Tallinn 2

The Finns and Estonians may be language relatives, but one of the things that is very different between the two countries is that in Estonia looking feminine and beautiful is much more important. I suppose these hairdresser's shops are one reflection of this. These modest-looking hairdressers are everywhere in Lasnamäe. Most of the ones I've seen are like this: housed in the ground floor of the apartment blocks, with just the 'hairdresser' sign out front and opening times on the door; no windows with ads for the big hair product brands or photos of hair models. The long-time Estonian resident that I mentioned in the previous post said in one of his blogs that shops like this in Lasnamäe haven't changed much in the 20 years since the country's independence. I've never visited in any of them but from the outside I like them. They look homely in all their modesty.

And here, back to a general view, and from personal to impersonal in a way. I get a kind of a feeling of foreignness and of distance with the scale and weight of these large concrete blocks. An outsider's view I'm sure.


This intentionally edited dark and sombre. It wasn't much more cheerful in colour, though. I am aware of the fact that taking sombre pictures of a place like this runs the risk of stereotyping. The residents may not have the same view as this is their home, and perhaps a photographer should seek things that run counter to (of?) the common view of places like this as depressing. But I can't help an outsider's fascination with a place the like of which doesn't exist in my own country.