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Do you want to look younger?

I don’t want to appear younger than my years. It’s perfectly OK that I look my age.

I know the beauty industry tries to convince us that we need to look at least 10 years younger than our true biological age, but why? I’ve received messages telling me I look ten years younger, and also 10 or more years older, it really doesn’t matter how old I look, its how old I feel, and I feel the same as I did when I was 18. I eat a varied whole food plant based diet, exercise daily, limit my time on social media and I spend lots of time in nature. It takes effort to feel good, sadly there’s no magic pill. I feel full of energy and ready to take on any challenge. More on this another day, I write less on Instagram posts as the limit on the number of words is too challenging for me!

I took this shot on arriving home from the construction site. My hair was covered in dust and was happily doing it’s own thing. I wandered into the bathroom and picked up the scissors. You see, my hair is falling out. … It’s normal. I have an under active thyroid and it causes my hair to wave goodbye to my scalp by the handful. Sometimes more than others. It’s OK, it’s only hair. 10 minutes of snipping and I have a shorter style.

It doesn’t matter if I look 54, 64 or even more. I just hope I look healthy and happy, as that’s my only wish.

Have a beautiful day.

Gail x

#older #wiser #hypothyroid #itsonlyhair #silverhair #silversister

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Starting over

I suddenly arrived at a difficult crossroads on my blogging journey. I didn’t like where all roads were taking me, so I’ve decided to leave Instagram and start over in a new direction with my blog. Crazy I know, considering I had 75k followers late 2021 (which was slowly decreasing and melting away as I’d stopped posting so regularly). Instagram is changing, rebranded ‘Meta’ and now rapidly going in a new direction which I don’t think will be good for my soul. It started as a photo sharing platform, a way to see the world through someone else’s eyes. Someone who could take better photos from interesting angles and add a few words to share their journey. I really do miss that about Instagram.

Meta (formerly FaceBook and Instagram) makes its money from advertising and selling data from users and creators to provide the product – for free. It’s a great business strategy and worked well until they started censoring the content, based on input and restrictions put on them by their clients. Accounts were shadow banned or disappeared overnight, with no resource or humans available to resolve or even discuss the issue. After all, you are getting the platform for free, so why should they provide you any ‘customer’ service.

Click here to buy my T shirts on my FiftySister store.

Influencers post highly filtered photos which everyone seems to appreciate. Post a photo without one and people will be horrified and share their unfiltered feelings on your timeline in record time. Verbal abuse never bothered me, but the effort deleting, blocking or reporting the accounts was such a waste of precious time.

This place name, without fail, always makes me laugh.

So here I am, back on my blog, all new, starting over from scratch. I am both relieved and excited. There’s no mystical algorithms, trolls or pressure to post daily, but I will post regularly as I miss telling stories, writing and sharing a photo here and there. If you sign up for my mailing list I will send you an update once a month and hopefully will be adding offers, vouchers and promo codes if any companies want to work with a silver haired, unfiltered, cruelty free, midlife woman. Let’s see…

Have a beautiful day.

Gail x

Fresh water swim spot just outside Tavira, Algarve, Portugal.
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All about the red lipstick

Low key brows today, it’s all about the red lipstick. This one is from my favourite cruelty free brand @muacosmetics ‘Reckless’ Velvet matte liquid lip. Photo straight off the iPhone 12 Pro on portrait mode. I do appreciate the good light here so much.

Pity nobody will see my lipstick as I still have to wear a facemask everywhere in Portugal. We are only allowed to remove it whilst sitting in a café or restaurant.

My hair has a little bit of salt spray to give it some texture, but I really do need to give it a trim and tame it a little. I’m having trouble finding my hairdressing scissors, which is surprising as I live in such a small place!

I have my first project meeting about my house build today. It’s only taken 4 years to get this far. Patience is key when building your own home. It will be worth the wait I am sure. You can find the design here: loulehills.com if you want to see the design of the house. If you follow any interesting accounts who are also building a home, tag me in or send me a DM. I’m keen to find other crazy people!

Seb has booked a flight and will visit in one month. I’m so excited to see him again. He’s had some brilliant news this week, an offer of employment from the company he’s been contracting for. We are so happy for him! He’s had a crazy year – from working as an officer on a cruise ship, to a contract bringing an unsafe vessel from Greece to Portugal (and rescuing a young man floating in the water) to the perfect job for him. It’s with a great company who will support him and develop his career to Captain. Hoorah!

This week seems to be going on forever, or is it just me? Not a bad thing. Time is so precious, if it’s going slower it’s a bonus.

Have a beautiful day

Xxx

#silverhair #greyhair #grayhair #redlipstick #silversister #silversisters #50plus #40plus #midlife #midlifeblogger #maturebeauty #matureskin #goinggray #longgreyhair #selfbuild #algarve #portugal #expatalgarve #expatportugal #midlifestyle #midlifewomen #nofilter #grayhairinfluencer

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I’m grateful

In the next month (or so) I will be entering my 53rd year. Which means miles travelled around the sun or my total life score is 4,926,657,771 – how incredible is that? Of all the ways there are to die, I’ve avoided each and every one so far.

The world is spinning, orbiting around the sun, travelling 92,955,807 miles
per year, but it makes no noise, or we simply cannot hear it. Something I’m still pondering…

I’ve had; scrapes, accidents, incidents, illnesses, diseases, infections, impacts, abrasions. I’ve laughed, I’ve screamed, I’ve cried. I’ve been lonely, loved, hurt and hugged. I’ve been helped and hindered, supported and opposed, treasured and discarded. We all have.
There have been so many highs and countless lows, but I’m still here and I am very grateful. Grateful for the wrinkles, the facial hair, the sun spots, the stretch marks the scars.
The journey so far has been worth it and I look forward to collecting many more wrinkles along the way.
Who else has decided to embrace their wrinkles?


#wrinkles #scars #sunspots #facialhair #over50 #over40 #midlife #emptynest #aging #ageing #proaging #proageing #gratitute #grateful #stretchmarks #bodypositive #agepositive

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Changing faces

Changing faces.


Wrinkles, age spots, scars and broken thread veins now adorn my face. Gone are the thick eyebrows and blemish free tight-fitting skin.


I receive many messages from women who hate their changing face. Slowly melting whilst their hair invades the space below their hairline, leaving it ever thinner on top.
My eyebrows need a pencil, my skin needs a good foundation, a swipe of lipstick, a wave of the magic wand of mascara, a bit of blush and dab of highlighter and I’m ready for the day. Happy with the new face which has a little more skin each year. I’m certainly not complaining, I’ve had a lot of use out of this face, it’s had quite a lot of wear and tear!


Don’t you think it’s incredible how you can guess a person’s age so easily? Most will guess within 1 year or 2 a person’s age. That’s how I know it’s a natural process I cannot and will not fight. I’m not attempting to turn back a clock which is naturally and happily advancing forward, day by day, giving me more wonderful days on this earth.


My grandma wore floral dresses (never trousers), had soft silver hair, her eyes were a little cloudy, she was short, squidgy and a soft pillow when I needed somewhere to rest my head. I adored her, and I want to be like her. She had a marshmallow belly, bingo wing arms and wore an industrial strength bra – with a stash of a folded paper tissues tucked inside, always ready to wipe away a tear when needed.


She was perfect.


#ageing #aging #proaging #agepositive #midlife #midlifecrisis #wrinkles #agespots #grandma #middleage #over50 #over40 #50pluswomen #positivity #proageing