Rapid Aging

I don't know about what you are, but here all the tanning is awful. I have friends from high school, who look A LOT older then me...but they were obsessed with tanning. The tanning has really aged them. (I don't know about grays.) People often think I'm in my early 20's. (I'm almost 30.) I have friends who I'm a year older then, and they look 15-20 older then I do. Seriously. Many of my friends who look older, look to be in their early 40s. I have a sister who is 3 years older then me, and she looks like she is 45. She started seriously tanning at 14. It's always my tanning obsessed friends, I'm telling you!

I also think size has to do with it. I am super petite, and people often assume small = young.

I don't notice it in hair as much as skin. I am 45 and have younger looking skin than many people your age due to religious use of sunscreen, hats and retin a. Absolutely nothing can age a woman like the sun.

hmmmm, interesting. I found a huge difference in aging when we moved to a rural area with a high working poor population. My husband and I (in our 40's), and all of our "city friends" from NY and LA are often mistaken for being in our early 30's (sometimes even 20's!). Around here I often see people way younger than us who look older (middle-aged paunches, gray hair, etc). I'm always shocked to find out the "older lady" at the corner store, etc, is actually my age or younger..and they all have much older kids than ours-most are out of high school, and ours are leaving toddlerhood. Lots of the ladies my age with kids my kid's ages at the park are with their grand-kids.

I've talked to some friends about it, and we deduced it's probably largely to do with income levels and "health awareness". It's not an active, trendy, healthy area with people biking and mountain climbing and skiing all around, etc. And people don't have money for yoga and Whole Foods type stores (we have none). The university grocery store has a great organic section, but the locals think it's a rip-off scam, or simply cannot afford those groceries. Most restaurants are very fried meat and potatoes oriented, and people sort of live and die where they're planted, have kids young, work in local factories etc.

Meanwhile most of the city slickers have been doing healthy diet trends, beauty secrets, expensive moisturizers, gym memberships, Zen and yoga-type things, avoiding the sun, drinking lots of bottled water....for 20 years.

Also my generation grew up running around outdoors more, and did not sit in front of TVs and computers and video games all day like kids do now. I think that drains vitality BIG TIME personally.

This is an interesting thread! I'm almost 40, and I do have grey hair, and have started adding highlights to cover it a bit, but I really feel like other than that, I look great! I think all my girlfriends and I look great, but then I'll meet someone that I assume is 45 or 50 and find out she's younger than me, like 37 or 35. Yikes!

I wonder if it's sun exposure (I live in MN and we just don't get the same exposure here as you do in CA), or that my friends and I are all pretty active (running, biking, yoga) and when I meet someone who just doesn't take care of them selves, it's pretty obviouswhen they look so much older than they are.

I do know that starting in our 30s, we experience something called accelerated bursts of aging. We look in the mirror and something is there that wasn't there before....lines/wrinkles, sagging skin, sun spots, etc.

Aging is part genetics, but a lot of it is environment and lifestyle. There's been studies with identical twins, where one twin rapidly aged more than the other twin due to a difference in environment and lifestyle.

So wear sunscreen, decrease your stress, eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, and take pharmaceutical-grade supplements to slow down the aging process. : )

I agree. I was born in 74 and my cousin (1980), my colleague (1985) and few other women born in the 80s look older than me, they have to cover their grays too! Also, I met up with my high school mates (after 20 years..yikes!) and all look pretty much like we did then...some even better :-P

Interesting... I am not bragging ;) but, have noticed some younger friends born in the late 70's to look older than me (I'm 42). I have been meeting a bunch of new people because of a change in schooling and one of the women that I adore is younger than me by "10 years" and I thought she was older! I was shocked, but couldn't act shocked, lol. I always had/have very oily and acne-prone skin which has played a part. So, I have paid my dues with $hitty skin! I wonder if it's our crappy food system? What is your diet like? Is it high in sugar?

If it helps... Almost every generation feels this way in their 20s & early 30s.

It's a psychological thing in PART (the whole mortality thing + aging thing/aka you and your friends actually ARE getting older so you're noticing things that have been coming OB for awhile)...

Part of it is also a fashion thing (the current style adds 10 years, and only looks good on teens... Choppy lengths, garish colors, bold patterns, etc. combine to make most people's skin look bad, bodies look wider and shorter, hair look older, etc. as a visual artist I HATE this style. Everyone will look younger as soon as long clean lines, better colors, and glossy hair comes back on vogue)

Part of it is an honesty thing. People GRIPE about these changed in public in their 20s & early 30s, but have come up with working solutions by 30s & 40s

Part of it is money, by later 30s & 40s, most people have more money and time to take care of themselves.

Part of it is kids at ANY age. Young children are exhausting, and expensive. Moms of 20yos often look younger than moms of 3yos

But a BIG part is the first. You know people griping about turning 30? It's because that's right about when most people start feeling old, and their friends start looking 'old'. They DON'T, as any 40yo will laugh at you... But in you mid to late 20s... Most people stop looking like kids. They've got some grey, some hair loss, some fine lines, skin that doesn't have growth hormones making it look like a teens/kids, bone are done growing, waistlines are expanding. They don't look old to anyone ELSE but they look old to themselves.