PINKKI PAPLARI & NATURAL HAIR COLORING

The other week I went to the hairdresser's. Which is kind of an occasion, as the last time was in March 2013. In between I've just had to rely on a couple of mirrors and scissors in my bathroom.


I go to a place called Pinkki Paplari (the "pink roller"), which is a vintage style hair parlour that coiffures both men and women and that will make any crazy rad punk coloured styles you may want as well, but the main thing (for me) is that it is also an organic hair salon, meaning you can get all-natural treatments there as well.



The salon moved to a new location in Tölö late last spring. The old parlour was in red and pink, but the new one is mint green!

Fabulous owner Anita is a friend and burlesque student of mine. (And btw her hair is naturally wavy; she doesn't even have to curl her bangs!!. Now how jealous that does make me!)

We had talked about doing a natural hair color mask for me to get some warmth back into my colour and brighten my shade -it has turned more dull the past year, age does not come alone as one says in Finnish - ever since my last visit. now we finally got the time to try it out. I've done lemon-and-camomille washes and such but never really tried to color my hair with herbs and plants before.

Paplari has lots of nice photofriendly retrolicious and fun small details.

Not to forget the misters as well - Pinkki Paplari just started with beard & shave workshops for men btw.

In the back room the brightening parts for my color were soaking in - camomile and marigold (calendula).



A range of colorants in jars. You have alder cones (I remember colouring yarn with alder in the art club when I was small) and walnut for brown and dark shades for example, avocado pits and hibiscus for reddish tones and so on.  It's interesting to see the ingredients, some may come as surprises (like the avocado) while others are more obvious (the henna, and indigo for jet black).

You can get a wide range of shades depending on what  you mix together and how; in general Anita makes the colours one by one for each colouring. You can't bleach hair naturally though (although, a little btw from a poison-point-of view; bleaching is less bad for you than colouring your hair darker, although it will dry your hair) but you can brighten it's tone and get a more golden shine to it, like we set out to do.


The soak was blended out with cassia for shine, and a little henna for a toffee like result. The cassia will also slow the henna a bit down. But that's it, nothing more than that!
I have a lot of hair and the mix is compact so when it was all in my head was rather heavy I tell you!

On with a compostable bag and a nice scarf and time to sit under the hood for some time!

With the company of organic snacks and some mags.

Then it was time to wash out the goo, give the locks a go with the scissors and dry and wait for the result!

Which turned out just right! Brighter and more toffee just like planned.

With natural colouring it's advised not to wash or soak the hair for a day or two, as the color will grow in intensity for a while and set. I had a little irrational feat that it would wash away once you wash your hair but it won't, it stays. As the tone is rather subtle there won't really be a harsh edge as it grows out.

Oh, and last: Pinkki Paplari is celebrating it's 9th year at Golden Classic Bar this Friday, starting at 21hrs!   The entrance to the event is free and among a bunch of bands our very own student group The Shangri-La Showgirls are also performing there!

3 x BOTTLED SKINCARE

Some natural skincare products I've been relying on lately.

Micellar water.
For some reason I think good cleansing toners are hard to find, either they feel too strong or then it feels like they do nothing at all. But I've been happy with Melvita's Bio Escellence micellar toner. Basically you can do your whole cleansing routine with just micellar water -no water needed either - but most of the time, especially if I have had heavier eye make up or so, I wash my face with coconut oil first and then let the toner do the rest.


Castor oil.
I had lash extensions for a long time, and at some point they were poorly glued on, which resulted in my own lashes taking a pretty bad hit. I had them a couple of time later on shorter terms and as much as I love how good it looks and how easy it makes (certain parts of-) life I'm just going try and resist ever putting such on again, as I hate how thin and frumpy my own lashes became. (I think a big part of damage was also the fact that I for shows still needed to put false lashes on, and the glue got stuck to the extensions ripping them off, and then not coming off itself...). I've used castor oil as a natural serum for my lashes for a few months now and, probably partly due to that combined with other factors too, my lashes have grown into their former long self again. I use castor oil on my nails too. It's a quite thick oil without a any smell. Castor oil can be found in many lip sticks and balms too, and is recommended to use for make u removal but for me I feel the oil is too thick and "dry" for that.  I have only ever tried this one brand out, which is from Estonia; Green Nature.


Rose hip serum.
When the weather gets colder I find serums help me a lot to avoid dry skin. Or well, in summer I use them too to feed my skin after the days in the sun. I love rose hip serums. Now I'm using a bottle by Balm Balm, last year I had a similar serum by A'kin which was also very recommendable.


I use the serum under my night cream - depending on what my skin needs that can be aloe vera gel, oil or a lotion. In winter when it gets really cold I put shea butter "on top". It makes the face feel very buttered up during the night but in the morning the skin is all soft prepared for wind and other cold nastiness.

As most of you may remember I use natural products only in hair- and skincare, and mainly when it comes to make up and hair styling too. Works for me!

FROM KITCHEN TO BATHROOM ; COFFEE SUGAR BODY SCRUB

When it comes to cosmetics I, which most of you know, use mainly all-natural, organic products. I'm not absolute with it, I have some lipsticks and polishes that are chemical i.e. conventional products. But when it comes to skincare I am more strict and try to keep it as simple and natural as possible. Once you go natural it's hard to go back... The skin is our biggest organ so it's worth thinking about what we rub and scrub into it, right? So, most of what you can put into your mouth and have your body digest you can also feed your skin!

Many of the simplest and best - and also, in the end, most affordable- skin care products one can use are the ones that are easily made from what you have in your kitchen. I've always tried out different home remedies, also before I was paying any thought to what my cosmetics are made of, but now it jsut makes more sense than before.

Body scrubs are very easy to make youself, you basically just need oil and sugar. You can use any oil you like; I use olive oil, but coconut or sunflower oil for example works just as well (or, a mixture of those). I make mine with coffee grounds as the caffeine sets the blood circulation going and is said to thus tighten the skin.

Mix about 50/50 of the oil and sugar with a few spoons of coffee and then add sugar until the consistence feels nice. Mix with a spoon or spatula and that's it!

You won't need to use a moisturizer after this treatment as the oil will leave your skin smooth (and well oiled in..) .

You can store your scrub with a lid on, preferably in the fridge.

For variation you can use raw cocoa powder instead of the coffee. Or, a few drops of essential oil.
You can also switch about half of your sugar for sea salt. Put in a few drops of peppermint or lavender and you get a nice foot scrub.

For my face I use milder scrubs with smaller, softer grains than sugar. But we can look into that some other time.

A SHADE OR TWO

 I got myself a white version of the cotton top that buttons in the back. (I will, when older, most likely turn into that person with just twenty pairs of that one good shirt in the closet... oh no who am I kidding of course I won't.) White is white and that's fine but I was in need of a top in a more natural, broken shade like creme or so.

And did you know there is an easy way to darken a piece of clothing without having to color it with chemicals?

You do it with plain old coffee! An eco-friendly solution.

Strong, black tea works as well. 

Coffe or tea "dye" is good for giving a darker shade to pale and nude colored cotton (or other natural un-treated fibre that wil take on color well) clothing but you can of course do this with any color to give it a slightly darker and less vibrant hue. Or, if you have a white piece of clothing that doesn't look so fresh anymore due to miscoloring from deodorant or make up for example.

For the most even result you should rinse your cloth well first, although it will of course take on more color if put in the liquid dry. Let it soak for at least 30min or as long as you like. You can add a spoon of vinegar to the end before rinsing. I gave this top two rounds as the first one gave a too mild result - better that way.

 The main reason for dying the top was to wear it with my jungle skirt, which does not want to be paired well with most other items in my wardrobe.

And it turned out well, almost the same shade of pale!

(The top was originally from Seppälä and the rest is vintage.)

NETTLE PESTO

 I set out to pick some nettles in the countryside garden!

I've intended to pick nettles to use in cooking forever - as most of you probably know the nettle is a very healthy plant, although it is considered a weed and not a utility plant - but always missed out on doing so at the right time of year.

 

Nettles should be picked when they carry new and fresh leave buds. I used only the top leaves of the plant.

 The rest of the plants I lay to soak in water; nettle-water makes a great natural fertilizer for you garden.

I made pesto of my nettles. After parbloiling the nettles I mixed them with what you'd more or less use for your regular basil pesto too; I made mine with sunflower seeds, a few almonds, garlic and of course olive oil.

 Gave it all a go in the mixer and put in a jar.

And had it with pasta and zucchini later in the evening. The nettle pesto is a rather milde in taste so I threw in some capers and sundried tomato nibs too to top it of. Noms.

(Btw I'm not the only one who was totally mindfucked by this about a decade ago am I? I can't help but recall it whenever I hear the word "nettle". Excellent choice to watch a few episodes if you can't sleep at night, ehrm...
Sorry.)

HONEY-COCOA BALM

I have some pure cocoa butter that I use for Dag's bathing water; it gives great moisture for the skin. I love how the cocoa butter feels on my fingertips when it's about to dissolve into the water, so I started thinking about making some sort of a lip balm out of it.

I am sure google could have provided me with some ready made recipes and how-to's, but I decided to just get on with it right away with what I thought would work.


For the balm I used a few pieces of cocoa butter, some cold pressed coconut oil and some honey. I sometimes use honey as a face mask, but I can tell you right away to skip it in this form when it comes to the balm. It did not blend out properly and went all weird.



Once I was at it I also added some of the other skin care oils I had around; almond-, argan- and jojoba oil as well as some rose water and propolis extract. Propolis is some sort of bee goo and is the honey in a t least a honey chap stick I have at home, now as I afterwards checked the ingredient lists.



I melted the cocoa butter and coconut oil in a jug put in hot water and then added the rest of the ingredients, just a couple of tiny drops per oil. I stirred with a toothpick and pour the mixture in a little jar to cool.



The result turned out very nice and smooth, although the next time I attempt this I will have to use less coconut oil; my balm turned out a little softer and oilier than I had wished for.

(I also attempted to make a chap stick of the blend. Which didn't really go all that well - I put one of my old sticks that had just run out in boiling water to clean the applicator and then later poured my mixture in it to cool. But before it did it slowly leaked out of the applicator on the table. So I'll just stick to small jars instead.)

DAG'S GIFT

Dag was sent a gift from Pin Up Garage- a set of their ecological Amalie B. towels with his name  embroidered on them. (And with an anchor to go along, which of course is very suitable for a harbour worker's son!)

The manufacturing of the towels is eco all the way; from production to packing. They are made from ecological cotton and couloured with  ecological colours, manufactured a part from other chemically treated textiles, to stay as pure as possible. Suitable for small and sensitive persons! And everyone else of course too.

An embroidered towel is actually a pretty smart gift for someone's little one, to differ from the usual socks, bodies and teddybears. (...in fact we'd need such for the rest of the family too; I freak out -as in get pissed off- if someone uses MY towel. And leaves it on the bed/floor/somewhere in a moist pile as many young boys and husbands tend to do...)