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.

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!

LONG OR SHORT, BANGS OR NO, SUMMING IT UP

I always considered myself to be a one-hairstyle kind of person; thought of myself to have had just long hair and that’s it. But once I thought about it I realised that’s not really true, well  you saw that from my little hair-anthology a while back and before that (way before) I went trough the usual teenage-henna-red phase, had my hair (almost) black then spiral permed for some years. Photo proof might come at some point here. (Or, in some cases already has...)
And then, as you know, at the mature age of almost-thirty I cut it short for the first time in my life.

Since I just recently cut my bangs back I and now have long(er) hair again I have most styles rather fresh in my mind (all yeys and neys came to me in an instant after cutting!) I thought I'd list some pros and cons,  for how each hair style has worked. For me, that is. It might not work the same way for everyone else, but can perhaps offer some think-upons for those pondering a new move?

Short.

When I cut my hair short it felt all "I'm free!" But au contraire to what I thought, my life did not get any easier.

My hair was cut in a Sassoon halo-cut, which is similar to the classic cut of yesteryears, the middy. Such a cut allows for great sets of curls, but for many and my hair at least -which seems rather straight until cut and sudden waves in different directions appeared - it did look quite awful unstyled. No 'brush and go'- there, although it was rather easy to just curl the edges a bit to be able to leave the house.

To pin-curl and set it took forever and was so tiring and my arms started to ache half way trough! I have a lot of hair.  Shorter hair requires less hair per curl, and a smaller such, in order to be able to form the curl. (The same goes when heat styling, if you want it curly-curly you have to take very thin strides of hair). At it’s shortest some hairs were too short to be able to roll properly. Muchos annoying.

Jackets and scarves will mess your short curls as the collar often hits you in the neck just where your locks would like to hang. Obviously more of a problem during the colder seasons, but then again we have a lot of cold.

When my hair was very short I could not fasten it properly and that was annoying, plus, if you like to make hair do's like I the options were more limited. With hair long enough to be fastened, options returned. Plus you can clip on extras for fancy do's then too.

On the bright side I had to have it cut quite often and that did my hair good and it grew well and quick. This ,ay mound like I did not really like having short hair at all; which is not true. But for now, I will leave it long.

Long.

Long hair… well, suddenly I almost have it again, things are "back to normal".

Well, um, the options to make pretty any up-do you can mange.

The longer the hair the better it looks with less curls, so at this length I have now I can fix it pretty quickly by just curling edges with heat .

In my case it is easier to pin curl my hair when longer, as the curls can be bigger with more hair which makes the rolling faster. Just a few ones will already give a nice wave to my hair.

Long hair takes forever to dry, especially when rolled into a not-even-wet-just-damp -set. I will need 24hours or so to get it dry.

If kept open you need to remember to carry a bush along because it gets messed up easily.
(I always carry pins too, to be able to change into an undo if the curls go flat or so, or just if I want to fasten it for pratical reasons..)


Bangs or no

I had bangs during most of my childhood, a thick straight fringe in the early- and mid eighties, then some some hideous thin version combined with scrunchies and hair bands in the very early nineties. (Around the same time those big wooden parrot earrings were very pop over here. Just before the plastic pacifiers and dolphins came. Hhhhuh.) The kitchen scissors went back and forth for a few years when I was in my twenties.

I started growing them away "for good" about five years ago,and the growing-out part is pretty awful at certain lengths. I remember the main reason (which may also have been the only one, but that I can't remember) : Although I liked my bangs I realised my face in general just looked better without.

I also though a clip on fringe was the solution to everything.
But, of course, turns out faux never really feels 100% like the right thing (oh, really?) and so clip on bangs and the faux rolled bangs still couldn't hold down the urge to cut when I'd got it into my head.

Well, as you now I went for it. The cut. I had decided to wait until cap-season was over and until a couple of shows and my hair workshop were done and then I set in on letting an actual hair dresser do it this time. But ended up cutting it one late night i front ot the mirror snip snap instead!

It turned out a a little too wide and a little too short. Uh. Short, no problem, I remember it grows out quite quickly -and I feel they have settled a bit better buy now- but wide, gnah. That’s a problem for many years. After a few first days in agony I realised it’s just a few streaks of hair that should have been spared the scissors so I can learn to live with that.

As I said I know I actually look better, as in prettier, without bangs. But the look with bangs is sort of edgier and more styled and now I’m feeling that. Plus on me, it makes me look a bit younger. A doorman actually asked me for id to a nightclub last week (both things are big news, me seeming under 24 -Eddi teased me by saying the age limit probably was 30 that night, hah!- and the fact that I was at a nightclub).

But, on me, I feel I look worse without make up and with bangs, and in general need to wear a bit more eye makeup than I do without bangs.

Some more bang-related memories that came back to me the same instant I had lots of hair in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other:
Like said, the cold season; cap season, is a definite minus. Will mess up the bangs. (Apparently it wasn't over quite here yet. Damn you, cold winds! Which leads us to:)

Wind. Well wind fucks everything up, no matter what style. But bangs especially.
Which leads us to:

You always need to carry a comb or brush along.

Working and sweating when your bangs are too short to pin away from your face, that's nasty.
(If you manage to pin them away  you got a lot of work to do to get them back down and look somewhat normal again.) Which leads us to:

Trimming them too short. Too short bangs and I look like a Benedictine monk.
Well, been there done that this time already.

A lot of bending and curling in the mornings, most mornings.

However, once I have my bangs done I get away a lot easier with the rest -my hair in the front when not cut in bangs always required styling in order not to be blah, and it was more work than just rolling a pair of bangs. (One word: beret) After all that time of growing them out it wasn't that awesome in the end, to have everything in the same long length. Oh damn.

I have these annoying small sections of eager hair growing around the hairline that often want to lead a young rebellious life of their own. (One word, which will not be hair spray: beret) With the bangs fixed -and they are rather quick to do in the end - the rest is quite alright on it's own, random gathered buns don’t seem as floppy, my straight hair less boring. Ponytails look nice in an instant. That is the biggest bonus for now!

When the bangs are long enough they can join rolls and be tucked away or rolled to the side or so for some change in looks. I had to check back in my own blog to see what I used to do and it was quite a lot I see. And apparently not all stages of growing out bangs were that nasty either.

A LITTLE HISTORY OF (MY) HAIR

Went trough some old photos of my hair(-styles) during my years of blogging. In one way I have an itch to do something about my hair, just anything new, on the other hand I feel a bit surprised every time I actually let it -the hair- out of that damn beret I tuck it into all the time. It's gotten so long almost feels a bit "new".

When I started this blog back in 2007 I was blonde, in the fourth or fifth year of bleaching my locks, but my hair was still in pretty good condition and quite long. I had my second or third round of bangs going on back then.

Which I tucked up quite often too. (It's a good thing remembering that, that it was quite easy in the end to hide the bangs, as I'm still undecided about one more round of those.)

I was working my shade towards more platinum. That's when i still had lots of hair and did lots of hairdo's.

When I had had the ultimate platinum blonde shade for about a year and a half I had also lost about half my hair, some of the hair just broke off. I started growing my bangs away.

But I got myself a set of faux clip on bangs instead!

In spring 2010 I put some think pink stripes in my hair to achieve a cotton candy look.

But then it was time to end that era and get my hair to grow back! I went darker shade by shade a few rounds as the colour didn't want to stay on bleached hair that well.

And then I had my own color back, pretty much. Here with a rolled faux bangs and one row of extensions to fill out the gap of the lost hair.

And then it was time for the one thing I had never done before but had been feeling for some time: cut it short! This was late in summer 2011; I had all the damaged hair cut off and was left with my own, new hair to grow. My friend was cutting me at that time, she cut it in a sassoon halo cut which in some aspects resembles a middy.

My hair grew a little longer but I kept it short. I had always thought short hair to be easier but it was in fact not, for me at least  -  if i didn't do anything about it it looked quite awful. And pin curling it took more time because the curls had to be made smaller than I was used to in order for the hair to get around to curl. Phew. Here modelling for Fiona Timantti.

 In certain light my hair gets rather red undertones. My hairdresser friend thought we'd try them a little stronger and gave me a light color treatment in a few shades warmer. It made my hair look rather red, but mostly in photos.

The clip on bangs ask  are the transition from blond to darker to toffee and got the name "the rat" due to that as it looked like a sad little wet rat when taking on color in a bowl.

A little before I had Dag I cut my hair the shortest it had been. Which informatively enough was three months shorter than when this pic was taken.

And after that I've only been to the hairdresser once, which was almost a year ago. Time have been busy, I've just dealt with the ends myself certain late nights with the kitchen scissors in front of the bathroom mirror, trying to figure out how it will look in the back when slightly cut from the front.

And now my hair looks like this, well, which al of you know. Like I said in the beginning of the post, I feel I mostly wear it quickly tucked into my beret (and most often use hair pieces at shows, the shows are so frequent I can't make the effort to set it before each and every one and my hair also thanks me for that) so when I do take a look at it I am quite amazed at how much it has grown and how much there is of it nowadays again.

Even though the thought of going all cotton candy with the hair, or -why didn't I come up with the idea before!?- mint green, still would be lovely those days are gone now; I will stick to my own color for the sake of my scalp and hair. I don't want ot go trough the feeling when noticing some sections suddenly were 10cm shorter ...

So, I think  the time has come to book an appointment with the hairdresser! At least for the sake of getting rid of a cm or two without trying to grow eyes in my neck to be able to do it.

BANGS!!!

I have this crazy itch in my fingers to reach for the scissors and cut myself a fringe again!

Aaaaaa! 

It's probably since my hair is now a nice even length and all the signs of y previous bangs are extinct. I realised it is at least four years already since I started growing out my bangs for the last time. I had them on-off for some six-seven years always a couple of years at a time and a little less in between, always cutting them back just when they could be considered gone...

I also just realised I haven't had my hair cut in bangs in my real colour, ever, just when I was blonde. Well, apart from my kiddo years in the early eighties, with a thick fringe in the front.

So, now I'm almost with the scissors in my hands, trying to decide weather to DO IT DO IT NOW or give it a go with a new pair of clip on bangs instead. Both have their advantages. Hmmmmm....

Sources for images other than my own: 1,2,3,4,5,6.

My pics are from 2008 and 2009, in case someone felt they absolutely had to know.