Hair salon entrepreneur Vuokko Helminen (b Doctorateformerly Mattila) died on September 18, 2024 in Helsinki due to a long-term illness. He was 82 years old, born in Ylitornio on May 5, 1942.
The beginning of life did not foretell that Helmis would become a well-known social face, a famous barber-hairdresser, let alone a successful entrepreneur. Father died of injuries he received in the war in 1944, when Vuoko was only two years old. The girl was left in the care of her father’s parents in Docktare. Mother got a new family elsewhere. Vuokko was raised under such strict discipline that he always remembered his stern grandfather’s eyes and was wary of middle-aged men, including his customers.
Career started as a 13-year-old barber apprentice in Tornio. On one trip to Helsinki, Vuokko received an invitation to the movie Autotytöt from the director Maunu Kurkvaara. Helsinki became his hometown and Vuokko Docktare became Vuokko Mattila, who founded the salon bearing his name in 1968 on Lapinlahdenkatu. It became a haunt of celebrities. Journalists became interested, and Vuokko poured the ups and downs of his life into magazine stories.
The hair salon operated for a long time on Museokatu. Nowadays, the youngest daughter continues as an entrepreneur on Aurorankatu.
Growing up without a father and without a mother left traces on the sensitive Vuokko, which he carried throughout his life. Even when life seemed like a successful glider, he was plagued by tenderness, insecurity and anxiety. In his time, he also medicated them with the help of intoxicants.
Anemone that is, completely, whether it was about work, taking care of the family, partying or getting sober. He was seen and heard. When conversion to faith in the 1980s swung his whole life into a completely new position, he was ready to stop working as a barber and become an evangelist.
Motherhood was the most important task. “I am a mother a hundred times over. Sometimes I feel a lot of feet around me, hands on my neck, stomach, chest. They calm, make me think, they give me responsibility for my actions. This love is eternal,” Vuokko wrote in his diary.
About youth marriage Taru and Tanja were born, and Tiia and Tuukka from a long marriage with Tapani Helminen (1950–2006). There are 11 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren. My favorite place was Askola’s cabin, where Vuokko picked mushrooms and berries all winter.
Parkinson’s disease gradually took away the ability to work. Support in old age was partner Matti. For the last three years, Vuokko was in a nursing home. When friends or loved ones talked to Vuoko in the evening, his last wish was always: “Good night, Jesus with you.”
Kristina Kunnas
Vuokko Helminen’s family friend
#Obituary #Hair #artist #social #face
