To compare anyone to Brad Pitt in any arena – talent, wealth, style, looks – is an inevitably cruel enterprise. Pitt, after all, is one of the most handsome men on the planet, he’s also one of Hollywood’s most bankable actors, he’s worth a cool $300 million and he’s won two Oscars. WBU?
But Brad Pitt is also 57 years old. Five. Seven. It’s a fact which means he was born in the same year – 1963 – as JFK was assassinated. The same year that the USSR sent the first woman into space. The same year as The Beatles released “I Want To Hold Your Hand”.
Oh, and Brad’s 20805 days spent on planet earth also make him the same age as the Tiger King himself, Joe Exotic. Let that sink in for a moment.
Given his advanced years you’d be forgiven for expecting Pitt’s features to have drifted in the same southerly direction as those of the aforementioned zoo-maniac, but the truth is that Pitt looks absolutely fantastic for his age. His skin – the colour of just-boiled honeycomb – is clear and bright, save the occasional life line; his jaw is tight and defined; his fudgey mane is streaked with just a smattering of grey and his lips, well, the’re disarmingly full.
So how has he done it? Is it just good genes? Is it a magical mix of products? Or is it something more? According to the UK medical director of the New York Dermatology Group at the Harrods Wellness Clinic, Dr Costas Papageorgiou, it’s a blend of the above. “Brad truly looks after himself. He’s not trying to look younger, but looks the healthiest version of himself,” Papageorgiou tells me. “Brad also appears to have protected his face and neck from the sun to preserve skin elasticity, inflammation and redness.”
A study conducted by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons revealed that in 2018 some 1,092,103 men elected to have cosmetic minimally-invasive procedures (botox, soft tissue fillers, laser treatments), an eight per cent increase year-on-year. With those figures in mind it would be easy to lump Pitt in with the vast swathe of his Hollywood stablemates who have turned to surgical interventions in order to turn back the hands of time (who else, but vainglorious movie stars could be making up these numbers?) but Papageorgiou is quick to commend to me Pitt's “lack of botox or visible surgery”.
So for those of us not blessed with Pitt’s age-defining genes but eager to look just as good, could the aforementioned treatments be a solution? “Men shouldn’t rush into surgical interventions,” Papageorgiou tells me solemnly. “Even though Brad might benefit from blepharoplasty surgery to soften heaviness in the upper eyelid and iron out the skin on the lower eyelid, he has been savvy enough to avoid it and maintain a completely natural look.” He pauses. “There is a very fine line to how you can achieve ‘noticeable-yet-not-noticeable’ results. The challenge is in defining and defending this line at all times.”
Perhaps one of the more attainable realms in which us mere mortals may be able to emulate Pitt is in that of our hair. Aside from the genetic pot luck which has allowed Pitt to keep a full (presumably untampered with) ‘do, he also spends a lot of time taking care of it, says barber and owner of Joe & Co salons, Joe Mills. “To be honest, I think a lot of how good he looks can be attributed to his genes and the fact that he looks after his hair and skin,” Mills tells me. “He has really worked out what suits him and works well with his hair type.
“Keeping it longer and softer really works well for him,” Mills continues. “The swept-back shape is fairly low maintenance and holds well. Pitt also has a touch of grey, which you would expect, and I doubt he colours it. As guys get older having a little facial hair and keeping it well groomed and trimmed can help conceal the ageing process. It hides so much but also helps to soften the overall look.”
Personally speaking, I feel buoyed by Pitt’s extraordinarily well-maintained appearance. I recently turned 33 and the notion that I may, 24 long years from now, still have some form of youthful vigour in my grasp, without having gone all Behind The Candelabra about it gives me hope. So what’s the secret to looking more like Pitt than Exotic in your sixth decade? According to Papageorgiou, it’s as much about skincare as it is a healthy lifestyle.
“Many men start to battle with rosacea and solar elastosis when they pass middle age due to not following a healthy sun care regime. People generally fixate on how to reverse the impact of time, but it is equally as important to delay it. This is why I believe the anti-ageing approach should start in the early 30s and rely heavily on technological innovations and a good skincare regime to increase skin resilience and slow down the pace of time,” advises Papageorgiou. “Nutritional anti-aging is equally important and I always try to bring the focus of my clients to a 360° wellness lifestyle. This combination can pause the ageing process.
“It’s never too late to start to delay the ageing cascade, as regular sessions of energy-based treatments, such as ultrasound or infrared treatments, will improve skin laxity and tone the muscle beneath the skin. My favourites are Ultherapy, Titan and Laser Genesis.” Papageorgiou continues. “Another trick to keep a youthful appearance is with volumising agents – filler such as Allergan. In the right hands an aesthetician will have the expertise to achieve the ‘unnoticeable’ change.”
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