So, if you actually know me in person, you know I don’t color my hair, I don’t wear make up, I don’t do any of those things to hide aging that so many women (especially) do.

I never understood the reason for it (other than for people to do it to express a certain look that they can’t naturally express with their bodies).

When you’re young, you don’t have any wrinkles to cover up, nor any grey to hide (except the very occasional person with a specific hair color experience). Then when you’re older, wearing make up and coloring your hair rarely look like a natural state. You can usually get away with it as still looking semi-natural for a few years into early-middle-age, but pretty soon it just looks like you’re hiding behind something.

I know a lot of people won’t agree with me. This is one of my (many) opinions that I do not share with society at large.

But I’ve chosen to not go through any of this hair/make up trouble, both because I don’t think it’s necessary or should ever be thought of as necessary, and because:

I want to see myself age.

The last thing I want to do is wake up one day and look old to myself. I need to gradually change my self-image as I age, as the grey and white hairs slowly work their way in, as the wrinkles settle in, as my skin begins to droop. I don’t want old age to sneak up on me.

Mostly the aging has happened gradually starting in my 30s, but my late 40s caused a noticeable acceleration (re-read your biology textbook if you’re unsure why) with some small leaps forward in the aging. Now that I’m 50, I think the acceleration has slowed down a bit again, back to the slower aging process. I hope it stays there.

Parts of my head are about 99% grey/white, whereas other parts are still about 80% brown/other colors. My skin has thinned, but still looks youthful enough at a glance. And I don’t have a lot of face wrinkles, unless I make certain facial expressions.

It’s interesting from an intellectual perspective to see myself age, because I haven’t had many examples in society or even my family to observe. Most people I know—and know of—color their hair, wear make up, etc. So all that aging is hidden behind a shield, and people have lost a lot of the idea of what people look like as they age.

Ironically, I still look younger than many in my age cohort, despite my lack of effort to hide my aging.

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