Did people just look older before?

Danny Meeks

OP, a huge factor in that was smoking. EVERYONE smoked, and the damage it causes to skin is astounding. Second, people used to ***roast*** in the sun. Remove those two things alone, skin looks in incredible.

Pollution, contaminated tap water and steroid contribute to this premature aging, especially to those who play sports or go to gym every day.

Check out this Twitter account.

Buttafuocos!

All the above mentioned, plus skincare wasn't advanced and barely anyone knew about daily SPF before the 80s.

What others have said: tanning and smoking destroy your skin and everybody did both until oh, the mid-'90s-ish.

Plus, life was harder back then. You know, walking to school and back in the snow and so forth.

Do you feel better about yourself now, hon? Good

This is how a 28-year old looked like in the 1950s (and yes, he actually was 28 in that pic!)

Smoking, sunblock, fillers.

I think smoking, sun exposure, etc has a lot to do with, but I also think a lot of the styles from the past were aging - like the mall hair Mary Jo is rocking in that shot

I don't think they look that old. One, those aren't terribly attractive people. Two, you're probably reacting as much to the overall unfashionable aesthetic of the picture as much as how they look.

It’s weird isn’t it. And their parents looked even older at their age. Look at the people back in the 1940’s and 50’s. Amazing.

Lead in gasoline, tabaco, alcohol and many other factor are to blame. But in the 80s everyone looked older, the hair and the make up and the fashion was not very flattering. This are teen girls.

And each successive decade you go back, young people look even older. What about all the bubble haired 60s high school graduates with matronly glasses and Peter Pan collar blouses under dowdy jumpers? Girls in my mom's middle school were dressed and coiffed like 30 year old spinster secretaries!

People still smoke,tan, and drink now.

So, no.

Soon, the elderly will look like embryos! And the cycle will begin again...

And they look olders tha people who doesn't. Just check the difference between twins and only 1 of them smoke.

I watch Maude every night and once they mentioned her age I was shocked. She's 4 years older than me in season 1 but looks like my grandma.

R19 ---Maude's long vests really did her in.

19 years old.

R16, the % of people who smoke is lower than it was 50 (or even 20) years ago. Yes, SOME people smoke but smokers are a smaller minority now.

I'll just have to say that the bleach blonde with the perma tan, the chain smoking and the drinking contributed a lot to the Aunt Magda look and the Aunt Magda look is never a good look. Then there's the filters used in 90% of the pics taken nowadays and also Photoshop for the pros.

r2 there were lots of non-smokers back in the day and they looked older too.

r18 those are actually before and after plastic surgery photos of the same person.

Damn, the Buttafuocos looked rough.

I watched Bacall in a 1956 TV production of "Blithe Spirit." The close ups were not kind to her. She was wearing heavy make up but while still in her 20s, she already had eye bags and prominent forehead wrinkles.

Lauren Bacall smoked like a chimney and didn't quit until she was in her 60s.

Mary Jo's hair and Joey's mullet didn't help their cause.

R18, most of those sets of twins look equally hideous. In only a couple of cases could I immediately tell which twin was the smoker.

When I look at pictures of my parents and their friends at my age, I do think they look older than my friends and I look now. My parents weren't smokers, either, and my mother was not a tanner, though my dad did spend a lot of time outdoors in the sun. I think it's mostly about the clothing and hairstyles of the time, and maybe about some lifestyle factors unrelated to smoking/tanning/skincare. My parents and their generation married, had kids, and generally settled into a staid, "grown up" sort of life younger than most in my generation and I'm sure that ages a person.

Smoking, sun damaga, yada, yada, yada . . . it's called PHOTOSHOP you morons. Every magazine picture is doctored, they can even doctor actors, news anchors moving onscreen.

And some plastic surgery and botox thrown in.

Except 99% of the population hasn't had plastic surgery. You're confusing Hollywood types with ordinary people

I was watching an early, 1952 episode of I've Got a Secret & was amazed to learn that English panelist Melville Cooper (starting at 1:15) was two weeks shy of turning 56 when this aired.

R3, hon, we are talking about how people from previous generations compare to people we actually know and see IRL today—not just how their photos compare to contemporary photos. Cosmetic procedures may play a role, but photoshop does not.

^ r33

It's not just photos though R35. I remember people looking a lot older before.

I can't believe some of those guys are those ages, R4. This guy is 27?

In retrospect, the young (20s) women of today will look old. The trend of wigs / extensions, troweled-on foundation, false eyelashes, etc., maked you look older than you are. These women will regret wasting their youth looking older than they needed to look.

[quote]most of those sets of twins look equally hideous. In only a couple of cases could I immediately tell which twin was the smoker.

They're not twins, they're before and after plastic surgery photos.

The blow-dryer ruled in the 80s. Dry, unnaturally styled hair everywhere. A couple of my fraternity brothers even blew dry their bushes.

R39, she doesn't look old at all in that pic, so what's your point?

It's pretty scary. A lot of it was styling, but I look at my 67 year old mother and at my grandmother when she was the same age and it's like night and day. My grandmother had that typical, over 50 Golden Girls poofy hair and my mom has left her hair fairly natural and longer. She has lines and bags, but her skin looks wonderful. No plastic surgery either.

It's even creepier looking at teenagers now. I never remembered looking that young at 17 or 18. I even look at pictures of me at that age and I felt like I looked older. Styling and haircuts can only do so much.

Maybe there really is something going on, because people really do seem to be looking younger with each generation.

R39 Yes. I recently watched a truly terrible horror movie from the 90s called Cellar Dweller. It starred Debrah Farentino, who did a lot of TV in the 90s, and I always thought was beautiful. In Cellar Dweller, she had big hair, caked on makeup, and old lady clothes. She looks much older than she did a decade later. The Kylie's of the world will have the same problem.

I meant horror movie from the 80s.

Here's Ms. Farentino in the 90s for contrast.

Doesn't genetics play a role? A girl in my school was the most gorgeous creature at 14 and by 24 (I knew her well so I saw her daily and then when she came back from college) her skin had thickened somehow and her featured has coarsened and overall she just looked much older. I was NOT a cute teenager but by 28 I looked like an attractive 18 year old.

OP, I'll bet that couple were super-gorgeous in high school.

Let's just say that I look stunning for 34!

I remember going to a reunion in my mid 20's and I was shocked by how many looked like total shit and how many looked better than they did in high school. Everyone seems to age differently, but hard partying lives with lots of drinking, tanning, smoking, and drug taking can mess up your face.

Yes.

One time my grandmother and her friend were chatting and looking at a yearbook. They were like “Look at us! Can you believe we were 17?” I said “No! You look like adults! Teens looked so much more grownup back then!” They were PISSED. They both were like “No we don’t! We look like babies!!!”

It was awkward and I sort of backed away and rolled my eyes at them. Whatever... 50s teens looked OLD.

I've seen my parents' high school yearbooks from the late 60s and all those kids looked like they were at least 30 years old.

Photographers were crap back then. A nine year old could take a better picture today.

[quote] They're not twins, they're before and after plastic surgery photos.

No, they're not; where are you getting that idea?

Lionel Jeffries was just over 40 when he played Grandpa in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Wilford Brimley had his 50th birthday during the Cocoon shoot

It helps that guys today have access to hair plugs, Rogaine, etc

Paul Rudd's aging (or lack thereof) is a great case for this theory that people are aging better.

A solitary example? I hope you don't do research for a living.

People smoke, drank, stayed in the sun, and didn't exercise as much. There was no going to gym before or after work. And if you were a woman, after a certain age you chopped off your long locks and started dressing matronly.

Just look at Shelley Winters and Eileen Heckart at the 1973 Oscar ceremony. They were in their 50s and dressed old. Today's 50-somethings Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, etc., wouldn't be caught dead looking like that.

Oops. Link.

These two were both 27.

[quote]It's pretty scary. A lot of it was styling, but I look at my 67 year old mother and at my grandmother when she was the same age and it's like night and day. My grandmother had that typical, over 50 Golden Girls poofy hair and my mom has left her hair fairly natural and longer. She has lines and bags, but her skin looks wonderful. No plastic surgery either.

I agree with you on the styling. When I was a small child in the late 80s/early 90s, I was babysat daily by my grandmother who was in her mid 60s and she also had the poofy Golden Girls hair and her wardrobe consisted of black polyester pants and grandma style blouses. My grandmother had been heavy smoker for many years and she of course, she didn't age well.

My mother just turned 70 and is often mistaken for being about a decade younger than her age. My mom never smoked and rarely drinks. She is the type of person who takes good care of her skin and wears skin screen. She has a few wrinkles though. My mom doesn't dress in old lady fashions like my grandma did back in the 80s and 90s.

But lots of people didn't smoke or drink or tan back then and they still looked old as shit. It's very strange.

And you can't look at celebrities as examples of being youthful after a certain age. There are so many cosmetic and dermatological procedures these days that didn't exist just one generation ago. They all get a shit ton of work done.

People today who have never had work done still look younger than people in the past.

Anyone can search about that study of the twins and the effect of smoking. If you don't believe they are identical twins, well r40 and r52, nothing I can do, I'm just linking them.

These chickadees do look old.

I think it's because modern life is faster and people are more nervous. Nervous makes you look younger. Jobs used to be mostly outside farming etc. When you go camping you relax and look old etc. School also used to be much easier. Modern people also shave and groom better. Hair dye for men. It could also be that modern photographer s Are better.

R59 that was prolly just an unfortunate outside pic Where the sun was at their backs. Lighting makes a huge difference.

Burt Reynolds was twenty yrs younger than Dinah so they were not both 27.

R4, thanks for that link. Incroyable!

Only 25!

A barely legal girl in the 1950s.

Was Mary Jo an alky? She looked like shit!

Poor and middle class white trash (e.g. the Buttafucos) have always looked older because of their poor diets, smoking, drugs, drinking and other aspects of their lifestyles).

It’s because of all the preservatives in food today. It stops the aging process.

Being keyed up makes your skin tight and young but having no sleep and being relaxed will make you look old. You could be excused from calculus in the fifties and still get science degree. Now you take calculus in high school. We are all more nervous and under mental pressure. Guys on a construction site are much more relaxed than guys at the office. An engineer working on a construction site will look old but will look much younger when he works in the office. More social pressure in office.

Da fuck!?

R75 a professor will look young when they are teaching in front of 200 student but will look old walking in hallway if he has not taught class in awhile.

I was in a class if adult students. First few weeks they were nervous and looking young but I watched them become haggard old men as they relaxed. Several started dying their grey hair to compete with younger students.

hell the Golden Girls were in their 50s and looks like they were at least in their 70s

Couldn't believe seeing an All in the Family rerun from the 4th or 5th season that was about Archie Bunker's 50th birthday

Celebs and executives look young because they are nervous. When you wake up in morning you look old because you are relaxed.

Ed Asner was only 40 when he started playing Lou Grant on the Mary Tyler Moore Show.

How do u unblock yourself if y blocked yourself accidently?

Go to Ignored.

go to therapy.

I had a similar reaction when I learned like James Gandolfini was 36 when he did The Sopranos pilot.

A lot of it has to do with fashions, hair and makeup. As an example take a look at Doris Day or Dinah Shore in the early 1950s compared to the way they looked in the early 1960s. Or Arlene Francis on WML in the 50s compared to the 60s. They all suddenly looked years younger.

[quote]Did people just look older before?

Whadaya tawking about?

The Buttafuocos - they're loverly!

They're gowgeous - Long Guyland's finest!

Doris. Points were made.

Look at those teenage Jezebels that r64 found!

Yes, R64

those bad girls clearly know where to find the booze and the boys

We get this exact same thread about every 6 weeks.

The current "look" is to look fakely young loooooong past your due date thus so many people running around with frozen faces and lank straight hair for women and dressing rather ridiculously young for their actual age.

Also: the trend in the past was to look "adult" as soon as you could, to shuck off youth and embrace adulthood. Thus, REALLY ugly hair for women mid century and dowdy ass clothing. Oh, and basically 2 kinds of eye glasses to choose from.

Both looks are extreme and dumb.

Teddy Roosevelt at 19 -- looks older, but in a good way...

Middle-aged people dressed very frumpily before. They didn't try to work out and dress younger like people now, they just sort of accepted their slide into dowdiness.

The labiancas below were late 30s and early 40s in this photo.

Who looks old in this era? It's the relaxed confident guys who look old and get into liquor stores at 16. The nervous nerds look young forever. The higher anxiety is what makes us look younger.

You're committed, r93. I'll give you that.

R94 it's something I have studied for decades. Asians for example look young because they are often very very nervous. The thing is that if you see them off work relaxed they look twenty yrs older. I'm very nervous person who looks young but watch out on the rare occasion I'm relaxed

R95 is what is known as a "Nervous Nelly".

Jodi Huisentruit, the Iowa news reporter who disappeared in 1995 was 27. But, she looked like a 40 something soccer mom.

Scrolling past this thread, I at first thought, "Who is that with Tina Yothers?"

[quote]Asians for example look young because they are often very very nervous

First of all, Asians are not a homogenous people, so what does this even mean? Second, how does being "very very nervous"keep one looking young? I would imagine always being on edge would age you.

r99

That poster is trolling. I guess you didn't notice that they keep writing the same thing.

R100, Oh. I admit I didn't read that far back before posting a response.

I disagree. I think stress ages you.

Another thing to keep in mind: Lauren Bacall said she was 19, but it’s possible she fibbed by a few years and was really 26 or some other age that would have sounded too old for an ingenue.

If Bacall lied about her age, we would know by now.

I can remember in my high school they had a trophy case with pictures of athletes who had won state titles and stuff.

The guys all looked like 25 year old men and not the kids I was in school with.

Refuse to believe that Jim Croce was only 30 when he died. He looked SO old. Not just "mature," but OLD!!

R97 I think she actually looks quite youthful, but the mid-90s styling and make-up heavily aged her.

I wish I could remember where I found a particular article (if I do I will post it here) which argued that age-related diseases often began at a younger age in the (more distant) past - for example, it wasn't uncommon to develop arthritis in your 30s and 40s in the mid-19th century.

The rise in the general standards of living and better childhood nutrition can be thanked for are more youthful appearance today and our longer expected productive lifespan IMO. Contrary to the dribblings of the person posting above, a higher standard of living and decreased stress are associated with looking younger. I spent a summer in a poor area of Namibia once and remember seeing some truly ancient looking, wizened old crones and learning they were in their 50s. The stress associated with scrapping for your existence damages your health in all sorts of ways,

It will be interesting to see whether the trend of constantly looking younger continues into the future or reverses itself, considering the miserable 12 or so years that millennials have spent scrapping for employment, housing and security.

It was a sharp little shock recently to learn that I was about the same age (37) as the mother in 1986 classic movie 'Flight of the Navigator'.

Here's a good (different) article on aging rates

While you are nervous ,you look younger. Blood movement tightens your face. In the morning you look ancient because you are relaxed. Yes, stress could age you but you look better during day when u r nervous. High powered executive s look young because they are stressed. When you are in cold weather you look younger. The last born in a family is very relaxed and looks old. Working outside is hard on your skin.

Give it a rest, r110.

R109 I don't buy it. Everyone thinks they look young So demand for research that confirms this idea is in high demand. Young looking people actually die young because they only look young because of so much adrenaline in their systems. Shy nervous people look young and die young.

R111 if you want to look young, go back to university. The stress will make you look young. Relaxed confident jocks look old in high school but look young in University. Presidents seem to age rapidly because they gradually relax as they get used to pressure s of being president.

[quote]What about all the bubble haired 60s high school graduates with matronly glasses and Peter Pan collar blouses under dowdy jumpers?

Hands-down the most matronly decade for teenage girls was the 1950s.

Yes, and the cemeteries are a good example of that. Lots of graves from people who died being teenagers or young adults yet they look way older for the way they dressed and styled their hair back then

[quote][R97] I think she actually looks quite youthful, but the mid-90s styling and make-up heavily aged her.

I agree, mid 90s-styling with hair and clothes made women look older during that time period. A couple of years ago, my mom asked me to help her scan a lot of family photos going back to the 80s and 90s for her online storage accounts. I noticed that in pictures form late 90s, female relatives and family friends appeared to be dressing more youthful and their hair styles weren't so matronly and shoulder pad style blazers and frumpy blouses mostly went away.

The young woman in the middle of the left column in r114’s photo was definitely on the softball team.

The 80s shoulder pads and big hair and heavy makeup made a lot of women look older.

R110 you’re right! I just looked in the mirror after reading your post and it made me look soooo much younger! Keep posting! I want to look like a baby in an hour.

I looked at my old junior high year book from 1978. Everyone looked like they are in their late 30s. 70s fashion and hair styles as interpreted by midwestern trailer trash made them look like their future selves. It cheered me up immensely.

How you dress does not make u look older. Men shave now and that is why they look young. Cold weather makes you look young because blood flees Extremeties.

My grandmother looked old in the 1920s when she was young, and looked the exact same age for 40 years.

My mom (her daughter) looked incredibly old in 1955 in her high school graduation photo, and actually looked younger in 1978 when she graduated from nursing school after raising all of her kids. That said, she had one of those perm 'fros that were all the rage in the 70s and without a nursing hat to tamp it down, it would have aged her.

Smaller schools. Less pressure. More relaxed. Blood Was pooling in face like in warm weather.

Asner was 30 when he filmed this episode of "Route 66." He looked 50-something for decades.

Haven't read the entire thread but if I had to pinpoint one thing in particular that would be alcohol. Seems to me hard liquor was far more popular than say, the wine spritzers you see now, or light alcohol coolers. Back in the 60s at least, it was pretty much hard liquor like rum, whiskey, etc and plenty of it. Coupled with smoking as other have said. I would also add that women in particular seemed to think that piling on heavy makeup (foundation) and dying, spraying hair was elegant and hot. I also think that nutrition was not Number 1 priority in their lives either. They ate what they wanted with no regard to nutritional value, calories etc. Gross generalizations but some truth to it.

Their eyes look more confident . Th3y could have family supporting job at 18 with no education. Dental school used to only be 9 months. Now people have to live with parents fir decades studying. We live in nervous times.

R14 I don't think their faces look older, I think style may factor in. In more recent decades I wonder if more men increasingly are losing their hair tho. Makes them look older.

What the fuck with the “nerves” expand your goddamn vocabulary! The word you seek is STRESS, JFC.

More adrenaline in the body seems to make u look younger.

Depeche Mode's manager, Jonathan Kessler, was 24 years old in the following photo taken in 1988.

We've had this thread before and the general consensus is that people used to try and look older than they were and so teens and 20somethings tried to look like they were middle aged frumps.

Contrast that with today when 50 and 60somethings still try and look like they're 22.

The other consensus was that it's very often a social class thing: people, women in particular, with money, have the means to stay relatively youthful looking well into their 60s (botox, diet, exercise, not working all that hard) but that blue collar people frequently look old before their time because they don't have time/resources to care for themselves, plus drinking/smoking/opioids.

I also remember the shock to me was this photo of All In The Family and learning the lead actors were only in their mid-40s

Stress is a vague word.

Photography has gotten more sophisticated. You can make an eightty yr old look forty.

At 18 you were a true adult. You had a real job working on farm or something. Nerds simply did not exist. Every generation went to war to weed out Nervous and weak.