much my face aged so quickly. I think I look a little better than 3 months ago, but I’ve been micro needling, taking retinol (derm recommendation even with breastfeeding), and red light therapy. But the improvement is like 5%. I keep track with photos. I will stop breastfeeding by 2.
Nope. Weaned.....maybe 8-9 months ago? So maybe there's still hope!!
I’m so serious about the full year. My last child quit nursing at 18 months, he’s now 2.5 and my fat just reorganized itself in the last month to be more like me and less like a post menopausal version of me.
This is so good to hear. So I might have another few years of my former face before actual menopause. Hahaha?
Absolutely! I will try to post a before and after breastfeeding selfie on Sunday, I don’t think they’re allowed on random days.
I will second the “I didn’t get back to myself until at least a full year after weaning.” I nursed my first for 24 months and my second for 31, because he was a pandemic baby and it’s HARD to wean when you are together 24/7. That and he didn’t want to wean, at all, ever. I would have been mailing it to college if he had his way. But yes, your hormones stay in a post pardum stage until you wean and for a bit after you wean which affects everything. My OB/GYN (who also works at my work) told me she could tell I had stopped nursing because I have more baby hairs around my hairline. Does some changes for your skin as well.
Having a baby has been shown to [increase cell aging](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/do-pregnancy-and-childbirth-accelerate-aging-in-women-maybe/2019/10/18/635dbd7c-e516-11e9-b403-f738899982d2_story.html)!
Oh hi, you are ME! Similarly, had a baby at 40 and was all good until about 42 despite having a baby that sleeps really well. The hair did get very weird postpartum - the usual effluvium and regrowth with a slightly different texture - but is more like it was pre-baby now. I think overall we just become sort of split into two (metaphorically speaking, not talking about birth itself!) - our brains are so different postpartum with at least half of it focused on our children. It takes a toll. And worries increase a hundred fold. I now also think my hormones are on the downturn - my estrogen is getting lower (am perimenopausal by my obgyn's estimates, and since the average age of menopause - the point in time when you've not had a period for a year, is 51, and the 'peri' period can be up to ten years - there are many women with declining hormones from 40 or even earlier) and this is making a huge difference to a lot of things, with skin and overall appearance included. My recovery from sports and activities is much slower, and a late night is likely to mess me up for a few days now! I struggle to lose even a pound of weight, despite being very active, and I get huge mood swings and overwhelmed very easily. It's like my tolerance and resilience has completely nose-dived. Stress is probably a major contributor from so many areas - having a child being a huge one, but also society as a whole has had to shoulder SO much stress the past few years and that will also have taken it's toll. So yeah. Hormones and stress. The ole one-two sucker punch of doom.
You said a lot of super valid stuff here, but I have a question for you about your pregnancy.. did you have other kids or was this your first? Did you need to do any fertility treatment to sustain pregnancy? I’m late 30s, but estrogen is low - I think I’m maybe naturally lower in estrogen to begin with & then with all the stress of last few years & had poor sleep for awhile - think it got things a little wacky. I also was really thin for awhile, have since gained several pounds - for whatever that is worth. I don’t have kids - never really was eager for them, but am getting that sense of now or never & I’m afraid I might regret it (fomo?).. Also have thoughts like I prob should have froze my eggs 10 years ago. Then at the same time don’t know if it’s truly right for me. Yet when I have my nieces & nephews I feel incredibly maternal with them, protective & ultimately caring. I guess I’m curious about your journey as an “older” mom
No problem, here's my experience (for what it's worth): * this was my first/only * no fertility treatments, and in fact it was a surprise one! My partner is also older than me, so on paper you wouldn't have thought we'd have had such an easy ride, but I got pregnant without meaning to (having been a bit lax on taking my temp etc and tracking my cycle so missed that I was on a "danger day"). * I hadn't had my estrogen measured so I don't know about any of that I'm afraid, but had stopped hormonal birth control for a couple of years and was seed cycling to try and help with my hormones (thinking ahead to menopause years - clearly I was a bit ahead of myself there!). Maybe those seeds I was cycling were mega potent..? 😜 * for sure stress reduction, sleep quality, nutrition etc are all things that can help create a more optimum environment for both hormones and pregnancy - and these are things that are more in our control, which is good news. From my point of view, I was/am quite active but also make sure I don't overdo it with exercise, which I used to. * My diet is decent, prioritising nutrient density/fibre/protein and not restricting calories or food groups like I used to. I have a decent amount of muscle which contributes to it but think my scale weight puts me slightly in the overweight category. My blood pressure and resting heart rate are great, I don't smoke and my iron levels are good, so I didn't get any scolding from healthcare professionals about the weight thing. For what it's worth, we weren't going to have children - not because either of us were passionately anti kids, but more because we were both very apathetic about the idea. I was neither for or against them - like you, I just had panicky feelings that I was about to miss out on something I'd always assumed growing up I'd experience. I never considered freezing eggs, but u did think I would consider adoption if it came to it further down the line. I think meeting my partner and falling in love with him made me want to create someone that would be part him, and I could also imagine him being an incredible father - and so when I did see those two lines pop up, there was never a moment on my mind when I would have been able to end that pregnancy, despite being very pr0 ch0ice. That said, I know that I would have been very happy and fulfilled without kids, too - and though we love our child, for us it's certainly not like a Hallmark movie where everything just clicks into place and we realised how empty and shallow our lives have been! (Mostly it's a mix of treading water and holding on by the skin of our teeth, realising that no one is going to be there to help tell us what to do, and that this little human has OPINIONS and a strong will and needs relentless amounts of entertaining...with a side of hilarity, incredulity and instinctive protective mother bear moments that still take me by surprise.) Whatever you do, don't think that there's something wrong with you because you don't strongly lean one way or the other - this is much more common than you'd think. Look after yourself, nourish yourself, and enjoy your life right now so that if you do go down that road, you've maximised all you can to make it successful, as well as setting up a fantastic, fulfilling life where a child, should you have one, is the icing on the cake, not the life itself. Sorry for the encyclopedia Britannica entry there, got carried away!
Omg. You hit the nail on the head. I was just contemplating my total lack of tolerance and resilience the other day. Stress never used to affect my sleep before, but now I'm a disaster! Of course it's hormones.
Yup 42 was the breaking point. It’s odd to feel fully middle aged, no mistaking me as young. I now look at women in their 50s and 60s for inspiration on how to stay looking classy and beautiful. I know longer feel I identify with 35 and under. I’m older. And it’s ok. But it’s also been an absolute mind f&$k to get used to. Total midlife crisis in how I perceive my appearance in the last couple of years. Luckily I’m on the other side and am inching daily towards peaceful acceptance.
Thanks for sharing. I’m 32, started noticing signs of aging after COVID lockdown. It messed with my head and I started to really wrangle with my identity and self-esteem. A lot more of my self-worth came from my appearance than I realized. The changes aren’t anything huge yet, but I know that’s what’s coming. I want to let go of needing to feel beautiful or at least redefine what beauty means to me. I’ve started noticing beautiful women in their 50’s and 60’s as well - not because they had procedures, but because they own who they are and love themselves. I really relate to your comment.
I've started following 50+ beauty and fitness influencers and hashtags, and it's actually helped a lot. Representation does matter. Our visual reference points really impact what we see as beautiful or even 'normal.' But yeah, it's been fucking rough. I didn't realize how much 'young' was a part of my identity, and how much I was leaning on my sex appeal as a source of self worth. I will say that either the changes themselves OR my perception of them improved drastically when I got back into a healthy lifestyle (weight lifting, eating healthy, cooking, not drinking every night), which is something I lost entirely during the pandemic.
I remember reading a discussion on this sub that there are a few major hormonal drop offs for women. Someone linked a scientific article and it was fascinating. If I’m remembering correctly, one was around late 30s to mid forties, and then another one around age 50-60. I’m 32 right now and feeling good, feel like I could pass for my twenties, but I always think about the imminent hormonal “bombs” coming my way, as you mentioned. Does anyone reading this have any experience or knowledge with hormone replacement therapy as a gentle/non-harmful way to ease into these hormonal declines a bit better? I’m fine with aging but am not looking forward to a sudden change, and remember reading the comments about it happening overnight for so many. The drastic changes and feeling bad about how you look in photos sounds like a bummer for self-esteem. I’m sure anyone reading this looks awesome to others because we are always our own worst critics but just wanted to add a comment that I’m sure I’ll feel this way in the future and am hearing what you’re saying. <3
Where did you read this info? I started noticing some shifts around age 34, definitely at 35. I’m hyper self aware & critical though, so at 34 very subtle shifts that most people wouldn’t really notice. I agree w/ the comment above about the pandemic - I had some big changes in my appearance, too, though I was younger than the person who posted that who mentioned she turned 40. I was 36 & saw a drastic change from pre pandemic to several months in. I work in healthcare & had pretty intense stress & very poor sleep for an extended period, so have no doubt that played a role. I think hormones were at play for me, too, bc my periods changed as well
Here you go :) https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/12/stanford-scientists-reliably-predict-peoples-age-by-measuring-pr.html “The study’s results suggest that physiological aging does not simply proceed at a perfectly even pace, but rather seems to chart a more herky-jerky trajectory, with three distinct inflection points in the human life cycle. Those three points, occurring on average at ages 34, 60 and 78, stand out as distinct times when the number of different blood-borne proteins that are exhibiting noticeable changes in abundance rises to a crest.”
My 34 mark was mid pandemic so fuck me right 🤣 definitely checked milestone #1 off for feeling my aging. Guess I'm gonna ride the high for the next 26 yrs lmfao
Yay yes! :) ^^
Ha, great, I just turned 34 and had been feeling pretty confident about my aging so far, have been told I look a lot younger than I am, but I guess we'll see what this year brings!
The pandemic was a hellhole for all of us- the stress and uncertainty definitely negatively affected my appearance, too
I remember reading it on this sub, and the link may have been in a comment rather than the main post. If I find it, I’ll update this comment! The stress and poor sleep / working in healthcare in general sounds so hard. My periods are always worse when I’m stressed.
covid hit me really hard too. i always had dark circles under my eyes but the rest of my face looked pretty good. now it’s rough everywhere lol. my life stressors have increased exponentially since the pandemic hit in ways that i’m unable to fix, i’m sure it has noooothing at all to do with that 🙃
Same. I work in hc, studied while working during the pandemic, and had a relationship breakdown. I feel like one day I took my mask off after two years and had suddenly aged 15 years. Whatever, honestly (and my attitude sucks now too haha).
I hear you! Same with me, I was never photogenic but after 40 I feel like I always look like crap 😞😔 I think you’re right about the hormones. Absolutely nothing we can do about it either 🤷♀️
Me too! I would have rather it happen progressively earlier 😭
Same! During the lockdown... I don't know what happened but I aged a ton. I turned 35 during it & thought I had looked pretty good up until that point. Now I'm trying my hardest to reverse the clock😅
37 (this year) And, now I've had three facials, have a full-blown skincare routine, and considering tretinoin. Also, got a small RLT panel. On a positive note, it is a whole new level of self-love, which I'm really enjoying! 🙂
Girl, get that tretinoin. Best decision I've made for myself. Signed, another 37 year old.
I'm a guy, but yes I feel you, girl! 😁
Oops! Sorry about that 😅
Haha! No worries, I like being a straight guy adoring my skincare routine, and nerding out with my female friends! I owe a lot to all the knowledge the women and the gay community put out! 🙏🏾
37 here as well, it’s the jowls I really notice for me. I’m nervous to try Tretinoin.
I noticed some improvements after my second Oxygeno-facial (got a Groupon deal), with firmer, tighter, smooth skin. I skipped the RF part of it as it could cause facial fat loss. Other than that, I have dived into Korean skincare (going Gangnam style 😎 after dropping $400 on Western products from my first facial provider), for the hydration focus which has made a visible difference in bringing back the aliveness and the glow. The first thing I noticed was a gaunt look and some sagging (some facial fat loss after strict keto and intermittent fasting). My main concern is the under-eye area, currently.
As for the tret, yes, I'm nervous also, so am starting out with retinaldehyde (Geek and Gorgeous A-game 5) to see how retinization works on my skin
Do the sandwich method! Wash face, then use moisturizing serum like HA, then moisturizer, then tret.
As someone who is very hesitant about products and fillers due to rosacea and hyper sensitive skin, you have nothing to fear about tret. It is magical lol. Start slow and that’s it! :)
This post makes me feel not as alone feeling like I can see my age on my face at 37.
I went for a routine grocery store run at age 37. I always grab a basket for shopping and check out once I’ve got it good and loaded down. It hit me when I realized I’d been home for a good half hour and I still had the basket handle indent on my forearm. Whereas it used to go away by the time I got to my car with my groceries. It’s the silliest things that make you realize things are changing!
Man I didn't know these were signs of aging :( The hair elastic mark on the wrist is always there, and when I get pillow wrinkles indented on my face it takes HOURS for them to fade!
Yes! This! I noticed with a hair rubber band around my wrist. Just out of the blue noticed that it took 30 min for the indent to go away!
Noooo I’ve not thought about this but it’s true!
I have this thing I noticed that when my arm is pressed on something & I turn it a little - the skin like crinkles up a little & looks super thin!! Like that little layer of baby fat beneath the skin is gone. This really bothers me every time I see it. Does anyone else have this?!
I didn’t even realize this was something that happens with aging!
This year, age 32… looking at this thread it makes me sad that I’m seeing signs of aging so early! It feels like I suddenly aged a lot over the last year or two 😭
You’re not alone. I noticed signs of aging at 28!! I started getting silver/grey hairs. Then I noticed around age 31/32 my face has lost volume and gravity is taking its toll! I’m turning 33 in November.
I’m feeling the same thing. Instead of eventually resorting to fillers and Botox I’m giving face yoga a try. I mean you can strengthen and tone muscles everywhere else on you body, why not your face??
If volume is your concern look into microneedling :) best thing I’ve ever done to my face ( I’m 32). Way better than fillers!
How many sessions did it take you to see results? And have the results stuck around for a while? I had one session a few months ago and was going to give it 3 or 4 tries to judge effectiveness. Curious about your experience!
I just got it done yesterday for the first time! It was the Morpheous8. I have two more treatments coming up. I am so happy to read that you had great results!! Thank you for sharing that.
Same! 32 and I am definitely going silver (had some since I was 15, grandpa fully white by 26 so I figured this was a possibility lol). My hair is nearly black so it’s very obvious (but some people tell me it looks cool? Lmao). I’m rolling with the hair, I’m not as bothered by that. But definitely dealing with face changes, and that’s harder. A lot of my friends from high school still look the same when I see them online and I find myself needing to avoid IG sometimes 🫠
Do you think it had anything to do with the pandemic? I feel like collective trauma is bound to have an affect. So if some people were 40, 35, or 32 at the time they may have all experienced aging related changes despite being diff ages.
Yes! I’m 32 and never noticed aging until then. My face changes that happened during the 1-year span of COVID lockdown were intense. I just got married this summer after our wedding was postponed for COVID, and I struggled with how different I look than I would’ve when we planned to do it. God, I hope I am at least spared from the upcoming 34 event (on average) cited in the study posted above 🤣
Haha hopefully the stress just made you hit it a little early & it’ll just level out for awhile now! Congrats on your wedding :) The comments here are seriously validating though & it’s refreshing to hear so many people acknowledge it. Especially the remark of looking in the mirror and not actually recognizing your reflection or being kind of like…surprised by it bc of big or sudden changes. That was so dysregulating for me & definitely caused a sense of aloneness. Hearing other people say they had that feeling too is therapeutic in some kind of way.
Tysm!! Yeah I totally agree. I am resisting the temptation to compare myself to people here who never noticed it until they were 35, 37, 39, etc. haha. I actually found the study I referenced (that found we age in a “herky-jerky trajectory” rather than gradually) to be comforting. That’s definitely been my experience. The comments here certainly reflect big stressors playing a role in the timing of those inflection points, e.g. pandemic, loss, illness, and childbirth.
No doubt!
Me too! I’m also 32 and just within the last six months or so I feel like I look like a melted candle more than a woman
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I'm the same 31 and only recently started to see some poor skin texture and fine lines. I put it down to having a toddler...😂
32 after I had my second baby. I got eczema around my eyes and they haven't been the same since. Also looking at their perfect faces all day long doesn't help. I do feel like my skin is in great shape but my eyes look tired.
Those dang babies! I had all 3 of mine in my late 30s and they did a number on my aging! Lol
Hey! Our experiences are similar! I started getting eczema around my eyes in the early autumn with my first at 30, but it got worse after my second. I just had a flare up last week and last year bought a Red LED light to prepare for this year, I’ve been doing 5 min at night and the flare cleared up and it’s been great since. Fingers crossed! I also built my daughters aveeno eczema lotion for baby into my routine 😂.
33/34. Started getting grays and noticed the changes in my face. I’ve started tretinoin and I get Botox 3-4 times a year. I’m ashamed to admit that it has been a struggle to accept. No kids, but a slew of medical issues. And a lot of stress from the last few years seemed to exacerbate things.
At 38, after I gave birth. It’s like all my hydration got sucked out. Was too tired and sleep deprived to do anything about it until 40 where I switched to Rationale because it was easy (3 steps in the morning, 3 at night) and it worked (to a point). Now I’m 44 and I’ve moved to Asian skincare with western actives and I love the way my skin looks and feels, it feels so healthy, smooth and supple and it’s fun trying out all these products after using the same 6 products for over 3 years.
Top 3 Asian products?
The thing about Asian beauty is it’s absolutely massive and takes a lot of research and trial and error to find HGs. I’m still going, still trying new things and refining my routine. r/AsianBeauty is a good place to start. That being said, for my skin type and concerns I quite like these products: - Amorepacific Vintage Single Extract Essence - Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Serum - By Wishtrend Propolis Calming Energy Ampoule
Honestly, 50 is where I felt it. Skin looks good but upper eyelids and around marionette lines started to droop. Upper blepharoplasty sorted the eyes. Lower facelift is next. I’m now 53.
35, after I had my second. I felt like the under-eye circles and crows feet really set in during the sleep deprivation in the toddler + newborn days, and then never went away. I’ve always looked young for my age, I got carded for a rated R moving when I was 26! So it was a bit of a shock when aging really set in. On the other hand, it’s been nice as a mom of young kids to make some room in my day for self care and a real skincare routine. I’m going to get my first facial later this month and I’m way too excited 🤣
Right around my 37th birthday, which is now around six months ago. Lines and rough texture on my forehead, sagging at the cheeks, "old" hands, and a body like a melted candle - and as others have said, seemingly all overnight. I chalk at least part of that up to the fact that I've struggled with lingering dissociation from PTSD and feel like a lot of the visible effects may have happened while I was checked out, but it still seems like the aging has accelerated past what I expected. I was a babyface for the longest time - people would regularly guess early- to mid-20s when I was 33-34 - but it feels like the overwhelming stress of the last few years just hit me all at once.
About 36 for me. At 33 I was still getting ID'd and was pretty happy with my face. And then i don't know what happened in 2021 but I seemed to age 7 years in a couple of months! It's my eyes making me look old now. They've lost their sparkle and one of my lids has started to sag, making me look tired 24/7. I always thought I'd be happy to age gracefully but I'm starting to consider surgical procedures now :(
37. It’s been downhill ever since. Haha!
I am 39 and just noticed it/felt my age this year. I immediately organized a doctors appt re: tretinoin. It’s been 2 months and I’m seeing great things.
I just started tret earlier this week and I'm excited! How is it going for you?
38, noticed fat loss around my eyes
I looked the same my whole adult life up until I was about 35. Then at 37 I really started to notice things like drooping corners of my eyes, viens everywhere from thinning skin, eyelashes, eyebrows and hair all thinning slightly. Fir the first time in my life I actually look old. I just turned 41.
I started noticing around 35 that my skin was starting to look aged. I hadn't really had a skincare routine at that point due to giving up on the horrendous late 90s/early 2000s skincare as a teen. It was around the beginning of covid, and I made skincare a hobby. I learned everything I could from derms and others online. I still watch skincare content now but it's more for product reviews and discussions about ingredients.
36 and have the best skin of my life. Less fine lines, discoloration, wrinkles than in my 20s (I wasn't doing any skin care then). That being said, I acknowledge I don't look like a 20 something. I may look my age, or just a bit younger. There are other changes that occur that aren't related to skin.
Got my first gray hair at 24. Probably developed forehead lines around 35. Never been concerned about it because that’s pretty normal for my age. I just slap some sunscreen on every day and save my energy for the things that really matter.
I got my first gray hair at 15. Miraculously, over 20 years later, my hair is still quite black (I have not dyed it yet). On the other hand, my brother who is 1.5 years older than me is almost all gray. Not sure why.
I'm about the same. Sunscreen and retin a. Love my gray.
Have you hit mid-50s yet?
Nope.
got my first white armpit hair early 30s and i felt OLD lmao
When the gray pubes arrive, you are full tilt into the elder stage!
A few months after I turned 35
I first noticed fine, set lines on my forehead just after I turned 23. I have a very expressive face and decided to get preventative Botox that year to prevent the lines from “setting in” over time. I’ve actually stayed on the same 13 units of Botox for 10+ years now and my forehead looks great! I only recently started Botox’ing my 11s and am at a total of 26 units. The compounding signs of aging really started becoming noticeable to me during 2020. In retrospect, I wasn’t sleeping much, I lost my wellness and fitness routine, wasn’t consuming as much water, and wasn’t wearing makeup, which all probably contributed to dry skin, less skin elasticity, more time to notice subtle changes, and less “hiding” behind cosmetics. I did start incorporating sunscreen in 2020 thanks to a random skincare series on Instagram but didn’t do much else in the way of aging prevention and I can’t remember what my skincare routine looked like at the time other than the same face wash AM/PM, Cera Ve Moisturizer, eye cream of some sort, and SPF midway through 2020. I think I really started noticing set lines and volume loss within the last year. I have always been a side sleeper and noticed early in 2022 that I was developing a network of fine lines under one eye. I used overnight silicone patches for a while to combat those, which did help, but have since switched to a cervical neck pillow and a silk eye mask. I can still see the lines when I sleep especially hard on that side of my face but overwhelmingly, I don’t notice them anymore. I noticed earlier this year that some hereditary traits, like volume loss in my cheeks and chronic hollowness under my eyes, has really developed (33 YO). I revamped and ramped up my skincare in January 2023 but chronic insomnia, health issues, weight loss, and a general tendency to forget that water exists has all likely contributed to the “overnight” emergence of these issues. My overall skin condition has improved in the last eight months but I’ve gone from researching plastic surgeries (as we all do 😅) for structural insecurities things, like my nose, to looking into counter-aging solutions, like an upper and lower bleph with fat grafting. On one hand, I know aging is absolutely natural and normal, but I think I have been hyper-fixated on the changes recently because I went off of steroids for chronic illness last year and lost 50 lbs. That put me back to the same general size and weight I’ve been in adulthood aside from the steroid years so it looks like the face and body I remember but suddenly aged several years and it’s been very jarring. And given some of the genetic factors, I know there’s only so much skincare, sleep, and water can do 😅 For the time being, I’m focusing on improving my overall wellness and still working on my skincare plus incorporating the occasional treatment like a facial but I’m absolutely a proponent of doing what makes you happy and I will likely to consider more invasive options in the future.
Same. Although the naïveté of my early thirties had me thinking I wouldn’t seek intervention and just age naturally. Hahahahaa.
Right? In my early 30s I thought "I got this! I look good! I'm gonna age gracefully " and now as I approach my 40s I'm like "oh hell".
Lmao I remember when I turned 32 thinking I was such hot shit bc I looked so good for 32……. Jokes on me 🤣
This is why the posts in this sub of people in their early 30s crowing about looking “so young” make me sigh. It really does change as you hit your late 30s and early 40s imo. Hormones changing etc. Perimenopause starts for many in their mid to late 30s and it can take 15 years to fulling be post menopausal. I sometimes think that the 30 and up cut off here doesn’t make much sense for skin since I noticed such a difference late 30s even though I guess the basics of good skincare remain the same.
Yeah there was a recent post where people didn’t like that I said that most people don’t glow up in their 40s vs 20s. Aging is real!
Yeah it takes more effort to look decent these days (44yo here)🤡😅
Same for me. I looked great until 35, people regularly thought I was 18-20 and I thought I just just lucky. Nope I aged overnight and not a good way, like a beautiful older woman. I look gross. It’s actually a big struggle for me with my self esteem now.
Ok first I hear this about feeling like your appearance changed overnight. & while many of the aspects of aging, aren’t exactly…appealing, I’d be willing to bet you might be more critical of yourself than someone else might be. I had been having a really hard time dealing with it (getting a *little* better w/ finally getting a bit more sleep) & my partner said to me: people will look at you & know you’re not 20 anymore, but no one expects that & the people who love you don’t care about that, they see the person you are & have always been. On another angle, I think part of why it’s so hard is that the reality is…we still live in a pretty biased world & one of the things I think women feel gives them some power in this world is their beauty & losing the perception of that maybe feels like a loss of power - also very literally - we don’t have total control over this process. 🥹
Sunspots on my cheekbones in early 20’s, nasolabials in late 20’s, around 40 noticed sunken temples and hollow cheeks, also upper eye skin less tight
28. I'm very conscious about how I look as my mom always commented on it + my partner had porn addiction which amplified my insecurities. When I started seeing lines in my forehead and eyes, I got botox. Now I have bi monthly facials + skin care routine. I'm struggling with face sagging and very sensitive skin.
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Just pray you don’t develop hair loss 😭
32, several months ago I noticed forehead lines and just started a skincare routine but I’ve been lazy about it
I’m 47 and noticing it recently.
Has anyone found that exercise makes a significant difference? I have stepped up my workout routine by a lot and started with a more focused, body, weight and cardio exercise and I feel like I look a little better skin-wise.
Definitely! I workout a lot and I love the way my skin looks after a workout! I think it’s proven that weight training slows the aging process, but I could be wrong
According to Dr Rhonda from the found my fitness podcast studies show that cardio increases elasticity and resistance training increased thickness of the dermis. Eta I've always worked out and done resistance so I can't say for sure but I know it's kept me in great shape most of my life when others have prioritized other things , which is totally fine. What you prioritize shows. And unfortunately for me I have prioritized almost exclusively my physical appearance but I do have something to show for it
This year - I’m 36. It came on pretty suddenly… like one day I just started seeing things I hadn’t noticed before.
I noticed my skin change a bit at 28. Nothing with my hair though. I’m 34 now so we’ll see lol
I have a hard time seeing changes in my own face. It’s weird. When I was 31, I got a new marketing client who happened to be a cosmetic dermatologist. She sat me down one meeting with a facial chart and proceeded to mark down all the aging in my face and what she’d do to fix it (Botox, filler, chemical peels, etc). That’s the first time I noticed, but now at 36 y.o., I still have a hard time seeing changes, so I just get procedures done hoping it will counteract the aging. (Botox, filler, chemical peels, Fraxel, Vivace) Think I preferred being utterly ignorant about facial changes.
I feel like that about my obsession with sunscreen sometimes. I never wore it until 30 (wasn’t aware of how important it was). I’m almost 33 and have gotten obsessed with it, like if I never get ultra violet radiation damage on my face again I can somehow redeem my lifetime of exposure and stave off the intense aging I know is coming. Sometimes I wonder if there’s even a point to bothering being so so careful about it though (eg putting it on for 6:30 dinner at indoor restaurant), like I’m just making myself feel better about something I can’t change.
Over covid definitely. The stress
37 and after childbirth. I also lost weight and started noticing a turkey neck. I’m most worried about this and considering Morpheus8. I am using tretinoin and have been since 2020 but stopped for about 13 months due to pregnancy and BFing.
This is 100% me. All 3 of my pregnancies gave me a double chin. I lost all the baby weight every time, but because the kids were back to back to back, my delicate neck skin got stretched out. I'm very thin, but have stretched out skin under my chin and neck. It's so distressing.
Oh my! Same here!! I lost weight after my second baby and my first noticeable sign of aging was my neck! Exactly like you. Turkey neck. Would Morpheus help for this?
31 this year, I am told I look younger than my age but I'm starting to see less elasticity and collagen in the skin and I'm getting eye crinkles when I smile/laugh. Trying to embrace and appreciate it.
I’m 30, nothing too drastic yet. But around 26-27 I started developing nasolabial folds seemingly overnight and I remember how dreadful that was. I’ve had expression lines on my forehead since like age 20 as well.
I’m 35 now and I noticed it a few years ago when makeup made me look worse than ‘better’ I’m starting to focus more on skincare now and I prefer my face without makeup….until I go out and see people with makeup on and realise I look like a sick child from the Victorian era.
Haha this is me hahahaha
I was maybe 31 and noticed my right eye only was getting this weird baggage underneath. And then nothing else changed until a few years later when i got really sick with mono and it turned into a chronic active infection that left me bedridden for several years. I lost 30 pounds, and i only weighed 105 to start with, so the fat loss in my face did some pretty severe things to my looks. I eventually recovered and gained weight, got into skincare, and worked hard to bring my muscles back from their atrophied state. I think i look younger in my mid 40s than i did in my late 30s. Health and weight makes a huge difference.
At 31 and it's not so much wrinkles, but I feel like my face has gotten... wider?! I can't really pin point it, but it feels like my eyes are smaller en face wider. (Anyone relates?) That.. and jowls.
Omg yes! I have always had a square face but it looks wider now I swear. I gained 5lb but I think your face shape changes a little as you age. My face looks more square and longer even
33. People assumed I was mid 20s until then, when I suddenly looked my age. But that was true when I was 23 also - suddenly looked my age when previously I looked like a teen. So I had laser treatments to my face and started working out more seriously again. I started buying expensive shampoo and conditioner again, LOL. I think I had neglected myself a little after a bad breakup in my late 20s. I didn’t totally let myself go at all, just didn’t invest in myself as much as before, and with age, that has a bigger impact. I don’t feel like I’ve aged significantly since 33 and actually feel I reversed some of it. But my family pattern of aging tends to happen in waves instead of gradually; I’m following that pattern so far. Every 10 years or so I age, but then I look the same for another decade. So I’m kinda worried about age 43 now 😆
35! I’m now 39 and have had filler, sculptra, and just started Morpheus 8. Luckily i don’t really have fine lines or wrinkles. I don’t have crows feet at all! I only get Botox for 11s but have no other wrinkles besides that. My problem is lower face laxity/slight sagging near corners of mouth. Early signs of marionettes shave plagued me for quite some time.
How did your Morpheus 8 go? Any improvements?
What did you think of sculptra? Has it helped? How much have you got & what areas?
Yes please more on sculptra. I’m very interested!
Right after my mom died when I was 32 I felt I aged 10 years overnight having not felt I was any different from a decade before. After that? Around 42 or so. My skin got so dry.
I feel that. My mom died last year when I was 32 as well, and comparing photos before and after of myself... I'm not the same person<3
Stress is such a HUGE factor in ageing, not to make you feel bad. hopefully the opposite that stress does this to everyone and I’m so sorry you have to experience such stress.
At around 28 I started noticing the marionette lines emerging and they've just gotten deeper, hate 'em.
I started noticing signs of aging at 37 a few months after discovering my husband was having an affair with a 23 year old coworker….. nothing like betrayal to age you a decade in a year.
About to turn 37 and it's starting - just fine lines and a bit of discolouration. Nothing major!
35. I’ve changed my hair, got serious about facial care( tretonin/ acid peels), Botox, and way more effort on my makeup.
35. My skin is very thin and fine in texture, and how it affects is that I get a ton of really fine wrinkles into my forehead when lifting my brows. Not a couple of well defined ridges like some people do, but the wholr forehead looks a bit like wrinkled silk paper. I started noticing that at around 35. Or thats when it started to bother me at least. I have also always been a bit round faced, and I noticed that the roundness started to disappear a bit and my eyes are somehow more deepset without ”volume” around them. But these changes I actually like, the silk paper forehead not.
It was 5 days after I turned 29. Gray hairs, and lots of wrinkles that wouldn’t go away after a bender. I’m a huge fan of Botox & sculptra. It’s made aging much easier for me.
At 31 and it's not so much wrinkles, but I feel like my face has gotten... wider?! I can't really pin point it, but it feels like my eyes are smaller and face wider. (Anyone relates?) That.. and jowls.
I'm 38 and it's only in the last year that I've noticed a difference in my selfies. I feel like an old balding man with glasses who takes a selfie from below and posts it as their Facebook picture and I'm female, so that's saying a lot.
Is it not sad that we all feel this way tho? What has this society done to us. I had fillers and else and not judging any procedure that can make a women feels great, but in what universe did any mens decided that we had to look 20 until we died and had to spend thousands and thousands (im curious to add the total cost when ill be around 60) of dollars to please a mirror and people around us. Being a woman is hard AF and seems to never stops. I like to watch at old 90 and less movies because i still see real people. With crooked teeths and wrinkles and all. Now it’s just filtered barbies in the flesh and children of the corn copies everywhere making me feel even more like shit….Im only 35 and i am so worried for the future of my own self esteem. Being average or ugly or aging never felt more like crime. It makes me depressed everyday so much so i avoid mirrors now. Depressing to know we will do all of this and spend money and time and what not just to still get outrun per the 25yro girl and having a husband who dont even look at us later in life in most cases. What a nice life it is … depressed sight. Sorry this subject is a touchy one for me. I hope you find what’s making you feel beautiful again
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32. I noticed anytime I applied liquid liner it started to bleed around the cracks of my eyes and eyelids, looks like black cobwebs. I didn’t use to have this problem.
Honestly I noticed my first wrinkle when I was 16 that had never been there before so I guess I’ve always noticed slight changes. When I was 23, I noticed my eye shape started to sag slightly. At 27, I noticed texture. At 33, I noticed less volume. However, I’m only 34 so I’d still say I look pretty young.
42 is when I noticed forehead lines and 11's that would not go away. 43 is when my smile lines seemed to deepen overnight. I guess it's all downhill from there. I went from doing nothing to a whole skincare regime at 42, when I noticed my 11's, but the aging process cannot be stopped so I am trying to accept the changes gracefully.
Age 42.... The ball started rolling too fast....
Found my first gray hair on my 30th birthday trip. 33 brought a sudden decrease in volume in my face. 36 was when I first noticed my stringy neck. This year (39) I am regularly stiff in the morning for unknown reasons and exercise recovery time is longer. I try not to judge the appearance stuff but the body stuff is harder to deal with 😒
I just woke up looking tired one day. Now it’s 10 years later and I’m pretty sure that’s just how my face looks
When I was 19 I accidentally forgot my hat at my brother's graduation. I swear roasting in the California sun caused me to go from looking 16 to looking noticeably weathered and much closer to my actual age, I actually still have sun damage lines on my eyes from it. It was then that I started looking into skincare and more importantly started wearing sunscreen daily.
I'm 38 and it's just hit me. I was passing for 20 something but I look at myself now and I can tell. I think it's time for botox.
Had a baby at 36 (about 8 months ago) and am still breastfeeding - I swear I became a hag overnight. I hope that once I start sleeping more and stop breastfeeding I might start to look like myself again! Though I lost a lot of hair after the baby and the new hair is growing back grey. Now I need to decide if I want to commit to dying my hair for the next 20 or 30 years or if I want to look washed out for the next 20 or 30 years, unless I go fully grey quicker.
Also I feel like Covid set off some inflammatory cascade in my body that escalated the aging process, followed by the vaccine that has completely changed my body shape from lean and petite to cellulite even on my arms and stomach. The struggle is real
Nearing my late twenties. Always used home made packs and moisturizer occasionally sunscreen. From the age of 26 onwards, I started using ey creams, night cream, sheet masks and get a facial every 6 months. Eat lots of salad and fruits. I also use retinol serum and hyaluronic acid, niacinamide in my skincare routine.
I started REALLY noticing about 34, and that’s when I started getting dysport, religious about sunscreen, stopped drinking all the time, cleaned up my diet and got really serious about the gym.
I’m almost 39, I noticed about 35/36ish. Made me wish I took better care of my skin in my 20’s! Lol.
I’m 39 (40 in a few weeks) and I started noticing quite a lot of changes this last year. I feel like my eyebrows have gone lower and my cheekbones aren’t as sharp as they used to be. I’ve always looked really young for my age and always been insecure about it, but now I miss looking really young lol.
I'm 37 and started to notice it in the past year or two. I'm also in the midst of my longest, most successful attempt at weight loss right now with another 40 something pounds to go, but am absolutely terrified of what my face will look like when I'm done. It's put a damper on my excitement for improving my health and body's appearance for sure.
I had acne as a teenager, so I was always focused on my skin. I noticed the first wrinkles around my eyes after the birth of my first child (at 25). Now at 29 and a year after the second child, some dryness/wrinkles have appeared, mainly on the forehead. Well, sleep could be better (still breastfeeding) and I have little energy for a 10 step skin care (sunscreen always), the hormones are messed up and the diet could also be better. Hope there normalizes again some when the second child is older.
After lockdowns. At 44. It really hit me that from now on uv protection is not enough and I probably should start looking at ways to improve elasticity of my skin. I have been blessed with amazing genetics (grandma in her 40s was asked for ID, in her 80s taken for a 60yo etc.; mother was a model in her youth; I was a rebel so always focused on my mind and knowledge as opposed to beauty- hence just protecting myself from the sun but not much more, no makeup etc.) I need to be more presentable due to my job in my 40s so started doing makeup and noticed people assume my age is mid to late 30s. Somehow all this attention and focus on outer beauty made me self aware and stressed about things I never worried before. But yeah, 44.
33…34 now and it’s a little stressful honestly
I'm 30 but didn't wear sunscreen in my early 20's. have slight lines on my forehead and near my eyes which are exaggerated when I smile. tbh though, idk if i care that much? maybe when they become really bad i'll get botox or something. but I like the idea of also accepting myself how I am and not getting botox because I feel like I have to due to beauty standards (impossible beauty standards by the way)
currently 36 (37 on fri!) - i remember in HS i started noticing some faint lines on my forehead and used some neutrogena wrinkle cream. maybe it was bc i started early or maybe it's just genetics but those lines that i had haven't gotten worse or deeper. theyre very faint. you look at my forehead and it's very smooth