FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW: SUNDAY EVENING

Sunday evening moments -

Corrected a final seam to a jumpsuit I sew myself last night and intend to wear to the very last filming of Vintage Valtakunta season 2 tomorrow.

I also sew Dag a plush seal. It was the first plush toy I ever made. Dag has this new phase where ninjas have had to move over for seals! It's drawing seals x100 and facts and pics and videos about seals all the time.  He had even made me adorable instructions on how to make hime the seal.

Now it's hair colour time - roots and ends! I always mix a lot of different hair colours to maintain my hue, but the colour I've used for my roots for the past year and a half is Shcwarzkopf Live in the 'cool rose' shade.

And I intend to enjoy some tea, peanut butter-banana sandwhices and reading about space while the chemicals do their thing.

How was your first November Sunday?

CURL THAT HAIR AND STYLE THOSE LOCKS TURKU!

Hello Turku Åbo!(For some reason I feel like adding a CHOO CHOO or HONK HONK here after that, so, there you go, either one.)

I am teaching my hair workshop at Studio Winkheart next Sunday.
Find the even HERE  and sign up by emailing me at turrrbocherry@gmail.com!

SNAPSHOTS

Yesterday we shot a thing with huuuuge hair!

Today we filmed a thing with sleek hair and a cool leatherjacket.

And now I'll go to sleep on a lonely mattress in my empty city apartment as I am off early tomorrow morning to Prague to perform! I'll also teach a workshop on Sunday; join in if you're over there!

THREE SHADES OF RED AND SPARKLY GRAPES

Well, I've said it before, but: any lazy hair day or don't-know-what-to-do-with-my-face-day can always be saved by a turban. And some lipstick.

This time also wth some sparkly earrings. Or hang-ears, as Dag mistakenly calls them ('häng-öron', from "örhängen"; which is Swedish for earrings, "ear-hangs", or 'things hanging from the ears' as you could translate it.)

The turban is made by Rubylea, vintage inspired grape studs from Collectif.

PASTEL-LY HAIR

It's been half a year already since I coloured my hair already but I'm still not sure what shade it really is. Peachy-something. It does require some work to maintain - or well, a lot of bottles at least - and it looks a bit different after every wash, depending on which bottles were involved. (If I've been a bit too eager I end up with my little pony hair but when just right it gets this powdery soft pink peach shade.)

At first I mixed some crazy colour with my conditioner (strong pink and soft lavender) but then the shade woudl wash away completely the next time, unless the colours were added again. Now I've been using Biozell's caring color masks,  both raspberry, plum and silver mixed with conditioner. They stay in the hair a bit longer, altough I still use them pretty much every time. (I've bought all these myself. No-one has sponsored me with anything here. Sadly. Heh.)

At first I thought I'd only go for this for a little while but I kind of get addicted to trying to achieve the right shade... My hair is doing quite well still, and I still have all the coloured hair masks left so I guess it (the colour, that is) will hang in for at least as long as they last. Heh heh. And as the hair looks different from wash to wash one does not get bored. Heh again.

But... on all on-stage photos my hair looks blond anyway. Hmpf.

FAUX PIGLET BANGS AND A BUNCH OF FLOWERS

 Some time ago I went to a tropically themed Christmas party with a definite chance to go for a more-is-more kind of styling. I haven't had my hair in bangs, not real nor faux, since I coloured it; in fact, I gave myself the permission to colour only if I'd grow out my bangs. Because you can't have two hair struggles at once (grow out or not, to colour or not to) and that was one way to get a decision done. Plus I  though soft pink or peachy bangs might make me look like a piglet.

But turns out the result was more just regular retro-hair-style-gal than Miss Piggy after all.

The colour really is quite the task to keep up with though, and it looks a bit different after every wash as I need to mix a few tinted hair masks to make it stay. I do like it, but not sure how long I'll have the energy to keep it up. Might have to give mint green a go in the end -well of course- before going back au naturel ;) But everything is really easier to do, hair styling wise, when you have a little (or a lot) of bleach in you hair.

The green dress was made by me for my middle sister's  wedding a couple of years back but has only been used a few times since. (I was breastfeeding at that time and the dress was made to the upper measurements of that period so it does not sit as well now...) The flowers are also selfmade from some years back.

And the party, well yes,  it of course had a little mini christmas tree with lots of sparkly flowers in it. And lots of flowers in everyodys' hair.

THE HAIRCUT

Dag got his first real hair cut the other day when we visited The Barbershop!

I've of course cut his hair several times already, with various results, but thought it would be nice to get it properly done for once without all the fuzz of me trying to get him to sit still. He had been very excited the whole week about his very own appointment, "when we are going to Rody" as he said several times, proud to get to sit the same chair he has seen his father getting  a haircut in as well.

So he sat very still and quiet the whole time!

Here he is doing his instant photo face. Mommy's girl!

All done, clean and neat! (Dag is such a big boy already it's insane!)

The Barbershop is located downtown Helsinki and very recommended if you want a classic mens' style haircut (and listen to good music at the same time).

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.

NORMA

Two weeks ago we did the biggest show of this year, when we performed with three custom-ordered acts at the launch of Sofi Oksanen's new novel Norma. (It's weird as it feels like just the other day; but there has been so much happening since and no days off in between so everything just melts together into one fast blur. Perhaps that's a Yey! asit means it will be summer again soon. Trying to see things from the positive side...)

Anyone who has ever made any acts where there needs to be choreography, functional costumes and a working storyline/idea knows how much work it then is to do three. Three group acts. That involves rehearsals that fit five persons schedules together. And whole lot of multitasking (like sewing meters of braids together on an airportt while waiting for the flight home..) Most often you just work on one act at a time. I can honestly say that few things I do ever really pay enough, considering the amount of work one has to put in, and neither did this. But it was an interesting project to work on nevertheless and of course also an honour to be selected to do.

Here posing in a teaser for the event with Minna Kivelä, actress and tv-personality, who hosted the event. Photo by Toni Härkönen.
(..yes it really bugs me I did not notice the old tag on the brush and that it was not photoshopped away...)


The biggest challenge however was coming up with the idea of what to actually do; coming up with an idea for a number yourself is different than from when the subject is handed to you, and that is what took the most time, just planning. Because you can't just go ahead and do an act without an actual idea that has a point even if you have a theme. Or, you can do that if the aim of the number is purely for aesthetic purposes (like say, a dance act with a colour theme, for example  having everything in red) or just for the sake of entertainment (although then too I prefer there to be something of a "thing", like in the previous example, the layers of the costume to be in different colours or the all-red costume ending up being blue at the end or so...).  Those of you who know Oksanens books know that the themes are seldom very light. Neither so in Norma. The main theme is hair, and it focuses on such things as hair trade and human trafficking, and, among other things also somewhat the beauty industry.  Different from the earlier books this story has what one could perhaps describe as supernatural elements, like that of a modern fairy tale. Such elements are easier to put into a performance but the hard part was, of course, being able to use the main themes in a show that would be "easy" to watch, entertaining, still being classified as burlesque (as, that is what we do, although the end result was closer to what one would perhaps just label as performance art), without the risk of being interpreted as something of a too light comment on very heavy subjects. Politician Pekka Haavisto was interviewing Sofi on the themes of the book in between the acts and it's not like one wants to come in with jazz hands and shake butt right after hair theft and baby farms have been the subject.

 Rehearsals and setup.
 

Backstage.

On stage. Posing as old French postcards at the beginning of the evening. Screenshot from the live stream at HSTV of the show. (Recordings of acts are often hard as they tend to focus on details and thus the big picture goes missing.)

Perfect hair, perfect life. At the salon. Screencapture from HSTV.

With lots of hair draped around. (Photo from Iltasanomatby Jussi Helttunen.)

Shot from our final number, where I am shooting my confetti gun with dedication.

More things in life should end in a confetti rain. (Iltasanomat/Helttunen)

And we got good feedback. Phew!

Ending this with a fangirl pic with Oksanen and Haavisto. (And yes those boobs are faux. Just one detail that adds on during the act, but they seemed to be the one ting definitely noticed. Even made it to the evening press...)
Photo from @sofioksanen by Toni Härkönen.

PASTEL AND PEACHY

Hello! I am in Berlin but last weekend we were at my sisters wedding!
It was warm and sunny  and I was wearing mint green. Could it get any better than that? Perhaps, because my hair was also pastel peach!* (Pastels can make a lot of things better. And you know I like competing with the cake on weddings, pastell-y and fluffy.)

My shoes are Minna Parikka, the purse vintage and the cherry blossom wrap dress is from PriscillaTokyo on Etsy, made of Japanese vintage fabric. Anastasia made me the hair flower by hand a few years back.

*) Was, well, is, still. A powdery peach.

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!)

THE BLACK TERRYCLOTH SAVER

Whenever I have a bad hair day or my fringe just is not up for it (which I guess counts as a bad hair day too) I most often cover my hair with my black beret -as you know. But now as the weather gets warmer the beret gets competition from my turban. It is made of terrycloth which is soft and stretchy but stays firmly in place without pressing. It looks a bit like it was made of velvet though. I often sleep with it when I have my hair set in pin curls or soft rollers, but it works for stepping out of the house as well. Tuck everything in and Ta-da!, instant chic-points added.

My turban is from Kuokkasen Peruukkiliike which is a tiny store inside the National Theatre and open on really difficult hours. But the internet is full of turbans. It is also rather easy to do one yourself. The internet is also full of tutorials for that. Shiny ones are pretty but if you want it to stay comfy in place the whole day without having to pin it, or it pressing too tight, go for a less shiny and slippery fabric.

THE SIDEWAYS-NO-BACK-COMB-VOLUME-SWIRL

Sometimes ago (a rather long time ago actually) I promised a hair tutorial on how to add a little volume on top by rolling your hair in a sideways swirl. And then I went trough some issues with losing all my images (and recovering them) and then updating my computer and getting some plug-in-issues with my editing software...so it's been a long journey, but, here we are and here's the how to:

Apart from a brush and a comb you will need hair pins, a few clips for when working on your 'do and part of a hair rat / donut. 

Grab one of those hair donuts (that you can find pretty much anywhere) and cut it open into a roll. Cut the top layer open so you get to "un-roll" the roll. Cut a suitable piece of mesh to use as a fill for this do. You can use the thinner roll that is left over for example rolling a faux bang or so (it actually works better that way, when it is not too 'chunky'.) You can also use tulle as a fill, but the mesh is easier to work with.

 As usual, this works best on "yesterday's curls". Or then put in some hot rollers or similar for a little texture. As always it is easier to work with your locks when they have a bit of curl to them, and not just swish-swosh lots of independent straight slippery strays of hair.

Part your hair from ear to ear in a semi-half circle or a straigh line, depending on how your hair works best. I do more of a half circle. Use a rat-tail comb for a straight line; I often separate my hair with the tip of an alligator clip (because it is apparently such a big job to get the comb out of the drawer). Gather the section on top of your head and secure with a clip for now.

Take out the net you just cut from the roll and place it just on the line where you separated your hair. Attach it with a couple of pins. You can fold and push this a bit in place then.

You can make this do without any fill; it works just as well. But you get a litlte extra height from this, and my swirl stays better in place against the mesh.

Brush out the hair on top of your head.

The next step is optional; I do this because I have lots of shorter hairs that easily fall out of my swirl-Separate a strand of hair just above your ear on the opposite side of where you want to lay your swirl.

Attach it with a pin or two back in the middle. If you have lots of shorter hair you can do this on the other side of your head too; you'll notice this when you start to roll your swirl. This also depends on your hair day; in between washes and with the right amount of curl my hair sometimes stay together well.

Then start rolling your swirl! Lift the section above your head and start by rolling straight downwards and then towards your head. You can put a clip in the middle to keep shorter hairs from falling out as that can sometimes be an issue for those with longer hair. Keep a firm hold of the hair you are rolling and make sure the end does not peek out.

When you get close to the head, flip the roll over to lay on one side.

Secure it with pins in the middle. You can stick a pin or two in from underneath the swirl as well.

Carefully smooth your hair out from the swirl towards the other side of your head. Also gently push the swirl upwards and tuck it a bit in from underneath; make sure the mesh is covered. Stick in pins where needed.

Grab your rat tail comb (or clip) and carefully pull the hair on top a bit upwards for more volume, and also to even out the height; before you do this your hair will be a little higher on the side where your swirl lays (since there is more hair there).

Then brush out the rest of your hair and curl the ends of you so like and roll your bangs if you have such.

And you're done!

For variation put the rest of your hair in a ponytail just underneath the swirl and tie a ribbon around the ponytail, or twirl some hair around the base (like in the picture).

Or, attach a faux ponytail of good quality (fibres) - I jsut clip it on top of my poinytail -for extra huuuuge hair!

You can also use the sideways swirl in an updo but we'll look back on that another time!