‘How to look your best in your fifties.’ 'What to wear when you pass fifty.’ ‘How to keep yourself in good shape now you’re out of your forties.’

Since my birthday last month, I am now speeding through my final year of being forty-something. So when I was doing my weekly shop in the supermarket at the weekend, magazine headlines like the ones above grabbed my attention faster than a wine department offer of two for one on Pinot Grigio!

I’ve always been completely comfortable about age and never had a problem when I turned thirty or forty. And honestly I really do feel the same about fifty. Age really is just a number to me and inside I still feel the same as I did in my twenties. It’s just that sadly on the outside things have somewhat changed.

I’m currently reading the excellent book ‘Before I Go To Sleep’ about a woman with amnesia who wakes every day thinking she’s in her twenties and looks in the mirror to see a face that is twenty years older. Well, that’s how I feel some days, although at least I can remember absolutely everything I’ve done in the intervening years to bring about those bags, wrinkles and grey hairs. Some of which of course I’d prefer to forget.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to cough up thousands of pounds I don’t have on procedures designed to attempt to turn back the hands of time. Firstly I don’t have the money, and secondly, I strongly disapprove of cosmetic surgery for vanity’s sake. It’s just that sometimes my face really surprises me, particularly first thing in the morning. I now know that those bags under my eyes are there forever, no matter how much expensive moisturiser I trowel on daily and those breakfast-time hang dog features and crumpled skin will take an age to bounce back. (Actually my skin doesn’t bounce back at all, instead it kind of skulks slowly into its pre-sleep position.)

Jerry Hall as the Wicked Queen in Snow White. Photo by Hakan Yazici.

So I can’t help but get drawn into reading some of these articles, the latest being from 58 year old Jerry Hall who talks about being stylish in your fifties. But of course the problem with Jerry Hall is she hasn’t got a clue what it’s like living a normal life. Her main hints and tips are cover your face and hair with olive oil once a week (yeuch), keep dying your hair if you want to (I’ll take that), never wear beige (never?) and to always put make up on when you go out of the house (not a hope in hell). Finally she talks about how she’s always worn a lot of Chanel and Vivienne Westwood and she likes Dolce and Gabbana now because their clothes are age appropriate. I wonder which items she’d find age appropriate if she had to shop in Next, M&S and Primark like the rest of us mere mortals!

The bottom line of course is that as we get older we do need to think about how we look after ourselves and how we dress, but the most important thing of all is about how we feel inside. I really believe that if we feel great and are happy and content then that will shine through to the outside. And you know what, I may have wrinkles, bags and grey roots that need attention every couple of months, but I am healthy and happy, and fitter than I’ve ever been and I’d much prefer it that way round.

A dear friend was once asked by someone what all those lines were around her eyes. Laughter lines she responded. ‘Nothing’s that funny’ was the retort. People can be very cruel!

NOTE TO SELF: ‘Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.’ Mark Twain.