madaunty
Quietly, Very Confused
As well as those things you mention, two others come to mind. Years ago a lot more people smoked and also fried under the sun. Both very ageing.I have literally just turned 60 but what does 60 supposed to look like? It can be anything these days. I remember as a child asking my nan how old she was and she said "I'm 60 dear" Now I was looking at a little old lady with white curly hair, glasses, wearing a crimpelene frock, support stockings on her legs and an extremely sturdy pair of shoes and her face was as wrinkled as a walnut, it was a similar story with my other nan. Was I just looking at old through the eyes of a child? Compared with that image I look nothing like 60. I don't dye my hair as I'm lucky enough to have very little grey, I do have wrinkles but they're not deep or all over my face, thankfully I'm still slim but I'm sure if a child were to guess my age, they'd just say "old"! I'm guessing it's because nobody has to look like that nowadays as there's now so many products and procedures available to make you look younger. When it came to cosmetic surgery I can only remember seeing a tiny little ad in the back of the newspaper for some shonky sounding clinic with a name like "Sister Rose" with a London number to call for an estimate! Over the counter hair dye was harsh and colours were limited, the high street was awash with frumpy clothing with some shops dedicated to the cause. Nowadays I reckon I would have to make a fair bit of effort to achieve that 1970's nana look. There's also the "health and fitness" that's everywhere these days, way back when brown bread was considered health food, a water bottle was on the window sill for your plants, vegetarians were weird and a vegan was probably from another planet! Exercise was walking over the telly to change the channel, running was an ungainly trot one would break into if the bus was already at the stop. I remember hearing a saying "nobody loves a fairy when she's 40" - 40?!!!!! That's a teenager these days!!!!
Better awareness of the damage caused by smoking and the sun may also have helped in looking “less aged” then we used to.?