Gray Hair & How To Take Care Of It?

So now that I've shown how to GET GRAY HAIR, I'd like to tell you how to maintain it. As I told in the first post, gray hair color is probably one of the most time, money and effort consuming color that there is. I've had black, pink, light brown, dark brown, orange, white and blond hair and as a naturally brown haired person, everything that has something to do with bleaching is very frustrating at times. However I was and am very obsessed with the color gray - I just love it, so it was only natural to try it out as a hair color.

First thing you need to know, is that you're gonna need to spend a lot more time in the shower after you've obtained the gray hair, because keeping it good looking is almost as hard as getting it. The gray colors only attach to blond/very blond hair. If there are any traces of brown or extreme yellowness, the gray color will say "NOPE" and run away. Sometimes I had to bleach my roots 2 times before the gray color actually stick. And as we know, bleaching is not good for your hair. SO keep that in mind before even thinking about dyeing your hair gray, because IF your hair is naturally very dark and/or it's not in good condition, the multiple bleaching can actually cause your hair to fall off and you're left with very damaged, dry and short hair. This happened to my sister ones when she recklessly bleach and dyed her hair over and over again - and did not listen to my warnings.

But now I'm going to show you the products that I use on my gray hair, that keeps the hair and also the color in a good shape! (You can also use some of these products on any hair color, because most of them are not meant for just gray hair).

STEP # 1 
A good silver shampoo is what you're gonna need! This is by far the best one that I've bumped into and the price is reasonable. I usually let it affect about 2 minutes before rinse. It might leave a touch of lilac in your hair if you're not careful. No gloves needed. Just wet your hair and take a good amount of the shampoo and leave it for a moment and rinse off. This actually washes your hair so you don't need to wash you hair with a normal shampoo before using this ( like you need to do with some other silver shampoos). I also like that fact that it comes in a pump bottle! So L´ORÈAL Professionnel Silver shampoo, expert series. You can find it from hair saloons and special hair stores.

L´oreal paris Silver Shampoo, expert series.

STEP # 1.5
You don't always have to use a silver shampoo, you can also use a regular one, but I would recommend to get one that treats your hair. I found this shampoo very lovely! It smells really nice and it immediately makes your hair more soft and silky. Because in order to keep your hair gray, it needs to be moisturized. No color will stick to dry and damaged hair. You can find this shampoo in basically any shop and it's very cheap. So no extra money spent there and I think it's a good value for money. (Pantene PRO-V, repair and protect shampoo)

Pantene Pro-V repair and protect shampoo

STEP # 2
To keep the color gray, you need to add it at least on every third wash. I usually add some color on every second wash. Sometimes I'm too lazy and add it only on every third wash, and it immediately shows on my hair! This is the best product to add in the shower for some extra color! I already talked about this in the first post, so I'm not gonna blabber about it too much now, so just go check out the older post from HERE. This gives a really cool and nice gray color and it's so easy to apply and use. Just leave it on after shampooing for about 5 minutes and rinse. Instead of using this, you can also use the WELLA color fresh 7/19 or other quick fix colors that do not contain ammonia. (Gray Color treatment - EVERY ANNADONNA).

Gray color treatment, EVERY annadonna

 STEP # 3
I basically don't use a conditioner too much, because I found this! It's a GARNIER Respons, Caring Mask. It's really cheap, around 4-6 euros and it's extremely durable! I've had mine for over two months and I use it on almost every wash. It has Avocado and Shea Butter and it smells amazing! I didn't see any difference in my hair for the first two weeks, but after that I noticed that my hair was in so much better condition! It was less course and electric and very soft and silky and more glossy. I recommend this to everyone! But especially for those who color their hair and use many heat tools like curlers and blow dryers. You can basically find it from bigger stores. Pppsssttt! This series also has a shampoo, that's also SO LOVELY! I recommend it. It's very similar to the Pantene's shampoo and they're both amazing.

Garnier Respons, Caring Mask with Avocado and Shea Butter.

A creamy, easy to apply texture.

 STEP # 4
After showering, when your hair is still damp, apply this dry oil to your hair! It also smells amazing, moisturizing your hair leaving it less frizzy and dry and also reduces electricity in your hair. It does not come off as oily and dirty, but shiny and extremely soft! This one has a Vitamin E in it. It does not have any heat protection aspects to it, so use a proper heat protection product before blow drying or using any curlers etc. I really recommend this if you live in a cold country and your hair tends to get really electric because of the cold and dry air. This is a durable and cheap and easy to find. I payed maybe 7 euros from it and i've had it for many months now, and there's still over half left. ( PANTENE PRO-V, Dry Oil).

PANTENE Pro-V, Vitamin E Dry Oil.

 STEP # 4.5
This is also a wonderful dry oil! It's a bit pricey, and you can only find it from hair saloons and stores. (at least in Finland) It's KMS California TAME FRIZZ dry oil. This smells also very good and it's durable. It gives an intense shine and moisturizes and this one has a heat and humidity protection in it. I add it to damp but also on dry hair to give some extra shine. I really recommend to use some sort of dry oil. This one was a bit more expensive, it was 22 euros. But I think it's worth it!

KMS California Tame Frizz dry oil.

 STEP # 5
Last step, is to use some gray hair colors to really volume up the grayness of your hair. I just found this new color from Finland and I'm not yet sure if it's sold in anywhere else? I think it's made in Poland, but it still could be a Finnish color. But I really liked it! I bought two of these from an exhibition, and it only costed 10€/2 packs. So really cheap! It has ammonia in it so I was quite cautious with it, but the color came out really nice! Like deep, ash gray. This is a permanent color so it should stay a bit longer than the other ones. The color is not as dark as it seems on the package, but it's really nice. One of the best ones I know. But once again, the hair needs to be quite blond before using this. (AROMA INTENSE, Permanent Silver Blond Color).

AROMA INTENSE, permanent Silver blond. 

A bad picture of the instructions. But as you can see, this does not affect
on dark hair - only on very blond hair. 

So this is my guide to good and healthy hair and color! You need to use a bit more time if you want a healthy hair. One good product is Virgin Coconut Oil. It's natural and does not contain ANY chemicals. You can use is as a conditioner in a shower and also as a mask. Just apply it to your hair in the evening, sleep on it and wash it off in the shower next morning. The coconut oil is very oily so use a plastic film or bag on your hair or cover your pillow with a towel - otherwise everything is oily. Also put your hair up on a bun, for preventing a huge mess - it's also better for you hair to sleep with a loose bun, because it prevents friction and tangles. (and it also adds some volume to yous hair!). Once I bleached my roots 2 times in one day at a saloon and my scalp was SO ITCHY and burning. I rubbed a whole lot of coconut oil on my scalp and slept on it and in the morning my scalp was completely healed! You cannot use coconut oil as a dry oil, because it leaves you hair so oily looking that it's almost disgusting. So you need to wash/rinse it.


I hope this helped you and leave a comment if you have any questions or critics!

XXX, 
TOKI

SMOOCH!! 

When I grow up I want to be a ZOMBIE. 

It seems that I always have this Marvel shirt on, when I take photos...
FYI it's not my only shirt. :D lol

Cold Finnish Summer = fighting against cancer

The summer is almost over, so I thought it would be a great time to tell you a bit about how my summer was and to be honest, I think this was the worst summer in my life.

First of all the so called ''summer'' that we have had here in Finland is probably the coldest one in a history. It's not usually very hot in here and that's fine ( I hate sweating and extreme heat ), but this year the temperature has got barely over 15 degrees Celsius - and that's cold even for a Finnish summer. And also we've had so much rain. So while the rest of the Europe is having super heat ( 28-37 degrees) I've been wearing my leather jacket and thick stockings the whole ''''''summer''''''.

Second thing, at the beginning of the summer my Mother was diagnosed with cancer. She's only 53 and very skinny and doesn't smoke or drink, so it was a bit of a surprise. A few years ago my Mother's father had a cancer and thankfully it was healed. My Mother has now had the surgery and she's currently at a sick leave from work and I've been staying at home taking care of Nemo and Mom. Thank goodness I haven't been sick in these couple of moths. I went to see my Mom at the hospital after the surgery and me and my brother went to get her home the next day. We cooked her a three-course meal and I bought her flowers and a card. She was so happy and thankful. I've also been with her in every hospital visit and hugged her when she's been feeling hopeless. So I have to stay strong for her. If I crumble, she might as well. I'm very proud of her tough.... Only once she has started to cry when she was in a lot of pain. And I don't mean that she shouldn't cry, but I just feel like she's dealing with this whole thing very well. We all are and that's mostly because we're quite open about this whole matter and we have a loving family and friends who really support us.

 Also my/our oldest dog (Mokka) was almost about to die for a couple of times this summer. She's already 12½ years and very sick, taking about 5 drugs in a day, but she's very lively and happy when she has a better period, so we're not giving up on her just yet. We've been talking about putting her to rest, if she gets any worse or is in serious pain. But just the thought of that is almost too much for me.

So yeah, a very, very shitty summer for me, eh?

But we did also do some fun things! We could not travel far because of my mother's condition, so we only did day trips to beautiful Finnish cities.

First was Hanko! It's actually the most southern place of Finnish mainland. We do have many islands that are more in the south, but this is the most southern city. It's about 1½-2 hours car ride from our capital, Helsinki. Hanko is a very beautiful small city that has long and beautiful beaches and absolutely gorgeous old villas. So we took Nemo with and went off to experience some beach life.

But of course, since we're geographically in the zone of  ''fu*k you Northern people'', the day turned out to be cold and windy.... No need to think about getting burned in the sun.

Nemo was more interested showing his butt that posing for a picture.

A very typical Finnish sea view. The house on the rock is an old restaurant and cafe. 

I have to say, that even though I love the vasts forests of Thailand and Asia and the green Mountains of Germany
I still think this is very beautiful. Just plain sea and rocks. I don't know if it's just a Scandinavian thing?

Cold and windy.

The restaurants. They are about 20 meters from the sea. 

This is a face of true happiness! We went to a restaurant called
Makaronitehdas (Macaroni factory) and they had SO amazing
pasta dishes! 

I had hand made pasta, red wine sauce with herbs, lamb fillet and
Parmesan cheese. It was absolutely divine!

Nemo went to take a swim in the sea and after a great deal of running
and exploring he got tired and wanted some patting.

Dark clouds over a beautiful beach. On the background a huge villa.

I did, of course, have a bottle of water for Nemo in my zombie backpack and also his towel and some treats. In Finland you can't always take your dog inside a restaurant - usually the terrace is OK, but not always. So we always have to make sure and ask beforehand if dogs are allowed. This is quite annoying since at least in Germany it was a exception if dogs were not allowed inside some restaurants or cafes. But Finland is a bit 'stiff' when it comes to things like these.

We also went into a few shops and drove around and admired the beautiful villas - and took only 1 picture of them. Poor me.


On out next trip we went to Porvoo. It's also a very small but very old and beautiful city. This time my brother joined us. Unfortunately I don't have lots of pictures from the city itself, and that's mainly because we've been there many times, so I didn't even think about taking pictures. lol. But we did take some... Porvoo is about 45 minutes drive from Helsinki and it's a very iconic Scandinavian city that is very popular tourist sight during the summer. There are a lot of little iconic and cute shops that sell antiques and hand made products. There is also Brunberg's factory shop, a big Finnish chocolate factory, that has been making sweets for almost 150 years. Porvoo is also known for it's great food and restaurants and also it's idyllic small cafes.

I managed to close my eyes just when the picture was taken. My brother still browsing the Menu. We were in a restaurant near the river bank called Fryysarinranta. Don't really know what it means... lol.

Waiting for the food. Dunno where my brother is looking at... We both had cross checked shirts on. Mine was just
dark green and you can only see the collar of it.

I really did you a favor when censoring my face... I had a VERY
stupid look because my Mom forced me to pose in front of
the restaurant. Nemo didn't like it either. Look at his face!

At a cafe. Drinking my oh-so-good latte while my brother stares at a small bug that's on my hair. Can you see
the tiny little white spot on my bangs? Yep, that's the bug!

The cafe's backyard terrace. 

We all agreed that in this pic I look like one Finnish woman comedian,
 Pirjo Heikkilä. And Nemo looks so small. My tiny little Casanova. 

I also have to tell you that I HATE MOSQUITOES!!!!!! This happened at the beginning of the summer. We were actually in Helsinki and I got bitten by a mosquito 10 ( I mean really, TEN?) times on my legs. Mostly on my left knee. And as I am allergic to many things I think I'm also a little allergic to mosquito bites, because look at my legs!!

You can't see all the 10 bites, and the picture somehow doesn't show the most brutal aspect of these bites - they were so itchy and swollen! I couldn't wear thin stockings 'cos my legs were so ugly, red and malformed. I even tried to apply some makeup on them, but nothing worked. This was about 2½ months ago and I still have a tiny bruise on some of the biggest bites. Thank you, you little pieces of jhdhgligvnpu*!="?) !!!!!

Now I have to go and take Nemo out. I just gave him a bath this morning, and now our whole apartment smells so good! Every time he runs past or a wind blows from his direction, you can smell a sweet scent of lilies. So to the ones who say that dogs smell:  it only depends on the owner. Nemo never smells bad. We even brush his teeth so his breath is also very scentless. And he's almost 5 years old already.

Goodbye for now and I hope you liked reading. Sorry for the very long post... heh heh.

XXX
TOKI

Dress Me Up!

I'm listening to Of Monsters and Men and trying to be proactive! I already reduced the size of this one dress that I bought and made one old jumper into a pillowcase - sounds weird but it actually worked out quite well! I just have to add some buttons on it so I'll be able to close it up. Here's the pillow:

I can tell you that the fabric is soooo rubbery! I could never have worn the jumper in the first place 'cos of the fabric, but I like that Dia de Los Muertos -style picture so I decided to recycle the whole shirt.

I promised that I would show the new dress that I bought, so here it is!

pssst! Just so you know, I didn't have basically any eye make up (hence the sunglasses) and my hair is also just on a quick messy bun so don't judge my look, okay? 

the dress is from:  Te Amo. Bought it from Nelly.com
The Necklace is from:  Mi Lajki.
Shoes: self tuned H&M shoes.

I must wear some sort of jacket with this dress during the autumn/winter, since the dress is so open
that otherwise I would freeze. 

Other option for the leather jacket is this furry coat. It's quite warm and very comfortable.

I also thought about these shoes. They're heel is much higher
but they're so comfortable on! Both coat and shoes are bought
from retail shops.

So which one of these looks do you prefer? Or should I mix them up? Leather jacket or fur coat? The dress came with see-trough straps, and I think I'm gonna put them on because I don't trust the dress to stay up just because it's tight - and the last thing I wanna end up is having my boobs blob out in the middle of a party. LOL. That would certainly light up the night.  I was thinking about wearing this at my step-mother's 50th Birthday party in next month. And of course I'm gonna wear my hair down with curls and without the sunglasses, because like Dean Winchester said, everyone who wears shades indoors is a douche. Hehe.


Here's also some other pictures unrelated to the dress:

My favorite woolly jumper. From retail shop.
And also PU leather pants. 

(Nemo is sleeping behind me... lol)

I rarely wear this kind of red lipstick anymore - I prefer the more dark and and lilac ones nowadays. 

This Marvel shirt is one of my favorite tops at the moment. 

And the final look. This pretty much sums up how I look when I'm dressed casually. Like when I'm going
shopping or hanging with my friends. 

Oh and PS. we went to Linnanmäki last month with my three friends. For someone who doesn't know, Linnanmäki is an amusement park in Helsinki. It's over 50-years-old and therefore the oldest amusement park in Finland. This was also the last time we saw Rina, since she moved to Australia after this. I miss her so much! She's the one in the red shirt.

Standing in a queue. Going to Vekkula. And we were having a
great time despite our gloomy faces. And my hair was all messed
up and flat because of the rides.  ( the man behind is photo
bombing us.... )

first ride! The Coffee cups! It's probably for children but we decided
to start easy. So much funnn! 

Next time I'm gonna show you my shoes collection! I'm not much of a shoe-person and I buy shoes pretty seldom, but still I have managed to collect a good amount of different kinds of shoes. Even worse I'm with bags - I buy one and use it everyday for years and then I buy another one. Shame on me for being bad at being a woman! But I have always been a little manly in some ways. You should see my movie collection! I just counted that I have almost 250 movies plus TV-series on DVD. And they're all action or horror movies. I have almost 30 zombie movies..... yeah. true story bro! (well I have LOTR, Hobbits and Star Wars movies too........)

Leave a comment or two and let me know what you think! 

XXX
TOKI

There and Back Again, By S.H.

So I finally had the time to do a post about my looks and clothes. Some of these pictures are already kinda old (like few months old) especially the ones with the winter coats since it's already spring in Finland (oh yes, it did finally come!!) and in some of these I don't yet have my new tattoos so I think you're able to spot the not-so-fresh-photos. 

on 29.4. I'm going to take a new addition to my left arm , which I have the tattoos on and it's going to be a full sleeve tattoo ever since, so the kinda crazy looking part-tattoo-part-skin thing which I'm having right now is going to be gone for good! And if you're wondering how expensive these tattoos are my answer will be: not that much for something you're going to have forever. Think about jeans that never wore off or a cake that lasts until you die... and you'll get my point of view! 

So now to the pictures! 

 I love this fur coat on the upper picture! The downside is that it's not that warm, so it's definitely not a winter coat, but a spring/autumn jacket. I also love the top that I'm wearing, it's from Illustrated People. Ps. can you see some creepy stalker on the background? lol

 I had a loose knitted sweater and a cross top underneath it. The top is from Saints and Mortals.

This was taken when it was really cold in Finland. I mean like -17 degrees Celsius. I had one of my favorite shirts on : a Star Wars the Empire Strikes Back T-Shirt. It's actually men's XL-size so it's almost like a skirt to me. and that big lump under my head is a BIGBIGBIG muffle tube scarf, which was necessary in those winter conditions.

Another top from Illustrated People and a high rise ripped shorts. 

And then I'd like to share with you some of the drawings I have made during the dark, long, cold, dark, depressing, cold, long and dark winter! I kinda found my inspiration again and I'm pretty happy about that too! It's been quite a while since I really did draw something.... And beforehand I'd like to announce that YES I AM A HOBBIT FAN! just deal with it. lolll.

Yessssss I love Thranduil. And I personally think that Lee Pace is absolutely freakishly sexypapa. So another YES I had to draw him.. But I did this for my friend. I promised that I would draw her a Thranduil after we went to see the Desolation of Smaug. So I had no other choice. And I think it turned out pretty good! The size is almost A4 and it took about one month to do it since I was also having other things to do incl. work, sleep, friends, etc. But this was fun to do nevertheless!

My camera is not so good so you cannot see all the little details in the hair and in the crown but this is the best I could do! Sorry.

And here are some other things I have done: 

this one is actually still in process. It's for my
Mom and I don't know what colors I should
use so the work is in pause. I was inspired by
Alphonse Mucha in this one...

the next 3 pictures were for my aunt.
I added some text behind the peacock
but it was after the photo was taken...

a broken glass bird. or something.

Semperflorens = forever blooming.

Thorin Oakenshield done very quickly. It was my friend's
birthday card. And oh I know the photo is SO BAD!
but it was taken in a hurry. lol

these were also cards for my Granny and for my aunt. My granny loves flowers
so the Bush Roses were for her.

And yet again a picture for my aunt. this was done in last summer so it's
almost a year old. Apparently my aunt loves my paintings/drawings....?
and I love to paint white roses. figures ?

I would like to tell you about my aunt since I've been talking about her in this post. She's my mother's younger sister who moved to Greece in the early 90's. She fell in love with a man called Christo and they got married. After living in Greece they moved to Germany, Frankfurt in the late 90's. My aunt speaks fluently Finnish, English, Greek, German, French and also some Swedish - so she's quite skilled. In Frankfurt they got their first - and only - child. She was named after my grandmother with a Finnish name, Maija. After Maija was born they moved to a small town called Langenthal. They bought a huge house which was in a horrible condition and even though they were poor they manage to live somehow. My aunt is a ceramist so she brought the bread to the table. The husband, Christo, was no good. Only spending their already little income in some random megalomaniac stuff  while gaining no money himself.

He was a horrible man. A true narcissist in the word's true meaning. Always putting my loving and caring and kind aunt down with horrible ways. He had said that if my aunt tries to leave him, he comes to Finland and kills her parents. And my aunt could not visit Finland because Christo did not want to leave and she could not leave Maija alone with Christo. So she was imprisoned in their huge never-to-complete house. She was truly unhappy and afraid of her husband. And we could do nothing. We visited her as often as we could and tried to help her with the house. My Grandfather is a skilled man in repairing and building so he help with fixing the house. 

Two years ago Christo got a serious lung cancer. He had been smoking since a small kid so it was only a matter of time when he would get sick. The doctors gave him 3-5 years time to live and in 2 weeks he was dead. There was nothing the doctors could have done since the cancer was spread to other organs too. Even though Christo had been verbally, mentally and possibly physically abusing my aunt she was in a shock and she cried hysterically when my mother called her. It's been now two years since Christo died and the house is now fully renovated, my aunt has a better job and studying to become a kindergarten teacher and they visit Finland as often as they can and we also visit them in Germany. Maija has never cried in front of us about her father and she seems like a happy child. She's now 10 and doing all the things a child in that age should do. 

I just wanted to share this with you, since I truly appreciate and respect my aunt, because she is so strong and wonderful person. We are extremely close and before she moved to Greece and when me and my brother were little she would always come to see us whenever she could and she loved us like her own children. And that's why when she asks me to do some paintings for her I cannot refuse. 

Thank you for reading and I hope this gave you some hope whenever you're feeling down. Everything can turn out just well if you're just patient enough! 

Everyone have a great spring and next time i'll tell you about my diet and maybe even show you some pictures... heh. 

XOXO

TOKI