Women's middle aged appearance, through the decades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clothes got better, makeup got better, hair got better - and Gen X, of which I am a member, refused to grow up! We're all in our shorts and band t-shirts still.

I think it's crazy the people in Cocoon are not a lot older than I am.

Boomers refused to grow up, so Gen X, being younger naturally couldn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that I’m 40 I wonder this a lot! If you look back even further the hairstyles that women had even in their teens and 20s were soooo aging.

I think media has increased people’s awareness of what you can look like and therefore made people more aspirational.

They weren’t aging but they are the hairstyles that YOU associate with older people. Because you only saw them on older people.

The hairstyle that you are wearing now will be considered very aging in 20 years.

DP. Long hair will probably never look “old”.

They did when the short hairstyles came into fashion. I remember when only the old women and the unfashionable teachers in my school wore their hair long. Mid 1970s Europe.

[Anonymous]

I think a lot of women aren't doing the middle-aged mom haircuts anymore. But I know a couple and it's so aging on them. I don't really get why women do that to themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really interesting topic.

Hairstyles are the biggest change, I'd say. Norah Efron said more than once in her essays that the biggest change for women was the use of hair color. It wasn't common for average folks until the 1960s with Clairol.

I think most older styles were really bad, too: short hair (but not interesting cuts), tight curls and tight styles, salon sets (like Nancy Reagan), or they kept their hair too long and wore a bun or braid. I think women were expected to control their hair upon growing up. I even remember my mother not liking my older teenage sisters' long, straight hair in the late 60s. Before that they wore shorter styles.

The other thing was that women used to wear dresses all the time before the 1970s. I know from my own body that I don't look great in a dress anymore because I don't have a youthful shape anymore. I look better in a separates now. Some women wore housedresses which were extremely unflattering. I remember my grandmother in the 1960s always wearing dresses which looked terrible on her thick middle--and these were expensive clothes--it didn't help. I would hate to have to wear a dress every day. She also had a kind of waved pageboy do, with her gray hair tinted blue! My other grandmother was super thin and wore skirt suits all the time, just to go out to the store. I never saw either in a pair of comfortable shoes.

What’s with all of the Nora Efron comments recently?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now that I’m 40 I wonder this a lot! If you look back even further the hairstyles that women had even in their teens and 20s were soooo aging.

I think media has increased people’s awareness of what you can look like and therefore made people more aspirational.

They weren’t aging but they are the hairstyles that YOU associate with older people. Because you only saw them on older people.

The hairstyle that you are wearing now will be considered very aging in 20 years.

DP. Long hair will probably never look “old”.

They did when the short hairstyles came into fashion. I remember when only the old women and the unfashionable teachers in my school wore their hair long. Mid 1970s Europe.

Which country?

[Anonymous]

^ because in the mid 70s in the rest of the world long hair didn’t make you look old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all had kids a lot later too. There's something to be said for being 45 and a mom of toddlers vs 45 and a mom of college kids.

I think overall this is a wash. Kids may keep your spirit young but they do a number on your body. I feel like my friends who had kids the latest ended up the most haggard as a result. It’s a lot harder for your body to bounce back the older you get.

45 with a toddler sucks!

-signed 45 yo with a toddler

[Anonymous]

The DCUM crowd is in a moneyed bubble. Rich middle aged women look great with their long blown out hair and youthful clothes on thin bodies. Drive a few miles away to a working class area and middle aged women are all obese and look much worse than mid-century ladies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of women aren't doing the middle-aged mom haircuts anymore. But I know a couple and it's so aging on them. I don't really get why women do that to themselves.

This! There used to be a rule that you HAD to cut your hair short once you reach a certain age, but the reality is that short hair cuts are really hard to pull off and look frumpy/matronly real quick. Long hair almost always looks more youthful than short hair. Also short hair puts more emphasis on your face which isn’t good for an aging face, especially back in the day when women smoked and worshiped the sun.

I think people living longer lives plays a big part in it too. We are all living longer on average and people realized that you aren’t old in your 40s and 50s when you live into your 90s, so why look and act like it?

[Anonymous]

I have had a theory that the primary reason is because women have entered and remained in the work force longer and in larger numbers. I believe that working in an office for an 8-9 hour day with no sun exposure, more disposable income to spend on your appearance, and more education/professional interaction have translated into better skin and generally a more fashionable appearance and youthful outlook on life. Or I am just trying to find the positive in my 34 year career--which includes a job I mostly love. And I had my last kid at 46 so I have a lot of explaining to do!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clothes got better, makeup got better, hair got better - and Gen X, of which I am a member, refused to grow up! We're all in our shorts and band t-shirts still.

I think it's crazy the people in Cocoon are not a lot older than I am.

Boomers refused to grow up, so Gen X, being younger naturally couldn't.

I am the PP and I don't think that's true.

[Anonymous]

I think there's a huge difference even between boomers and the previous generation. I look at pictures of my Grandma in her early 50s and she looked older than my mom does now (late 60s).

[Anonymous]

My mom was still sexy at age 40 (mid 80s) up through menopause I'd say. Around 55.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a 1992 millennial with Silent Generation parents who in turn were raised by parents who came of age during the Great Depression. They had some very aging ideas about appropriate fashion:

1. You must wear sheer pantyhose, no bare legs, even if it's super hot outside.

2. Clothing cannot cling to the body. Nobody can know you have a butt. Awkward darts on shirts, though, meant it was a good quality shirt.

3. They loved synthetic fabrics because they grew up having to iron everything. You cannot wear wrinkly clothing, this is a sin as bad as having a crooked part in your hair. (This is also why they loved canned vegetables and frozen dinners, it was seen as a wonderful time-saving invention.)

4. Jeans are only for children and adults who work in the trades.

5. Hair styles were a big thing, as others have pointed out. You only wash your hair once a week, and ideally you get it done at the beauty salon with a wash and set. Overnight curlers were a total thing, with the perm being a big time saver.

If you just washed your hair and let it air dry? Slattern.

Also, short hair after a certain age (30) was de rigeur because long hair was viewed as aging. Bear in mind that lot of actresses had very short hair (Audrey Hepburn) so it was chic, just as we'll all be wearing beachy waves in our hair at the nursing home some day.

What did my parents consider sad, old people clothing? those 1940s victory skirt suits. https://vintagedancer.com/1940s/1940s-victory-suit/

My mother often lamented that nobody wore hats and gloves anymore, and subsequently looked super sloppy. I guess we've all come full circle because I can't believe LL Bean sells jogger-style pajama pants that you can wear outside the house.

You were born in 1992 and have Silent Generation parents?! They were hella old when they had you, huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a 1992 millennial with Silent Generation parents who in turn were raised by parents who came of age during the Great Depression. They had some very aging ideas about appropriate fashion:

1. You must wear sheer pantyhose, no bare legs, even if it's super hot outside.

2. Clothing cannot cling to the body. Nobody can know you have a butt. Awkward darts on shirts, though, meant it was a good quality shirt.

3. They loved synthetic fabrics because they grew up having to iron everything. You cannot wear wrinkly clothing, this is a sin as bad as having a crooked part in your hair. (This is also why they loved canned vegetables and frozen dinners, it was seen as a wonderful time-saving invention.)

4. Jeans are only for children and adults who work in the trades.

5. Hair styles were a big thing, as others have pointed out. You only wash your hair once a week, and ideally you get it done at the beauty salon with a wash and set. Overnight curlers were a total thing, with the perm being a big time saver.

If you just washed your hair and let it air dry? Slattern.

Also, short hair after a certain age (30) was de rigeur because long hair was viewed as aging. Bear in mind that lot of actresses had very short hair (Audrey Hepburn) so it was chic, just as we'll all be wearing beachy waves in our hair at the nursing home some day.

What did my parents consider sad, old people clothing? those 1940s victory skirt suits. https://vintagedancer.com/1940s/1940s-victory-suit/

My mother often lamented that nobody wore hats and gloves anymore, and subsequently looked super sloppy. I guess we've all come full circle because I can't believe LL Bean sells jogger-style pajama pants that you can wear outside the house.

I'm 45 and recently went to a meeting with a European head of state in Athleta Brooklyn "ankle" pants, AND the protocol lady (whom I'd met before and was friendly with) asked where I got them because she liked them so much. Frankly, this is what I consider civilized--accepting people as long as they are in clean, presentable, affordable clothing without pretense. I did have heels on. Heels are what we need to totally get rid of next!

Joggers and heels. Wow.