09/06/2026
What does ageing actually look like in 2026?
It's a question I've been thinking about a lot recently.
As an aesthetics doctor, I spend my days looking at faces and talking to people about ageing. One thing that's become increasingly clear is that our perception of what different ages should look like has changed dramatically.
If you look back 20 or 30 years, a 60 year old looked very different to many 60 year olds today. The same could be said for people in their fifties, seventies and beyond.
Part of that is undoubtedly down to improvements in health and lifestyle. But aesthetic medicine has also played a role. Treatments that were once reserved for a small number of people are now far more accessible and widely accepted.
Many of the faces we now see as normal would have been considered exceptional a generation ago. Yet because we're exposed to them every day, whether through celebrities, social media or public figures, they gradually become our reference point.
I don't say that as a criticism. There's nothing wrong with wanting to look your best or investing in yourself. What interests me is the wider conversation around ageing itself.
Are we still comparing ourselves against what is typical for our age, or against a version of ageing that has been carefully maintained, optimised and, in some cases, medically enhanced?
I don't think there's a right or wrong answer.
But I do think it's worth asking whether our expectations of ageing have changed faster than our understanding of why.
💬 What do you think?
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