Lucy Liu

Still everytime I see her, I see a sober companion. More on reddit.com

I don’t think she’s sick, but I’ve suspected all season that she’s developed vitaligo. A few people in my family (who are about her age) have vitaligo, and they look very similar to her when they try to cover it up. Notice how in many scenes her neck and face shades seem very different. I’ve also also suspected that’s why she’s dyed her hair blond, to reduce the contrast in her normally dark hair and uneven skin tones. Of course this is me looking at somebody on tv I’ve never met and guessing, so it could just be odd lighting and camera angles, and I might be 100% wrong. More on reddit.com

Firstly, you have to consider Watson’s age. While it is never explicitly stated, we know she spent at least part of her childhood in the 80s which would make her between late 30’s - early 40’s (I would argue early 40’s just because it more accurately reflects Lucy Liu’s real age) giving her more than a decade of time to pay her loans back. We also have to acknowledge the significant amount of money she would have been making as a surgeon and then as a private, live-in sober companion. Given this, we have to imagine, especially considering the nature of Watson as a smart, frugal person, that she has payed off her student debt before she even meets Sherlock. It is also not unreasonably to expect that Watson’s family at least helped with her schooling costs, due to the fact that they are somewhat wealthy. Then, you must consider her apartment. We know that in her first apartment she sub-let while she was working (which was a lot), significantly reducing the overall cost of maintaining it. With her second apartment, as a an excellent private detective with a large volume of high paying clients, she would not have struggled to maintain a luxurious lifestyle (evidenced by the time she gave a full refund to her client after the building he had been looking to buy was passed into a historical trust). After she moves out of this apartment (and back into the brownstone), Sherlock takes over the paying of the rent, thus eliminating her cost. I have to imagine the only time her stipend from Holmes could have stopped, and I emphasise only could, is when he leaves at the end of season 2/start of season 3, which coincidentally, is also when Watson is the most independently wealthy. It is more that likely, that if payments ever did stop, the resumed again when Watson moved back in; as Sherlock said himself, he felt obligated to pay Watson while they were working together at the level she was receiving as a sober companion. My last and final point is that Holmes and Watson HAVE NEVER RECEIVED COMPENSATION FROM THE NYPD, as is made abundantly clear in the court proceedings of “Tremors” (S02E10). Edit - Spelling and grammar. More on reddit.com

Survivorship bias. Female celebrities who don't age well don't stay famous. By statistics alone a massive amount of older female celebrities will have naturally good skin that no product will ever replicate. More on reddit.com