STAYING YOUNG

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 83, 8 April 1933, Page 13 (Supplement)

STAYING YOUNG

11 Mutton dressed as lamb.” I wonder how many middle-aged women have been frightened by that saying, and 'have given up all ideas of attractive clothes and cosmetics long before their time, because for some reason or other they think that dull clothes and a dowdy appearance arc more in keeping with their age. It is an unkind saving and not a very true one, for 1 don't honestly think there are many women who try to look 28 when they are nearer 48, and the poor deluded souls who do try arc so few that they don't do much harm. On the whole, I think women give up caring for lheir complexions and hair too soon, 1 hough they often continue to exhaust, themselves with some form of physical exercise in order to keep lit. When you are 40 you cannot take as much exercise ns when you were younger, and I would rather sco the older woman being less ”lamblike” in this respect than in her choice of colours and the care she takes of her skin, her hair, and her general appearance. When you are between the ages of 18 and 35 you arc able to recuperate so easily. If you are very tired, a few minutes 1 rest ami a dash of cold water on your face will soon restore your colour and your poise. But when you are. over 40, if you tire yourself out you may expect to look tired for at least two days, and your complexion will either look yellow, grey, or very white (and you arc lucky if it is the last). In addition, you will get dark pouches beneath your eyes, and there is nothing more ageing than those, nor more unbecoming. Don’t, if you cau help it, ever allow yourself to get thoroughly tired out. If you are unavoidably fatigued, try to get. as many hours’ rest in bed as possible. If you don’t do this you will find it is a long time before you feel really right again, and even when the exhaustion has passed off it will have left some new and betraying lines and wrinkles. But when it comes to treating your skin an 1 hair to much-needed lotions and creams I cannot see that there is any question of being ridiculous. After all, an old dress needs more careful treatment than a new one. It is absurd to think that because you are 45 you must retire into dark clothes and become “inconspicuous.” This is often only another word for being dowdy. It is a mistake to imagine that because you arc 18 you can wear pink and white, and because you arc middle-aged you must wear black. A middle-aged woman with a soft, fair complexion looks lovely in rose pink. The vividness has left her skin, and pale pink helps to give, her colour. If you arc lucky enough to have really white hair you should take immense pains with your ski’n, using a very good nourishing cream every evening ami a really good cream and powder foundation during the day. A rose-pink rouge and a rosy lip-stick are to be preferred to scarlet and crimson and other blatant colours. Don’t imagine that, because you are middle-aged, you must wear your hair in a “fortyish ” manner. Hair should be worn and cut according to its nature. If you have curly hair and you have kept a young complexion, wear it parted on one side and cut fairly short. A close-to-the-head coiffure is always becoming and makes you look younger. A woman middle-aged, with “ fly-away ” locks, looks old and shabby unless, of course, she has dark, curly hair, still unstreaked with white. Do not grieve over the fact that you arc mi longer in your twenties, for middle-age has a charm of its own.— An exchange.