Dear Val, your Ponytail Facelift post sent me time traveling to a weekend visit with a dear friend I’d known since high school. We were both in our 50s at the time.
As I was preparing to return to the city, she emerged from her bedroom to produce two clip-on ponytails that she had purchased on a whim. One matched her hair color and one matched mine. We pulled back our hair, clipped in the fake ponies, looked in the bathroom mirror and voilà! Suddenly, we were 16 years old again!
We started screaming with laughter and began to dance around her bathroom like, well, two teenagers. The ponytails may not have lifted our faces, but they lifted our spirits. The moment was a reminder of when our friendship had first started and, amidst life’s inevitable ups and downs, all the fun we’d had along the way.
My friend has since crossed over to the Other Side, but remembering our dance in ponytail heaven always makes me smile. Another example of “the happiness of growing older” increasingly aligning “with the sadness of growing older” (losing loved ones whose spirits will always be with us). And as you wisely point out, worth celebrating!
Thank you, Val! I really appreciate you researching this issue for me. I wasn't familiar with the drug recommended so I read a bunch of reviews that were helpful. Ultimately, it got me to DHEA as hormone support and I think I'll try that before considering a prescription. In particular, a DHEA blend that includes Vit B6 and Black Cohosh may help with a variety of menopausal symptoms. (fatigue and hot flashes) I'm glad to know this is common and I'm not the only one having problems. Again, thanks so much for the research and answers!
btw, face lift at 25? That's just sad. But a ponytail at any age always makes you look younger! I don't put my hair in one that often but I always love the swing of it when I do. I even did pigtails a few weeks back - lol! Why not? You're only as old as you feel!
The ponytail facelift is a little heartbreaking but I also get it. When I was 25, I was beautiful but didn’t think so. Is that a part of youth or are some of us more secure? At 25 I was starting to spend a little money on skincare and that has proven to be money very well spent, for the most part. Thank you for another wonderful article! I saved it until I could really enjoy it ;)
If the doctors focused on giving 20 somethings facelifts (OMG to that) would pivot to treating, better understanding and making menopause go away, it would change the future of the world. If my symptoms last 10 years someone will be harmed. Just no. My body has done enough with periods and births and fibroids and the rest. Enough already. I will not go gently.
so glad you answered a chin acne question! im only 20 but my acne problems have only ever been on my chin. i had nothing for over 2 years and recently it broke out again. unfortunately im on the pill so doctors usually refuse to run hormonal tests for me
I work in college mental health and have often counseled students about the unrealistic and unattainable beauty standards that exist today. What's sad is that they're fully aware yet seem unable to resist the need to meet or go beyond the standards. And, frankly, my friends in my age group also lament of not looking good enough. In the early months of the pandemic, during a video gathering of friends, one of them started lamenting about body issues because of all the carbs we were all eating for comfort while stuck at home. I, unfortunately, flipped out and asked this friend that could we please not talk about body stuff as I was, frankly, sick and tired of it. As you can imagine, that conversation didn't go well and there was crying all around. Since then, we have tended to skirt around it (whew) yet it angers me that, at a time when we wondering if we would be alive the next week, some of us was worrying about pandemic pounds. Ugh.
"I can confidently say that a person who is 25 who wants something done “to make their face look tighter and lifted” is most likely a person who needs counseling."
Hey Val, I’ve been using a vitamin C serum every morning on my face for years because I thought it helps prevent sun damage. But recently I’ve read that isn’t true. Do you recommend keeping up with it?
Dear Val, your Ponytail Facelift post sent me time traveling to a weekend visit with a dear friend I’d known since high school. We were both in our 50s at the time.
As I was preparing to return to the city, she emerged from her bedroom to produce two clip-on ponytails that she had purchased on a whim. One matched her hair color and one matched mine. We pulled back our hair, clipped in the fake ponies, looked in the bathroom mirror and voilà! Suddenly, we were 16 years old again!
We started screaming with laughter and began to dance around her bathroom like, well, two teenagers. The ponytails may not have lifted our faces, but they lifted our spirits. The moment was a reminder of when our friendship had first started and, amidst life’s inevitable ups and downs, all the fun we’d had along the way.
My friend has since crossed over to the Other Side, but remembering our dance in ponytail heaven always makes me smile. Another example of “the happiness of growing older” increasingly aligning “with the sadness of growing older” (losing loved ones whose spirits will always be with us). And as you wisely point out, worth celebrating!
Thank you, Val! I really appreciate you researching this issue for me. I wasn't familiar with the drug recommended so I read a bunch of reviews that were helpful. Ultimately, it got me to DHEA as hormone support and I think I'll try that before considering a prescription. In particular, a DHEA blend that includes Vit B6 and Black Cohosh may help with a variety of menopausal symptoms. (fatigue and hot flashes) I'm glad to know this is common and I'm not the only one having problems. Again, thanks so much for the research and answers!
btw, face lift at 25? That's just sad. But a ponytail at any age always makes you look younger! I don't put my hair in one that often but I always love the swing of it when I do. I even did pigtails a few weeks back - lol! Why not? You're only as old as you feel!
The ponytail facelift is a little heartbreaking but I also get it. When I was 25, I was beautiful but didn’t think so. Is that a part of youth or are some of us more secure? At 25 I was starting to spend a little money on skincare and that has proven to be money very well spent, for the most part. Thank you for another wonderful article! I saved it until I could really enjoy it ;)
If the doctors focused on giving 20 somethings facelifts (OMG to that) would pivot to treating, better understanding and making menopause go away, it would change the future of the world. If my symptoms last 10 years someone will be harmed. Just no. My body has done enough with periods and births and fibroids and the rest. Enough already. I will not go gently.
so glad you answered a chin acne question! im only 20 but my acne problems have only ever been on my chin. i had nothing for over 2 years and recently it broke out again. unfortunately im on the pill so doctors usually refuse to run hormonal tests for me
I work in college mental health and have often counseled students about the unrealistic and unattainable beauty standards that exist today. What's sad is that they're fully aware yet seem unable to resist the need to meet or go beyond the standards. And, frankly, my friends in my age group also lament of not looking good enough. In the early months of the pandemic, during a video gathering of friends, one of them started lamenting about body issues because of all the carbs we were all eating for comfort while stuck at home. I, unfortunately, flipped out and asked this friend that could we please not talk about body stuff as I was, frankly, sick and tired of it. As you can imagine, that conversation didn't go well and there was crying all around. Since then, we have tended to skirt around it (whew) yet it angers me that, at a time when we wondering if we would be alive the next week, some of us was worrying about pandemic pounds. Ugh.
YOU SAID IT, VAL! So just let me repeat it....
"I can confidently say that a person who is 25 who wants something done “to make their face look tighter and lifted” is most likely a person who needs counseling."
Hey Val, I’ve been using a vitamin C serum every morning on my face for years because I thought it helps prevent sun damage. But recently I’ve read that isn’t true. Do you recommend keeping up with it?