Life After 50

At sixteen, I entered medical school. I then served for more than twenty years in the Colombian Navy, rising to the rank of captain. I had a dermatology department to run, patients to treat and a daughter to raise. All my life, I did what was expected of me, and I am proud of it.

My hair told the same story. I found my first white hair at twenty-eight, and I immediately booked a colouring appointment. For years, I had my roots touched up every two weeks, because that was what was expected of a woman like me.

The day you know

One day, you realise that you have finally found the answer to the question of a lifetime: who am I? You know your tastes, your limits, your loves. You have proved yourself. Other people’s opinions weigh less. And so you begin to choose.

For me, that day has a date: July 2024, at Mont-Saint-Michel. On my daughter’s phone screen, I could see my roots, and I asked her to put the phone away. She replied that the sad thing was spoiling my holiday for fear of what others might think. On that rock, I decided to let my grey hair grow.

Since then, I have heard all kinds of remarks. People told me I looked older: I look as I am, and I feel freer. They asked me if I was ill: I am healthy, and so is my scalp. They predicted I would look neglected: silver hair asks for more care, and I give it.

I look as I am, and I feel freer.

My mother’s words

In this Christmas photograph, my mother, Clarita, closes her eyes and smiles, between my sister and me. She was the one who used to say: sublimer plutôt que masquer, to enhance rather than to hide. It took me this whole journey to understand that her words were about far more than hair.

To enhance is to keep what is truly yours. It is to say yes to what brings you joy, to wear what you like, to finally go where you have always dreamed of going. At an age when I could have rested, I founded my practice in Medellín and then, with my daughter, a beauty house in Paris. I chose these adventures, and each one is mine.

Clarita and Rubén

To love, and let yourself be loved

This freedom has changed the way I love. I spend less time pleasing, and more time with the people who matter. Look at my parents, Clarita and Rubén, dancing cheek to cheek: they had already understood everything.

Someone over ninety, whom we cherish, told us in a few words: love, and allow yourself to be loved. Surround yourself with the people you hold dear, and who hold you dear in return. My daughter puts it her own way: people leave, of course, but what they teach us stays.

Science agrees with this wisdom. In 2010, in the journal PLOS Medicine, Julianne Holt-Lunstad and her colleagues brought together 148 studies covering more than 300,000 people. Those with strong social relationships had a 50% greater likelihood of survival, an effect comparable, according to the authors, to that of quitting smoking. In the regions known as Blue Zones, from Okinawa to Sardinia, and from Ikaria to Nicoya and Loma Linda in California, researchers also describe the central place of family and community.

And you, what do you allow yourself today?

For much of our lives, we eat when others eat: when the shift allows, when the children are hungry, when the office breaks for lunch. We swallow a meal between two appointments, and we finish what the family leaves on their plates.

Today, my table is my own. I am diabetic and I love food, and I choose what I eat, when I eat it and whom I share it with.

When people ask me for a secret to better skin, I name four allies: movement, nutrition, a good night’s rest and managing our emotions. They work together. After 50, we can finally give them the time they deserve.

What the plate does to our mood

My daughter, at the table

The link between what we eat and how we feel is biological. A highly processed food gives instant pleasure, and then the body answers: fatigue, brain fog, a mood that swings up and down. As a diabetic, I know this language well.

In 2017, in Australia, Felice Jacka and her team followed 67 adults with moderate to severe depression. For twelve weeks, half of them were guided by a dietitian towards a Mediterranean-style diet, and the other half received social support. At the end of the study, about a third of the first group were in remission, compared with 8% of the second.

This small study needs to be confirmed, and the diet was an addition to care. If your mood worries you, speak to your doctor first. For me, this result confirms something simple: what nourishes the body also nourishes the mood.

What nourishes the body also nourishes the mood.

Oily fish, my way

This week, I chose sardines. Like all oily fish, they provide omega-3s, and they remain affordable. I prefer them to Northeast Atlantic mackerel, whose stock, according to scientists, needs rest today. Your fishmonger can tell you where theirs come from.

In the salad, I use orange. Grapefruit interacts with several common medicines, including certain statins, which many of us take after 50.

Every body has its own story, and your eating plan is something to build with your doctor. What I share here is my table.

And you, which dish lifts your mood?

Look at Apolo. He sleeps on the sofa, his soft toy under his muzzle, with the clear conscience of a dog who knows who he is. He is my sleep teacher.

As a doctor, a naval officer and a mother, I took from my nights, for a long time, what my days were missing. Today, I give them back their place. In our family, we go to bed early and rise with the day. In Medellín, my last meal comes around six in the evening, and my day begins around five in the morning. This rhythm is mine, and I choose it.

Turning down the volume

When stress settles in, your body switches on an alarm: a siren that rings all day long. This alarm inflames. Spots appear, hair falls out, skin turns red or itches.

My advice fits in a few verbs. Take a break and turn down the volume: sleep, move, breathe, eat naturally. The first of these verbs makes all the others easier.

Sleeping well shows on your face.

From childhood, I taught my daughter to wash her face before going to sleep, even when she was tired, to drink water and to sleep well, because it shows on your face. Today she lives in Paris, and she still writes to ask me about her skin.

What happens during the night

At night, the body works. Skin and hair repair themselves, and memories are consolidated.

In 2013, at the University of Rochester, Lulu Xie and her colleagues observed a remarkable phenomenon in mice: during sleep, the brain clears certain waste products faster, including the protein beta-amyloid. They named this circuit the glymphatic system. The debate remains open: a 2024 study, also in mice, reached a different conclusion, and research in humans continues. One point is agreed upon: sleep is a biological necessity, just as food is.

If your nights remain difficult despite these habits, speak to your doctor: solutions exist at every age.

And you, where does your stress show: on your skin, in your hair, in your sleep?

For more than twenty years, my mother’s mornings belonged to the Navy, the uniform and the impeccable chignon. Today, her day begins with the light and with Apolo. She goes out, her silver hair on her shoulders, and follows her dog through the streets of Medellín, where the sun rises around six all year round. Neighbours greet her, strangers stop, and they exchange a few words and a smile.

My mother, Apolo and me, 2024

When she and I are together, we walk. Paris, Chambord, Rouen, Medellín: our travel album is full of photographs taken along the way. It was while visiting Mont-Saint-Michel that she decided to let her grey hair grow, and we have made many of our decisions while walking.

When you walk side by side, words come more easily.

The body’s clock is set in the morning

Fifteen to thirty minutes outside, soon after waking: this simple habit is one of the most precious she has.

Morning light is the strongest signal for our internal clock. When it reaches the retina, it tells the brain that the day has begun, and this setting prepares the release of melatonin in the evening. A morning spent outdoors already promises a good night.

Walking brings the rest. In 2025, a large analysis in The Lancet Public Health linked around 7,000 steps a day to a risk of death nearly half that of 2,000 steps, as well as to fewer depressive symptoms. A quarter of an hour in the morning already gives you a fine share of them.

The sun, with elegance

My mother remains a dermatologist, even at daybreak. Since my childhood, she has told me to put on sunscreen before going out, every day. For silver hair, she adds a hat as soon as the sun climbs, because white hair oxidises in the light. Keep your gaze on the horizon too, with the sun off to one side.

Invite someone

A walk for two brings it all together: the light, the movement, and that conversation which keeps us alive, on a balcony as much as on a pavement.

Free, surrounded by love, well fed, well rested, up with the day: this is what I see when I look at my mother. This is what it means to feel Affrenchy. I can’t wait to turn 50.

And you, who will you walk with tomorrow?