Who Are You Calling Old?

    I’m getting old and I’m not sure how I feel about it.  I have never been one of those women that is overly concerned with getting old and have always considered aging to be a blessing.  It is proof that you have been around for a long time to witness all of the beautiful things that life has to offer.  Having said that, I am now realizing that one cannot necessarily predict how he or she will react to realizing that they are aging and that their body is changing.  This is probably because aging is somewhat of an abstract concept until you begin to see the physical effects of it on the body that you still see through young eyes.

    Lately, this whole concept has been becoming a little less abstract and a little more concrete for me.  Some of the changes that my body is going through are not so subtle anymore.  The first sign that things were awry was the fact that the skin on my face has been undergoing some bizarre changes with regard to texture.  I have had oily skin from as far as I could remember and have always followed a skincare regimen that thoroughly cleansed my pores and kept the oily shine on my skin to a minimum.  Using a moisturizer has always been out of the question for me because it simply would just contribute to my already shiny skin.  Recently, that has all gone out the window and the skin on my face can be compared to that of an alligator.  It has become dry and thirsty and I am now finding myself using a moisturizer daily just to improve its appearance.

    The next area that has begun to cause me concern is my hair.  Within the past couple of weeks, I have begun to lose count of how many offensive gray hairs have been plucked by my own hands in the hope that each one would be the last one that I would find.  Unfortunately, this has not been the case and, according to my husband, three more gray hairs will pop up for every single one that I remove.  I’m not sure if he has put a hex on me or if there is any truth to his little prediction.  I do know that these do not seem to be isolated incidents and I think I am going to need a contingency plan to get a handle on these little suckers.  One plan is to invest in good hair dye and color my own hair at home every other month and the other plan is to “treat myself” for getting old and have my hair dyed professionally at the salon when my gray roots come in.

    This brings me to my new eyelashes, or lack thereof.  I’ve always had dark and voluminous eyelashes and have rarely needed much eye makeup to draw attention to my green eyes.  It seems that this is yet another area of my body that is not exempt from the sands of time.  My husband swears that I am paranoid and that I am exaggerating about this whole eyelash issue.  I don’t care what he says, I think something weird is happening to them and they are not as full and thick as they once were.  Ironically, I had a whole conversation with my friend today about this problem and she shared with me that she is also noticing that her eyelashes are skimpier every year than they used to be.  Not that I’m happy that we are both losing our eyelashes but at least it validated what I have been saying all along about the changes that I have noticed.

    All of these things are very minute in the grand scheme of things and in comparison to all of the other things that can possibly go wrong in a person’s life.  Although I am not obsessing over them, it is taking me a little time to adjust to some of these new changes in my body and in my appearance.  A lot of this probably has to do with the fact that, as mothers, we often don’t have that much time to dedicate to our appearance and it makes it more difficult when we can’t just pull our hair into a ponytail, wash our faces, and go about our business.  As we get older we need to put a little more elbow grease into looking great all the time because it is not such an easy look to accomplish anymore.

    Some of my older female friends have shared with me that it is important to embrace and address the aging as soon as possible.  They have stressed the importance of following evening and morning skincare rituals.  Additionally, they are paying closer attention to what they eat and how they take care of their bodies.  I actually think it is kind of funny that we start to focus on taking care of our bodies once we realize that they are falling apart.  Hopefully, I can put some of these things into place in my own life and maximize on what I have left to work with.  At the end of the day, I just need to keep my husband interested and satisfied so that will be the reward for taking good care of myself and for adjusting my beauty practices.  I will definitely let you guys know how that goes…

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