Bizarre, or impossible, as it may be, I clearly said what I wanted and asked that posters please “give it a shot”. No one is forced to open or participate in this thread. SMH.
This is really silly. My OP was very clear; it was simple and direct. Nowhere in it did I mention anything other than the perceptions in one’s own head.
Ok I finally realised the question I answered isn’t the question that was being asked. Sorry!
No, I don’t think I look particularly young for my age. If you look, I have lines appearing around my eyes. I also think I’ve aged quite a bit in the last twelve months. Comparing myself to other people my age, I feel like some of them appear older than they ought. An example is Australian singer Kasey Chambers, born three months before me
http://m.zimbio.com/pictures/AUVAPQKs1rA/Sound+Relief+Melbourne/QZbqW4L3tt3/Kasey+Chambers
. I think she looks much older than 35 and I don’t think I look as old as she does. Compare her to Kate Winslet, Reece Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore (Google for images of them without makeup)… They are all roughly the same age and are no where near as lined.
I said in my previous post that I’m treated as young by others, but personally I can’t see it. I think I look my age. I just don’t think I look older than my age like some of my fellow 1976ers.
Well, I got carded at age 49. I’m pretty sure the cashier guy was distracted by my 20 year old daughter who was standing next to me, though.
I’m 56 now, my daughter lives in another part of the country and nobody is going to make that mistake again. 
People are having a hard time with the question because it is hard to think about in a vacuum. In any case, I do think I look younger than my age. It is all about the skin at my age (51) and I have very good skin. I have almost no wrinkles, and most people do by now. I regularly have clients in their thirties make statements that show they assume we are close in age. Child, we aren’t even the same generation!
Pic in the gallery in case you are curious or doubt me. 
Ok, so don’t think about it in a vacuum. All I’m asking is to tell me your own opinion of yourself; (even if that opinion is, in part, formed by the feedback from others); not other peoples’. Is that understandable?
Got pics?
Of the daughter…
I have been going grey since I was 25, and losing my hair rapidly since 30 or so. I have also started to put on weight, and don’t really do anything about any of those. I am ageing in an arguably traditionally unpleasant way.
When I was young people who were 40 looked a certain way, and these days 40 year olds generally look more youthful than that, probably due to fashion trends and improved diets and exercising. But, in my opinion, I look exactly how I remember 40 year olds as looking. Which is a tad disappointing.
I don’t know how that fits in with the OP.
I started graying at 19. I was totally silver by around 35. I love it. Its different its pretty to me. I think I have beautiful thick, straight sparkly, silver hair at 48. My mother, father and all my girlfriends want me to dye it (not happening) and yet I get stopped regularly by men and women, both younger and older who tell me it’s gorgeous. I think I look my age, and then some, to most people on the street, but frankly, I don’t give a shit what they think.
I like the way I look, and if they don’t? They can fuck off.
Sorry, it was my attempt to ask in what I thought was a humorous way Why you gotta make it so hard? You seemed to be pointing out that posters weren’t answering correctly, although they were trying to participate.
People do a double take when they see a photo of me from 20 years ago and I still look the same. I get carded depending on whether I shave or not and was asked what I was doing out of class while substitute teaching.
Yes, I look younger than others my age because I’ve found that most other 37 year olds are balding, grey, or overweight. I am neither of these things, thus I look younger.
Yes, I do look younger than my age.
I base this on the reaction, of the people around me, when they discover my real age. Been that way all my life. Once had my photo taken, by a man who felt certain my husband, must be my Dad!
I can still remember how viscerally embarrassing it was to be a 20 something and getting hit on by 16yr olds on the street. You live in a world where people are constantly bringing incorrect assumptions to every opening encounter. “You must be a genius to be at uni, while only 15!” Grrrr.
Myself I feel it has less to do with face, than body type. If you’re shortish and slim people will think you are much younger than you are, especially once you are over 40! People expect to grow thicker in middle age, I think.
Also, when I look around my peer group, (55yrs), I don’t see a lot of slim, bike riders, with shoulder length chestnut hair, with only hints of grey, (My sister started to go grey in high school! All of my sibs are long since completely grey?).
Part of it is surely pursuing a youthful lifestyle, but I’d be willing to bet most people would guess my age wrong. When I was a server and carding kids for ID, if they got miffed I would point out that it’s not as easy as it seems to guess someone’s age. Then I would offer to buy their round of drinks if they could accurately guess my age, when I came back with their drinks. I never bought a round of drinks. Not ever. Not once. Of course I knew, I didn’t look my age.
If these are your criteria for looking younger than your late 40s, then you must live in East Shitfuck Appalachia.
In MY opinion of myself…it depends on the day and how much sleep I got…:dubious: I do think I look younger than I am because I do take good care of myself; I eat well and exercise (running, kickboxing, and martial arts)
Based on others’ reactions to me (as a mother of six) I get a quite surprising reaction when they find out my age and that I have all those kids. When I’m out with my youngest only, many think she is my first and that I must have married young. I’m 41, but am often mistaken for my 20s easily. I was carded at my 20th high school reunion…I was the only one stopped. They thought someone was sneaking their daughter into the pub.
I think a large part of that is my stature; I’m quite petite and have no wrinkles, gray hairs, etc. My oldest daughter (14) rolls her eyes when people ask if I’m their sister.
Nobody else seems to want to be the first to admit it, so I will; I look my age, more or less. I’m 40, and I imagine most people would guess I’m 40. Well, most people would SAY “39” because they don’t want to say 40, but that’s what I look. Pretty normal looking guy, really.
Five years ago, when I was 35, I looked 45. Now I’m older but look younger. Losing 60-70 pounds will do that.
Although I went bald at a very young age, people generally do underestimate my age by a considerable number of years. Probably the biggest reason is my weight; I’m carrying around a lot less fat around my middle than average for my age.
On the other hand, when I examine my face closely I think I look about my age.
I’m told I look younger than my age all the time. I don’t know, it’s so hard to be objective, looking in the mirror I look pretty good, then I see a photo and go, ‘whoa!’ No wrinkles, but getting that saggy look in the cheeks and neck…If I really work at it, putting on careful makeup and flattering clothes, doing my hair, I look pretty-hot-for-my-age and might be mistaken for being younger. If I just slop through the day in baggy clothes and greasy hair, not so much. I do take pains to have my hair colored, highlighted, and a good cut as the roots are gray now. And I tend to dress in more expensive, carefully chosen outfits than women my age. (Mutton dressed as lamb sort of backfires.) I think that makes a difference. I am rather short and chunky, and shorts/sneakers/t-shirts makes me look short and blocky. So I wear skirts and dresses.
There’s a look to a lot of middle aged women who have put on weight that makes them look their age, they have accepted themselves and dress for comfort. Their hair is cut in what I think of as an old-fashioned short layered artichoke cut (with the shaved neckline), not a hair out of place, easy to keep up. But I think I would look dumpy and older with that haircut, myself…I have a friend 5 years younger than me, she has had many serious health problems and looks ancient! Hard used and ancient, very very thin, she looks like an old crone. So stress and illness can take away your looks, when you’re fighting to stay alive you don’t worry about looking cute.
I think you have something here. The rose colored glasses also explains people who look in the mirror and think they’re skinnier than they are and then are dismayed by photos. 
Spoken from personal experience here…
I think you get used to how you look and you kind of build yourself up…to yourself.
Granted, I tell people that they look younger than they *actually *look all the time. I mean, do you tell the truth? You can see wrinkles and sagging jawlines, but that person still looks late 20’s or 30’s! This works best with actual youthful looking people. Sure, they are fit and look young for their age, but I’m STILL going to say they look younger than they actually do because I do not want to guess that they are older and piss them off.
I’ve even done the fake surprise, and ‘What?! You have a son who is an adult? No way! I can’t believe that! You don’t look old enough to have a child that old!’
Answering the question: I think I look about my age. When I press up really close to the mirror (as I neurotically do) I can see that my skin is getting rougher. I think most people look right around their age, not that there aren’t those genetically gifted/cursed people out there. 
I will add after looking in the mirror, if I let my hair grow I would look older. Finally getting some grey in but mostly on the temples. I have a short military haircut and buzz the sides down tight so you can’t tell until right before I need to go to the barber. Like right now.