Mini Twists - Tips

Random picture off Google Images

Hey,

So, the other day, my mum came home from work and was like, "can you help me twist up my hair?" Being the lovely little teen I am, I said, "sure!" I climbed up on the back of the couch and mini twisted her hair.
My mum's an interior decorator/CSD/HRM. I'm letting you know that so you know that this style does work in a professional setting.


Things I used:

• Water (in a spray bottle)
• Coconut oil
• Eco Styler Gel (Olive Oil)

Okay, so, firstly, I hate seeing scalp-y twists so I decided to avoid that and section out her hair diagonally (north-eastwards \ ). What that did was that it let the twist above it cover up the scalp area exposed from sectioning/parting the hair.

My mum's still transitioning so, one thing those transitioning should know is that your relaxed hair might (most likely will) unravel. Therefore, the smaller the twists, the better and a gel would be good as it will hold the twists in place once dry.

So, I parted my mum's hair across (-) starting from the back and held off the rest of her hair with metal-free ponytail holders then I got a section of hair from the part I got out using my diagonal method and held off the rest of the hair with an ouchless band. I sprayed her hair with some water then got some gel onto her hair (by just touching the surface of the gel with my index-finger tip) then I sealed with coconut oil. Don't do that. From the first twist, I noticed that that process made her hair way too slippery so it was hard to get a hold on her hair to twist it up. Here's what to do (what I did with the rest of the twists), part the hair diagonally, spray it with water then seal it with the coconut oil and work the gel in over it smoothing the hair out downwards then begin to to twist the hair and repeat this with the rest of the hair you sectioned out when you parted the hair diagonally. One you're done with the first row, part the hair across again (above the row you just finished making twists in) and repeat the above process, but please note that when parting the hair diagonally, the end off the part (the bottom of this stroke \) should be at the top-centre of the twist in the row done below. Repeat these processes with the rest of the hair.

Now, I don't really fancy mini twists at the front of the hair unless there are extensions in the hair. Why? I don't really know, I just do. Anyways, due to the shape of my mum's head, I also didn't fancy this, I guess because her edges are still rather thin and quite short (that's the only area her hair is short. It's like BSL and then a quarter of a toothpick length hair at the edges). Anyways, so, I flat twisted the front of het hair about the size of each section for a single twist.

After twisting up her hair, I redid the relaxed bits that came loose without adding product then I sprayed her entire head of hair lightly with water and raked my hands through her twists and ran my hands down her hair lightly with coconut oil. I did this because I remembered that my hair and her hair got rather dry the first time we used the Eco Styler Gel.

Anyways, so, by the next day (I got her hair done in the evening), her twists were nice and super soft and everyone liked it (well, apart from my brother, but he only said he didn't 'cause he knew that I was the one who did it.....siblings! never will understand them! haha :) ). Her hair was dry and the twists (well, apart from about 3 or 4) held pretty well even at the relaxed ends.

Hope this helps someone! :)

p.s What are your tips, tricks and methods for mini twisting fully natural/transitioning hair?

New Hair Regimen

New Hair Regimen (16/02/12)

·         Take down hairstyle on Fridays (or band it)

·         Deep condition on Friday Nights (with avocados as often as possible – avoid dry hair)

·         Co-wash or cleanse with homemade no-poo cleanser on Saturday (when showering)

·         Detangle thoroughly during wash

o   Get some olive oil or shea butter into the hair if the next step isn’t possible to do on that day (for some reason) or

o   Mix up some bottled water with olive oil, homemade rosemary oil and possibly canola oil. Pour into a spray bottle and spritz/spray onto hair.

·         Baggy with olive oil after washing till about to get out of the house + air dry (or go to to the salon):

o   If just heading to the grocery store, tie a scarf or two (or a put a bonnet on and tie a scarf) over the plastic bag.

o   If going to a close friend’s house, do the same as for just going to the grocery store.

o   If going to the salon, do the same or if you’re not sure the person that normally works on your hair is around, take off the plastic bag in the car near the salon.

o   And so on…

·         Mini twist hair (avoiding braiding my hair for about a month or two)

·         Get some Organics Lock&Twist Gel onto mini twists once at home and air dry.

·         Hold up end of hair (esp. at the back) with a ponytail holder or elastic band to prevent brushing on shirts.

·         Sleep on a satin pillowcase, with a sating bonnet on, (or for now, in my case, with a pillow and pillow case wrapped with old satin PJs or tie on a pair of old satin PJs on my hair)

·         Get some olive oil or shea butter onto hair every evening with twists in.

·         Use the twist&lock gel when needed (but if not needed more than once a week, don’t use more than once a week)

·         Check for possible buildup (though not expected) every weekend.

o   If there is buildup or scalp is dirty, clean with homemade no-poo cleanser, then condition and so on (but don’t baggy or don’t baggy for more than 30 minutes if twists are still in to avoid them coming out). Get some Lock&Twist Gel on hair after either conditioning or baggying.

·         If there’s no buildup, band hair securely and deep condition then co-wash if the DC needs washing out (baggy if possible).

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Products: Avoiding commercial products as much as possible

ü Cleanser: homemade

ü Conditioner: homemade

ü Deep Conditioner: varies, but homemade too

ü Leave-in conditioner: homemade

ü Oils: Extra Virgin Olive Oil, homemade rosemary oil, canola oil

ü Butters: 100% natural, unrefined Shea Butter (gotten straight from local sellers in Africa, by my grandmother)

ü Gel: Organics Lock&Twist Gel

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Go to styles

ü Mini Twists (two strand)

ü African Threading

(No more braiding (flat braiding, box braiding and so on…) for me)

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Things to avoid

ü For now, protein (esp. eggs).

ü The usual-s, silicones, sulphates, parabens (looking for a better gel, by the way. The gel I currently use has Methylparaben in it – not thrilled about that), petrolatum, petroleum, mineral oil, sodium chloride, alcohol (maybe apart from Cetyl Alcohol), heat and the others already known (but I’m basically making my own products, so I don’t need to worry about these because they’re not going in my homemade things).

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Shrinkage & Stretching (REVIEW!!!! = various stretching methods)

Gaah! January's already almost over? Just 1 day to go till February? Wow!

Anyways, hey everyone!
Today (well, yesterday), I decided to talk to you guys about stretching, stretching your hair/curls (not the err...exercise stretching thingy). Okay! so,  so far, I've tried stretching my hair by doing two strand twists (and three-strand twists), African threading (aka Ghana Plaits), basic braids (box braids), bantu knots, scarf&ponytail holder and setting rollers (there's another name for those, but I can seem to remember it right now.

My hair shrinks like A LOT! There have been some days that I go out rocking a beautiful afro, but by the next few hours, my hair's a frizzy mess or should I just say a shrunken frizzy mess. Someone once asked me, "did you cut your hair?" and I was like, "no." The same person then asked, "then why does it look way shorter," and I was like, "because it shrunk." I then held part of my hair and pulled it downwards to show it's actual length and that I didn't cut it and the person I was talking to was like, "oh, wow!" Some people just kept staring at my hair for a while after that. The person I was talking to has natural curls too, but a different curl type/pattern, plus, she doesn't have to deal with so much shrinkage (it's hard to notice if she even gets shrinkage). Anyways, so this led me to start trying to stretch out my curls. Here's a brief review on the following methods I tried:

• Two-strand (and 3 strand) twists: I did this while my hair was damp (you can find vids on how to two-strand twist and three-strand twist on YouTube). When it was dry and I had to leave the house, I took the twists down. I have to say, I liked the twist-out look it gave, but like when it comes to stretching and shrinkage, after a couple of hours, my hair shrunk. On a different day, I was bored so I decided to two-strand twist my hair. I didn't wet my hair before doing this because I felt kind of lazy and well, I wasn't planning on combing my hair (it was already detangled). When I needed to take out the twists, I took them out (obviously) and like it gave me that twist out look too, and my hair did seem a bit more stretched than when I did the twists with damp hair. Unfortunately, after a few hours, my hair shrunk (but not so much). When it comes to stretching my hair, I don't think twists would be my go-to method. They are good, but it takes quite some time for me to two-strand twist my whole hair.
• African Threading (aka Ghana Plaits): I have tried African Threading my hair with both wool and weave thread (not at the same time!). You can find vids on how to African Thread hair on YouTube (I recommend checking out the one on youtube.com/GirlsLoveYourCurls). I have to say that this is one of my go-to styles when it comes to stretching my hair. I love the soft waves/look it gives my hair, I like how my hair feels when I take them out, there are various ways to African thread and like some times, people think I have extensions in or I have some sort of weave when I do certain forms of African threading (with weave thread). When I African Thread my hair, it stays stretched way longer than when I two-strand twist my hair. The last time I African threaded my hair, I had it like that for a week before I took it out and I did it on damp (almost dry though, but still damp) hair.
• Basic Braids (box braids): I love the braid out look when I take basic/box braids down :) I always braid my hair wet and then let it air dry/dry naturally. Basic braids have helped stretch my curls and kinks each time I've done them, but, well, after some time (hours), my hair shrinks. I must say, I think basic braiding stretches my hair to about the same length two-strand twists do or sometimes, it stretched my hair more than twists. You can find vids on how to basic braid on YouTube (check out the one on youtube.com/GirlsLoveYourCurls)
• Bantu Knots: I'm not a huge fan of bantu knots and bantu knot outs, but I can do them. Bantu knots do stretch my hair, but my hair still shrinks after some time. At some point, bantu knots gave me sort of a curled-relaxed hair look. I didn't really like it, but it wasn't so bad. I have tried a combination of two-strand twists and bantu knots (twisted my hair then bantu knotted that twisted hair). The -out look it gave looked kinda nice, but it's not a look that'll be like my go-to style. Also, bantu knots are not my go-to method for stretching my hair, but it works wonders for some people.
• Scarf&Ponytail Holder: First, I'll explain how this is done. You hold your hair up with a ponytail holder while still damp (or wet, it's your choice) and if you get worried about your frontal hair/frontal edges, you leave out a bit of the hair there and flat twist of flat braid it. Next, you tie a scarf over the hair that's held up my the ponytail holder (make sure you don't get the scarf over the flat twist/braid). Do whatever you need to do till you need to take this down (your hair has to be fully dry when taking it down, by the way). This method was my go-to style at some point last year. I don't do it anymore because right now, I'm not a fan of holding my hair up (edges...plus, I want to grow out my hair a bit more before I hold it up like that again.
• Setting Rollers: Tried this method out yesterday when my mum found her rollers from the 90s :) (oh! and I soaked, washed and so on, the rollers before I used them on my hair because they hadn't been used in about a decade). So, how I did it: I got random bits of my hair and got some of my moisturising conditioner mix (made up of John Frieda Friss-Ease: Curl Activating Daily Conditioner, some rosemary oil, some canola oil, a bit of my pH balanced leave in condition mix and a tad bit of water. I eyeballed all the ingredients. I love how this makes my hair feel! :) ). So, after I got the conditioner mix onto my hair, I finger combed a bit then slid a Denman Brush through (to make sure I had no tangles) then I hand stretched my hair (pulling) and wrapped the ends round the roller then I rolled it up holding my hair so it's stretched then pinned it up. I did this to every bit of hair on my head and I had my hair like that for...hours (I was moving house so, I just tied a scarf over it while shuffling between houses and moving). When I took the rollers down, my hair felt so good (from my mix :)), smelt so good (mix too!), it had that professional salon-set hair look that can be combed out into a bob or something, but what I was looking for was what I found - stretched hair! This is a go-to method for stretching my hair now! :)

Okay! so, I'm planning on trying out 'banding' as a new method for stretching my hair. I believe it might work, but well, let's wait and see! :)

Thanks for reading! :)

~Sam

My go-to stretching methods: African threading and, setting rollers.

Sick (don't let your hair be sick too)

Okay!
So, once I got a whiff of getting sick, I told my hair, "you're so not getting sick too!" Okay! so I came down with a cold and like I know that whenever I get sick, my hair is in bad shape so I chose to keep my hair healthy even though I'm sick. I got meds for the cold and I started taking my vitamins again. For my hair, once I took out my flat braids and African threadings, I deep conditioned my hair overnight then I co-washed this morning. After co-washing and detangling, I got some oils into my hair then I twisted my hair (in large bits). I had my hair in the twists for a couple of hours, but then my mum said it was starting to make me look crazy because well, it started like standing and it was hot here so, well, I took out the twists and my grandmother, who's over said she'll help work on my hair, just give me a manageable hair style she calls 'Calabar' (it's an African hair style). I'll look up a pic now:
It looks something like this (and this looks a bit like large box braids, right?):

So, that's what grandmother's doing for me. On Sunday, hopefully, I'll get my flat braids and African threading done again. Then I'll keep that in for another week.

I'm the kind of person who doesn't drink water unless I get this weird feeling which shows that I'm dehydrated or my body needs water. Since I got sick, I've been buying a bottle of water when I'm out and like I try to finish it even though most of the time, I don't. Anyways, I got a bottle that can hold up to 1.5litres of water in it. I then filled the bottle with water and I forced myself to drink it all at night, yesterday. A few hours ago, I filled that bottle with water again and I forced myself to down it all again.

Also, I'm not much of an "eater" which isn't helping and like my mum's like, "Sam, eat! you have to eat something! You know you're on meds!" but my reply is, "I'm not hungry." I'm actually, not hungry, but the thing is, I never get hungry actually, but one thing that's putting me off even trying to eat is that my mum made something I don't like to eat (and there are MANY things I don't like to eat). Anyways...

Apart from the last paragraph, that's how I'm trying to keep my hair healthy while I'm sick. My hair's not going to suffer.

I hope I get better soon!

~Sam :)

My Hair Regimen thingy

Okay! so, I’ve never called this a hair regimen/routine or whatever, but here it goes:

Friday night till Saturday morning/afternoon:

1. Done on Friday: Deep condition (with my homemade all natural deep conditioner. DC made has to do with how my hair feels. If really dry, an avocado (and other things) DC, a 100% natural palm oil DC (gosh! that stuff works wonders and leaves my hair feeling so soft, but it’s hard to wash out) or a shea butter based DC. I have protein DCs and other stuff, but it all depends on how my hair feels). Sleep with deep conditioner in my hair and a plastic cap and scarf over it.
2. Wash hair with shampoo, focus on just the scalp (once a month or two if it’s not been up to a month yet, shampoo’s not touching my hair).
3. Co-wash thoroughly
4. Detangle while conditioner’s in hair/during co-wash
5. Get natural oils (like my homemade rosemary oil, canola oil, olive oil etc) into hair
6. Air dry (I never use a blow drier/hood or anything heat related)

Weekly protective style:

1. On either a Saturday or Sunday, I usually get my hair braided (both flat braids and well, box-braid kinda braids) or two-strand twisted. My hair is braided or twisted wet (and as it dries, it’s re-wetted, if my hair’s not been fully braided). I usually keep this in for about a week or two. I used to do it with hair extensions, but nowadays, just my hair. (Optional: get natural aloe vera gel and shea butter onto hair)
2. Get all the ends of my braided or twisted hair together using a pony tail holder or something like that, fold the ends and hold them in a way that they can stay under my hair and not brush on my shirt or neck.
3.  Get natural oils into my hair (I love using rosemary oil because my hair loves that and it also prevents dryness, dandruff and itchy scalp). *I only get oils on my hair at night because I believe they can attract dust or lint at day (when I’m out and about).
4. Sleep with a scarf on every night.

Weekly routine (when I don’t braid/twist my hair):

*The no hair touching method:

1. Fully detangle and get oils into hair when wet
2. Braid end of hair together round the whole head ending at the back.
3. Tie a clean head scarf or wrap over it neatly.
4. Keep the scarf on and change scarves every night (I have a scarf I use at night and one I use at day).
5. Try not to take off the scarf and when I do take it off to change scarves, I don’t touch my hair or at least, I lightly get something like canola oil onto it and then my hair’s in a scarf again.

*don’t do this for more than a week in a row.

*The hidden ends method:

1. Make a mix of organic leave-in hair conditioners, water and oils. Shake it up.
2. Get mix into bits of your hair just before you detangle.
3. Section hair with a bit from the middle to whichever chosen side of my hair as a fringe (kinda thing) and clip it away, braid it away or something.
4. Get a head band on, but keep it round my neck while I comb out the other part of my hair upwards (starting from ends to roots).
5. Get the headband up in a way that it holds down my edges and it’s right above the fringe section (it usually slants).
6. Take hair back, or most of it, braid the ends together and tuck the braid under the hair band.
7. Take hair from the sides or hair that didn’t stay with the braid and tuck them under the hair band to cover up the hair band (only the bit of the hair band above the fringe is left to show).
8. Unravel the fringe, get some of the mix on it, finger comb (or comb with a wide tooth comb) and braid/twist the ends of the hair together, like a flat braid/twist only that you’re joining the ends of the hair together and then braiding/twisting away from the scalp area (wish I had explanatory pics). Braid/twist till no more hair is left to add to it and then just braid it down to the end.
9. Get some shea butter mix (mine has shea butter (duuh) and rosemary oil in it), rub it between palms and smooth over hair to keep it in place and help it set like that well so there are no flyaways or anything like that.

* Flat twist outs:

1. Fully detangle hair when wet
2. Get random sections or section out hair neatly and flat twist (make as many as you want, but the final product will according to how big/small your flat twist sections were).
3. Get a bit of shea butter onto hair (because of no. 4)
4. Get 100% natural aloe vera gel (straight from the plant) and smooth over hair for definition and light gel hold.
5. Best to do the above (and tie a scarf over) the night before you want the "out." You can repeat the aloe the next morning then undo the twists carefully and style however you want.

*There are other styles I can do (way better than these, plus this is being worked on a little bellow collar bone length hair (when stretched)), but I can’t type ‘em all now. *sigh* But, one thing is, it’s better to get your hair braided or twisted that these ones. I believe it’s healthier.

Stretching:

Options:
1. Bantu knots
2. Twists
3. Twists that are turned into bantu knots
4. African threading/Ghana plaits (real easy to do)
5. Flat twists

After swimming (in a chlorinated pool esp. without a swim cap):

1. Rinse out hair thoroughly (if you have shampoo or conditioner on you, wash/co-wash your hair well)
2. Get some oils or butters into your hair (making sure your hair’s not so greasy or oily it can’t be touched.

Moisture (sorta tightlycurly way):

1. In a bowl, mix up a combing conditioner (you should be able to find some good combing conditioners on tightlycurly.com), a bit of water, organic leave-in conditioners and oils (rosemary preferably, but I usually have canola in too).
2. Apply to hair and detangle or just comb out. *do not use a lot!

*OR! Most of the time, I just use plain water only!

Products used:

DC: All homemade
Shampoo: John Frieda Frizz-Ease Curl Around Style Activating… (I’m planning on changing this)
Conditioner: John Frieda Frizz-Ease Curl Around Style Activating (not sure if I’ll change this)
Oils: Extra Virgin Olive oil, Canola oil, Homemade Rosemary Oil (hoping to add jojoba, coconut and castor oils to the list soon)

Can’t remember what else to say…*sigh* First time I typing these.
Hope this helps somebody