- FaceApp Horror! I cannot un-see the image of my 70 year old son
- The horrible new statistic about face ageing (about half of my readers are going to hate this research)
- How to help slow the visible ageing process
That was a seriously weird experience.
Last week I saw a photo of my 21 year old son – as an OLD MAN.
Yep, it was quite a shock.
It all happened because my middle child had downloaded that trendy FaceApp thing, which takes a photo from your smartphone and ages your face through artificial intelligence.
The resulting photo was an eerily convincing depiction of my son as a man of around 70 years old.
It was not something I ever expected, nor wanted, to see, and I still can’t get the image out of my head. It’s like a horrible time-travel experience.
“You have a go,” he insisted.
I refused. “Because, you see, son” I explained, “apart from not wanting to give my face to the KGB or whoever is operating this FaceApp, I don’t actually need an app to know what I look like as an older man, because I am one already.”
“Oh you’ve plenty more ageing to do,” he said (I’m not entirely sure if he was trying to make me feel better or worse.
“Thanks,” I said.
I know FaceApp could probably stick another thirty years on my face and give me a glimpse into my future. But I think I’ve got the gist of how it’s going to go.
The hair’s almost gone, the wrinkles are setting in, and when I pull at my skin it stays pulled for about a minute before springing back.
But I’ll admit, I’m pretty lucky. I’ve got friends who are ageing more quickly than me, so I’m hoping this isn’t just genetics and some of it is down to following a lot of the information I pass onto you in the Good Life Letter.
While I’m no saint when it comes to food – treats are still something I cannot resist – I’ve left my younger days of fast food and boozy pub sessions far behind, and eat a varied, mostly home cooked, diet.
There’s also something else I have on my side, it turns out…
…being a man.
The horrible new statistic about face ageing (about half of my readers are going to hate this research)
Yes, sorry, ladies but some startling recent research suggests that women’s faces age TWICE AS FAST as men’s.
As revealed in June of this year, a study at the University of Vienna looked at the effect of the ageing process on our faces, and found that the same symptoms occurred.
“The tip of the nose drooped,” said Sonja Windhager, author of the study, “they lost soft tissue elasticity, ear lobes got longer and jowls developed.”
OK, so not wonderful, but men and women both get the same impact of time’s unstoppable march.
However, the rate of this change was much faster in the women – double the rate, in fact. Which is quite shocking I think!
This is suspected to be because of hormonal differences between the two sexes, with changes in women’s hormone balances later in life changing the collagen content of the skin, and bone absorption.
And by the way, this did not include wrinkles, because wrinkles are strongly affected by lifestyle – drinking, smoking, work, stress, sleep, diet.
Which does mean there is good news for women embedded in this research.
Firstly, if you change your lifestyle for the better, you can reduce the onset of wrinkles, which is one of the more obvious signs of ageing.
Secondly, another study has shown that while women’s faces might age more quickly, the brain declines less rapidly.
So if we forget about shallow notions of how we look, and focus on how we think and act, then older women have the advantage over older men.
However if you are concerned about the signs of ageing on your face…
How to help slow the visible ageing process
One way you can try and slow down the process is to supplement your diet with good quality, bio-available vitamins. This is important because your digestive system produces fewer enzymes as you get older, which means it’s harder for your body to break down food and extract the nutrients. So giving yourself a top up is important.
You should also consider collagen if you suffer from premature wrinkling – it will also sooth those stiff joints, and other symptoms of ageing.
And finally, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, Emu oil is amazing of your skin. As you’ll see on the website here, an Emu Oil user named Claudia says: “I now have extremely soft skin, while it helps my breakouts”.
While another user says: “Bought for my mum and mother-in-law for a face moisturiser and it not only re-softened their skin but looks like it has re-plumped the skin on their faces as well.”
Obviously this isn’t one for vegetarian readers, but otherwise might be worth you trying while there’s a risk free trial on offer.
I’ll be back with more over the weekend.
Ray Collins