Relaxation Suggested For Looking Younger

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28158, 22 December 1956, Page 2

Relaxation Suggested For Looking Younger

(By ANNE DORVILLE)

If you are more than 30 there is not much doubt that you would like to look five years younger. If you are 40, or 50 or 60, there is no doubt.

Reversing time is not easy, but is within the grasp of any woman who will take trouble. There are several ways of achieving the transformation. My advice is to guarantee success by using all the -methods. Perhaps the most important physical factor is relatively simple—relaxation. Frequently the most difficult thing to do is to relax. It needs concentration, for the mind should be kept blank for 10 minutes each day. If you think this is easy, try it—even for two minutes. It helps to lie on your back with all muscles limp and eyes closed. The feet should be higher than the head. According to many beauty experts this type of relaxation is by far the best way to fool the years. Relaxation can delete those lines of strain and anxiety that no cosmetics or beauty treatments seem to eradicate. Control Weight

Surplus weight makes a woman look years older than she really is and, more important, this extra bulk shortens life-expectancy. So, streamline your figure. Get a sensible diet from your doctor. And it is important that you should discuss your weight with your doctor, for only he can give you a properly balanced diet that will keep you well nourished at the same time as ridding you of surplus weight. Do not be afraid of under-eating. Your doctor will tell you that more digestive complaints and illnesses are caused by over-eating. There is no doubt that overweight persons look much older than their years. Hair-style can do a lot for a woman. Short, neat hair is the thing for the elderly, the middle-aged and, most important, for the prematurely middleaged woman. There is nothing more age-making to a woman’s face than a frame of shaggy, ill-shaped, untidy hair.

The most important factor in losing years is state of mind. If you are no longer young at heart, have no more ambitions, but merely wish to rusticate, grow old and sit back while your children grow up around you, then it does not matter how much you relax, how much weight you lose, or what hair-style you choose, you will look old and be old.

To look young you must be young, act young and feel young. Youth does not follow the line of least resistance, and is not lethargic. When you dread taking on new responsibilities and

merely accept your lot in life with passive content, you are already old — no matter what your age. You can be old at 20. Unless you are one of the eternally young, the signs of your age are all about you and are visible to the perceptive. In spite of beauty treatments, cosmetics and subtle clothes there are a number of signs suggesting maturity and age that are quite unmistakable. These are apparent to anyone who cares to look for them, and can be seen in the eyes, hands, teeth, and even fingernails, elbows and muscles. Age Lines

The lines that fan out from the eyes are barely perceptible at 20. At this age, too, the skin is extremely smooth, showing very few, if any, pore marks. For ascertaining extreme youth in a girl who is pretending to be older, take a look at her teeth. If her front teeth still show ridges at the biting surfaces, the girl can be hardly 16, for they have not yet had enough years of biting and chewing to wear them down.

At 20 eyelashes are soft and silky. By 30 they have become coarser and drier. Horizontal lines on the forehead also begin to appear at this age. also vertical lines running from above the nose. In the early twenties elbows are smooth. When they begin to get dry and wrinkled the third decade is indicated. The firm and smooth lids of the second decade begin to droop by the age of 30, when crow’s feet are also in evidence. / The main, large muscles in the arms and thighs are still smooth in the third decade, but begin to relax around the age of 40. This, of course, excludes those women who take a lot of exercise. But exercise cannot hide those tiny tell-tale networks of veins that begin to show on arms and legs at this age, nor the growing prominence of large veins on the backs of hands. Unmistakable at this age are the deepening diagonal folds that extend from the base of the nose to the corners of the mouth. Beyond 40 the fingernails become ridged. And if the skin on the back of the hands is pinched and the fold stays upright and then resumes its place only slowly, then 50 has been reached. Skin elasticity has been lost, and this is a sure sign of advancing age. Not a pleasant recital. But there are two consolations. If you really want to lodk five years .younger than your age, you know what you can do about it —if you want to. Otherwise, and if all else fails, go out and buy a new hat