I remember my
mother telling me
Susan you’re lucky to be a black girl since you’ll age more gracefully than white girls. Look at me and your grandmum! Doesn’t your grand mum look younger than most of your white friends mothers? I looked, and she was right.
Black women do tend to have fewer wrinkles and
cosmetic signs of aging than white women (even though we on average die 7 years younger) however, there are sensible explanations for this. First of all, most black women maintain a higher
body fat percentage (well in the
USA) than white women (if you look at older women from
Somalia or any other African nation where there is not enough food, or where women simply don’t eat as well as Americans you’ll find that the
elderly black women are just as wrinkled as elderly Scottish folk.) Secondly, the
melanin in the skin prevents
sunburn (but NOT
skin cancer, dammit!) sunburn just leads to an eruption of
wrinkles. Lastly, the higher
fat diet that many
African Americans eat leads to more
oily skin, the oil keeps the skin
moisturized and
taut preventing
sagging.
If you are very
pale and fear
wrinkles eat
fried chicken and use
sun screen and you’ll do just fine.