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Oh, The Vanity!
Monday, February 1, 2010 I turned 37 in December. I have not trouble with that particular number of years. I am untroubled by it. Life is a much more full experience as I grow into middle age than it was when I was younger.
I look in the mirror, though, and there are those lines. They used to show up only after a late night or when I was ill. Now, suddenly, they are there all the time. They hide behind my glasses and shock me when I get ready for bed at night.
I am starting to look more and more my age.
I had no idea that I was so vain. A co-worker's mother guessed that I was 32 last week, and it stung. It felt vicious. That is five years younger than I actually am, but it placed me firmly in my thirties. I have less than three years left before I turn 40, and yet I rail against the fact that I might look like I belong to this decade of my life.
It's ridiculous. I embarrass myself.
I dyed my hair. I like the silvering of my hair quite a bit, but my vanity had me forking over seven dollars for a box of hair dye from a sale table. My hair is very short, and the dye was very dark, so now my hair looks like close-fitting hat. The grey is gone, though.
It is a good thing that I don't have the money for a plastic surgeon. Otherwise, in a fit of juvenile foot-stompery, I might opt to have some of my thigh fat injected into my upper lip. This tends to make people look like ducks, but I like ducks.
Do you like ducks?
Reader Comments (14)
I DO like ducks. Just not a fan of plastica that makes people look otherworldly... We are all vain. Believe me.
I gave up on the hair dye a few years ago, and it is very freeing. But, I had a lot of SILVER (refuse to say gray) and two children -newborn and 10 months...seemed best.
I've got a decade on you, and I promise it will be alright. :)Or so I tell myself.
I like ducks but I am not a fan of duck faced people. At least not ones who CHOOSE to be duck faced. You can't really scorn those naturally duck faced. Or duck footed. And unless you are in Sha Na Na you should not wear a DA haircut.
I like ducks.
I used to die my hair all the time, not to cover grey but because I didn't think I was 'blond' enough! Now I just don't leave the house all that often so it doesn't matter what I look like!
Vain or no, what I admire about you is your ease with turning another year older. I am so sick of the cult of youth that makes us feel like each turn of the calendar should be greeted like trauma.
Vain would never be a word that I would use to describe you. Strong, confident, creative, beautiful, a survivor-all, yes. Vain? No.
I also like ducks and I can relate, as I've spent most of my life looking much younger than my actual age. At 42 (very soon to be 43) I'm annoyed at the sagging skin, handful of wrinkles and sprinkling of gray hair. I still look younger than 42 but being told that I look five years younger compared to the usual ten, bites...
I hear you. I have a couple of frown marks in the middle of my forehead that I think make me look cross. I wonder how duck lips would look on my forehead?
I named my eyebrow wrinkle Sean Connery, and once wrote a poem about ducks...
Say have you lost weight? Those jeans look great on you.
Turning 40 didn't bother me. I, too have always been told I look younger. Turning 50 (I'm now 52) was sobering. Now people tell me they don't believe I'm in my 50's (neither do I some days) but they don't say how young I look. I have only a few wrinkles but a head full of silver. Only Mr. L'Oreal and I know the true color.
I like ducks fine. The ones at the park a few blocks from my house are pretty vicious, though.
I'll be 37 in a few months. I'm okay with that, though refuse to say "late-30s" until 38. Or 39. ;)
As someone who naturally has a big ball of a face with no definition, I'm happy that age has brought me something approximating bone structure. The gray hairs? I've had those since I've been in my twenties. I kind of wish my hair were more gray/white so I could become a blonde without bleaching my hair.
I feel bad now that I never mentioned that I loved the silver in your hair! Not that it would have changed your decision, and I am sure the dye looks great! but I should be better at remembering to compliment people. You are beautiful!
I can't give up the hair dye yet and I am always ridiculously pleased when someone guesses that I'm in my 30s even though I'm actually 42.
I may eventually reach a point where my laziness overrides my vanity, but I doubt it'll be anytime soon.
I'm not sure about the ducks, since my contact with the species has bee limited.
I'm in my mid-fifties and still don't dye my hair (and have no grey) - I feel almost guilty when that debate rages.
Schmutzie: drink plenty of water and use a good facial moisturizer to replenish your skin from the inside and out.