You CAN age overnight! Here’s what made us look ten years older – and the photos to prove it

Most of us like to believe that we look years younger than we really are, that we’re slowly but surely aging gracefully. But as any woman who’s ever had the shock of opening her camera phone the wrong way knows, Mother Nature can be a cruel mistress.

And now it’s officially confirmed, thanks to new scientific research unveiled last month. Instead of a slow, gradual decline, our bodies change dramatically between the ages of 44 and 60. The Stanford University study found rapid bursts of aging at the molecular level at these ages, describing them as “cliff edges” of sudden decline.

While these changes typically occur in our forties and fifties, dramatic aging can occur at other times in our lives. Researchers say this may be related to stressful lifestyles or behavioral factors.

In this article, three brave writers recount the year they fell off their own aging cliffs. They explore why and share the photos to prove it.

At 54, chronic financial stress made me unrecognizable

By author Kate Spicer

Last year I turned 54 and overnight I started gathering dust like an old refrigerator headed for the dump.

My body changed into a shape I barely recognized. When I say body, I mean my face. Or what my face used to be. In 2023, I was doing a shoot for a newspaper article. I had no makeup on, was wearing old clothes, and had to go to the hairdresser. I didn’t expect to look beautiful in the photos, but I was shocked by my gray, doughy skin, raisin eyes, and shapeless lips.

When I looked at the pictures I felt a pang of despair. Who was I? Where had my former self gone? I’m not saying I was a supermodel, but I looked like an old lady, not the vibrant woman I thought I was. It was a terrible reality check.

I needed a break, but I was working as a freelance writer to make ends meet. I didn’t have the financial resources to update my look or buy clothes that would build a sense of self-worth and pride.

In fact, my taste in clothes had become odd. One day, I cooked lunch for friends wearing a giant wool sweater in our cold kitchen, and both my boyfriend and girlfriend commented that my outfit was “questionable.” The brown cable-knit knee-length dress was the fashion equivalent of a sack of potatoes. “You look like Friar Tuck,” someone said.

I used to love the whole process of getting ready to go out. I could do it quickly because I would go to a cosmetic doctor every now and then to make sure I could wear minimal makeup and still look put together. I would add a little filler here and there, a shot of botox there, and that for about 15 years. I had to give up that rather expensive habit.

What complicated matters was that my partner was doing super well and was super busy in his super successful life. He came home talking about a big sounding international deal and I was telling him, sitting in sweatpants, that my book proposal had been rejected by another publisher and what kind of feces the dogs had rolled in that day. I couldn’t help but suspect that he found me a bit disappointing compared to the woman I had once been.

I had low energy and never seemed to get enough sleep. I had pain in my neck, knees and big toes. Wearing heels was unbearable. When I sat down to write, my hip flexor was so tight that by the end of the day I was limping dramatically and gasping for breath. I was also officially menopausal.

I think this aging event was exacerbated by financial stress, though. Sometimes I wondered if I would pay the mortgage or pay my credit card bill. I was always in fight or flight mode. Was I depressed? I’m not so sure. But that horrible photo did trigger me.

This April I took steps to combat my chronic stress and my rapid ageing episode seemed to have stalled somewhat. I went all out on a healthy diet and back on a daily dose of fish oil. I walked more and used the car less. I cut my hair, bought a cooler pair of jeans and ditched the oversized brown jumper dress. I spent £329 on an Ultrahuman Ring Air, a smart ring that helps me monitor things like sleep, heart rate, stress and exercise.

I get off the floor without using my hands (it’s a great test of agility and strength); and I swing on the monkey tails at the playground when I walk the dogs. In short, I do little things to take care of myself.

I am not an old refrigerator. I am me. I am 55 now. Life is still a mess, but I am coming back better. And a few months ago, despite feeling terribly guilty, I went and put a few milliliters of filler on my shrinking middle-aged bones and I can’t tell you how much it cheered me up. Call me shallow, call me vain, but you can’t call me an old girl!

Caring for my parents – ‘the long goodbye’ – took its toll on my face

By beauty expert Ingeborg van Lotringen

I always thought I looked younger than I was. That’s what people told me, but by the time I was in my late 40s they had stopped guessing that I was five years younger than my real age, so I should have taken a hint.

Yet it wasn’t until 2021, at age 51, that my age caught up with me. My eyes, jawline, and neck all collapsed at once. It made me furious, because, frankly, I felt entitled to not age badly. With a drill sergeant’s attitude toward exercise and self-control, I thought my healthy lifestyle combined with my lucky genes would keep any telltale signs of decline at bay, well, forever.

I had suffered from insomnia since I was 39 and knew all too well how sleep deprivation can seriously damage cell longevity, but my skin still glowed well into my 50s. As a beauty journalist, I also took for granted my access to great skincare and injectable skin boosters, including fillers Profhilo and HArmonyCa.

The sleepless exhaustion was further compounded by the loss of my father – and my job as beauty director at Cosmopolitan – in 2019.

Grief and stress really wear you down. My mother was also not doing well (she is now in a home with dementia) and I realized I was on a path I call “the long goodbye” – a slow, painful letting go of my parents and my childhood home.

For two years I suffered from chronic anxiety, which was exacerbated by menopause. Even with hormone replacement therapy, it was draining my body and mind at a time when I needed every ounce of physical, mental and emotional strength.

My eyes went from tired to permanently blurry, with drooping eyelids and under-eye circles that were both creased and puffy. The skin on my face (and body) thinned, heralding deeper lines, sagging cheeks, and a crease in my neck. I even developed perioral dermatitis, a stress-related condition that causes me to break out in small, angry blisters whenever I try to use anti-aging skincare.

I became aware of my situation, identical to that of middle-aged women everywhere. I was grieving the loss of a carefree childhood, taking on too many work and family responsibilities, and feeling uncertain about where life might be headed. No one gets away with it if it’s not rubbed in their face. I guess I’m lucky it lasted this long.

‘I was middle-aged, but when I was almost 60, my body collapsed’

By wellness expert Jane Alexander

I was just under 60 when my body fell apart in a spectacular way.

It started with a bang – or rather a quiet thud – in 2019, five months before my birthday. My 50th was a joyful surprise – I had never felt better and I don’t think I looked half bad. My career was going well; I had weathered a divorce and a radical move with relative aplomb.

I thought I had this midlife malarkey down pat. Then my sneaker caught my pant leg and I fell head—and hands—first to the street. Everything changed. I had broken my nose and my left elbow and shattered my right wrist. I was pumped full of painkillers and couldn’t exercise, my weight went up and my self-confidence plummeted.

In 2020, everything fell apart – and it wasn’t just because of the accident. My freckles turned into age spots, my gums started to recede, my vision deteriorated. Badger streaks appeared in my hair, I grew a moustache, my jawline gave up the ghost and my eyebrows went wild. I kept gaining weight until I was 3st (19kg) heavier than I was 12 months before.

My back started to hurt and then spasm. I was diagnosed with stress fractures in two vertebrae. I have no idea how it happened. All my joints hurt. My mental health also went downhill. As my self-confidence disappeared, my old enemies depression and anxiety came back. I didn’t want to take antidepressants (I had taken them before) so I struggled through it.

What felt unfair was that I had done everything I could to stay fit and healthy at 50. I ate well, I exercised every day, I did yoga and meditation, I took supplements, I didn’t smoke and I barely drank.

Now at 64 I have started HRT, I watch my blood sugar and I am trying the keto diet. I owe it to myself and my family to stay fit and healthy for as long as possible.