Same here. In fact sometimes I get annoyed professionally when someone that’s younger than me starts pulling the “more age and experience” card and treating me like I’m way younger than I am.
But the women in my family age slowly, not just in appearance but objectively -the “family women” usually don’t hit menopause until between 55 and 60.
I have a photo in the Doper Gallery - I was 54 when it was taken.
My brother, who is 3 yrs older, turned completely white headed in his late 30s. Was odd, I thought. He still has his hair, just it’s a different color now. His hair was dark like my Dad when he was younger (Dad went grey about 40ish), while I was tow headed for most of my youth, turning a mix of strawberry to dirty blonde, and now just dirty blonde. Any grey I do get, looks like blondish highlights.
Both my maternal and paternal grandfathers had a full head of hair into their 70s.
My best bud went male pattern baldness in his 20s, so he got totally into fitness. He shaves bald now, and that looks pretty good on him.
Not only do they card everyone for this nonsense, but I was carded not too long ago for some DayQuil, but then at the same store purchased 1.75 liters of gin, and not a peep. I don’t even think the cashier looked at me. I think someone made meth somewhere once, so everyone got in a tizzy and now we can’t buy cough medicine anymore without a retina scan.
So anyway, 1) Being carded at bars or wherever doesn’t mean you look young. It means they card everyone.
In answer to the question, no. I do sometimes come across people from my high school on Facebook, and I generally look younger than they do because they’re for the most part fat and complete screw ups. However, when surrounded by normal people my age, I say I fall in line with them fairly well.
I think my sense of my own appearance is pretty realistic on a day to day basis. I look in the mirror and see a middle aged lady. If any of you met me I imagine you’d guess that I’m “around forty five.” When I’m well rested and put some effort into it I could probably pretend to be forty.
Where I have amnesia is in a group of people I’ve known a long time. At a college reunion I spent the whole weekend being amazed at how none of my friends had changed in the last ten years. Then came the banquet with the slide show of photos of us in school. So different.
About 5 years ago my father remarried and his new wife is only 5 years older than I am. My husband and I took them to Niagara Falls to visit the Casino and have a nice meal as a celebration. Since the route we took to several attractions took us through the casino were in and out of the building about 10 times that day. I was carded 8 of them and despite her ever more desperate attempts to convince them they needed to check her ID, she never was.
I believe they’re required to ask for ID from anyone they believe is 35 or under so it wasn’t that much of a compliment, I was only 38 at the time
I’m underguessed wrt age quite frequently. People act much more surprised when they find out my true age than I would expect them to if it were just flattery.
However, I see it. To me, I look every single day of my age. I see the little crow’s feetz, the gray hair at my temples (and down south :eek:), the smoker’s lines around my mouth. I see how my skin all over has lost elasticity (maybe sags a bit around knees and elbows). Don’t get me wrong, I’m in better shape than I was in high school. If you just looked at my body, you might guess a good 20 years younger. I think, if you just studied my face, your guess would be much closer to accurate. All those changes are subtle (still, at this point) and I suspect they will become more marked over the next ten years.
So I’ll be the outlier who actually sees my own age. I may very well look younger than others my age, but I think being in good physical condition helps to that end. I don’t look like I pushed out a couple of kids because, well, I didn’t.
I’m nearly 50 with all my teeth, no grey in my natural hair, and just the beginnings of crowsfeet with no other wrinkles on my face. Yes, I look younger than I am and not just based on all the people who tell me so. When really tired I look closer to my age, but well rested I can pass for mid to late 30’s.
Well, Becky2844 will have to be the one to tell you which post prompted her “ornery” comment. I just thought it was interesting that you claimed to have no idea why anyone would think you were being ornery, and then in your very next post got snippy with someone who posted a perfectly polite and on-topic reply to your OP.
It actually wasn’t on topic and I had already specifically addressed this in the thread when that post came up. I was asking what people thought of themselves; not what other people thought of them. And the post in question simply addressed the latter while ignoring the former. I don’t think I was being ‘ornery’ at all.
As you see, I clarified what the OP was asking early on in the thread. It showed me that the poster in question hadn’t bothered to read the thread before posting.
If you don’t like the replies you’ve been getting, maybe your OP wasn’t as clear as you thought it was. And if other people are telling you you’re being “ornery”, maybe your posts aren’t as polite or reasonable as you think they are either.
But you said Living Well Is Best Revenge didn’t reply to your OP. Your later clarification of the OP was not actually part of the OP. And frankly, even if it had been I don’t see why this should be such a big deal to you. Most people’s perceptions of their own appearance are going to be strongly affected by the way others react to them. It’s bizarre to insist that we pretend this isn’t the case.