I ask because it is a LOT of work to keep a body like a model in shape:
-starvation diet
-torture exercise regimen( Ab crunches ARE torture)
-cosmetic surgery
-elaborate skin care
Granted many of these guys and gals are rich, so they can afford personal trainers and plastic surgery. As you age, fat cells seem to migrate around and do their deadly work.
So, given the costs of keeping age at bay, do most of these people do it?
Some do, some don’t.
Depends on a lot of things. In general keeping that “youthful” hot bod becomes more difficult as we grow older. To maintain it requires more effort and it may include plastic surgery and someone good with Photoshop.
To me the evidence is unclear suggesting the answer is “it depends” on many factors.
Sophia Loren looks great for a 76 year old. Improbably so. Either she is blessed or blessed with good plastic surgeons.
Personally I have seen some women who I think got sexier as they aged. Others went downhill fast. And not to pick on women; I think the same is true for men.
Depends on too many things to say it is one way or another.
Given the subjectivity of “good looks,” this is better suited for IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
If I may paraphrase the Ninety-ninety rule; the first 90% of the improvement takes 90% of the effort, the remaining 10% takes the other 90% of the effort. When they stop modeling, stop the absurdly high maintenance, they gain five pounds and a pore or two and have to settle for just being ordinary, everyday gorgeous.
Heck, the modeling ideal is so unrealistically gaunt and devoid of personality that becoming a human being again is usually an improvement.
My aunt (no blood relation, my uncle’s recently ex-wife) was a former C list actress and model.
She is much more attractive and fit than other women her age. I can’t say how she ate when she was a model (obviously I was a tyke) but knowing her in her 40’s and 50’s I can she always eats healthy, whole foods - the Michael Pollan diet before it was cool. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s done limited botox in recent years, but into her 50’s she was simply keeping fit with lots of exercise and good food, frequent trips to the salon for her hair, and always staying out of the sun. And she comes from good stock, her mother doesn’t wrinkle much, so she doesn’t as well. So while she doesn’t look her age, she also doesn’t look 25. I think part of her keeping her head was never having a daughter - she has all boys who think the world of her. Perhaps if she had a daughter she might have seen her youth in her daughter.
I shouldn’t think there’s a factual answer, since not many models stay in the public eye after their career stops, which is usually around or before middle age. However, a lot of their good looks comes from their bone structure, which isn’t going to worsen due to age.
They are also all guaranteed to have very good teeth, which makes a huge difference to your appearance. (Their teeth could get worse in middle age, but it’s unlikely when they start out with really good ones).
The OP seems to be mostly about weight. Most models are genetically predisposed to be much smaller (in terms of skeletal structure) and slimmer than the average, and due to the insane extremes the fashion industry has gone to in the last 15 years, most have to work to keep themselves skinny - there is little chance someone without a bitty, narrow bone structure and a naturally low weight would be well enough to walk at your average fashion model’s size, much less spend their prime fertile years at 5’10" and 105 lbs as so many of them do and still be able to have multiple healthy children (the sheer number of super-skinny top models who have no problem getting pregnant and producing fat babies lately tells me for sure they aren’t all anovulatory anorexics). So they’re no different than any other naturally slimperson - they can put on weight, and usually will gain some with age, but they are much less likely to end up fat or large than your average person.
My one sister and I have that ‘model’ body type (small narrow bone structure, super thin). We have never had to do anything to keep our weight low, we both eat a fair amount (she eats mostly junk food, I used to eat mostly junk food and the only difference eating clean has made is a few added pounds of muscle mass), and if we continue to take after our father we’ll be skinny our whole lives without any struggle.
From the actress I’ve seen with plastic surgery, you can only assume that the plastic surgery they got makes them look fake and worse than if they hadn’t got any (Olivia Newton-John are you listening LOL)
I think the biggest thing I’ve seen is to stay out of the sun. That sun tan looks great when you’re 20 but it weathers the skin something awful by the time you’re 40. Teeth are another huge thing
But teeth like hair color have to be done correctly. Overly white teeth look bad, especially on a person over 40. OK dingy yellow teeth aren’t the way to go either, but no one hits 40 with super white teeth. Same with hair color. No one has hair of all one color by the time they’re 40. You may have 99% brown hair, but a few of the strands will be gray or faded. So get it done right or learn to color it correctly, so it doesn’t look so fake.
^ Nobody has solid colored hair, no matter what their age. We all have natural highlights.
My own impression of the question in the OP is that models are usually picked from the more beautiful people, and so of course they are more likely to be more beautiful as they age. A real question would be about child models, as what we like in a model at a young age is different from what we like as they get older.
You could try Google image searching models who were in their youth before 1980 and comparing old photos with current ones.
Example: [Tippi Hedren](http://www.google.com/images?q=tippi hedren)
Some beauties who look great otherwise lose a lot of their looks due to lots of smoking and drug use which beats the crap out of their skin and face. Sun exposure for tanning is also tough on skin. Look at Lindsay Lohan. She’s 24, but has the skin and wrinkles of a considerably older woman.
There are different types of models out there, but if we are talking about the top female fashion models, a majority of them have smoked habitually since making their runway debut (which was what, at 16 years of age?). I mean, the list just goes on and on: Stam, Deyn, Werbowy, Kass, Ward, Bundchen, Donaldson, Onopka, Moss, etc…
I guess it helps suppress the appetite, but it also accelerates aging, especially in the face and skin. They say that the effects of smoking don’t show up until later in life, but several of those models already seem beat in their early 20’s. Early 20s! And they still have a way to go before hitting middle age.
To use two local examples, and who are definitely middle-aged (as per the OP) and not elderly.
Rachel Hunter is 41, she is looking pretty damned good, and doesn’t appear to be artificially enhanced.
Elle MacPherson is 47 and looks amazing!
I really don’t think this is a question that can be answered. “Good looks” are going to vary depending on who you ask. People are going to age at varying rates depending on a lot of factors including diet, genetics, surgeries, smoking, drug use, sleeping habits, sunscreen use, etc etc etc.
Also, what do you consider middle age? According to the average life span you’re talking 38-40 is the middle. Contrary to what AARP would like to tell us, 55 isn’t middle age for most people.