Wednesday, February 16, 2011

TIME MARCHES ON - MY FACE


One of the reasons I was reluctant to add my photo to my blog was that I am overweight, but the other is that my once often commented on nice complexion is now gone.  It has been replaced by the face I definitely earned by being a sun lover.  My complexion is uneven, I have sun spots and lots of wrinkles.   Foundation can only cover up so much before it becomes a mask and I never liked wearing it anyway.

I am not an especially vain person, I don't like the way my face looks compared to my youth and if I had the money I won't say I wouldn't look into cosmetic surgery or skin peels - but it is, as they say, what it is.  So when I saw one of the villains supermodels who haunted my youth on TV last night looking as if she has been able to live all these same years without aging, it ticked me off.

Christie Brinkley at 57 is the same damn age I am so I had to see her long legged, blond, blue-eyed perfectness everywhere.  So even though she can speak and smile without moving her face and maintains a look of surprise at all times and I know she has not had a happy love life, it ticks me off to still have to look at her looking like that when I look like this.


She was not the only blonde goddess gracing the magazines - there was Cherly Tiegs, too.  She looks more our age ( she is 63), though when I was looking for photos I saw there is speculation on plastic surgery in recent years.

I suppose few of us go happily into aging faces and bodies.  Not only the aches and pains and stiffness, but the packaging that shifts and softens, slides and discolors. 

I guess what it comes down to, really, is that those women have spent their lives with the world focused on their looks and so they are still working hard to look the best that they can - I have not done the same and it shows. 

Would I want to spend my whole life wrapped up in my looks - obviously not.   I am still not going to cut my grey hair short like the women of previous generations have.  I am going to have kinder thought about the women beating off aging with the tools available.  And I will try not to take it so personally.

5 comments:

Jennifer (Jen on the Edge) said...

I really wish Christie Brinkley had left her face alone and stayed away from the plastic surgery. She's getting a bit too close to looking freakish and I suspect she would have aged gracefully. Also, I think it's sad that her 20-something daughter has already dipped a toe into surgical enhancements.

As for the rest of us, I wish that we woman wouldn't judge ourselves so harshly. I know I'm guilty of it. I'm trying to love who I am now and what I look like, even if I'm not "perfect."

Mrs. G. said...

I'm pretty kind to the unadorned ageing face as I have one. I'll also admit that I need to have less judgement to those who do injection/surgical things to their faces. I love long hair on older women. And love your face now--take some photos--because in another five years, you are going to think you looked damn good.

knittergran said...

Shoot, if I had your color hair, I wouldn't color mine. What a nuisance and time-suck it is. My sister has long hair like yours, and it is gradually turning more and more gray and white. What I don't understand is why people bug ME about her hair. It's not mine, and she is comfortable with hers long. So what's the problem.
Another thing I'm learning-I'm not such a fan of gravity!

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

It's not just women--I kept, thinking today about what beautiful baby faces all the male rock stars used to have.

I've always had uneven skin, so that part I'm used to. I did get a great coupon for a chemical peel and am going to give that a shot. My late 60s MIL has done them for 25 years and she looks incredible--and that's the only "work" she has had done. I have a hard time understanding how anyone could risk general anesthesia for a cosmetic purpose.

Lisa Paul said...

I know it's shallow, but there are some days that it seems things would be easier if I were a Kardashian...