Style 101: The Twist Out

I promised in my last blog that the next blog would be a "how to" so here it is!

"Hello Mr. Mop in the corner"....neat. :-/ lol

"The Twist Out" will be my first Style 101, because this style was ESSENTIAL to my transition process and now that I'm completely natural it's even easier.
I love this style because:
a) it can be done on ALLL types of hair, even 100% relaxed
b) it doesn't require any heat so it definitely gives the hair a nice break if you use heat on a regular basis
c) it can last a good three days or longer and
d) if you're transitioning without a "big chop" this style will camouflage the difference between your natural roots and your straight ends.

So let's start.

Here are the products I used.

1. I begin by washing and shampooing my hair in the shower with Suave Naturals Shampoo.
2. I then use a generous portion (a palm full) of the BioInfusion Hydrating Balm and gently detangle my hair using a WIDE toothed comb. (Detangle starting at the ends of the hair and moving up the hair shaft.) I leave the conditioner in for about 10 minutes while in the shower then rinse out completely.
3. Following the deep conditioning treatment, I place in  Suave Sleek Conditioner as a leave in. I'll put in about half a palm full.
 4. Gently towel dry so the hair is not dripping, but still wet. Twist in sections starting from the nape and moving towards the crown, then finishing at the front of the hair. I use a hair clip to help keep my hair parted while twisting each section. A "rat tailed" comb helps in parting the back of the hair. I mostly use my fingers to part. As you can see, my sections are not perfect, however I don't mind that because when you unravel the hair once it's dry, the parts will be easier to camouflage.

5. When I'm finished twisting, I'll have approximately 16 twists on my head. Now...if you look closely, you'll see how some of my ends are straight. The joys of flat ironing natural hair. :-/ Over time, this may happen...this is how I get around that.

PERM RODS! I'll use perm rods on ends that are stubbornly straight. Perm rods will also allow you to achieve the twist out style if you're relaxed, or transitioning and still have relaxed ends. Simply twist or braid the hair and use perm rods on the ends...Ala...this...

7. The next step is pretty easy. Either wear your hair in twists for a day (which is what I do), or sleep in your twists so they air dry over night. I will warn you - if you finish your hair at 11pm at night and figure you'll have a fly and DRY silky smooth twist out at 7am the next morning, you're kidding yourself. You'll have a HALF dry, frizzy, no lasting twist out the next morning. If there's any chance you think your twists may still be wet, SIT UNDER A DRYER. Or wear your twists for a few more hours so they can dry. THEY MUST BE DRY before unraveling if you want defined curls!!!

8. Okay, the twists are dry. If you used perm rods, gently remove them and be sure not to snag any ends.

9. The next step (and my favorite step) is to add your favorite moisturizer to your hair WHILE your hair is still twisted. I use...

Miss Jessie's Curly Buttercreme. If you keep up with this blog, you know this is my absolute favorite moisturizer in the world. A little goes a long way. I'll add about a quarter sized dollop to my palm, gently rub my palms together and smooth it over my twists, making sure that the ends have product on them.

10. Unravel and gently separate each twist!!!! For more volume each twist can be separated into 4 or more individual curls. I usually don't separate them into more than 6 curls - after that, it starts to look frizzy.

11. Massage your scalp with fingertips to camouflage any parts.

12. VOILA!

It's FRIZZ time in the back! lol, I have no idea what happened there. Wind? Maybe it wasn't dry enough? Perhaps I didn't start the twist close enough to my scalp?? too much product? WHO knows! I promised I would never lie on the blog, so there you have it - the crown was frizzy!

To maintain the style, I sleep with a silk/satin bonnet at night. In the morning I'll use a little bit of Miss Jessie's Curly Buttercreme to fingerstyle and wake up the curls. After the third night of sleeping on it, it'll start to look quite frizzy - that's when I'll start to push it back into a head band, or a funky faux-hawk, and eventually into a ponytail until I can redo it.

Here is what it looked like after sleeping on it one night.

So you can see some of the curls are like "heeeeeeeelp," but that's all in the process. One of these days I'll find a product that will give me more hold. I tried Miss Jessie's Curly Meringue for that, but I wasn't crazy about it. ::shrugg::

Till next time!!!

Elaine

Transitioning into the New Year!

Happy New Year!!!! I pray that everyone's holiday season was awesome. Mine was absolutely amazing even though I wasn't able to go home for the holidays. My fiance surprised me with a late Christmas gift a couple days ago, and this was what was in the box!

Two 16oz buckets of my absolute, most favorite hair moisturizer in.... the .....world. I'm marrying THE greatest man in the world......sigh.......The Lord knew what he was doin when he sent me that man........::smiling::.......Anyhoo! lol

I figured it would be appropriate to focus on transitioning from relaxed/processed hair to natural. I've been getting a LOT of questions about this so I think it's a good place to start - especially since this seems to be the time of year when a lot of black women decide to go natural. (New year, new you, new hair....::shrugg::)

I'll be honest, I think this is the most difficult part of the natural hair journey simply because you're having to care for two different hair types. (And depending on your natural curl pattern, they can be two EXTREME hair types.) So here are a few guidelines that helped me through the transitioning process:

Step 1: Have a vision.

This was my natural hair inspiration in 2006:

And this is what my hair looked like when I was transitioning in 2007:

Why do you want to wear your hair natural? How do you want to wear your hair natural? Is there a particular style you like? Answer these questions, then GO for it! If you're growing your hair out gradually, chances are you can execute some if not most, of the natural hair styles you like WHILE your hair is transitioning.

Step 2: Learn how to execute your vision.

This is where the patience comes in. Trust me, patience is NOT something I'm good at. The natural hair process gave me a new level of patience. I had no choice BUT to be patient because there were some days where I was in the mirror for over two hours. (note: an hour is way to long for me!) I began to study my hair - see what products it liked, which ones it didn't. How long I could hold a style if I used one conditioner apposed to another.  From there, I read a lot then improvised a LOT.  My transition style (shown above) is more of a modified braid out. At first, I followed the simple braid out technique but since my relaxer was so BONE straight, my ends always looked string-y. My "modified braid out" included braiding my hair half way, then adding perm rods on the ends to give more of the spiral/curly look. I'll go more into detail of this particular transitioning style in another blog because it really was my saving grace in reaching my natural goal. It deserves it's own blog.

I also learned how to press/flat iron natural hair when my hair was transitioning. I love versatility and knew I wanted to wear my hair straight as well. If you want to wear your hair pressed/flat ironed while it's natural, LEARN how to press your hair while you're transitioning. (More on pressing natural hair in another blog, too.)

Step 3: SUPPORT!  

There will be days when you will be stumped! Get some people around you that are on the same journey, or better yet, people that have completed the journey. I found that even friends that were still relaxed would encourage me. I'm telling you, you will need people like that.

That's it for now. I think my next blog will be the "how-to" for my transition style. Even if your hair is relaxed and you want a curly style, it's super cute and works for relaxed hair too. Till then!