Tallulah
Emerging
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2008
- Messages
- 6,009
- MBTI Type
- INTP
Really? You must be lucky. I have pretty light skin and I started noticing little changes already in my mid to late 20s. Also noticed a chance in my metabolism around 27. Awhile ago I was driving and suddenly thought to myself, "Where did the stuffing under my eyes go?" Now I have some lines that don't go away, even when I'm not smilling or frowning. Since I was in my late 20s though I started wearing sunscreen and paying more attention to cleaning my skin properly or using AHAs to get rid of dead skin cells.
THIS. Ugh. This happened to me this year. I lost the padding under my eyes and a bit in the hollows of my cheeks. I always had kind of a rounder face, but good cheekbones, so I always used to look forward to my face thinning out a bit. But when it happens, all you can think is that the stuffing makes you look more youthful. Plus, the stuffing holds things up. I've always taken good care of my skin, and only had one tiny line under my eyes that appeared when I smiled--and that arrived at 32. Then this year, at exactly 38 1/2, that padding disappeared and suddenly the fine lines under my eyes are more plentiful because they don't have anything to fill them. I hate it, but I also think I'm probably the main one that notices, and I know I got away with not having any lines for a long time.
Yeah, this.
I didn't really become preoccupied with changes to my face until the past couple of years, but my preoccupation has gotten noticeably worse recently - not fishing for feedback here, just being truthful in that I'm starting to feel totally unattractive - having many more of those days. I need to get over it, as I know it's a big perceptual thing and I just need to wrap my head around growing older. I've never had a very positive relationship with my looks/image, so growing older and starting to see subtle changes (just turned 33) has simply exacerbated the problem that has always existed.
I think it probably is perception...I feel the same way, a lot of the time, because the change is so obvious to me, but then I look at someone like you and go, "What is she talking about? She looks great!" I think the other thing, too, is that people have always thought I looked younger than my age, so there's a point of pride in that, however dumb it might be...looking my age just seems like a depressing thing to contemplate.
I just have to remember that I, personally, almost never think anyone is strikingly beautiful when they're in their 20s, even when they are genetically stunning. Not putting them down at ALL. But I've always been that way, even when I was a teenager or twentysomething. I like to see the whole person, and that doesn't really show when you're young.