(Joanna Lumley)
I found a wonderful blog: "Advanced Style" http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com/ which I want to share with you.
I see on many blogs that women of a certain age have problems with their concept of self when they get older.
Of course nobody is utterly thrilled when looking into the mirror in that awful sunlight in March, only to find that the neck is suddenly covered with tiny little wrinkles -
(By the way: here I can offer you three solutions:
1. I always carry a very little creme pot with me and put on a tiny dot every four hours - that's as long as the 'pump up' effect works
2. I sometimes wear a beautiful scarf (something I hated before, because it makes me nervous, even if Hermés or Bulgari is written on it)
3. I read Nora Ephrim's hilarious book "I feel bad about my neck", laugh and don't mind so much)
Not for me the "I-promise-you-the-fountain-of-youth"-creme for 600 Euro - I use Nivea, keep fit, brush my skin, eat not too big portions - and do all the things recommended in the wonderful book: "Look Younger - Live Longer" by Gayelord Hauser - and believe me: there is nothing new under the sun: he wrote it in 1950!
20 - 30% of the way you get older is predetermined by your genes. Of course it is a huge privilege when you had not to do too much physically hard work, have a good health (and care for it) and serenity, have never been made redundant, have a harmonious partnership and be grateful for all that.
Beside these aforementioned important things there are other secrets for staying young, (because I know a lot of women in the same social conditions who don't):
- Be curious about Life (Think: "He who lives for himself alone lives for the meanest mortal known")
- Be interesting
- Laugh (and cry)
- Be sexy (I mean the feeling - not the outward appearance - and believe me: one can tell the difference!)
- Wear colours (Yes! You can! Don't let Bobbi Brown tell you you should wear beige, brown and pastel)
- Don't stay too much in a rut or on the safe side - be bold and daring, you are as important as anybody else
- Love young people, love old people, love life - and tell people about it!
- Be grateful and forgiving
- Love!
And don't fix on your wrinkles or your age on the passport - I compare it to being 16: you thought the whole world would look at a pimple (though people had other things to care for - preferably themselves) -and now we seem to change that fixation for the belief that everybody notices our wrinkles or muffin top...
My photographs on facebook.com/britta.huegel (except one) are not older than a year.
No Botox, no surgery, turning silver slowly and loving it - though good illumination definitely is welcome :-)
Role models I had even when I was very young: Colette, Elisabeth Flickenschildt, Ninon de Lenclos, to name a few.
So I am utterly happy to discover that there are many, many more around:
just cast a glance at http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com/ !!
27 comments:
You and I must be on the same wave length these days!
I recently did a post on what the mirror has been reflecting...
you have listed some wonderful tips and I am now following Advanced Style.
You my dear, look amazing and fresh and very vibrant.
Take care,
Hostess
A beautiful post, my dear Britta! My favorite is be interesting, and I think we both exceed in that department. ;)
xoxo
Dear Hostess of the Humble Bungalow,
thank you! I think the women on Advanced Style really look amazing!
Dear Suze,
thank you! And you are right: we both cover a wide span of themes, aren't we? Bored is a word we don't even know how to spell :-)
Great post, and I will be sure to have a look at Advanced Style.
re genes - well, my mother, at 84 has a face with fewer lines than mine because I, unfortunately, inheirited my Scottish father's skin. :(
And, aside from Britta herself, can there be a better role model than Joanna Lumley? Now I ask you. Hmm, there is also Helen Mirren . . . Supplementing your sage advice, may I add these:
Friko has a great Stanley Kunitz poem up at Friko's Poetry and Pictures, which has this inscrutable line: "Live in the layers,
not on the litter." I haven't the slightest what it means, but I'm going to follow that advice to the letter from now on.
And, of course, I simply must add: Dare to disturb the universe!
Dear Pondside,
thank you! Genes: we inherit from both sides - and I loved the "typical" Scots, very, very much!(Though I did not see their complexion with special attention - come to think of it: I only met Scottish men)
Dear Susan,
thank you! I am glad that you mentioned Joanna Lumley - I am an absolute fan of her! Here she is glowing because she is visiting the Ghurkas - which shows: getting engaged for something makes you happy - and that shows! Of course I love her in "Absolutely Fabulous" too - think she is very stylish there :-) I love your quote from Kunitz - will look the poem up.
Hi Britta,
I often see Joanna racing around Tenterden ( near Rye)..did you see her on TV doing the nile trip?
Now that is glam....Ida
Dear Ida,
thank you! I have been in Rye - I love E.F.Benson -and I have seen the river Rother (I think that it runs near Tenterden - but I never knew that Joanna Lumley lives so near. Now that you've told me, I have looked up her TV's "Nile" - but cannot see it in our country, so sorry.
What an interesting post, dear Britta! I enjoyed this so much. I clicked on the link you provided and found the fantastic blog!! Thank you. As for aging, I'm taking some unique measures that you may think crazy and very odd: I keep telling my hair that you are forever jet black, my face that you won't have any lines and my eyes that you will be free from presbyopia. Whether you believe or not, they work!! Physical reality may be a manifestation of conscious thought!?
Great posting Britta. I like my gray hair and I don't mind my wrinkles. I do have older photos of me on FB.....quite a contrast! The many faces of Janet.
Dear Britta,
nice post I take a look at the blog you are link and it's really nice.
Great post Britta! I like see age passing over me, I have some "silver" hair and I feel good!
Have a nice week-end.
Bisou, Babi
Dear Sapphire,
thank you! Yes: I absolutely believe in influencing your world by thought!! I often "see" things in advance - and it works for me. As to spectacles: six years before I decided that I don't need any (I had only 1,5 dioptries) and from that day on I never used them - can go to the cinema and see everything clearly. Some will tell me it is the natural way eyes get older - but I doubt it, because I think that before I "spoilt" my eyes with spectacles, didn't train them. Positive thoughts and meditation bring a face with few wrinkles (I have some around the eyes when I laugh, but I can live with those). So: "What you focus on grows" sings my friend Barefoot Doctor - and he is right.
Dear Janet,
thank you! I love silver hair - (I prefer to call it "silver", not "grey" - much more shiny and sparkling) and have a mixture of blonde and silver - people often asked whether the hairdresser put those silver highlights into it :-), and I love faces where one can detect emotions and that a person has grown-up. Interesting: when one is together with a friend from schooldays whom one hasn't seen for a long time, she suddenly, after ten minutes, changes back to the face one has known (well: often that happens, not always)
Dear Babi,
thank you! You are on my wave-length; and I admire Italian women whith their expressive dark eyes - that looks stunning to silver hair (we blondes have to use a little bit more daring eye-make-up and more lipstick not to look pale). My week-end was marvellous: our son and our daughter-in-law had their Church-Wedding on a beautiful sunshine-day - everything so fine!
Dear Sapphire,
is it intention or a mistake that one cannot leave a comment on your new post (Wind chimes)?
Dear Britta,
So neck is very important among things which determine the beauty of a woman. That is what I understand from your post. You said it very frankly and I like the way u said it. My question is, are u so much worried abt the wrinkles on neck?
Note:
Since urs is a very unique name, it was very easy to find u in FB :)
And hey britta,
I forgot to mention that Logos Hope is basically a German Ship. I hope u might have heard about it..u will find more info abt it from the net
Dear Tomz,
nice to meet you on FB! Well - my neck is very much ok for my age - swan's neck - so I can wear long earrings :-) ,but you can decide yourself. But definitely I liked it more when I was 17!
Of course the beauty of a woman is much more than her neck - but that counts too.
And I will look the "Logo Hope" up.
Aw, I love this post! All of your tips for staying young are great---and not so very hard to do. Boo Botox!
Dear Nicki,
thank you! I have a lot more good tips for staying young - in fact: a whole manuscript, but my German publisher is timid (and might be right - they fear that the word "age" or, worse, a number will keep buyers away...) But I am not giving up, and as it is: when America starts, Germany follows, 5 years later maybe they come begging on their knees :-)
Hi Britta,
Joanna does not live in East Sussex her Mum does..the same house Joanna lived in when they returned from India...she went to school in Hastings.
Ah you are a Benson fan the Rye bookshop was a popular venue for the book readings.
Wishing you a fun filled Summer. Ida
Hi dear Britta! Another timely reminder. It's easy to forget my appearance so to-day I'll have a pamper session. Loved Steven's song, by the way, I send you both a bouquet. x
Dear Ida,
"Had I but Known" - in the month I spent in Hastings! :-) Thank you for your summer-wishes; may we all get a bit more sun! Best time to you!
Dear Isobel,
I am really glad that you blog again! Feel a bit more connected to my beloved Edinburgh - though Tim, where I lived last year, has visited me in Berlin. And thank you for the flowers!!
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