Hello curlyheads!
This post is about doing twist-outs, a very popular style amongst naturals. It is extremely well publicised in the natural hair cyber-world. There are so many videos on how to achieve the perfect twist out, just you-tube twist-out! That said, I’ll keep this one fairly brief!
I love twist outs for the following reasons:
1. They give great body and volume.
2. They allow adjustment of my natural curl pattern in terms of size, sometimes you just want bigger curls with more body.
3. They are a “dry” style. Other styles such as “wash and go” mean that you have to walk around with a wet head while your curls take their sweet time to dry. This isn’t advisable in winter – wet hair = cold head. With a twist out, once your hair is dry you keep it dry (compared to other styles which require re-wetting to revive the curls).
4. They allow you to incorporate nourishing moisture to your hair. The best products, in my view, for a twistout are butters rather than gels and I feel these are far more moisturising for the hair.
5. They last for several days.
Nothing is without its cons, and the few reasons I am opposed to twistouts are:
1. They hate humidity. I learned this the hard way when I did a twistout for a short winter break in Paris. It rained and my hair shrunk and frizzed, which meant I had to wear it up most of the time.
2.They take a while to install (40 minutes) and you need to get the conditions (product mixes) right, which takes a bit of experimentation.
So, here’s how I do a twistout. The apparatus you need are, spray bottle of water, leave in conditioner, wide tooth comb, curly butter, sectioning clips, satin bonnet, olive oil for shine.
1. I start with hair that’s dry and I don’t shampoo beforehand, twistouts seem to work better when hair is NOT freshly washed…… (probably because having product and oils already in the hair helps the twists to set better).
2. Taking the hair a small section at a time and starting from the back, I spritz the hair with water until damp. Apply giovanni leave in conditioner and comb through the section with a wide too comb.
3. Apply a generous amount of curly butter to the section and take an even smaller section which you then divide into two strands. Twist these strands around each other and “twizzle” the ends to prevent frizzy ends.
Best twist-out butter I’ve tried.
4. Continue until you complete the whole head. (N.B. Arms may start to ache ;))
5. Cover hair with a satin bonnet with enough room to stop the twists from getting squashed.
6. Allow twists to dry overnight, or whenever really. It takes about 10 hours for them to dry through and set…. so sometimes I just wear them as a hairstyle of their own.
7. When twists are COMPLETELY DRY (this is key!) unravel carefully and run olive oil over them for shine.
8. Fluff the twistsby separating them out into smaller strands to create desired volume.
There you have it!
xoxo
