I’ve never forgotten my perma-tanned (22 year old) friend’s justification for using sun beds as we strolled through town one carefree afternoon, full of the joys of, well, youth…
“So what if it causes long term damage… I want to look gorgeous now. I won’t give a **** what I look like when I’m 40!”
Wrong my friend. So very wrong. You will care; perhaps more in fact.
Ditto to the young fresh faced girls in wide eyed bewilderment at skincare, botox and all things anti ageing…
“Why bother? Growing old is natural; lined faces have character. I’m not all worried about ageing.”
Just you wait… it’s easy to think that way before it happens.
Coming to terms with looking older is not easy. It doesn’t preoccupy me, but while I’m not exactly decrepit, there are times when it genuinely shocks me to notice changes in my once smooth, plump skin (I avoid smiling in the mirror for this reason!) Ditto the once svelte-without-effort body. Which reminds me of another chuckle moment… when uni friends regularly scoffed at my ability to eat late night burgers and cheesy chips after the pub with retorts along the lines of:
“It won’t last forever; one day you will wake up the size of a house! *insert evil laugh*”
Well, not quite, but no it didn’t last forever...
Long gone are the days when I’d wear two pairs of woolly tights & leggings under my jeans to make my legs look like they existed. The girls weren’t being mean by the way - they were and still are - my closest friends. Hello girls if you’re reading *wobbles wobbly bits*.
We’re all ‘ageing’, every minute of every day, even my 5 year old (who asked me today ‘how long does a year last?’). I make no secret of my love for anti-ageing beauty products (obvs!) and am open minded about trying new forms of self preservation, but I won’t lose any sleep over it. In some ways I think the first signs are the most traumatic - and I’d rather grow old gracefully than look like this…
Do you worry about the effects of ageing?
