@RickiTarr diets have changed, smoking is down, sun damage has been recognized as a thing. Hair and clothing styles got less generationally restrictive and more flattering .
@RickiTarr I've heard the nicotine ages your appearance a lot, even from vapes or chew. That's one reason that may cause differences in apparent age between different generations and groups of people.
@RickiTarr skincare routines, nutrition, availability of critical vitamins and hydration cycles, air filtration, reduced free chemicals in the air, etc. have all helped to keep us more youthful in appearance.
Couple that with the overall reduction in smoking, untreated illness, clean water and regular opportunities to bathe - we are a smoking hot older generation.
@RickiTarr Oh Christ yes. The Footballers Aging Badly account on Twitter (now dormant) was great for this. Cigs, booze, poverty, sun damage, lack of medical care pre-NHS, etc.
@Nickiquote@RickiTarr I like this picture of Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Charlton looking like two middle aged businessmen heading off to negotiate with a major new customer.
@RickiTarr My grandparents and their siblings, all from the greatest generation, all looked like they were in their late 80s when they were 60. I think there’s something about living through a great depression and a world war, along with the state of medical care at the time, they really aged that whole generation.
@melissabeartrix@RickiTarr Not evil. We need exposure for vitamin D and anti-SADs. But if any young person wants an anti-aging cream, just use a good sunscreen. Also, fewer people smoke or have to breath in 2nd-hand smoke, which also causes aging.
Evil, for me ... Very evil ... Being very very pale, a ghost like white ... Not everyone can be in the sun ... And yes I do slop sunscreen on, even when it is overcast
@melissabeartrix@RickiTarr That doesn't make the sun evil, just something to work around. You enjoy flowers, fruit, vegetables, sunny days (even if sitting in the shade)? :)
You're 100% right ... It's great for my veggie garden, wonderful to dry my clothes, sun sets and sun rises ... Oh and solar power too ... All beautiful and wonderful
But in the context of the question and my answer, the sun is evil for skin, and aging ... Hugz
@melissabeartrix@CStamp@RickiTarr same! My skin is basically flash paper. Before my teens, I could tan, but after I'm pale until I'm blistered. Then, sometimes, it tans, and the tan peels right off because it's dead and tan.
I stay away from the sun as much as I can.
@melissabeartrix if your profile pic is even remotely recent, we have similar skin tone. Solidarity against the sun! They thing might be useful for the planet but it asks a lot of me for it. :blobcatlaugh:
@RickiTarr Yes. I think part of it was smoking, which ages the skin, but part of it was also how people dressed, which makes them look older by modern standards.
@not2b@RickiTarr
Yes it was the combo of smoking (everyone I've met who quits usually gets 5 the 10 years back on their apparent age).
It was also that older folks came from generations that had more formal dress as everyday wear. They thought going out in jeans and a T-shirt was "sloppy". Not tucking in your shirt? Not wearing a belt? Not wearing your pants above your belly button? Socks not pulled up to your eyebrows? Ladies in....JEANS? WITHOUT makeup? "How can you leave the house like that?"
@RickiTarr@ochaos I read a lot of Maigret stories and it’s hilarious how much the Paris police casually drink during their shift. Just popping into this cafe to phone HQ and drink a calvados or two. And then occasionally they decide someone is a drunk and it’s baffling where they draw the line.
@RickiTarr Maybe. Also changing standards of beauty, I think if women who were considered beautiful in the 1920s skipped aging and woke up today, they'd be repulsed initially.
@RickiTarr Interesting concept. After going through my recently completed family slides to digital online storage, I think it boils down to clothing, hairstyles, and… film stock. A picture of me @ 50 looks younger than a picture of my dad @ 47. OTOH, this picture of my mom and her older brother in SF during WWII looks pretty age-appropriate. They were born in 1917-18 so, depending on when it was taken, they would have been 22-27.
@RickiTarr I heard it’s because people stop trying to keep up with modern fashions and stick with what was popular/what they like from THEIR time and to us that’s “dated” so we automatically interpret it as an old-people look even when the faces wearing those fashions are young 🤔
I think @pippa is onto something there. Also, there is probably something to do with factors like lower first- and second-hand smoking rates and better use of sunscreen being kinder to people’s skin.
When I see pictures of old baseball and basketball players from the 60s and 70s, I’m stuck by how many of these players – elite athletes in their prime – look like 45 year old men 😳
@FlockOfCats@RickiTarr I remember thinking about this when the Tomioka HS dance club girls had that bubble era dance hit - they are OBVIOUSLY younger than us but because we still see some people (who are in their 50s-maybe early 60s now…) with those EXACT same clothing/hair/makeup styles around today it’s really mindfucky somehow how the girls look older 😂 Plus of course you’re right, all the toxic chemicals and shit 🫠 https://youtu.be/Lxr9tvYUHcg
@RickiTarr My wife, who’s Japanese recalls seeing amputees begging in the high street when she was a child. That would have been in the late 60’s and early 70’s when you could still encounter people who had fought in and survived WWII. I imagine they would have looked weathered. Interestingly, whenever we see people on TV celebrating their 100th birthday we often remark on how relatively young some of them look. 2/2 #Japan
@RickiTarr When I first came to Japan I often saw old people in the rural town I worked in doubled over because of years of back breaking working planting and harvesting rice and vegetables. They certainly looked older than they probably were. It’s a much rarer sight now as so many have since died. 1/2 #Japan
@RickiTarr Absolutely. In the early 70s, there wasn’t easily available sunscreen. Adults smoked indoors. Leaded gasoline spewed lead in the air and dirt. And women had shorter, manageable haircuts (we didn’t get a handheld hairdryer until 1976-ish). So, the environment changed but also shampoo, makeup, and hair care technology grew by leaps and bounds.
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