BECOMING AN OLD MAN FOR 1 NIGHT: How prosthetic makeup made me appreciate my age.
You can't make this stuff up
I literally watched as deep wrinkles were put onto my skin. We stretched each part of my face, applied the latex and then as the skin returned to it's normal span, it wrinkled, convincingly. We added reddened patches around my eyes and other little discolorations. We deepened the natural creases where I smile and express myself. I felt any visible sign of youth harden. My skin stiffened and lost all moisture.
Something psychological was happening to me. I had to remind myself it was only make up, only a skin-deep facade but inside I begun to feel differently.
Old in Public at a Major Event
The night out was more interesting still. No admiring glances from ladies my age despite the lovely black tailcoat I was donning. Friends of mine walked straight past me, repeatedly. I was a well-dressed wallflower. I saw young guys checking my lady out and I looked like a feeble, sugar daddy. I suddenly, in the throngs of the soirée, became all too aware how inadequate I appeared next to her..
I looked about 40 years her senior.
Guys my age and younger looked at me on her arm with superiority, sporting their muscles and clean shaven faces.
It was a very complex psychological experience. Well worth the time and money, effort and time to go through. I'm always talking about prolonging youth and elevating health and I so I thought it fitting to try something completely different.
When back home, I tore the latex off my face, shaved my beard clean. I felt so so appreciative to be me, today and while I accept one day I may indeed grow to look like that old man, I choose for it to be a much longer journey to get there.
Moral of The Experiment
Enjoy your beautiful bodies. Give thanks for the youth you have right now, whatever it may be. Be thankful for your skin. Appreciate your face, it's elasticity, it's smoothness. Give gratitude for your life and for your vitality. Fortify your youth through healthy thinking and feeling. They say youth is wasted on the young. That night I got a glimpse of what that can mean.
Imagine if you looked 40 years older than you are and couldn't just tear the make up off at the end of the night? Would it make you choose how you live your life more closely? It certainly did for me. I highly encourage you to try this. It's a trip.
What advice do you have for us who are already old?
First question would have to be how old is old? 40? 50? 75? I see more and more examples of older people achieving incredible things that make me add another decade onto the number I would have previously called 'old'.
Having said that, my encouragement rather than advice would be to think young. Visualise your skin softening. Visualise yourself with energy. Imagine yourself becoming more flexible, more supple. Practice this daily and do what you can, in terms of food, nutrition, exercise, pass-times you enjoy etc. to cultivate that feeling and support this new image of youth. My two cents.
That was some incredibly convincing makeup! What a crazy adventure... were you acting the same way you normally act or did the social pressure get to you?
Thanks for sharing. Great story!
Thanks it took like 5 hours to do the makeup. Hired a pro to do it who does movie makeup. I acted normally. I thought it would be too far to start walking slowly and hunching over and such. It wasn't meant to be a psychological experiment. It was meant to be fun but turned into something entirely different.
That's weird, you look awesome! great post
As an old man? Thanks! A couple of friends called me 'silver fox' haha. That could be fun down the road.