Women's middle aged appearance, through the decades

[Anonymous]

When I was a kid I thought it was a requirement that when you grew up you got married, had kids and cut your hair short. My mind was blown when I realized that wasn't true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was a kid I thought it was a requirement that when you grew up you got married, had kids and cut your hair short. My mind was blown when I realized that wasn't true.

Me too, but I did have hairstylists pressure me to cut my hair after I got married in the 90s, so it was still a thing then. I look awful in short hair.

[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.

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

47+? That’s pretty old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

Gen x here with parent born in 45. BTW silent and boomer.

When I became a mother my own mother disapproved of the length of my skirt. I wore at the knee length. She called them mini skirts. Ironic bc she was young in the 60s. When I hit milestones like 35, 40 45, she'd make occasional remarks about dressing more respectably, and not exposing the knees.

When I hit 35 she frequently remarked about my long hair. Bear in mind my hair is thick and by long I wear.it collarbone length. So more medium. Apparently we are all meant to wear respectable page boy length hair, or a bob. She said women who wore longer hair or shorter skirts were mutton dressed as lamb and trying too hard. She said it is jarring to see someone who looks youthful in style only to see a wrinkled face.

Thank goodness she wasn't alive to see me when I turned 50! My hair is still collarbone length and my skirts still are at the knee.

Other thoughts. A lot of women in the 60s and 70s were given automatic hysterectomy after their last child. I think they only did a partial. But is imagine that that made you look and feel older.

I also.think there is more appreciation of women of all shapes and sizes. In my mother's day there was a.certain shame if you were plump or fat, and you wouldn't wear as much figure fitting things. Think tunics and chicos. But now fortunately there are a lot of beautiful women wearing beautiful clothes proudly, even If they are not a size small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Exactly.

I don’t agree with this at all. Lots of older women look terrible with long hair. (Myself included.) It really depends on their face and the shape of the cut, but short works much better on many women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When did middle aged women start to look younger? It seems as though we went from the Golden Girls look (1980's) to social media (might 2000's) overnight, but it seems something happened in between those two eras. It seems that women between age 40's-60's now act and appear younger. Social media made it procedures and surgery seem mainstream, but what happened before then? Anyone else interested in this topic?

I am also fascinated about the inverse, when people are younger (30's-40's) but act or appear older (70's+).

Fitness, lifestyle, medicine have all changed us. What was 65 in the 40s and 50s is now 80 for many 75 for others.

40 in the 40s and 50s is 60 today.

[Anonymous]

Hair color.
I'm in my late 50s, and I now highlight my gray hair.
When it turned gray, everyone assumed I was in my 80s. I don't like altering my appearance, but I have to in order to be accepted at work. I don't use botox, but I've never been a sunbather, so my skin looks pretty good. I'm overweight (middle aged post-menopausal spare tire around my middle), but otherwise in good shape. I exercise regularly.
When my mom was my age, she had gray hair and wore traditional clothing. I dress with a bit of style, but not a lot. I'm not pretending to be young, but I don't want to be perceived as 20 years older than I am.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Love mid to late 70's hair on Rafaela Carrà, Sylvia Kristel, Nastassja Kinski, Isabella Rossellini...

[Anonymous]

Middle age people who are upper middle or upper class look better than 30 years. But people who are lower income do not, mostly due to the obesity epidemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Exactly.

I don’t agree with this at all. Lots of older women look terrible with long hair. (Myself included.) It really depends on their face and the shape of the cut, but short works much better on many women.

I know too many women around late 40's or 50 that look terrible with long hair. Their hair is thinning. It is not a good look.
It just looks scraggly. Shoulder length bob for these women would be a vast improvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gen x here with parent born in 45. BTW silent and boomer.

When I became a mother my own mother disapproved of the length of my skirt. I wore at the knee length. She called them mini skirts. Ironic bc she was young in the 60s. When I hit milestones like 35, 40 45, she'd make occasional remarks about dressing more respectably, and not exposing the knees.

When I hit 35 she frequently remarked about my long hair. Bear in mind my hair is thick and by long I wear.it collarbone length. So more medium. Apparently we are all meant to wear respectable page boy length hair, or a bob. She said women who wore longer hair or shorter skirts were mutton dressed as lamb and trying too hard. She said it is jarring to see someone who looks youthful in style only to see a wrinkled face.

Thank goodness she wasn't alive to see me when I turned 50! My hair is still collarbone length and my skirts still are at the knee.

Other thoughts. A lot of women in the 60s and 70s were given automatic hysterectomy after their last child. I think they only did a partial. But is imagine that that made you look and feel older.

I also.think there is more appreciation of women of all shapes and sizes. In my mother's day there was a.certain shame if you were plump or fat, and you wouldn't wear as much figure fitting things. Think tunics and chicos. But now fortunately there are a lot of beautiful women wearing beautiful clothes proudly, even If they are not a size small.

No. Tubal ligation. Not hysterectomies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Exactly.

I don’t agree with this at all. Lots of older women look terrible with long hair. (Myself included.) It really depends on their face and the shape of the cut, but short works much better on many women.

I know too many women around late 40's or 50 that look terrible with long hair. Their hair is thinning. It is not a good look.
It just looks scraggly. Shoulder length bob for these women would be a vast improvement.

A lot more people are getting extensions to fill in that thinness these days! I am not doing that - I just don't have it in me to maintain fake hair - but I think it is making a lot of women's hair look fuller, for longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Exactly.

I don’t agree with this at all. Lots of older women look terrible with long hair. (Myself included.) It really depends on their face and the shape of the cut, but short works much better on many women.

+1. Especially if that long hair is not in amazing shape. Right after a salon blowout - sure, but day to day in a ponytail- nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gen x here with parent born in 45. BTW silent and boomer.

When I became a mother my own mother disapproved of the length of my skirt. I wore at the knee length. She called them mini skirts. Ironic bc she was young in the 60s. When I hit milestones like 35, 40 45, she'd make occasional remarks about dressing more respectably, and not exposing the knees.

When I hit 35 she frequently remarked about my long hair. Bear in mind my hair is thick and by long I wear.it collarbone length. So more medium. Apparently we are all meant to wear respectable page boy length hair, or a bob. She said women who wore longer hair or shorter skirts were mutton dressed as lamb and trying too hard. She said it is jarring to see someone who looks youthful in style only to see a wrinkled face.

Thank goodness she wasn't alive to see me when I turned 50! My hair is still collarbone length and my skirts still are at the knee.

Other thoughts. A lot of women in the 60s and 70s were given automatic hysterectomy after their last child. I think they only did a partial. But is imagine that that made you look and feel older.

I also.think there is more appreciation of women of all shapes and sizes. In my mother's day there was a.certain shame if you were plump or fat, and you wouldn't wear as much figure fitting things. Think tunics and chicos. But now fortunately there are a lot of beautiful women wearing beautiful clothes proudly, even If they are not a size small.

I think there’s some truth to this too, like in the past you got married/hit a certain age and that was it. Following trends, dressing up, looking good, trying to look younger was seen as frivolous to that generation of people. If they didn’t live through the Depression themselves they were raised by people who certainly did and that scarcity mindset/don’t spend time or money on yourself mindset is hard to break.