Finnish men are tall and thin – you wish

Are we all Finns blue eye-eyed blondes? Are Finnish men tall and thin? This is about Finnish looks and fashion.

Yes, Alexander Stubb and our ex-prime minister Matti Vanhanen are tall and thin. It can create a certain image. Unfortunately, there are also short and fat Finnish men. In fact, we have our own stereotype of middle aged men – they have big tummies because of drinking a lot of beer. Have you heard of Martti Ahtisaari? He’s a bit different example of Finnish men.

We are not all blondes. Finns tell blond jokes disrespecting blondes in the blink of an eye. Here comes one: How does a blond try to kill a fish? –By drowning. Typical Finnish hair color is mousy grey and that’s why we dye our hair often. Ida was 7 years old when she dyed her hair first time and Soili was 10. Old people dye their hair for covering grey ones and it’s not weird or rare if a boy has dyed his hair.

As common as the stereotype of blonds is that every Finn is blue-eyed. There are no more blue-eyed Finns than blonds. We have all kinds of eye colors. We ourselves have green eyes. Some people use colored contact lenses to make their look perfect.

We have four seasons and it’s nice to get new clothes when season changes. On the other hand winter is annoying time because you need so many clothes and getting dressed takes a long time. You can’t dress to kill because you must have many layers of clothing. For example if you have a new cool top nobody will notice it under your hoodies and jacket. In winter everyone seems to prefer dark colors than others. Leather jackets and long boots are now popular with teens.

Almost every teenage girl have earrings because there’s no age limit for that. And what comes with the boys, they usually have only one ear pierced. In Finland 16-year-old can get a piercing but there are few exceptions. To get a nipple or genital piercing you need to be 18.

It’s funny and shocking when you walk on the street and see 11 year-old girl with lots of makeup on. It’s general with children nowadays. In addition to wearing makeup they also have the latest high-priced fashion clothes. Though this has become an ordinary phenomenon luckily everyone doesn’t do that. When we were as the same age as they are we had pink t-shirts with text “100% girl power” and we definitely didn’t wear any makeup.

We have all kind of dressing styles here in Finland. Especially in the midst of youngsters. You can find emos, goths, rockers, heavy metal fans, nerds, those who follow the latest fashion trends and loads of other styles. Here in Finland is also very popular dressing style called “pissis” – they frequent brands like Wesc, Paul Frank and Svea. Some of them don’t even know how to make up! Almost anyone doesn’t like them because besides that they usually look awful, they’re also quite annoying. Here is a joke video about them.

But the fact is that generalizing doesn’t tell the whole truth. For example – you can look like nerd but deep inside you think as the same way as emos do!
You really can’t say anything about the other person if you don’t know them. Yes, you can always criticise people on the ground what they look like – but you have to remember that everything isn’t always what it looks like.

Street fashion from Helsinki

By Ida & Soili