Here is a universal truism: We all love being told that we look younger than our age. I wrote about that in my prior blog.
And Yours Truly is certainly no exception!
Even on the worst of days, working in beauty specially stores as a Cosmetics Brand Account Executive, I could always count on receiving a handful of kind words and gasps of surprise from shoppers, when my age came up in conversation. Watching their expression when they learned I was in my mid to late sixties, never got old!
Indeed, it was those exact moments that often ignited fantastic girl-to-girl discussions about aging...life after 60, and the challenges that came with both.
At least a handful of times each week, women would opine to me about the shock and sadness they felt after realizing they had seemingly “aged overnight”. I remember how these conversations affected me, occupying a corner of my mind for days. I knew that their fate was soon going to be my fate, I just didn’t realize how soon I would share the dubious honor.
Fast forward a few years into my retirement. Hubby, dogs and I had relocated to Florida. We were living temporarily in a rental townhome by a beautiful river that lead to the Inter Coastal waterways. A major bridge connecting the community to an island town was literally just minutes away.
Everyday, sometimes twice a day, we criss-crossed the bridge counting steps, as we took in the picture postcard views of sparkling water, sailboats, motorboats, cabin cruisers and even yachts. The three and a half mile walks were the high point of our days. We were obsessed!
After four months we moved into our new house in another community. We had to part with our beloved bridge walks, as the house was in a gated community, a distance from the water.
Soon after I had breast reduction and lift surgery.
The doctor took a picture of me, at my request, while knocked out. My face was completely relaxed as I peacefully slept through the surgery. Looking at the image days later, at my follow up, I remember feeling stunned.
My face had dropped significantly!
Initially, I made excuses to myself, thinking it was all due to my flat sleeping position on the surgery gurney. But, then I looked at subsequent pictures of my face when we were at the marina with the dogs.
It was painful to look at my own face. I remember thinking that I was starting to resemble my late mother’s elderly circle of lady friends! The loose, flaccid neck... the squared off face and jowls, the flat-as-a-pancake checks... I felt unattractive physically and old mentally. Where was the pretty, bubbly woman who just a few years before had been blanketed with compliments for not looking her age? What had happened to my face?
I was determined to get to the bottom of the issue!
As a prior National & Global Director of Education for several beauty companies, I knew the aging culprits all too well. As I understood it, 90% of visible aging is due to Ultra Violet (UV) light damage. That includes sunlight, daylight, halogen light, even the blue light emitted from your computer! Light is ubiquitous (everywhere) and while it can be nurturing in some ways (sunlight induces Vitamin D production,) it’s mostly damaging to our skin.
I knew all of that. I remember lecturing my training attendees about the downside of car sun roofs, back in the eighties! And who can forget the tanning bed fad; those sweet and alluring, damage-inducing, tanning chambers that, in my personal opinion, blindsided millions of naive users into paying for the demise of their skin! I tried so very hard to dissuade my students from using or promoting them.
I was sufficiently aware of the dangers of visual aging from excessive and ongoing UV light exposure on unprotected skin. And yet, in a virtuous effort to stay fit and healthy, I had foolishly traversed a bridge back and forth daily, to the tune of 24 miles per week! With each bridge crossing, I had exposed myself to intense (over a body of water) light damage, pollution, carbon monoxide and car exhaust (brimming with free radicals), as well as the drying effects of our tropical sand and wind! A potentially destructive combination! What was I thinking? Yikes!
To add irony into the mix, the daily walking and healthy Florida lifestyle helped me shed an unwanted ten pounds. Great news for me, but...it caused my facial skin to loosen even more! What the heck?
A well-known plastic surgery practice, 77 Plastic Surgery, sums up the human aging process succinctly in the following online quote:
“The effects of intrinsic aging (biological aging,) sun damage, the environment and genetics, all contribute to the gradual aging of the skin.”
Unwittingly, I had subjected myself to two powerful, external aging catalysts.
And, while I’ll never know just how much of my own sudden visible aging experience was caused by the sun/light and environmental elements I was exposed to daily for a 4 month period, it seems apparent that they coalesced with my natural biological and genetic aging processes to deliver the proverbial wake-up call! Result? A huge gut punch of reality.
I now looked my chronological age, and then some!
The quintessential question that so many of us wrestle with was bearing down upon me like a giant monkey on my back.
Was I going to simply roll with the loss of my youthful looks and acquiesce to the natural aging forces of the universe... Or, was I going to push back?
Would I surrender to Old FatherTime, or fight for the chance to see the old (much younger) version of me in the mirror again?
It didn’t take long for me to make my decision. It wasn’t something I needed to evaluate or analyze for days or weeks on end.
It was a response that was already there, an intuitive knowing, that burned brightly in my soul. Clear as a light in a dark room.
In my heart, I just knew. I was going to push back hard against Old Father Time.
My face had fallen fast, there was no doubt! But I’m a feisty, take action type of gal who has always been willing to fight for that which I cherish and value. For my family... for my fur babies....And, now... for me!
With only one more year to enjoy living as a sixty something gal, I knew what I had to do. It didn’t take long to put my personal rescue & recovery plan in place.
On February 17 2024, the plan was carried out, as I had 5 facial plastic surgery procedures performed over 4.5 hours under local anesthesia, in a small medical exam room. Dr. Jean-Paul Azzi, a Florida based, Double Board Certified Facial & Reconstructive Plastic Surgeon rescued my face from the clutches of time. Sounds dramatic, but it’s the absolute truth!
I had summoned up the courage and tenacity to save my face! And in doing so, had resurrected my inner confidence, joy and sanity.
In the same vein as Clint Eastwood’s famous quote, I guess you could say that I decided “not to let the old lady in.”
Interested in hearing more about this story? Click on the video below to view“Help! My Face Is Falling!"
I can relate! I’m not sure though the quick aging was from your walks. I noticed too accelerated aging late 60s. I think the exercise actually improves the skin with a powerful sunscreen and always/ hat, I will never stop walking!
Great article!