PASTEL PEACH MEETS STRAWBERRY BLONDE

It's already been a month since I coloured my hair but there hasn't really been many pictures of it yet, but now I've almost already forgot how it looked before. But here it is, a pastel-peachy straweberry blonde rose gold shade! That is also really hard to get to show right on photos. (And to keep up.)

Those who have read my blog a long time (thisblog turned eight years around last week, can you believe that, eight!? That's a very long time.) know that I used to be blonde for many years (with some pink addition in the very end) before I had to give up on the platinum. My hair had turned so bristle and thin from all the bleaching and purple shampooing I had to do something about it, and back then it felt like a big thing because I had been blonde for so many years and also felt it was a big part of my stage character. Thus my "hair project" began to get my hair healthy again; I started colouring it closer to my own shade and growing the bleached parts out (eventually cutting it short in between). As that project has been 'completed' for some years now -my hair grew out strong and annoyingly healthy (especially after the herb colours) and thus much harder to style and curl - I guess it was time to turn it around and start damaging it again... Of course.

It took two visits to the salon (I go to Pinkki Paplari) with a few days of a not-to-be-seen-in-too-many-photos kind of in between-shade (as in the picture with the braids). We did bleach it with Olaplex in the mix, which should make the bleach less harmful on the hair.



t's quite a big change going from all-natural hair care to 'needs-a-lot-of-maintenance'-hair. But it was a thought I got into my head, pastels, (again, I have always had a thing for cotton candy hair, even though I didn't go all the way now) and  I couldn't get rid of for a few very intensive days when I also had a chat with my hairdresser who got all worked up too and when I then all of a sudden I had booked an appointment. But as the waiting time was long and as I actually really like my own colour as well, I started thinking of all the work (and money) involved with keeping a hard-to-maintain shade,  so when I got to the salon I hade decided bail out and just go a little lighter and more intense in colour with some herbal shades on instead. But alas, peach happened anyway!

So my hair is now something of a half pastel half natural shade!
(Me to Eddi: "this could almost, you know, almost-almost pass for natural, right? " To which he replied with a simple "No".)

It does change a bit after every wash and requires colour masks to not just turn a golden blonde (read: yellow). And even though the olaplex-treatment may have helped the hair from getting too damaged it is still dryer now. Which in fact is a good thing as I am growing out the bangs, as it is easier to style them away now and they stay in place. Wooh! And also, curls stay longer, going on day four in the pictures. Yeeey.

AT THE SALON

Meep meep!

Here I am at Pinkki Paplari getting my hair done. Because every now and then you need a little variation! Plus some of those yolo-vibes (or something like that) too.

(And oh yes I love aloe juice!)

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!