These are cheerleaders from my dad’s college yearbook, 1964. Theoretically, they are all age 19-22. Why do they all look like they are in their 30’s? Is it the hair? Lack of retinol-based skincare products? Everyone just looked so OLD.
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A kind of forced perspective maybe?
They all look like someone’s mum to me.
I’ve always thought that too I do think it’s the hair from the era that does it
I feel like it’s the hair. I’m use to seeing this style on older women who have probably had the same haircut since they were this age
They were probably already 2-pack-a-day smokers.
That one lady looks like Phyllis from the office
It’s just the hair. Give ’em long L’Oreal locks and you’d have thought they we’re ahead of they’re time.
This is awesome. Im mostly shocked that there is a black woman in this picture. Back in these days this was likely a huge deal.
They rocked the same hair styles 20 years later when they became middle aged, so you see it as a hairstyle for middle aged women.
This is going to make me rethink the casting age in the movie “Grease” which I always thought looked unrealistic.
Hair.
They have old lady hair.
This is actually some kind of phenomenon, where we associate some of those things (the hair for example) with older people, tricking our brains into thinking that the person looks old even though they don’t (you can tell by their skin, for example).
A clever redditor is now going to come along and explain it way better though.
It’s the hair. Look at their faces, imagine them with modern hair. They look like your average college students.
It’s the hair.
Those ladies still wear the hairstyles they did when they were young and cool.
And so will you.
30 years from now, YOU will have the old lady hair.
The Black lady looks like she is in her 20s
It’s the hair
They looked younger in person.
It’s the same hairstyle that my grandma has…so it’s definitely the hair.
In the early 60s, teen girls all looked like they were 35. Fast forward to 1968, and they all looked like they were 13. Fashion, manners, but especially the hair.
I thinks it’s those “I’m 50 years old” haircuts lol
I think it’s definitely the hair.
It’s definitely the hair. I was reading that people were apparently shocked that the sex in the city girls are the same age as the golden girls for the reboot and people were discussing how much older the golden girls looked than the sex in the city girls and one person was like, “it’s literally just the hair”, and did a Photoshop of the golden girls hair onto the sex in the city girls and visa versa and it really was.
Old movies are like this too.
“What are those crazy kids up to ? ” … and I only see adults on the screen.
It goes deeper than just the hair. The average ages of celebrities and the target age that teenage girls wanted to look were higher. Teenagers wanted to look like adults. Now, adults want to look like teenagers, and teenagers want to look like cartoons.
I think it’s their haircuts.
they look real and not fake
What part of the country? People in cold regions always look older and unhappy to me.
The young women/men of the 50s-80s look so incredibly old to us mainly because of their haircuts, makeup, and clothing style. All of which we associate with old people these days. Most people don’t change that much about their style as they age.
All those women have “old lady” haircuts in my opinion. I’ve only seen those hairstyles on old women my entire life.
Despite being college aged they all remind me of middle aged lunch ladies from when I was in elementary school.
Could be black-and-white photography on a four dollar camera
The one on the left looks like Benny from George Lopez
Hair and the quality of the photo
For context on your opinion, how old are you?
I’ve had these thoughts for a long time when looking back at old photos of young people.
Here is my idea…
In past years, pre-1960/70’s, teenagers wanted to grow up to be like their parents. Growing up meant you styled your hair like your mom and wore clothes more like mom. It was a badge of honor to be consider “old enough” to get a haircut/style like mom’s.
Boys growing up cut their hair like a man (dad), wore grown up clothes (dad), etc.
Growing up and looking like your parents was a badge of adulthood.
Once the mid-60’s/70’s (hippie teenagers) changed this family dynamic. They wanted to look their age, be themselves VS growing into versions of their parents. They wanted their own music, their own education, their own ideas, thoughts and their own value systems.
We now want to grow up with our peers, not into mini-me’s of our parents.
The idea of youth having their own fashions, ideas on higher education, marriage, dating, drugs, religion were newer concepts in US society. All of a sudden, in one generation or less, parents no longer saw anything they recognized, of themselves, in their own children.
Obviously this is incredibly oversimplified however I’ve thought about this a lot over the years. We no longer want to grow up to be someone else.
it’s the hair.
we are all accustomed to recognize such hairstyles are meant for the golden ladies of our lives.
It’s because they all have what we understand today to be “old lady “ haircuts
None of them look in their 30’s…
They all have mom hair
Edit: sorry I’m late to the party this is already been voiced many times over!
The hair and they aren’t the stereotypical hot girls you see as cheerleaders today who live in the gym/former gymnasts. Back then it was just basic women with spirit
Maturity.
I guess someone with good Photoshop skills should try putting modern hairstyles on them so we could see the difference.
Gotta be the hair. It’s all short and puffy hair.
Jesus, you people are REALLY overthinking this.
It’s literally nothing more or less than that your brain is being tricked by the fact that they’re wearing what today is considered an “older woman’s” hairstyle because it was in vogue back then.
I mean damn people. Conspiracy theories about retinol, trying to sound scientific about cigarette smoke and lotions? Lol they’re just women of a particular generation and that’s just how they did up their hair. Fuck me.
“Lack of retinol based skin products” ?!
It’s an old black and white photo 😂
I don’t understand why this surprises so many younger people….yes alot of it has to do with the hair style but people aren’t taking into account the quality of photography in those days. Also they didn’t have photoshop and filters like we do now.
If you think the majority of the beauty girls you see online are natural then boy do I have a surprise for you!
The hair and styles of course, but don’t forget the state of photography. You couldn’t take 20 pics of the same shot and pick the best one. Each shot cost money and time. Most people had likely never even held a camera. There was no photoshop. Cameras didn’t automatically adjust their aperture, exposure, etc…
This is what you think 30 year olds look like??
Teens and women basically wore the same hairstyles, and clothing until the mid 60’s. Only during the late 60’s, and early 70’s did teens start to style themselves completely different than their mothers.
It’s the hair. It can be amazing how it can transform a women. Simple hair style change can make them older, younger, sexy or innocent looking. In this case it’s a hair style we now associate with 60+ years old who have reached “I can’t be bothered to do all the hair shit anymore” stage of their life.