This article was written for Annabel & Grace, which is now part of Rest Less.
Whether you’re reading an article from Annabel, Grace or one of our marvellous guest contributors, we aim to give older women confidence to celebrate life. So we thought you might enjoy this piece from our one and only male contributor, Northern Male….
Some time ago I wrote this: “The message from the male camp is we love it when you do all you can to look and be fabulous. But we love you too without your make-up, with your hair a mess and stuff going wrong”. Even in “failure” there is beauty.
Grace and I have only met once at a gathering at Annabel’s place on the Thames. Both made me so welcome. Grace edits my nonsense and tells me men also read this, so I should apologise to those with tackle as this one is aimed squarely at the female sex.
As we resurface from the nightmare of almost being wiped out each of us has a responsibility. A job to do to lift everyone around us.
Like me in lockdown you have doubtless come across reports of women making the effort to look good even when no-one would see them. You might be one. I completely got that and I loved it. Applying your favourite lipstick carefully and then putting a mask over it. You may have questioned that at the time. I didn’t.
At a costume fitting for a TV show recently I was in the chair for a 30’s haircut and I asked the lovely lady doing it why when I was wearing a hat. She replied the director might ask me to take it off. I later doffed my trilby to a lady as the camera panned across.
I’ll confess at the beginning of self-isolation I did slip rather. Not shaving or showering. It was a low point. But then decided there were standards to be upheld. The UK appears to be leading the way in immunisation so I’ve finally booked a few days away to be near my daughter and grandchildren in June. I simply cannot wait.
As we all come out of this awfulness we should smile and be positive. Importantly we should also look our best.
I’m rather a fan of BackPacking Granny and especially the You Tube video of her being made up. It’s exactly what I’m talking about. BPG was an actress, so knows all about what it takes to look good and carries that through into her later years with a sense of style that I really admire.
I watched a documentary about Grace Kelly recently. Some years ago I drove on the twisty road where she lost her life. Like Marilyn Monroe, Grace struggled to be taken seriously as a proper actress as her beauty in 1950’s America meant she was typecast, which is probably the main reason she stopped acting and decided to marry a Prince. Of her passing she said “I would like to be remembered as someone who accomplished useful deeds, and who was a kind and loving person. I would like to leave the memory of a human being with a correct attitude and who did her best to help others.”
I’d say that’s about right. Beauty comes from within and we never needed it more than we do now.
Ladies, now that we are coming out of lockdown it is the time for you to get back out there and cheer up the nation with the beauty, style and charisma every one of you have in spades.
Inside and out.