Why do I look older than my age? Why do I look older than my age? Why do some people look older than they are?

27.11.2021Heading: The buildings

Many teenage girls and girls in their 20s and 25s want to look older. Such a desire is characterized by a cute appearance, behavior or even style of clothing. In most cases, such a problem is faced by office workers, whose decisions require a certain tact. They are taken lightly, because the appearance does not inspire confidence. To remedy the situation, you need to resort to some tricks, which we will talk about today. So let's get started.

Step #1. Avoid fancy clothes

It's no secret that clothes characterize a person, so it makes sense to start reincarnation with a wardrobe.

Ditch the teenage clothes, go shopping for more "mature" things. In the usual boutiques for children, you will get a low-quality blouse, top or trousers, while in the adult department you will find linen or silk shirts, natural jeans, and beautiful underwear.
Get rid of the girlish ways, stop wearing funny bags, clothes with cartoon characters or overly colorful pants. Avoid clothes that look cute. This wardrobe includes pleated blouses, stockings, miniskirts, jeans with Mickey Mouse, etc.
Particular attention should be paid to sporty style, abandon it completely. Eliminate baggy pants and T-shirts, prefer leggings and a T-shirt that supports the chest. Do not wear sneakers all the time, choose older moccasins.
Do not wear a T-shirt or sweater with logos all over, give preference to plain polo shirts, sweaters in restrained shades, blouses with a brooch or rhinestones.
If until now you've been wearing loose-fitting clothes that completely hid your figure, it's time to change your habits. Get tight-fitting black trousers, they will visually make your legs longer. Choose a top (blouses, jackets, sweaters, etc.) that will suit your body type.

Step #2. Pay attention to shoes

You can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, consider this fact.

Buy shoes, sandals, boots only in quality stores. Give preference to products made of genuine leather, firstly, they are durable, and secondly, they look chic.
Give up sneakers made of fabric, bright sneakers, cheap slates. When meeting and meeting, the opponent will first of all pay attention to the shoes, if it is “flashy”, this is wrong. For this reason, color plays an important role, it can be black, beige, brown or red.
If you have never worn high heels until now, you should change your habits. Visit an Italian shoe boutique, choose the most chic pair with a thick heel about 8-10 cm high. Practice walking at home, then go out into the world. In the summer, wear beautiful sandals or ballet flats.

Step #3. Change your hairstyle

Intricate haircuts or hairstyles like cute pigtails gathered at the back of the head, ponytails and even dreadlocks give a childish look. There is no single version of an adult haircut, it all depends on the characteristics of the face (setting the eyes, facial contours, jaw line and cheekbones).

To look older, dye your hair brown, chocolate, or another dark shade. Do not carry out the procedure using bright colors, they look ridiculous.
Maintain a conservative hairstyle, no need to shave the temple or braid the entire surface of the head. Visit a hairdresser with the words “Please choose a hairstyle that takes into account the structure of my face. I want to look older." The master will take into account the wishes and give practical recommendations.
If you have medium length hair, keep it in a bun or a low ponytail. You can also create an elegant short haircut that adds 2-3 years in age.
Break the habit of wearing cute headbands, putting decorative flowers in your hair, or pinning your hair with cartoon clips.

Step number 4. Put on your makeup

Very often you can meet young girls who look much older than their years due to the right makeup.

Find video makeup courses on the Internet, pay attention to the lessons on applying cosmetics specifically to your face type.
Use smokey-eye makeup, highlight your eyes with dark eyeliner, draw arrows. Discard bright and pearlescent shadows that look vulgar.
Use concealer to mask acne and possible breakouts. Apply foundation to your face, then powder and cover your cheekbones with blush.
Don't paint your nails with girly colors (shades of pink), make it a habit to visit the nail technician every month. Tidy up your eyebrows: remove excess hairs, choose the optimal bend, taking into account the features of the face and the fit of the eyes.
Paint your lips with lipstick, not gloss, highlight the contour with a pencil and blend it. When applying makeup, focus on only one detail: eyes or lips. If you chose the first option, paint your lips with hygienic colorless lipstick in addition. In the case of the second option, line your eyes with a pencil and apply mascara to your eyelashes, nothing more.

Step number 5. Develop confidence and tact

Maturity is characterized by a person's confidence. Even if you are dressed as expected, a hunched gait or slurred speech will speak for itself.

It is important to understand that there is a certain difference between condescending behavior and confident behavior. Do not try to put yourself above others, stop showing off purchases or achievements, behave maturely and with restraint.
Do not raise your tone to the interlocutor, speak clearly, loudly enough, but not squeaky. Do not forget to use words of gratitude, when asking for help, say “please”, when you get what you want - “thank you”.
Learn to listen and hear your opponent, do not interrupt. Ask appropriate questions, do not try to turn the conversation on yourself. Have non-committal conversations about the weather, animals, relatives. Do not gossip, remain neutral in controversial situations.

Step number 6. Learn to stand up for yourself

In cases where the opponent shows disrespect to you, politely ask to stop. Try to force others to respect you, be open to dialogue (even conflict), do not hide behind your back and do not agree. Do not insult the interlocutor, do not hide behind irony or sarcasm, this is a sign of weakness.
For example, during the conversation you were interrupted, politely make it clear that you have not finished the speech, and then continue. Be able to correctly argue your own decisions, accept criticism only from close people.
Try not to notice the mistakes of others, learn from your own mistakes. If the person hurt you, let him know about it. Do not swear, do not return evil for evil.

It's easy to look mature with a few tricks. Choose clothes that emphasize the dignity of the figure, pay attention to shoes, they must be of high quality. Do a beautiful make-up using foundation, blush and powder. Develop vocabulary, be confident, keep conversations simple.

Video: how to look older than your age

Sooner or later, we all stop looking young. Time passes - and certainly it will go through your appearance. Good news: civilization gave us creams and cosmetologists. The bad news: bad habits will negate all your efforts and help you age twice as fast. Do yourself a favor and avoid them if possible. So, here are 10 things that make you look older than your years.

1. Sun

It's not just about sunbathing and beach holidays. No less serious harm lies in solar radiation, which we deal with every day. Many people forget or are too lazy to use sunscreen and expose their skin to ultraviolet radiation. And this not only increases your chances of getting cancer, but also accelerates skin aging.

2. ... and its complete absence

This is the other extreme. Studies show that a lack of natural light leads to a lack of vitamin D, which in turn increases the risk of certain cancers. The sun harms us, but its complete absence is no less harmful. So, use sunscreen.

3. Lack of sleep

So much has been written about lack of sleep that there is no point in repeating it. Let's just say one thing: if you sleep less than eight hours, say goodbye to young and supple skin.

4. Lack of moisture

Each person has their own skin care needs. For some, it is very oily, while for others it is drier than the sands of the Sahara. But regardless of your skin type, if you don't practice regular moisturizing, your face won't thank you. All means at your service. Ignoring them is just stupid.

5. Cheap cleansers

Yes, a good gel costs a lot. Considering how quickly it wears out, using luxury brands can cost a pretty penny. But cheap soap from the bottom shelf of the supermarket sooner or later will have its cumulative effect: namely, it will disrupt the lipid balance. Do not skimp on a quality cleanser (best of all - with an exfoliating effect).

6. Lack of physical activity

Fun fact: exercise keeps not only the muscles in good shape, but also the color, tone and texture of the skin. Here's another reason to renew your gym membership.

7. Chronic stress

Recent discoveries show that stress and elevated cortisol levels can have a variety of consequences - from heart disease and hypertension to libido problems, erectile dysfunction, etc. It is not surprising that stress also has a bad effect on the skin due to the gradual destruction of collagen.

“They didn’t sell me alcohol in the store today”, “They asked me for a passport when I ordered a glass of wine” - you must have often heard such phrases from acquaintances and girlfriends. Sometimes, in response to such a story, you really want to say: “That's right, you really look much younger,” and in other cases, you can only nod understandingly so as not to seem impolite. The phenomenon of how we tend to evaluate our own age and how our assessment correlates with the assessment of others is of interest to both ordinary people and scientists. Before moving on to the signs of youth, let's find out what the latter think about this.

Forever Young

The problem of age perception has long been actively studied by psychologists. Scientists have even identified a special term - subjective age. They denote the attitude of the person himself to his own age, and there are several grounds for evaluation: How old do you feel, how old do you look and how old do you act?(this includes an assessment of one's own interests, hobbies, work, etc.). We are interested in the second point - how old we look a) in my own opinion, b) in the opinion of others. In the West, research in this area began in the 1960s. Domestic psychologists took care of the problem a little later, but they are also actively developing it.

In 2013, the journal Psychological Research published the results of a study of several age groups: from 20 to 30 years old, from 40 to 50 and from 60 to 70 years old. During it, it became clear that the majority of respondents in all age groups tend to think they look younger than their age. If we summarize the data, it turns out that, on average, we believe that we look 4-5 years younger than our real age. And after 25 years, the tendency to consider yourself younger is only gaining momentum.

There is another interesting detail: when people are asked to guess the age of others from photographs, they are rarely wrong. Often the error is less than a year, sometimes up to two years.

In world psychology, our tendency to consider ourselves younger than our calendar age is explained by psychological defense mechanism: a person wants to somehow cope with the problem of aging and not lose his place in a society focused on youth.

Signs that you look younger than your age

So how do we know if we really look younger or are just happy to be deceived by looking at our own reflection in the mirror? There are several signs that will help determine this. Of course, it is unlikely that you will be able to get an accurate objective assessment using this list, but it will help you to navigate.

1. Corner of youth

clear line mandible and the pronounced obtuse angle that it forms from the side greatly affects the perception of the face. When the line is vague (and it happens even in young people), the face immediately visually adds 4-5 years.

2. Invisible pores

“Think of a pore upright, it looks like a V,” says Amy Wexler, a US dermatologist. - That is, at the base it is narrower, and closer to the surface of the skin it expands. Enlarged pores tend to make you look older.”

It is unlikely that pore size can be radically changed with the help of cosmetics, because this parameter (like almost everything in our appearance) is determined by genetics, but regular cleansing and exfoliation will help improve the situation, the doctor explains.

3. No freckles on chest and arms

Pigmentation is often a sign of age. And now we are not talking about cute freckles on a obviously young or even teenage face, but about placers of dark spots on the chest, shoulders and arms. According to the same doctor Wexler, they immediately add up to 10 years to the appearance.

4. Thick natural eyebrows

Recently, the role of eyebrows in the architecture of the face has been appreciated to the maximum - and this plays a cruel joke with many. Girls begin to draw a non-existent volume, width and length, being overly carried away and going beyond the limits of reason. Therefore, we do not propose to consider eyebrows drawn with too generous a hand as a sign of youth. But real, thick, beautifully shaped eyebrows - quite. By the way, the stars also prove the validity of this rule by their own example: for example, the top insta blogger Natalya Davydova (Aunt Motya) admitted that she had an eyebrow transplant because she could not grow natural ones, and this procedure instantly transformed her face.

5. Face without puffiness

Photo: LEGION-MEDIA

Excessive puffiness is clearly not a sign of youth and freshness, but the so-called “pillow face” immediately adds at least a dozen years to its owner. Remember, for example: a quite young girl in recent photos looked like a mature woman only because, according to rumors, she was fond of alcohol and illegal drugs. Lohan's face has become too puffy for her age, her cheekbones have ceased to stand out, that very “corner of youth” has blurred. The same trouble overtook Madonna, but for a different reason: the pop queen was carried away by fillers based on hyaluronic acid. And they, in turn, attract and accumulate water around them, which is already in the body. As a result, the singer got the opposite effect of what she wanted: she not only did not look younger, but also visually added a few years to herself.

6. Strong nails without yellowness

Hands betray age, and this thesis is not new. However, this is not only about the condition of the skin on the hands, but also about the nails. An interesting study was published in the American Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery on how people perceive nails. Respondents were asked to estimate the age of several people by their hands. They were given two types of photographs: photographs of brushes with bare nails, and photographs of hands with polished nails and jewelry on their fingers. It turned out that hands with unvarnished nails are perceived as older. This is most likely due to the fact that the varnish covers the yellowness, uneven nail relief and other imperfections. Researchers have concluded that unkempt nails can add up to five years to your actual age.

7. Ease of movement

It's not just our appearance that influences our perception of others. How we move plays a significant role. It is known that the movements of young people (or those who are perceived as young) are wider, more active, more energetic. For example, young people often turn their whole body, and not just their head, when they need to look back or to the sides. They do not save energy by intuitively trying to move more "sparsely", as usually happens with age.

Rare genetic diseases that make you look older than your years are rare, but they do occur. There is no special treatment for them and it is very scary.

1. The woman who learned to love her wrinkles.

Model Sara Gürts, 26, was only 10 years old when she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. It is a connective tissue disorder that affects the body's ability to produce collagen. She has a rare form of the disease called dermatosparaxis, which causes the skin to wrinkle prematurely.
Guerts claims that it was only at the age of 20 that she fell in love with her wrinkled body. Now she hopes that through modeling she will be able to become the face of the Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and show other people like her that they are beautiful just the way they are.

2. Mysteriously aged young Vietnamese.

These photos may look like a photo of an attractive young woman and a photo of her grandmother. But these are pictures of the same face taken a few days apart. A young Vietnamese woman, Nguyen Thi, has aged many times over. It all started with the usual itching caused by an allergy to seafood. After taking the medicine, the itching stopped, and the skin all over the body began to sag at an astonishing rate.

3. The first black girl with progeria.

Ontalametse Falatse died in 2017, shortly after celebrating her 18th birthday. In 2009, doctors diagnosed progeria, a rare genetic disorder that accelerates the body's aging process. She was predicted that she would not live longer than 13 years. However, Ontalametse, contrary to expectations, celebrated her 18th birthday with South African President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria before passing away two months later.

4. Brothers with a rare genetic condition, aging too fast.

Brothers Ramesh and Lakshman Jadhav, aged 8 and 13, suffer from a genetic disease that ages them too quickly. As a result of the disease, they have no teeth and live exclusively on a liquid diet. Also they have high level cholesterol, blood pressure and arthritis. Mother Savita Jadhav, 30, from Pune in central India, is worried that her sons will die young because doctors cannot give the boys an accurate diagnosis. The brothers are afraid to go outside and hide under their mother's clothes to avoid ridicule from other children.

5. A young woman diagnosed with Cutis laxa.

At 12, Zara Hartshorne was mistaken for a woman in her 40s. She has the rare disease Cutis laxa, which, in addition to the obvious symptoms of rapid aging, causes serious health problems affecting the lungs, heart, and arteries. She inherited this genetic disease from her mother, a 43-year-old woman who looks like a pensioner. At the age of 16, Zara had to undergo a facelift.

6. Chinese babe who looks old and wrinkled.

This baby is only one year old, but he already looks 80. The girl's skin was already saggy when she was born. In addition to the rare diagnosis of Cutis laxa, Yuksin has congenital heart disease, pneumonia and asthma. She is now in a clinic in Zhengzhou city, Henan province in central China.

Bayezid Hossain, from Magura, southern Bangladesh, suffers from a swollen face, hollow eyes, sagging skin, sore joints, difficulty passing urine, and already has weak and broken teeth. This child is only 4 years old. Doctors believe that Bayezid suffers from progeria. Children are afraid to play with Bayezid, despite the fact that he has an above-average intelligence.

8. Real Benjamin Button from Bangladesh.

A child with an extremely rare genetic disease called progeria was born at the Medical College Hospital in Dhaka. On his first day of life, he looks like old man. He was already nicknamed Benjamin Button, the man from the film of the same name, whose age was reversed.