I hit 40 this summer. I have a bit of a baby face which gives me a bit of a youthful look and I eat healthy and don't drink too much and exercise.
But I have quite a few white hairs on my chest and my beard along with some expression lines and weathering on my face and I don't have the masculine good looks that benefit from age e.g. Steve McQueen, John Wayne, George Clooney, Jon Hamm etc.
There are things such as retinol, vitamin C serum, moisturizing, Botox etc that women use to stay looking young. But it is expensive and it would be fighting a losing battle.
Other thing I considered was embracing the fact that I am no longer "cute" or "pretty" and trying to develop a more rugged appearance e.g. cutting my hair short, bulking up a bit and packing on some muscle etc. Maybe getting a silver chain or something around my neck. And sporting an all year round tan.
Of course women age faster than men but they have cosmetics and are willing to invest in all the beauty treatments
I'm in the exact situation, also baby-face here.
To maintain young look - keep eating healthy (do not go vegan or smthng - my diet is mostly a lot of veggies, cheese, good quality bread w/o gluten - however I do eat HQ meat quite often for dinner).
Training - it is the worst thing for me to maintain as after my 08:00 AM to 04:00 PM work I also try to roll-out with my business therefore I train rarely these days but I strongly believe that years of training before helped me to look -6 or -5 years old for casual bystander when I get a proper haircut and loose facial hair (I still get such comments however my baby-f ace looks is past my prime - I was taken many times as 27y old when I was 36 - now the effect is one step down due to the wrinkles finally showing on corners of my eye sockets).
Type of training: calisthenics - this is form of ancient greece training / set of exercises based on your own weight and strenght of muscles mostly. Do not get steroids, do not eat artificial proteins, eat healthy and do a lot of calisthenics - I was high on cali and excercises 2-3 times a week until I was 35 or so since I was 16 and I strongly believe it helped me to stay fit and look young even if my work is all sitting and looking at the computer screens since years.
Probiotics - I take them since 12 years or so - man, can't stress out how important it is to keep the sh*t rolling properly and in proper quality, maintaing your stomach and intestines in apex form is what gives your skin youthful glow, natural smile on your face and keep you horny when you need to be horny. A lot of depression cases starts from the guts - I have a friend which can't sh*t for 3 days and has terrible diet - I started to checking my guts and stomach when I was 25 or so due to going overboard with medication during some illness and getting gastritis - it put me into hospital and I was puking blood like on B-movie horror film - it's when I started to keep myself in check (including weight) - I am fit and looking good for my age but I certainly can get much better (alas I suck with time management when I get side-job order from a client).
Youthful look - if you have a lot of grey hair (like me) cut them super-short on the sides, and in overall keep them short but use services of good hairdresser
Beard - lose it or keep it short, trimmed and always in order - it's cool when you are around 30, around 40 it starts to look bad (a lot of hair get curly).
Me with beard and slightly longer (but still rather short hair) - not much interest from females, I am sometimes checked out by cougars and near 50's MILFs
Me w/o beard (2-3mm or clean cut), super-short side hair at my best day when I get sleep - I get a lot of IOIs from females between 22-30 (and I am almost 40).
I am quite sure this advice is universal - if you will chit chat a bit with a female hairdressers they will tell you how many guys ask them for colourisation of hair or hair de-greying- it's one of the basic services nowadays.
So unless you are one of the very cool looking "grey wolves" (we all think that we are but tbh most of us are not) try what works for the rest of guys.
Thankfully I have head full of hair - it helps, but if you are balding fast, I would just go Jason Statham - you will insta-lose interest of 50% of females, but get peak interest from 10% and immediate BONUS for initial impression everytime - so if you are a good in convo, going smallville lex luthor or jason will actually help you (whether you are muscled or not), being bald gives a lot of impressions and creates suppositions in female head - which means she thinks about you even if it wasn't her plan - I think it's great start even if you lose some initial "beauty" points which can be somewhat recovered by...
... keeping style matching your age but with youthful accents - it's actually easy this days because even 50+ guys can easily sport sneakers these days. Just do not try to wear t-shirts outside of rock concerts and home parties (or car driving) because at this age it's a sign you know s*it about style and honestly speaking you should know more. Go with HQ polo's, HQ trousers, elegant sweaters, good coats and jackets (elegant, no hip-hop sh*t, no "I go fishing in the city center" sh*t) use good perfumes (that's what most guys do not do as guys do not like to spend money on perfumes - which make it easy for the ones that use them to stand out from the crowd).
I pass on giving advice on sleep as I am terrible at proper sleeping. I ride on good genes as my sleeping habits are simply terrible (this is what I should change about myself).
Regarding drinking alcohol - do not do it unless it's some important family event, when it comes to meeting with friends - one beer or drink should be enough, alcohol is responsible for some serious diseases and once you pass 40 mark, you are more susceptible to cancer and all the other diseases;
Regarding smoking - do not do it anymore. I was smoking few years but it was stupid, I felt much better when I stopped - it's same as with alcohol - smokers get cancer more often (same for cardiac arrests or strokes) so it's waste of your time on this planet, it's also counter-productive when it comes to exercises.
Stay strong mate.
