Already done! I don`t know if it made me look younger, probably a bit. But it definitely was an improvement.
It’s hard to see from the picture, luckily, but the top of my head has a fairly large bald spot. So I don`t really like my hair that short, but I think anything more creative would require more length and just accentuate the baldness. I went to an expensive fru fru salon with a guy stylist for years and that was his advice - keep it short to minimize the balding until I decide I want to shave it off. Then he moved across the country and I started going to a barber. Maybe I should consider shaving it off entirely?
I knew this was a distinct possibility when I started the thread, so please don`t think I’m ignoring your or anyone’s advice or not appreciative, but I like the way my clothes fit. The reindeer sweater is obviously a silly representation of my normal outfit, but I think my jeans are stylish already so if I have to follow control-z’s advice and shop at Aeropostale or Abercrombie I think I’ll have to resign myself to listening to steronz or control-z’s other advice and just not care.
I’m just wondering if there’s anything else I’m missing.
Maybe browse the J Crew highlight reel for some ideas? (Can be copied at almost any budget, and you probably have some similar items in your closet.) I’m not sure about the leather jacket suggest by an earlier post, those were very popular in the 80’s and look very dated around here.
Most of my clothes, including the pants in the picture, are J Crew. I do like J Crew a lot but honestly I never thought of it as looking particularly young.
Actually, after posting a picture of me wearing a very silly looking sweater I guess maybe it’d be helpful to say I normally wear a lot of J Crew’s clothing or similar brands. T-shirts, polos and other knitwear, jeans, chinos, dressier cotton pants. I like their sweaters a lot, which I think fit me well and aren’t old and stodgy looking.
You need to let go of the notion that you will look younger if you wear Mr. Rogers clothes. If you’re going to dress like Grampa don’t complain if you look like Grampa. You really need to embrace your look and stop worrying about looking younger.
I agree, doesn’t look particularly young, but J Crew’s mix of casual + business wear looks smart and well put-together. Sort of the opposite of Ed Hardy if you know what I mean. I suspect you have all the pieces you need in your closet already, just try a t-shirt in place of an outfit where you might have picked a button-down, or swap the khakis for jeans when sporting a button-down and tie. I think the head-shaving thing might just do the trick on it’s own, though. You have a good face with nice features. Looking approachable and friendly trumps any concerns over a stranger’s unwarranted comment. The rude stranger is the one who could stand to improve.
And even though I feel leather jackets have a *That Guy *vibe, the skinny ties (that scream 80’s) look good on the J Crew link when mixed with flat front khakis and Diesel-type shoes.
I really like my/that style so maybe I should just drop it and stick with what I like, but I can’t help but be disturbed to realize I look that old. I just think of myself as looking slightly older than I am… it’s alarming to realize people see me as 50% older than I am.
Well we were both dressed for working outside in the rain and she wasn`t wearing make up and had her hair up, so I’m sure she looked younger than normal. I just wish no 24 year old woman could manage to make herself look like my daughter.
Isn’t there room for people in their 20s between dressing like grandpa and wearing abercrombie though? Plenty of young men dress up for work, even dressier than I do, and they don`t look as old as I do.
Replace your glasses with Ray Ban Wayfarers. They’re comfy, cheap, and (in my case) made me look five years younger. Or at least five years more awesome.
Or, rather, hair DO.
You have a tiny bit of recede, but many 20somethings do. (I barely do in my late 40s and my wife and I both get pegged at early to mid 30s by new people.) Even with the (very small) hairline issues, tho, an updated look might do the trick.
Also, act hyper and distracted a lot. This screams youth.
Shoot, buddy, embrace it! Adopt a sly wink! How’d that slightly older guy snag that hot young chick anyway??
Nah. Shrug it off. Just one random comment from a stranger is not enough reason to fret or revise your whole closet. She likes you the way you are. You like you the way you are. The rest is just background noise
Ya that’s what my friend has. But think hair like Jason Statham. It’s basically shaved down but really well groomed and clean looking. You can still tell that he’s probably balding, but it doesn’t matter because his actual look is stylish. If you shave it off ENTIRELY, it might not look as good because it’s a really bold statement to go totally bald and if you’re a white dude you can run into “cancer patient” syndrome unless you get a tan.
If you’re happy with your look, that’s totally fine, don’t change a thing. That’s why I say, it’s only if other people’s impression of you bothers you that you should consider trying something new. Myself, I don’t care what people think of me in general, so I do my own thing. But if I was going to a business meeting where I wanted to make a good impression, I’d put on a nice suit. If I was a guy who was being mistaken for being older and that was nagging at my self-esteem a bit, I would look into the advice in this thread.
Personally, this is the kind of style I could picture you pulling off nicely:
Ya the guy has more hair, but he’s well-groomed, his clothes fit, he’s layering his shirts in a stylish way, etc. Even with glasses he still looks put together. This guy is probably your age under it all, but in your pic you look like you could be his dad.
There’s a lot of little subtleties in the fit and everything that change the look and make it more modern…that’s why if you DO want to have a more modern look, you have to ask the people working in clothing stores because they’re paid to know what’s hip, or look at celebrities because they pay stylists jillions of dollars to put together their look.
Yes, this. Like, no offense or anything implied. But you can’t say “I currently look A, but I want to look B, without dressing like B and I kind of want to keep my look like A. How do I do this?” It’s like, you can’t haha You have to update your look and try some new things out (it can be fun, I swear, haha), or you have to accept that people will see you as a 35 year old man when you’re nowhere near it.
You haven’t shown us what your normal wear looks like on you, but usually the reason for this comes down to fit of the clothes (yours probably aren’t fitted) and the facial/hair grooming, glasses style, etc.
Imagine two guys in a suit. One is wearing his dad’s hand-me-down suit that’s kind of baggy and has lots of material at the sides and lower back…his hair is combed decent but he’s got scruff on the back of his neck because he doesn’t take care of it very often. He bought his glasses 8 years ago and they were chosen on an “I don’t really care, these are fine I guess” whim.
Then the other guy has a suit that’s fitted to his body, his hair looks like he just got a haircut today, he’s got a stylish pair of glasses he had a girlfriend pick out, etc.
The guys are wearing the same clothes, but the little things make the difference.
Ye-up. I’ve got a nice big bald spot for a 29-year old and I’ve been experimenting with shaving it down. Going straight bald doesn’t quite work unless you’ve got the right head shape and don’t have much body fat. But I found that shaving with a #1 or 2 razor looks a lot smarter and cleaner than anything else I’ve tried. Hell, I took the idea from Statham too. It’s pretty funny when you look at Mr. Badass’s hair and realize he actually is balding; he just carries it well.
I’ll bet you already look 10 years younger now that you’ve shaved. I think your haircut is just fine. It looks boyish to me. The glasses do have that tinted look that ages you, but you say it’s only the photo - ask someone else’s opinion in person just in case. New frames may help; it’s hard to say. You can always go to Googles4U.com and upload a photo of yourself with no glasses and try on different pairs virtually to get an idea of frames that may be more youthful.
I think it’s a lot easier for women to change their apparent age. A woman of 30 with long hair can make herself look 10 years younger by braiding her hair in tails like a schoolgirl, and can make herself look like a grandma by tying it in a bun.
Shaving the scruff would probably make me think early 30’s instead of late 30’s. But take what I say with a grain of salt, because I don’t really claim to be good at guessing people’s age.
And if it makes you feel any better, since I was a kid I’ve always been pegged for being much older than I really was. At least back then it was handy for buying beer. Now, it kinda sucks, eh?
It’s pretty funny when you look at Mr. Badass’s hair and realize he actually is balding; he just carries it well.
