alex.

35. capricorn. tree-hugger.


what’s up with the birds on your patio?

It looks a bit rough now since they’ve pooed all over the place. It all started with a set of blackbirds, a mom and dad. In the beginning they’d fly away, but towards the end of the summer, when the hatchlings came, I could sit on the balcony while they were there.
      I was doing a spring clean on the balcony and lifted the bench outside, underneath there was a nest with a tiny blue egg. Then there was nothing more for a couple of days and the mom seemed to have left, but then suddenly there were two more eggs, then four, and eventually three of them ended up hatching. They like to eat sunflower seeds, that’s a hit, while Ryvita crackers are often left alone.


YoU livE quite rural.

The park next to my house is magical—it’s not huge, but you can still walk around a bit and there’s this stable that has horses. I’ve never ridden, I’ve been a bit scared, horses are such big animals.


i brought a friend to tyresta
national park and started hugging.


but You have the aura of someone who rides bareback into the sunset. you also hug trees — how did that start?

A few years ago I swapped services with a client of mine. It was like some spiritual therapeutic thing. He was the one who told me to hug a tree. So I brought a friend to Tyresta National Park and started hugging.


I love that you would go that far when you’ve got trees right outside.

Yeah, I know! At first I didn’t want people to see, but now I can do it without feeling embarrassed. Sometimes when I come home from work it’s so good to just get a solid hug. The feeling is empty, yet very grounded. When I stand there it’s almost like I meditate, it cleanses me a little. For some time I was told that I needed to ground myself, that I was mostly open from the crown and had no contact with the ground, spending too much time in my head. Hugging trees is good medicine for that!



you’ve tested a number of alternative therapies, what’s worked best for you and what’s the strangest thing you’ve tried?

My spiritual journey began when I was 20, just after my dad died. That’s when I met my friend Vanessa. I first went to her as a medium and she soon became a friend. She’s been a spiritual guide for me ever since.
      At first I wanted her to make contact with my dad, but then it developed into a kind of therapy. Vanessa is the one who recommended me to go to Pia, who I’ve now been a regular client with for many years. It's like massage therapy. What appeals to me about this kind of therapy is that it does not get flat or one-dimensional. It helped me to not go so much to my head for answers, but to work with the body and let it speak.
      A few years later I was considering where to go on holiday, and suddenly I get a text from Vanessa, who I hadn’t talked to in a long time. She told me that she’d received a strong indication that I should go to India.
      First I went to Goa with a friend, and then went on my own and had the classic India journey cliché that changed my life. That was when I met Mooji, who is a very wise man. Now whenever I go to India, I go for four to five week periods with large groups of people, all sitting with Mooji. It’s something around 1,700 people.



it was such a powerful
experience that i just cried.


what does that energy feel like when there are so many people meditating in one room. does it make it hard to feel centred within yourself?

It was such a powerful experience, that I just cried, I couldn’t understand why, so I just kept going. One insight I’ve gained through meditation is that we all mirror each other, that we’re all one and the same.



WHow did Oqma come to be?

When I first moved to Stockholm when I was 19 I started working at Hårgänget and Eva who now co-owns Oqma with me, was also working there. I never would have imagined that we’d be running our own salon together. We just click, it’s a nice collaboration and we have a very deep love for each other.


is there a philosophy behind the salon?
That’s what’s nice about it, there was never a rigid form to stick to, more of a feeling of an open and kind atmosphere. Eva is incredibly good at seeing and greeting everyone who comes in. That’s something that I appreciate and have learned from her. It could be a part of getting older, but it just feels dated to be tough and cold, when it’s so much nicer to be open.


How did you develop the interior?

I asked one of my long-time clients Eva Johansson, who is an architect, if she was interested in helping us with the interior, which she was happy to do together with her boyfriend’s architecture studio Norell/Rodhe. It wasn’t based so much on a trend, more of a lasting feeling. When we created the logo there was a very clear sense of what we wanted. Eva and I were looking through old magazines and found this logo from a Blur album that we liked. Jens, who helped us with the logo, captured what we were after.


(1) oqma interior. (2) oqma logo. (3) blur album cover.


One thing you’ve become known for is how you cut a mullet.

I’ve thought about what haircut that I always loved to cut and mullet is one of them, maybe that's why!


how often should we wash our hair?

There are probably many hairdressers who can answer this better. I think it’s good to follow the gut. If it gets greasy quickly then there may be something off with the scalp and you may need to get used to a little grease or use a good shampoo to balance the scalp. If you wash it too often, you wash away the natural protection and the scalp starts to produce more tallow. It can also come down to what shampoo you use. For example, if you’ve got really fine thin hair and use a deeply moisturizing anti-frizz shampoo, you will most likely get greasy hair quite quickly.



How did you find your flat and when did you move in?

I bought it in 2011. A funny story is when me and a guy that I hooked up with after a rave ended up at my place. I was in the kitchen and he was in the bed talking about how he had been in a similar apartment before somewhere in the area with some girl that he used to go out with. I asked him who it was and it was the girl that I bought the apartment from! [Laughs] Small world.
If you were to choose a song that has an energy like your home, what would it be?
I think maybe like a Hare Krishna chant meets Take My Breath Away.
What is home to you, what brings that feeling?

Intimacy and security. Especially when I travel, I notice a need to create that feeling whereever I stay. I feel we are like animals in many ways, creating a home where we are, with what we got.

it felt like the last squeeze
of a kalles kaviar tube.


Do you have any rituals?

This fall I had a bath every day to wash the day away. It was an intense fall—there was a lot going on inside. It felt like the last squeeze of a Kalles Kaviar tube.
      Often in the morning I sit down to meditate, just to check in. And in the evening I practice gratitude for the day that I have had before I go to bed.
      During the pandemic I noticed people tended to complain, fret the small stuff and focus on negativity. We all have issues we go through, but instead of focusing on the negative, it helps to redirect the focus to the positive impact it has also had. It changes the vibration in the body a lot.



grandpa was an atheist.


Did you get your spirituality from home?

I think so, without it ever being something that was talked about. Grandma is a believer, while my grandpa was an atheist, but it worked for them. My mom has always been very open to spirituality and I have probably inherited that from her.



do you see a big difference between STOCKHOLM and Northern Sweden, where you grew up?
I feel it when I’m back in Umeå or when I’m with people from there. It’s a different vibration, more down to earth.


What are some of your favourite spots IN AND AROUND TOWN?
Erstadviken. I love the sea and I like to be in my own company.
      I feel most comfortable at home, at work and at a meditation group that I’m part of—we see each other every Sunday. I also like spending time at my friend Fangssong’s restaurant Peony near Globen, they have great Chinese food.
      COW is a recurring place, scent is important to me. Even how someone smells without extra scent, how ones breath or skinn smells like. I love perfumes. With the previous perfume I bought, the goal was to smell a bit like a My Little Pony that I had when I was little, like plastic. When I go there I come with a feeling of something that I want to recreate. Once I’m done with a scent I have a hard time going back to it. The smell of a really greasy scalp and then add the smell that gets stuck in your hair and clothes after frying is the worst smell, after a dead rat.


the goal was to smell a bit
like my little pony, like plastic.



Another place you spend a lot of time is at Studio Orm, a small pilates studio. Tell us about your practice.
It’s a great studio and I love Emma who runs it! I thought pilates was with a ball, but there is not a single ball in the studio. Someone commented that the machines look like they belong in Berghain.
      For me pilates it’s like deep diving within. I believe that our belief systems affect our self image which affects our posture, how we move and carry ourselves, reacts and so on. With pilates I get access to places in the body to work with not only physically but also on a deeper level. You start from the inside, with your core and working your way out. It’s like you’re a flower, blooming. Such power! I have never been this dedicated to any form of exercise before.


It’s hard not to notice the panties on the wall, what does the piece represent to you?
Self love and acceptance. For a while I had a huge pussy complex. I even forced my sisters and friends to show me theirs. Luckely that is something that I’ve managed to let go of.

Kill, marry, snog:
Kill: Fear and limitation.
Marry: Myslef, maybe a little cheesy. Woody Harrelson!
Snog: Everything you can taste in life without losing yourself ;) ✺



people at home

magnus märta fredrik nicole yuki & helen r:sdesign alex colin ursula militza & elis johannes tora isak & malin oscar



COLOPHON

Produced in the Kingdom of Sweden
Typeset in Condensa by Jonathon Yule and Century Schoolbook by Linn Boyd & Morris Fuller Benton
Hermit is Hélène Kugelberg, Elise Haugslett, Colin Bergh

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