I don’t think I have ever considered ageing to be a difficult and unglamorous aspect of life. Perhaps, it’s because I can’t recall ever hearing my mom or numerous unrelated ‘aunties’ speak of anti-ageing creams, under eye injections or brow lifts. I always accepted it as a simple progression of life.
Europe has an unreal obsession with youth and it was not until I came to France that I realized how silly and taxing it can be to constantly be on the lookout for ways to delay the visible signs of ageing. The advertising presents ageing as a beauty defect that develops and as a much grander problem which surpasses a five-minute, at-home fix like colouring your greys.
The obsession with looking young at home, while it has not reached the extent of that in West, is bigger now because of the bombardment of digital content. But even so, I don’t think most people see it as a problem they have to fix and spend millions of dollars doing so.