Whether you align with the pro-ageing, slow-ageing or blitz-the-merest-hint-of-a-wrinkle ‘anti-ageing’ faction, the truth of the matter is that every single one of our faces is going to change as we get older. It’s something to be celebrated (as Drew Barrymore so eloquently put it, “if you age you’re lucky; the alternative is death”). But whilst the narrative around anti-ageing is shifting (‘slow ageing’ has been tipped by Mintel to be the biggest beauty trend for 2025 and is essentially the skincare embodiment of noise cancelling headphones) it’s a conversation that we are never quite able to escape whatever guise it takes.  

As women, we are subject to a cacophony of conflicting messaging about how we are supposed to be ageing and a quick scan of the comments boxes of celebrities over the age of 40 will quickly reveal whether they are deemed to be ageing ‘gracefully’ (the nebulous benchmark) or ‘badly’ `implying that there is a right or wrong way to age. Add in the cruel paradox of cosmetic tweakments purportedly ‘ageing’ Gen Z faster than their Gen X counterparts and it shows that even the youngsters who don’t have a wrinkle between them are not immune from the tyranny of impossible ageing standards. 

But whilst ‘pro-aging’ (taking a positive approach to getting older and embracing self-acceptance) is all very well and good, some of us would still like to feel as though we have some agency over how our skin ages in order to feel fully empowered and that’s where an Instagram post by journalist, author and founder of ‘The Tweakments Guide’ Alice Hart-Davis caught my attention. She posed the question “Are you a ‘sagger’, ‘sinker’ or ‘wrinkler’?”, terms she explained she’d first heard at a tweakments event; “It turns out that if you’re an aesthetic practitioner, among the many factors you’ll be considering when assessing a patients face is; are they a sinker a sagger or a wrinkler?” 

In a recent article on Hart-Davis’ The Tweakments Guide website, she delves into the phenomenon with the help of leading aesthetic doctor (and Grazia favourite), Dr David Jack about what each of those might look like. “When we look at how people’s faces age, there are three main categories,” he told Hart-Davis. “Is your face losing volume like a slowly deflating balloon? Then you’re probably a ‘sinker’. Does your skin look like it’s sliding away from the bone structure underneath? Then you’re a ‘sagger’. And the ‘wrinkler’ obviously speaks for itself.  

I immediately identify myself as a ‘sinker’ but what do I do with this knowledge and is it simply another thing to be worried about?  “None of these sound particularly appealing, but it’s just the result of how our genes – plus the effects of our lifestyle choices – play out over time in our faces,” says Hart-Davis. “It’s not something to stress about. We are as we are.”

Whether we choose to do something to counteract the way our faces will change (skincare such as retinols, peptides and SPF can definitely help the ‘wrinklers’ out there but if you’re looking to restore volume or firm-up sagging such as jowls, tweakments such as fillers and radiofrequency are the only things that will have any noticeable effects) perhaps there’s simply something in acknowledging what mother nature has in store for us; knowledge is power after all. And that way we feel more empowered to accept and embrace the changes as they come.

Cassie Steer is acting head of beauty at Grazia with over 25 years’ experience on women’s glossies. She previously served as Beauty Director at Instyle and beauty editor at Marie Claire and her work has featured in Stylist, Sunday Times Style, the Telegraph, net-a-porter.com, glamour.com amongst many more