Aging face transformation gifs
October 13, 2013 3:40 PM   Subscribe

Young to old, gifs showing the transformation of age. One noticeable thing in all photos is the known ‘random fact’ that the ears and nose are 2 body parts that never stop growing and getting bigger – from birth to death. All on one page, where you can click the hand icon in the corner of the image and slide the bar back and forth manually. Video from dovga.

The original story from a Czech article by photojournalist Jan Langer on centenarians, their lives then and now.
posted by nickyskye (25 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
Very cool! Though I must admit that I wish more people in the 1940s had the foresight to take a picture of themselves everyday in preparation for gifs like theses.
posted by vorpal bunny at 3:52 PM on October 13, 2013 [3 favorites]


Fantastic post. Thanks for sharing.
posted by 4ster at 4:03 PM on October 13, 2013


Wow! People...don't end up looking like you'd expect.
posted by whistle pig at 4:07 PM on October 13, 2013


I don't know. I feel like I could see the young faces in the older and vice versa. The nose-forever-growing thing is kind of scary, man.
posted by nevercalm at 4:42 PM on October 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


nickyskye, you've been responsible for a whole lot of what I know but I draw the line at being told noses and ears never stop growing. Now you stop that!
posted by de at 4:45 PM on October 13, 2013 [3 favorites]


Dearest de, we'll all look like happy elephant faces by the time year 100 comes on rolling by. And that's ok. :)
posted by nickyskye at 5:03 PM on October 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


That bit of information is going to take the bottom out of the Retin-A market. "Stop the bloats."
posted by de at 5:18 PM on October 13, 2013 [2 favorites]


Holy cow, the ears! I mean, I've heard that before, that noses and ears keep growing, but I guess I didn't take it seriously, or thought that it was just a minimal kind of growth that wouldn't necessarily be noticeable, but once again I am wrong as wrong can be. It definitely seems like men's ears grow more than women's, though, right? Like, a lot more? And WHY do they keep growing? One of the comments said they continue to produce stem cells; is that true?

Now that I think of it, my Grandma had absolutely enormous man ears, but it never occurred to me that it might have been because she was old and they hadn't always been that huge. Hmm.

And wouldn't you think, if ear and nose growth with age is such a universal fact, that we'd have an idiom based on it, the way "long in the tooth" means old? Why not "long in the nose" or "big in the ears"?
posted by HotToddy at 5:33 PM on October 13, 2013 [2 favorites]


Noses and ears "growing" seems to be mainly an effect of gravity. Other body parts act likewise. The solution might be to spend more time upside-down, or in Australia.
posted by beagle at 5:39 PM on October 13, 2013 [4 favorites]


Fuck. My nose is already way too big. One more reason to live fast and die young.
posted by moorooka at 5:42 PM on October 13, 2013 [2 favorites]


But those ears are not just drooping. The whole part where they attach to your skull is bigger. Although I guess maybe that part can get elongated too? But they also look wider and just, you know, fleshier.

Also, I've sort of vaguely noticed without giving it a whole lot of thought that my nose isn't perfectly straight the way it was when I was younger. And now I know it must be because the tip is starting to droop. Yay.
posted by HotToddy at 5:49 PM on October 13, 2013 [2 favorites]


Did the fifth guy down lose his ear?
posted by anazgnos at 6:18 PM on October 13, 2013


Because the tissue is becoming less elastic, the whole skin spreads out, so that the attachment points are enlarged, too. It's not just gravity - when a sweater gets stretched out with age, it stretches all over, but it stretches most at the points that bear the most weight.

If this concerns you, there's always expensive, painful, irreversible surgery. Me, I don't see the point of looking younger than I am, if I'm still going to feel the effects of age. I'm holding out for actual reversal of the ageing process. (Well, at least until I can no longer stand the appearance of the varicosities on my nose. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of a small mind.)
posted by gingerest at 6:39 PM on October 13, 2013


I was self-conscious about my large nose in second grade, and since then it's blossomed into quite the beak. At this rate, when I'm eighty I'll be able to knock out people at Market Basket just by turning my head. I look forward to that.
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:41 PM on October 13, 2013 [17 favorites]


Wow, those photos were startling to look at. Hey, if it's gravity at work for the nose and ear growth then something tells me penii must be getting bigger, too!
posted by onlyconnect at 6:46 PM on October 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


onlyconnect (I've nursed and) something tells me there are collagenous cords between earlobes and penii. The venetian blind principle seems to be in play.
posted by de at 7:06 PM on October 13, 2013 [4 favorites]


I'm starting to realize that people can't reliably tell the difference between a 21 year-old and a 29 year-old...
Anyway, here is another video, also on aging.
posted by gemutlichkeit at 7:38 PM on October 13, 2013 [1 favorite]


Who knew we'd need a brassiere for our ears and nose?
posted by BlueHorse at 10:14 PM on October 13, 2013


Before we marry,
darling, just suppose
as we grow old
and, fold in fold,
my ears and nose
grow big and hairy.
Scary?
posted by pracowity at 3:59 AM on October 14, 2013 [1 favorite]


de: "nickyskye, you've been responsible for a whole lot of what I know but I draw the line at being told noses and ears never stop growing. Now you stop that!"

Ha ha! [/nelson] NOSEGROWER!
posted by Samizdata at 5:37 AM on October 14, 2013


pracowity: "Before we marry,
darling, just suppose
as we grow old
and, fold in fold,
my ears and nose
grow big and hairy.
Scary?
"

My ears and nose aren't so large, but I do suffer frequently what my internal monologue refers to as "wolf ears". It is such a pain to keep them trimmed when I don't own clippers. Use a razor, here comes the blood...
posted by Samizdata at 5:41 AM on October 14, 2013


Nancy Burson is an artist who has been doing this kind of stuff since the 1970s. Her web page has the dimmest gray-on-gray text I have ever seen.
posted by hexatron at 5:58 AM on October 14, 2013


The nose-forever-growing thing is kind of scary, man.

Seems both House and Pinocchio were right!
posted by Twang at 10:12 AM on October 14, 2013


We've had decades of instruction for what to do when our ears get overlong, starting from childhood.

You throw them over your shoulder like a Continental soldier.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 10:23 AM on October 14, 2013 [7 favorites]


If I were ever to step into a time machine and appear in the future, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't recognize anybody. I just don't see the young people in the old. Good thing people usually age slowly.
posted by Elly Vortex at 11:58 AM on October 14, 2013


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