Wait until you hit 40. It's like flipping a switch.
I'm 43 and everyone guesses me to be 28, and that's with a beard. I look even younger without it. If I put 38 as age, I get tons of matches. If I put 40 (technically 41 because people put the filter to 40), I get very few, and they are all overweight 45+ women in football jerseys and camo hats taking mirror pics with a messy apartment and a couple kids showing in the mirror reflection.
I experimented with lying about age and it didn't go over well for me. This thread may quickly turn into a debate about whether men are entitled to lie about their age because women lie about their looks (via makeup), weight (verbally or via creative photos), age, etc. My answer to that is, "absolutely," however, women don't feel the same way. If a man lies about his age, it's an unforgivable red flag to women and they assume you will lie about major things like children, being married, etc. They are SO suspicious of men that they are looking for ANY indication of dishonesty so they can disqualify, and they do this without seeing the hipocricy. In their minds, all women (including themselves) are honest victims (even if they lie about their own age) and men are lying predators who must be carefully screened and rejected if there is any white lie found. It's dumb but it's just how it is. The only exception is if the girl is really, really into you. Then sometimes it won't matter, but sometimes it will.
The other thing I notice is women are bloodhounds about it. They are so suspicious that they will ask questions to try to get at your age and they will remember everything you said throughout the night and tie it all together. One girl even did a full background check on me after our first date (all she had was my name and phone number - no clue how she did it). She got my full date of birth, told me about it, asked why I lied about my age and then ghosted.
But for me, I just didn't like being in a position of having to explain that I deliberately lied, whether it comes about by her finding out on her own or me deciding to bring it up. It feels weak to me, like I'm ashamed of my age which I'm totally not. It's simply an OLD filter issue based on assumptions women make.
So I got off OLD and switched to cold approach. The girls I date now are WAY hotter than I would get from OLD (with a couple exceptions) though it does require more effort. And if a girl I cold approach asks me how old I am, I say my age with pride and I've never had a girl change her mind because of it. I do miss the ease and efficiency of OLD and I might give it another chance at some point, to supplement my normal sources, but the age thing is what has kept me from going back.
