As uncomfortable as I am with looking older I would not take the extreme measures that Courtney Cox went to in changing her appearance and disguising her age. She has been quoted recently saying “Oh god, I look horrible. I have done things that I regret” in relation to plastic surgery. Even if I could afford it, I wouldn’t do it, mainly because there is no good example of plastic surgery working to make an ageing face look better.
Plastic surgery kind of stretches the skin in certain places and enlarges other areas in a very unrealistic way. Cox is rumoured to have had lip implants, Botox injections and cheek fillers. Imagine spending all that money, going through the pain and risk of surgery and then looking worse than you did to begin with.
Interestingly, the hipsters of the world have found a way to have their cheeky say on the matter of ageing. Generation Y are dying their hair grey to be cool. And with the thick and lustrous grey hair against youthful skin and strong makeup, it looks kind of cool. They are calling it #grannyhair. There has been some backlash in the media saying these hipsters are disrespecting the ageing process. While I am at the hairdressers getting my grey hair dyed, next door is a hipster getting her mane dyed grey.
I have always looked younger than I really I am. As a smoker, I always had to provide ID from the day I bought my first pack of cigarettes to the day I bought my last, at the age of 33, when I exclaimed to the man behind the counter “I am 33 years old!”. And he looked at me doubtfully until he saw the numbers on my license. At this point I had reached frustration at the situation and no longer took pleasure in looking younger than I really was.
Four years later and I am at a 21st and my age comes up in conversation and all the twenty year olds gasp to hear I am 37 and remark that I look ‘soooo much younger’ and they can’t believe it. I sit and take in all these comments with a little smile on my face. I take pleasure in this I think; it will surely give me advantages in a society that values youth.
Two weeks later and I pay an unplanned visit to one of Sydney’s well-known bars with a group of friends. I have no make-up on, my glasses instead of contacts and my hair completely undone. The security guard approaches us and starts to check proof of age, after which, he provides us with a wrist band so that we won’t be asked again. One by one he goes around the group and distributes the bands. And then he leaves without asking me! He has completely overlooked me, casting me as obviously old enough amongst a group of maybe under-agers! What is going on? Have I suddenly aged? I start to think maybe my days of looking younger than I am have come to an end.
Shortly after this I have an IT issue at uni and go to the help desk and the man behind the counter asks me for my staff number. He has mistaken me for staff because I look too old to be a student! I am not ready to be as old as I am. I had become accustomed to being forever young.
Interestingly I used to wish I was older and mistaken for being older. As a teenager there were things I wanted that only an older person could gain access to: movies, clubs, alcohol, cigarettes. I remember forging documents to get my belly button pierced at aged 16 when the legal age was 18.
Now I am turning 38 in 2 days. It seems that my days of looking like a 25-year-old are over. It is as though I have suddenly aged. My appearance has finally caught up to my age. I can still look young but only with contacts, makeup and straightened hair.
It seems we are never the age that we want to be. In a recent article a 45-year-old was ejected from the workforce and then considered too old to get a job and too young for retirement. That is only 7 years away from my age. Maybe I should pretend to be 10 years younger. As long as I wear makeup, contacts and straighten my hair, I will have them believing it.
