You Don’t Have To Feel Less Attractive at 50
Aging doesn’t take away your beauty, it refines it
Now, I guess you’ve read the topic, and thoughts are flying through your mind like:
Ugh, beauty and romanticizing all over again, when would people accept reality!
Yes, these questions on old age, and the ‘curse’ that comes with it are valid, but the inevitable death doesn’t have to stifle our curiosity in any way. We’re all going to die, but this doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the entire process. Old age must not always be the other side of the coin.
How well you cared for your skin from a young age and, more importantly, how much you limited sun exposure before age 20 can make a difference in wrinkle formation. But there are still certain inevitable changes that are going to take place. David Goldberg, Dermatologist.
In our 20's, we like to think our beauty is at its prime, and this ‘societal behaviour’ models our actions between 20–30 years old, the period when we chase and enjoy the ‘ultimate’ beauty.
Contrary to what society teaches us, aging starts from our 20’s — the same time frame society tells us to chase beauty, and live up to its standards and definition of attractiveness. The chase to be seen as the ‘it guy or gal’ would get you running far away from embracing the beauty applicable to only you, your authenticity.
This is the decade when the very early signs of what we call ‘motor wrinkles’ — lines and creases related to movement first appear. And the first place they appear is the brow. Ellen Marmur.
Facial aging is part of the ‘curse of life’, not old age. So many factors contribute to this, like long hours on the computer, under the sun, and even the nature of climate you grew up in. The ‘crows’s feet’ — the tiny expression lines around the eyes, also begins during this period.
Many women in their 20’s begin to notice facial hair, usually on the upper lip, their brows and around the perimeter of their face.
Melasma is also an aging skin factor that young women have to understand and watch out for. It’s a brown discolouration that appears across the cheeks, chin, nose and forehead.
This condition is typically due to a combination of sun exposure, pregnancy, and hormones (including birth control pills) plus exposure to certain antibiotics such as minocycline or tetracycline. Joel Schlessinger, Dermatologist.
One key thing here is, at any age (usually 20–50), women can experience any and many of the realities of life, like pregnancy, hormonal changes, birth control, and these realities aren’t peculiar to only a certain age.
Defining beauty as a product of aging alone would not only encourage ignorance, but it’ll make you miss so many of the other occasions where someone’s beauty faces change.
You really have no reason to feel less attractive or desirable at 50 or at any age. The basis of human beauty, lies in the process of aging and not necessarily in the decade stages towards ‘old age’. Instead of seeing old age as only a destination where beauty fades, why not see it as part of the journey to experiencing beauty.
What you do in your 20's will reflect how you look in your 40's, 50's, and beyond, wearing sunscreen is key. Ellen Marmur.
Being and feeling attractive is a different feeling in every decade. You can feel the most attractive you’ve ever felt in your 40’s and 50’s. You can feel the most secure with your body and sexuality at 55. There are no limits to feeling pretty and sexy, and the myopia of society is gradually losing its credibility.
Capitalism and the rules of economy has commodified and monetized what it feels to be beautiful, the system has made it seem like there is a truly objective standard to beauty. It shuns diversity, and propagates beauty as a feature that possesses a prototype. These large companies package and sell this prototype to the public as ‘beauty’.
Every woman keeps trying to level up, and with every new decade comes a new expectation and beauty standard to meet. This means more and more prototypes in demand, and a target market exploited for their insecurities about their body and looks.
The sun is always going to shine, your skin may begin to look tired in your 30’s, the crow’s feet around your eyes may also get really noticeable. Also, expect to see small brown spots from past sun damage, and dilated blood vessels around the side of your nose.
The ‘dreaded 11's’ , which are pair of lines that pop up between the brows, as well as shadows forming in the triangular area between your nose and the corners of your mouth, are also changes you should prepare for.
Both the ‘11’ lines and the nasolabial lines around the mouth will appear and deepen during this decade. Ellen Marmur.
During your 40’s, beauty keeps experiencing different shapes and forms, like the ‘pure string’ muscles from the lines around the upper lip, which gets even deeper when you smoke. More wrinkles on the forehead and the crow’s feet around the eyes, with a deepening of your smile lines.
The 50’s and 60’s come with a massive breakdown of collagen and elastin fibers, which are the support structures that hold up skin. When this happens, your face droops and your skin gets loose.
The fat beneath the skin also disappears, causing a loss of structure that makes the skin thinner and more translucent. Blood vessels just below the surface begins to look more prominent and discolouration increases on the skin.
Also, a drop in estrogen that occurs during the 50's will cause the skin to look and feel drier, making lines and wrinkles look deeper and more prominent.
All these events that occur, happens to every women in varying degrees. The intensities of these things happening to your body and skin doesn’t define your beauty. You could experience a harsher process while younger, but then be able to enjoy a healthier skin as you age.
So, glow up, look as sexy as you feel, explore your fashion sense, and don’t let your age tell you how attractive you should feel in your own body. You’re a spec when you’re 21, and you’re also a spec when you’re 55.
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