Golden Hair!

Hi!

Surprises, I got bored with my hair again! I dyed it earlier with some non-permanent hair dye, which gave my hair a nicer shade, but after about a week I decided I wanted to try something different and decided to try a permanent hair dye.

I wanted to try and get my hair a bit lighter. I could have of course bleached my hair. I've heard that Jerome Russell Bblonde -line is good, but I decided to be a rebel and experiment something that I thought would be a bit gentler. I did a little bit of online research and watched some convincing YouTube-videos and decided to try out a brand called Naturtint. They have a very good colour chart and it had clear instructions how to mix the colours to get a shade you might want. I'm not sure if most self-use hair dyes do that because I'm very new to this hair-dying business. But for me it made it a lot easier and I was more confident about trying out this hair dye.

When I started my hair was maybe a bit an ashy light brown colour, with some lighter highlights? This was mostly due to my previous hair-dying experiment. Naturtint recommended to choose a colour which is 2 shades lighter than my starting colour, so I actually should have probably chosen the colour 9N. But of course I was a rebel and didn't follow the recommendations. I chose the lightest colour: 10N. But I wanted to believe that 10N would be more effective. I have no way of testing this theory, but I'm just going to show you what happened to my hair and make some sort of a review of this product.

I ordered this dye online, but you can also find it at Holland & Barrett and maybe at some other health shops. I'm not sure if this product is any healthier than most box hair dyes, but it doesn't contain ammonia, parabens, silicones, paraffin, mineral oils, heavy metals, artificial fragrances, SLS or formaldehyde derivates. I guess it's good that some of these are not included. I don't really need my hair dye to be fragranced. But I'm sure ammonia for instance has been replaced by some other chemical that does the same job. You can dye your hair darker with henna and coffee* but if you want to go lighter like me, you need some peroxide and other stuff.

The boxed contained the usual things: colourant, developer and gloves. So I put the gloves on and mixed the colourant and the developer. Unfortunately, I was a bit useless and run out of dye. But I combed my hair to get a more even spread and it was all OK after that.  One box is actually enough for shoulder length hair if you know how to spread it. So if you are new to hair dying and use this hair dye I recommend that you mix the dye in a bowl so that you can see how much dye you have left.

Apparently I'm just asking for rude anonymous comments by adding these unflattering photos here.... I don't know if all hair dyes are like this, but I found it really easy to comb my hair like this. Then I just hang out for 40 minutes before I went back to bathroom to wash my hair.

First, I tried to rinse all the dye out of my hair, but it was a bit difficult because my hair was so dry it just felt like one big knot. But I did that until the water seemed clear and then I decided to shampoo it.

The box provided samples of shampoo and Naturtint Nutrideep Multiplier Protective Cream which is a conditioner/hair mask. I guess the shampoo is a toning shampoo. It foamed a lot and left my hair feeling even more like knot. But at least it no longer felt like there was hair dye left. Then I tried the Nutrideep Multiplier and it smoothed all the knots straight away. I left it on for 2 minutes as instructed and then rinsed it out. It was fantastic! I actually ordered two tubes of it so that I could keep using it. Best conditioner I have ever tried! My hair has never really needed a conditioner though, so I've just used whatever, so I am not the most experienced person in this field. But for me it was amazing.

Under my living room light the colour looked very golden. Naturtint actually has dyes that have a more golden shade. I had chosen a more natural shade, but the result still looked more golden. I feel that if I look at their colour chart, I went from 7N to 8G with their hair dye 10N. But it's okay, I really liked the result. And it didn't look as brassy as some other blonding attempts I've seen.

It's entirely possible that my hair doesn't even look that golden outside. But I rarely realise to take selfies outside, and unfortunately, I don't have anyone who would just spontaneously take photos of me. It would be useful in this sort of situations. 

But I'm curious and wanted to try and see what silver shampoo would do to my hair, even if I wasn't trying to go platinum. So I went and bought Pro:voke's silver shampoo.

I found that it worked well, although the result might be more noticeable if my hair was lighter. I apologise for random drunken bathroom photos, but the Hilton just had better lighting than my flat does. Apparently the lighting makes a big difference here which I maybe should have realised before. Maybe in the future I'll try to be awake and alert while the sun is up. After that I can provide you with some proper before and after photos.

But I found this dye very good and I can recommend it! As long as you're prepared for it to go a bit more golden than what the picture suggests. The company actually does mention that on their website as well, and suggests that you mix the neutral dye with their ashy dye (10N + 10A in my case), but I didn't want to do that this time because I was curious to see how the dye would work on its own. I'm really happy with the result. And this range has good colour choices and their dyes don't stink as awful as some other ones I've encountered before.

Have you tried any particularly good hair dyes? What do you think of this result?

I dyed my hair!

It's spring time* and I needed some change...

*by which I mean: I finally took the Christmas tree down and the sun is shining!

... so I decided to change my hair.

I've never dyed my hair myself before, but I actually really dislike going to the hairdressers because it makes me feel so vulnerable. There was a phase in my life when I would actually cut my hair myself because I didn't trust the hairdresser to do it properly. Thankfully, after many disappointing and expensive trips to various hair salons, I have finally found a fantastic Polish salon where I've always got good service and they have managed to make my very difficult hair look great. But those disappointing salon experiences have taught me to be really nervous about other people touching my hair, so I wanted to learn to dye my own hair.

I started getting my hair dyed when I was 12, because it was the thing to do in the small Finnish town that I come from. "No one" had natural hair there. And I didn't want to stick out that much — I was already getting bullied enough for other reasons. But after I moved out of Finland I've let my natural highway grey, maantien harmaa, hair colour grow back and I've been pretty content with it.

My natural hair colour.

So this time, instead of being ashamed of my natural hair colour, I decided to dye my hair out of curiosity. I wanted to try what I would look like with another hair colour.

I meant to buy a permanent colour and checked what they were selling on Boots.com. They appeared to have some serious problems with their website and Boots Botanics Non-Permanent Hair Dye came up when I looked for a permanent hair-dye. I really liked the colour Palest Oatmeal Light Blonde and I didn't find this colour in the permanent section. Because it was cheap, I figured that I could just go and buy that one as a practice hair-dye. After all, I had no idea whether I would even manage to get it on my head. Maybe it was a mistake to choose the cheapest hair dye in found... But this is what I went with.

Batiste dry shampoo bottle did not come with the box.

I bought two boxes because I had read that sometimes you may need two boxes to dye longer hair. Each box contained conditioning hair colour, developing lotion, enriching after colour conditioner and gloves. To me all of those things sounded awfully similar and it took me a while to identify which ones I was supposed to mix together. Why could they not just call them "developer", "colourant" and "conditioner"?

I did my best at following instructions but actually made a mistake when I was trying to test whether I'm allergic to this hair dye or not. I was supposed to mix one teaspoon of the colourant with one teaspoon of the developing lotion, but I opened the whole cap of the colourant instead of the tiny tip of the cap. I poured too much out, freaked out and posted a Facebook status about it. My Facebook friends provided me with some great advice and moral support and I managed to mix the hair dye and got it all over my hair and nowhere else. 

Although, I had bought two boxes, I only used one. There was enough dye for covering my hair. The dye didn't smell too bad or make my head itch or eyes hurt. The box had some serious claims for a non-permanent hair dye though. It promised to make even brown hair blonde. I was feeling fairly sceptical about these claims, but since I figured that my hair was probably closer to "dark blonde", I gave it a chance.

I let it develop for 20 minutes as instructed before I rinsed it off and used the conditioner that came in the box. 

... Then I spent quite a lot of time analysing whether my hair colour actually even changed.

... Maybe it somehow looked more even? It seemed maybe a little bit more brown? Not darker or lighter, but just a little bit less grey. I guess non-permanent hair dye just can't do much to my hair. People did tell me that it's impossible to make your hair more blonde without just bleaching it, but of course I was rebellious and way too curious not to test the box's claims anyway.

When the sun came up the next day I analysed my hair in my kitchen where I had taken the photos of my hair before I had dyed it. Do you think it looks even a little bit different from what it was? 

 

I was a bit too excited about my little experiment and hair dying experience to even be disappointed that the dye didn't do more than that. The dye was quite conditioning, but if anyone wants to use the same one I advice you only to use it if your hair already is lighter than what you want to dye it to. The Botanics line has some other shades as well, all of them look like natural hair colours.

Result?

When I compared my hair against the sun, I could see that it did actually give my hair the tint it promised on the box, but because it didn't actually change my hair colour it was hard to see whether it had even done anything. But I guess you need a stronger dye to do more than this. The box says that it will wash off in 24 washes, so if it had done more, maybe it wouldn't wash off?

I've been analysing my hair colour a lot know and I feel that I like it more now  — not because it changed, but because now it's an "approved" colour because it came out of a box. No one would be able to sell a lame hair colour. So maybe next time someone asks what my natural hair colour is, I can describe it as pale oatmeal blonde instead of highway grey as they call it back in Finland.

I've already ordered another hair dye to see if permanent hair dyes are able to do my hair a bit more than this. I really like my hair now, but maybe I will be bored again in a couple of weeks time.

What do you think — do you think the colour changed? Do you dye your hair yourself? Any tips to this complete newbie?

My favourite cosmetic brands

Hi.

I was going to write this post before I got completely stressed out by consumerism and plastic and all that unnecessary waste that just ends up in landfills. But because it's almost Christmas and cosmetics have been my favourite thing for 2 years now, I thought I'd write this post anyway.

When I was really lonely and depressed I cheered up my life by going shopping for some cosmetics. I bought so many cream, lotions and make-up products. Trying them out really made me a lot happier and boosted my self-confidence!

Earlier this year, Brand Spark International listed the most trusted cosmetic brands in Canada, USA, China, Turkey and Mexico that were ranked by consumers. You can check all of them by following the link. I originally got the idea for this post from a Finnish cosmetics blog Ostolakossa where the blog's author Virve Vee compared the popularity of different brands in different countries and also told her own favourites. 

So today I'm going to tell me what my favourite cosmetic brands have been past these 2 years! With some thoughts on how I'm feeling about the future with them. If this isn't something you're interested in, feel free to skip this post.

For example, these are the winning brands in China:

Face cream:  Olay

Eye cream: Estée Lauder

Make-up foundation: Maybelline

Facial wash: L'oreal and Nivea

Shaving products: Gillette

Nail varnish: OPI

Body wash: Dove

Shampoo & Conditioner: Pantene

Hair styling: Vidal Sassoon

Toothpaste: Darlie

And these are the winners in Turkey:

Facial skincare: L'oreal and Nivea

Make-up foundation: L'oreal and Max Factor (Covergirl)

Facial wash: Neutrogena and Nivea

Lipstick: Avon

Mascara: L'oreal and Max Factor (Covergirl)

Deodorant/Antiperspirant: Nivea

Shaving products: Gillette

Body lotion: Nivea

Body wash: Palmoline

Shampoo & Conditioner: Elidor and Head&Shoulders

Hair styling: Hobby

Toothpaste: Ipana ja Colgate

Feel free to check out the other ones too, I'm sure they are all well known and popular brands.

I actually recently realised that many of the popular brands are owned by gigantic companies.

Have you ever heard of Unilever?

Maybe I'm just naïve but I was really shocked when I realised that so many brands are owned by this massive company. Unilever owns more than 400 brands!

Out of the brands listed earlier more are owned by them by not.

They own Lynx (Axe), Dove, Flora (Becel), Knorr, Lipton, Omo, Sure (Rexona), Surf and Sunsilk (Elidor), Ben & Jerry's, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Pot Noodle, Turun Sinappi, Simple, Pepsodent (Signal), TIGI, TRESemmé and many others!

And of course such a big company has a lot of money to put on marketing and buying self-space in order to make sure that the naïve consumers can easily see these products when they go shopping.

But anyway, back to the point of this post and my own list! Because of course you all really want to know what cosmetics I use (almost) daily.

Face cream:  Boots Botanics. Especially the 81% organic hydrating cream.

Eye cream: Lumene.

Make-up foundation: Skin79. I have now discovered Asian BB creams and don't want to mess with Western foundations anymore.

Facial wash: Lush.

Lipstick: Lush.

Mascara: Physician's Formula Organic Wear.

Deodorant/Antiperspirant: Lumene. But then I experienced an aluminium crisis and started making my own.

Shaving products: Gillette. Although I'm not sure how to feel about this ecologically or socially.

Body lotion: Soap & Glory.

Nail varnish: Lumene Natural Code.

Body wash: Lumene Angry Birds. I got obsessed with this one after I tried it at my friend's house.

Shampoo & Conditioner: Lush. I'm increasingly more and more obsessed with Lush, have you noticed?

Hair styling: Batiste. Dry shampoo is all I use at the moment. I've considered replacing it with just talcum powder though.

Toothpaste: Sarakan. I've had enough of fluoride.

I actually used to use a different toothpaste, but then I read about the dangers of fluoride and felt that I have been poisoning myself enough with it, and decided to switch to a more natural alternative and hope for the best. Then last week I bought a bamboo toothbrush and it works really well! I actually feel that my teeth are cleaner than they were when I used a plastic toothbrush.

I am a bit sad that many of these products contain so much unrecyclable plastic. I always use a Gilette razor where you only have to change the blade bit instead of needing to get a whole new razor! I wish everyone would do the same. Yes, they are a little bit more expensive, but they are also so much better than those awful ones you can buy in bulk. So much plastic ends up in landfill from them and you only use them a couple of times! If you need to shave, please buy a proper razor.

Lush is a fantastic company that makes bath and beauty products with environmental values in their mind. Their products are amazing and I am considering trying more of their products in the future. For instance, they have a mascara that comes in a glass bottle and it probably would be better for the environment if I used that one instead of ordering the one I currently use from America.

Also, in the field of soap and body lotion, I'm considering challenging myself and trying to make some of my own next year. It can't be that difficult, can it?

So, what are your favourite cosmetics? What sort of aspects do you think about when choosing these products?

You don't have to have a favourite to all categories but you can just copy-paste this template to comments and let me know! I'm a bit weird, but I'd love to hear what products you guys use! Oh, and this is a completely unisex questionnaire. Everyone is allowed to answer.

Face cream: 
Eye cream: 
Make-up foundation:
Facial wash: 
Lipstick:
Mascara: 
Deodorant/Antiperspirant:
Shaving products: 
Body lotion: 
Nail varnish:
Body wash: 
Shampoo & Conditioner: 
Hair styling: 
Toothpaste: 

I'm happy to be a woman

Happy December!

This post has nothing to do with December. I just wanted to tell you why it's great to be a woman. I mean, a human.

This thought process started when I read one Finnish online article. A Finnish "popular lifestyle" website asked some women to list aspects of life where that they think men have it better. And because I tend to take these funny things seriously, I decided to write a very long blog post about it, talking about all of these 34 points. Are you ready? 

Picture from makeupandbeauty.com.

Apparently these women are jealous about the following things:

1. No need to suffer from menstruation.

Itsestäänselvyys: ei tarvitse kärsiä menkoista.

Well, obviously it can be painful which sucks, but after I discovered menstrual cups it has become the only bad thing about it. No need to wear uncomfortable bleached plastic nappies (also known as menstrual pads) in my underpants or to push chemical-infused cotton sticks (also known as tampons) inside me. Periods are not stopping me from doing anything. I've spent a week menstruating on an uninhabited island without toilets, running water or electricity. I survived.

Plus by having periods you can make sure that there's no unexpected babies in their way. Men don't have that benefit.

2. No need to shave your legs.

Ei tarvitse ajella sääriä.

Honestly, I don't even remember when was the last time I shaved my legs. I go swimming at the local pool a couple of times a week though. No one has stopped me. No one has even looked at my legs that I've noticed. Why do women feel they have to shave their legs? Last summer my legs were very fluffy until I went swimming with my little sister. I removed some of the hair before that trip just because I didn't feel fluffy legs were appropriate at a Finnish beach site, but it was my choice. No one should force you to shave your legs.

If you want to read more about this, I've written a whole blog post about feminine hairiness before.

3. You become more charming the older you get.

Charmikkuus vain lisääntyy iän myötä.

Some men may become more charming with age, but so do some women. It's up to you what you want to become in the future. You can become charming when you want to and then you can develop your charm. It doesn't just happen to people — no matter what your gender is.

4. Your not embarrassed when you grow a moustache.

Ei hävetä, jos viikset kasvaa.

Maybe more women should be proud of their moustaches. Those huge bushy eyebrows are already in fashion, why won't we do the same with moustaches? Women do have hair in that area too, it's just often very fair. Some grow darker hair and then get it bleached or waxed. It's seen as a very embarrassing and taboo topic. I don't see a reason why it couldn't be seen as cute. We need to stop being embarrassed about our looks.

Alex K. Picture from Effing Dykes Blog.

5. Barber costs less than a hairdresser, and you don't need to waste money on hairproducts anyway.

Parturi maksaa vähemmän kuin kampaaja, eikä rahaa tarvitse tuhlata hiustuotteisiin muutenkaan.

Do these women really think that men don't use hair styling products? I'm guessing that it's around the same percentage of men and women who do style their hair almost daily. I'm getting closer to some hippie-look with my hair and will just happily brush it. I don't even know what I would do with it. I tried to learn to straighten it, but then didn't see the point. It's naturally wavy, what's wrong with that?

I actually do find it unfair though, that men's haircuts are cheaper than women's. Even if it is exactly the same haircut. Why would your gender matter there? Shouldn't the hairstyle you want be the main factor deciding the price?

6. No need to blow-dry your hair in the mornings, style your hair or put make-up on

Ei tarvitse föönata tukkaa aamuisin ja väkertää hiuksia kampauksille, eikä meikata.

I've never felt a need to blow-dry my hair in the morning or make my life that difficult anyway. Everyone needs to get ready in the morning and what you need to do probably depends more on whether you're just popping to the corner shop or going to someone's wedding. It doesn't really have anything to do with your gender. There are many men who take longer than me straightening their hair and putting their make-up on than I do.

7. You can have children without streching your stomach or ripping your genitals.

Voi saada lapsia ilman, että vatsanahka leviää ja sukuelimet repeää.

Giving birth does have those aspects, yes. But it's not something all women have to do. Of course, some men are able to give birth as well. Adoption is a fair option available for everyone too though. But in general it is more difficult to have children as a single man than it is as a single woman.

8. Naturally smaller percentage of fat. No cellulite. Not fair.

Luonnostaan pienempi rasvaprosentti, ei selluliittiä. Ei ole reilua.

And none of those fantastic feminine shapes either. 

Boobs. Curves. Fun.

Marilyn Monroe.

9. Small phone bills. You don't have to waste time talking about nonsense.

Pienet puhelinlaskut. Omaa aikaa ei tarvitse tuhlata turhuuksista pälättämiseen.

Seriously? These women need to rethink their priorities. If you need to spend hours on phone talking about stupid things without enjoying it, it has nothing to do with gender. It's just your own stupidity.

10. Men can pee almost everywhere. It's also less embarrassing for men to go to the toilet.

Miehet voi pissiä melkein mihin tahansa. Vessassa käyminen ei muutenkaan aiheuta niin noloja tilanteita kuin naiselle.

What? Why is it embarrassing to go to the toilet if your a woman? And I think it shouldn't be acceptable to pee in public for men either. It's also possible for all genders to go and pee in a bush.

11. A man doesn't get upset or end up in pointless fights if he's not invited to a party or a shopping trip.

Mies ei loukkaannu tai joudu turhiin riitoihin, jos häntä ei ole kutsuttu juhliin tai shoppailemaan.

I think it would be upsetting to anyone to have everyone else invited except you.

12. Shopping doesn't take up much time.

Shoppailu sujuu nopeasti.

I think this depends more on the type of person you are. If you enjoy browsing shops it will take longer no matter what your gender is. And if you just want to go in and get what you need it will be faster. Unless you're me and shopping in Sainsbury's. Then it will take hours, but it's not because I'm a girl — it's because I don't know where anything I need is.

From Sex and the City.

13. You can wear comfortable shoes even in festive events.

Voi käyttää mukavia kenkiä juhlissakin.

I would never go to a party in uncomfortable shoes. Women don't have to wear high heels. I like high heels, but always prefer to wear comfortable high heels.

14. It's easy to get dressed to a party. Even to your own wedding a good quality suit is enough and you can wear that same suit to all the future festive events.

Juhlapukeutuminen on helppoa: omiin häihinkin riittää laadukas puku, jota voi pitää tulevissakin kekkereissä.

As far as I'm aware many women do dream of choosing their white dress, so I don't think that's something they are really jealous about. Also one good quality black dress will keep you covered to most festive events if you don't prefer to choose something different.

15. It's easier to make a career as a fighter pilot or a fireman.

Helpompaa toteuttaa haave vaikka urasta hävittäjälentäjänä tai palomiehenä.

I couldn't make a career as a fighter pilot because of my bad eye sight. I'm sure my brother would have the same problem. It is true that in the job market it is more difficult as a woman, but there's also a problem that many women don't pursue these careers.

16. Saving money! You don't have to spend money on menstrual pads or tampons. Or bras. Or make-up and other cosmetics.

Rahansäästö! Ei tarvitse laittaa rahaa kuukautissiteisiin ja tamponeihin. Eikä rintaliiveihin. Eikä meikkeihin ja muuhun kosmetiikkaan.

Lady, guess what? You don't have to spend money on any of those things either. I bought a £20 mooncup that will keep me sorted for the next 10 years on the menstrual front. I do like to buy bras though, because I like to feel supported. I've also spent most of my money that didn't go into food or rent on cosmetics, not because I felt I had to but because they made me happy. I'm starting to question my values on this and am planning on stopping buying so much. 

17. Life without tights.

Elämä ilman sukkahousuja.

I can't imagine a life without tights. I don't wear trousers so tights are kind of necessary for me. I just wish they were cheaper and wouldn't break as easily. Women are allowed to wear trousers though if they don't like tights. It's unfortunately a bit socially questionable for men to wear tights today. 

Robin Hood: Men in tighs is a very good film though, if you need some entertainment in your life.

18. You survive with fewer clothes when travelling.

Pärjää vähemmällä vaatemäärällä reissussa.

I have a funny feeling that if I went travelling with a guy, my clothes would take up less space. First, most guys boxers appear to take more space than my tops. And what I have seen of many men's packing skills, they have a lot of unnecessary space in their bags. When I was travelling with my brother, I had some things that didn't fit in my suitcase anymore, and asked him if I could put them into his bigger suitcase. He said that there was no space but that I was allowed to try anyway. And then I put a blanket, 3 jumpers and several pairs of shoes into his suitcase without any problems.

19. Men are likely to get an orgasm more easily.

Saa todennäköisesti helpommin orgasmin.

But apparently those orgasms are not as amazing as those fantastic female-orgasms you can read about.

20. Sports news.  As a man you're more likely to be interested in sports and sports news are often well-covered amongst the most important news in the country. Also, if you're a male athlete you get to enjoy bigger audiences, reputation and pay, than as female athlete.

Urheilu-uutiset. Miehenä on naista todennäköisemmin kiinnostunut urheilusta, ja siitä kerrotaankin kattavasti joka päivä valtakunnan tärkeimpien uutisaiheiden joukossa. Lisäksi mikäli olet itse miesurheilija, saat nauttia paljon suuremmista katsojamääristä, maineesta ja palkkiorahoista kuin naisena.

The latter is true. But maybe sports news shouldn't be something to be jealous about. Not all men are interested in sports anyway.

21. As a man it's easier to carry your shopping bags and you're able to throw a ball further.

Miehenä jaksaaa kantaa kauppakassit ja heittää palloa pidemmälle.

Testosterone is great.

22. You can hold your drink better. And people have more tolerance for drunken men than drunken women.

Parempi viinapää. Eivätkä ihmiset katso kännistä miestä yhtä pahalla kuin viinanhuuruista naista.

It's to do with that body fat percentage thing. But I'm not sure about the social tolerance thing, because drunken idiot is a drunken idiot no matter what the gender is. Or what do you think? 

23. You don't have to suffer with uncomfortable bras that are the wrong size.

Ei tarvitse kärsiä hiertävistä/vääränkokoisista rintaliiveistä.

No one has to. Go and buy one that fits. I wrote a blog post about this.

From Freya Lingerie.

24. You don't have to take the contraceptive pill.

Ei tarvitse syödä e-pillereitä.

No one has to. They are given to women as if they were candy or some miracle drug that everyone should take. It is not. It is one effective method of contraception but it's not the only option out there. It's also possible to make a male contraception pill but no one is going to fund that project because testing would take so long that it's not worth it for any pharmaceutical company to do that because the female contraceptive pill already exists. It was barely tested before they gave it to women — now there are more strict regulations in place.

I mentioned a little bit about my experiences with the pill in this post.

25. It's taken for granted that your last name will always remain the same.

On itsestäänselvyys, että sukunimi säilyy aina omana.

In many countries, including Finland, men can choose to take their wives last name when they get married. It's all optional, families are not forced to have the same last name.

26. Thicker skin that doesn't age as fast.

Paksumpi iho, joka ei ikäänny yhtä nopeasti.

I don't understand this argument. Surely the skin ages no matter how thick it is? Hormones do affect the skin, so often men do have thicker skin and women have softer skin. But women tend to make aging a huge deal and spend loads of money on different serums and creams that promise anti-aging properties. Maybe it's just another pressure on women needing to look perfect and young always, so it's something they want to feel jealous about? I don't think any of those women want to have a thicker skin though.

27. Army stories.

Armeijatarinat.

In Finland, it's compulsory for all men to take part in military service (or civil service, or go to prison). For women it is optional. I met one of my best friends, Jonna, in the army, when we had a one-weekend introductory camp there. We do still look back to those times and think about all the good memories, when having a fika. I can understand that men who have spent 6-12 months in the military service would do that to even a greater extent. But women, we have nothing to feel jealous about — we have an option to join the army!

28. You are able to order a giantic meal in a restaurant without needing to worry what your dinner partner will think about it.

Voit tilata ravintolassa hirmuiset jättiannokset eteesi ilman, että alat pohtia sitä miltä mässäilysi näyttää illalliskumppanisi silmissä.

If I'm hungry and I want to order something, I will not care what anyone else will think about it. Seriously.

29. A high number of sex partners is only a positive thing.

Seksikumppaneiden korkea määrä on vain positiivinen asia kanssaihmisten silmissä.

If you're a straight man and your mates think it's cool and you really care about that, then maybe? But maybe your future girlfriend won't find it any cooler than you would find it if she had the same number of sex partners.

30. Your voice has more auhtority. 

Äänessä on enemmän auktoriteettia.

It's more up to your personality than your gender.

31. A man, who can't dance can be adorable, but a woman who can't dance is only embarrassing.

Mies, joka ei osaa tanssia, voi olla hellyyttävä näky, mutta huonosti tanssiva nainen on vain noloa.

Why are the women who made up this list so convinced that being a woman is embarrassing?

Personally, I only like to go to night clubs where everyone is happy to dance badly and "embarrassingly". It's only for fun! At many straight clubs the dance floor is only meant for people who are skilled dancers and if some one looks like Ross and Monica from The Friends it's only embarrassing. Lighten up people, have more fun! Being skilled at laughing at yourself and having fun will earn you more life time happiness points than laughing at other people will.

32. Apparently you dare to ask for a pay rise more easily.

Kuulemma kehtaa pyytää palkankorotusta helpommin.

You cannot really be jealous about something that you start with the word "apparently".

33. Men's clothes last longer: in the sense of quality and fashion.
Miesten vaatteet kestävät paremmin aikaa sekä laatunsa että tyylinsä puolesta.

Maybe men only buy better quality clothes and prefer classic styles? As a woman you're just as allowed to buy good quality clothes that represent classic styles.

34. Men have balls: in their attitude and also literally.
Miehissä on munaa: sekä asenteessa että ihan konkreettisesti.

Women can have balls too. In their attitude and also literally.

Any thoughts? Do you think other genders have it easier?

Maybe I'm making it too difficult

Hello world,

It's been difficult to write. Mostly because I feel that I have too many thoughts and opinions and I'm not confident enough about them to post them here for the world to criticise about. But maybe I could take it as a learning exercise and we could learn from each other? This is not an educational platform where I am supposed to say how something should be done. This is supposed to be a place where I learn to share my opinions and thoughts.

So, what sort of thoughts have I had recently then?

At the moment I'm feeling a bit distressed about the consumer society we live in. The fact that I currently work in an industry which is highly dependant on people buying stuff isn't helping. It got worse after I read this article about how a 23-year New Yorker, Lauren Singer, has been living a "trash-free" life for 2 years.

Lauren Singer. Picture takes you to her blog.

Blogging about this is very scary because I'm not supposed to say anything about my work and because it seems to be a cool trend in blogs to show of new items that people have bought. I was going to write some shopping related posts about my favourite brands, but now I'm so stressed out of all the stuff and trash. I still have a month before I need to make any New Years resolutions, so maybe I really need to think about this.

In the meantime, let me tell you a story.

I went swimming again. This appears to be a reoccuring theme in my blog, but I'm okay with it. I went there straight from work and I had to buy some wash stuff because I had only taken a towel and a swimming costume with me in the morning.

I bought this:

It's colour-free and perfume-free. I wish it was also paraben-free, but apparently you can't get everything. I spent half an hour choosing this, so in the end I decided to go for this one instead of this Sanex one. It had so few ingredients that I decided to choose the Simple one because it had cucumber extract and citric acid. Do you people ever read the ingredients lists of the products you buy?

This turned out to be a decent buy for the £2 I spent on it. I didn't only wash my body with it, I also washed my make-up off with it — including my mascara! I don't understand people who go swimming without washing their make-up off first. It will end up in the pool? Some people also apparently put conditioner on their hair before they get into the pool. Why do they think it's okay? But anyway, this shower gel was okay on my face and it got my make-up of so I used it for washing my hair also. My hair got clean and I no longer understand why someone would need to buy normal shampoos. I actually compared the INCI of this shower gel to some basic shampoos and it looked the same. It seems to be just advertising so that people would buy more products.

My scalp is dry though and can't really even tolerate normal shampoos so I sprayed it with my scalp moisturising mixture that I used after my last traumatising trip to a hairdressers when they washed my hair 3-times with some awful hair dresser shampoos that made my scalp very itchy. I'm not sure what I put in the mixture anymore but judging it by it's scent: apparently a lot of cider vinegar. It helped.

Normally I wash my hair with either a shampoo bar or a budget solution: olive soap!

It's good for my hair and there's no need for conditioner. It's also cheap and "trash-free".

Now please excuse me, while I go and buy myself a bamboo toothbrush.