LONG HAIR IS STILL OK, BUT HOLD THE HELMET

a little. Look at yourself in the mirror – you will appear slimmer by standing tall and look ten years younger just by standing straight. If you can get into the habit of standing tall and doing some simple exercises, such as lifting and stretching your arms towards the ceiling, this will soon become your natural stance.

Exercise strengthens your bones. Every year after the age of 35 you lose up to one per cent of your bone mass, making your bones more liable to fractures. It may sound counterintuitive but the more you put your bones under pressure through exercise, the stronger they become.

The worst thing you can do is to sit around for long periods of time because this is the cause of most back pain. When you stand your weight is evenly distributed across your joints; when you sit all the pressure is on your bottom, so more stress goes up through your spine to the neck.

Exercise corrects your balance and will give you strength. How strong are your arms? Do you need two hands to lift that pan of water off the cooker and strain the potatoes? Can you grip a jar and unscrew it?

Gentle weight training will help. And the good news is that the more muscle you have, the more food you can eat without putting on weight.

Exercise will make you more flexible and give you stamina. It will also make you look good. There is nothing we can do about loss of height or skin elasticity as we grow older. However, it’s never too late to think about taking up some simple exercise to improve your overall shape and sense of wellbeing.

‘WANT TO AVOID THE CRUELLA DE VIL LOOK? DON’T DYE YOUR HAIR AT HOME’

A lot of older people opt for a sort of ‘hair hat’, channelling their inner Princess Anne – a style so rigid it doesn’t move, even in a gale-force wind. There are many theories about hair as you grow older:

‘You shouldn’t have long hair over 30’ – why not? So long as it’s well cut and doesn’t look like an accessory to a pointy hat and a broomstick. ‘What about a nice perm?’ Noooooo. ‘A jaw-length bob suits everyone’ – it doesn’t.