No mirrors, please, we’re middle-aged

While many young people love to check their appearance in the mirror, at 45 it seems we'd rather forget what we look like altogether. Picture: Chris Collingridge

While many young people love to check their appearance in the mirror, at 45 it seems we'd rather forget what we look like altogether. Picture: Chris Collingridge

Published Nov 9, 2011

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London - While many young people love to check their appearance in the mirror, at 45 it seems we’d rather forget what we look like altogether.

For that’s the age when most men and women start to avoid looking in the mirror, unable to face the fact they’re getting older.

More than a quarter of those aged 45 and over say they can’t bear to see their reflection because “it’s not nice seeing yourself age”.

This contrasts starkly with the vanity of youth.

In a poll, 51 percent of those aged 18 to 24 admitted looking at their reflection ten times a day.

But that figure drops to 44 percent for Britons between 25 and 34, and to 33 percent of those from 35 to 44.

And when we hit middle age, from 45 to 54, it plummets to just 9.4 percent. Suddenly, it seems, we no longer like what we see.

The survey of 3,000 people for the cosmetic surgery group Transform found that a seventh of middle-aged Britons checked their reflection no more than once a day.

Young women are far more worried about ageing than men, with 32 percent dreading getting older, compared with only 12 percent of young men.

Shami Thomas, of Transform, said: “Britain loves mirrors - at least until we reach 45. Those pesky mirrors just remind us that we’re not getting any younger.” - Daily Mail

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