Tag Archives: twists

Feb13

Accidental Style and TnC Results

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TnC_21213

As promised, here are the results from the twist out set I did on Wash Day Sunday. I turned out pretty well, though I did have to add some moisture to my ends as they were feeling a bit dry. And, let me tell you, I was NOT happy when I first released it because it looked so piecey, was not falling right, the tail was in full effect and the parting wasn’t working. My part was also to far back, so it looked totally flat on top.

IMG_7978Can you tell that I’m not happy?

But, after playing around with it a bit, changing the direction of the hair to go back from my face, it allowing it to settle, I got it to look satisfactory.

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The funny thing? This was after work and never saw the light of day. LOL!! I actually ended up wearing my twists to work again!! See, what had happened was … I twisted them up and secured with a hair fork in the morning in order to shower. When I took off my satin scarf and shower cap, I realized that the updo looked kind of cute! So, I decided to go to work with it as is!! Don’t you just love easy accidental styles?!?!?!

twistsupdo

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HAPPY HUMP DAY!!

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Jan4

Transitioning Series: Protective Styling with Braid/Twist Extensions

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Michelle_HappilyEverNaturalby Michelle of Happily Ever Natural

Hey Naturalista’s!!! Transitioning? Don’t know what to do with your hair? Want something new? That will be low manipulation? Nothing is working for you? Ready to relax it? STOP RIGHT THERE IN YOUR TRACKS!! DON’T DO IT!!! Why not put your hair away for a few weeks so you don’t have to bother it? Protective styling is your answer!!!! Protective styling is any hairstyle that helps protect the hair from over-manipulation. Also, protective styles protect your hair from extreme weather, both hot and cold, and it prevents the hair from drying out. When you protective style, you are giving your hair a “break.” Many install a protective style so that they can go days, weeks, or a few months without having to do their hair!

My Instagram and Facebook have been blowing up with many naturalistas tucking their tresses away for the winter. So why not try a protective style? You don’t have to worry about your hair … why not, right? Here are a few protective styles that you can try on your hair. If you don’t want to try them yourself, you can always find a local salon that can do many of these styles.

1. Box Braids
Yes the old school box braids are back and in full effect. They are sooo super cute and easy to do as well.

Check out a tutorial here:

2. Senegalese Twists
I LOVE THIS LOOK … one day I am going to try these on myself :). Check out a tutorial on how to do these here:

3. Havana/ Marley Twists
Now I know all of you have probably watched my Marley twist video. LOL. I SOOO am doing my hair next week like this again, so I hope you all don’t get tired of seeing them. LOL! But here is my video on how to do the Marley twists.

4. Kinky Twists
The good old kinky twists :) are super cute. Here is a video on how to achieve kinky twists:

5. Afro Puffy Twists
LOVE THESE! If my hair was shorter, I would definitely get these in a bob kind of look!! SUPER CUTE!!!

6. Spring Twists
Now I first saw this style on a fellow Instgrammers post. These are super cute too!!!

7. Nubian Twists

Before you install remember to:

1.Wash and deep condition your hair.
2.Moisturize your hair.
3. Detangle your hair.
4. Oil your scalp.

IMPORTANT!!!!!!

Now… Just because your hair is in a protective style, don’t forget you still have to take care of your hair while it’s away. :)

Daily: You must still remember to moisturize your hair: daily and/or at night. You can use a water-based leave-in, such as Oyin Handmade Juices and Berries, to spritz your hair. Don’t oversaturate it because you don’t want your hair to frizz. Also remember to oil your scalp with coconut oil or the oil of your choice.

Night: Sleep with a satin bonnet or, if you hair can’t all fit in a bonnet, with a satin scarf or on a satin pillowcase. It is important!! You want to keep your protective style looking nice.

These styles can last probably up to 2 months. I wouldn’t suggest leaving them in for longer. Leaving protective styles in for a long time can cause damage. And we don’t want that!!

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Will you be protective styling soon? What are your plans?

Aug27

No Wash Weekend & Progress

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Hair – A Week in Review
Yeah … wash day got skipped this weekend. Had some priority stuff going on with family and needed to head down to south Jersey unexpectedly on Saturday morning. Then, after hot yoga on Sunday, was pretty whipped and just didn’t feel like pre-pooing and having to get into the shower a second time later in the day. So, twists it is!

As a recap, last week I wore braids Monday through Wednesday:

Then, I wore a braid-out on Thursday and Friday morning:

I was TIRED after the meet-up! *lol*

On Friday afternoon and Saturday, a pineappled braid-out turned into, what Nisus and Nuri of It’s Just Hair have coined, “The Buff” (check out their post, Birth of the Buff™, for details ;)).

Stuck in Turnpike traffic.

Then, on Sunday afternoon, after waking up from a two hour post-hot yoga nap, I decided to just twist it up! I didn’t use any product to twist. I just grabbed sections that were clumped together and next to each other, then twisted. Once I was done, I broke out some leftover diluted Aubrey Honeysuckle Rose conditioner from the fridge (I made it to moisturize my braids earlier the prior week). I thoroughly spritzed the twists, sealed the length with a JBCO/EVOO mix and lightly oiled my scalp with Wild Growth Hair Oil.


Because my hair was very stretched from the braids and I didn’t use a lot of product throughout the week, I felt comfortable skipping a wash weekend. If my hair was very tangled like it gets with a WnG or had a lot of product build-up, I probably would have made sure I washed my hair. At the very least, I would be washing it by Tuesday at the latest. But, because it feels decent, the plan is to wear these twists for a few days, then a twist-out maybe or I might just end up bunning it. Only time will tell ;).

Health & Fitness – Progress or “Slow and Steady Wins the Race”
I had an okay week exercise-wise and a pretty good week as far as my diet goes. I did hot yoga last Sunday, the Cardio Max Week 3 work-out on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and hot yoga again this past Sunday. And … drumroll please … I’m down 5.5 pounds in 4 weeks!!! You may remember that, in my post Rock Bottom, I indicated that I was up to 135 pounds from 120. Well, sadly, I got on the scale a few days after that post and actually weighed in at 138.5 pounds :(. Can you say, “Disgusted?” Anywho, the scale has been going up and down, but it registered 133 pounds yesterday morning and I feel like that’ll stick. It’s not a huge amount to lose in 4 weeks, but I’m happy with it given that I’ve had a very moderate diet and exercise routine. Also, my personal experience has been that my first month of working out and eating right always involves very little scale movement, but tons of other tangible results … i.e. I feel better, I look better, my clothes fit better. So, I’m just going to try to stay focused on getting a little bit in most days of the week and eating decently. This will be week four of The Biggest Loser Cardio Max and I plan to get at least four days in with Bob and Jillian … but, I’ll shoot for five.

Random Stuff
To wrap this up, just wanted to tell you guys a few things. I ordered and got gifted quite a few goodies last week that I’ll be sharing with you over the next couple of weeks! “Products, Clothes and Accessories, OH MY!!” *lol*

Given that I had so much new and unused stuff at home, I was able to resist my PJ urges when Wei and I hit the grocery store Sunday night and I saw this in the toiletries aisle at ShopRite!!

“Rose Mosqueta Oil? Eucalyptus Oil? Sweet Almond Oil? What the hizzay?!?! When did ShopRite get all of of this?!?!” I didn’t investigate too closely as I didn’t want to have an incident. So, I just snapped some quick picks to share with you ladies and kept it moving!! But seriously, my ShopRite is really stepping it up! Who knew??

And with that, I bid you ladies adieu!

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Can you skip a wash day? If so, what enables you to do so and how do you manage your hair when you do? How many days can you stretch? What products, styles and/or techniques allow you to make it to your next wash day?

Aug6

Pre-Summer Updo by Luv♥My♥Kynxx

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Amber of Luv My Kynxx

Okay, THIS … right here … is HAWT! LOL! Alright, so I love Amber!! She is an absolute sweetheart, a talented natural stylist and rocks the most GAWJUS head of curls. She also does the CUTEST braided and twisted protective styles! I’m always mad that she lives in Texas and tell her that she needs to move to the East Coast all of the time … for obvious reasons ;). (I bet you she could do my hair in that Blow-Out and Flat Twist style I posted last week in a minute!! ;))

Anywho, she posted this style a little while ago on her Facebook page and I fell in love with it! Check out her tutorial for this lovely protective style here!!

p.s. Check out Amber’s later post to see how she flipped this style and added another layer of flyness by releasing the hanging portions of the twists.

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Do you like to rock cornrow and twisted styles? What is your favorite way to wear them?

May22

April GOC Update: Gina (#40)

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Well let’s see … this month has been quite the month. Moving … baby shower … studying *sigh*.

Hair:
I was on track with my regimen and decided to try out Bantu knots on my hair. I have to say that I was very happy with the results. I did that style for, like, a week. Then, proceeded to just wear my hair in a ‘fro. Very little effort and I had so much going on that I didn’t have time to really pay too much attention it.

Then I got an AWESOME blessing!!! I attended the NJ Hair Expo and was approached by a stylist for a product line called Isabella’s Own by Bronner Brothers. She said that she loved my hair (I needed to hear that!) and its texture. She asked if she could do my hair as a demo. Now, I don’t let anyone do my hair. I’m major paranoid that something is going to go wrong that will require me to cut it again *lol*. But, then she said, “I can give you a style that can last you up to a month.” She’s been doing natural hair for like 15 years. That was all I needed to hear! Two strand twists!!! I did not know how I was going to maintain my hair with all I had going on. So I had it done and whooopp whoooopppp, here we are!!!

Weight:
Don’t ask, don’t tell. *lol*

♦

See Gina’s very first GOC post here!  Want to see how far she’s come? Check out her Big Chop Hairstory here!

May21

Pocahontas Braids

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Ummmm … I meant twists!! LOL! I attempted this style months and months ago after seeing the tutorial on CurlyNikki. But, my hair was just too tangly to get the twists right. It was stretched, but I just couldn’t seem to work with my hair without breaking strands and fighting spiderweb tangles. Now, with the addition of strengthening protein to my regimen and the wonder that is Aubrey Organics conditioners, I decided to give it another go!! My hair was smooth and stretched and I was able to do the loose two-strand twists necessary for this style relatively easily. It’s not perfect. But, I’m sure that I can do it now and can’t wait to rock it on the weekend with a cute little sundress and accessorized with one of the strands of pretty trim that I picked up last year at Michael’s and JoAnn Fabrics!!

Here’s the tutorial and a few more pics!

via whoissugar

♥

Hair stretched by a twist-out.

May1

Mini Two Strand Twists

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by Dominique of Natural Hair Care Info

With Spring Break right around the corner and lots of cousins coming to visit soon, I wanted to do a hairstyle that would last my little sister several weeks and would be easy enough that she could maintain it herself.

Due to our hectic schedule, Bunny has become quite the queen of chunky twists (wash, condition, twist, and repeat), so this style was a treat for her!

Now that she’s ten, she told me she’d like to help out more with her hair care, so I’ve been trying to include her in that if at all possible. She now washes her hair by herself (as long as it’s in eight-to-ten braids), moisturizes it daily, and helps out with her twists a little. Proud big sister moment!

Products I used:

  • Mixed Chicks Shampoo
  • Mixed Chicks Deep Conditioner
  • Mixed Chicks Leave In Conditioner
  • Beija-Flor Naturals Cream Brulee

I began by washing her hair with some MC shampoo. This was my first time using any of the Mixed Chicks products and they all receive two thumbs up from us! Once her hair was washed, I DC’d, rinsed, applied a generous amount of leave in, and put her hair in twelve Ghana braids to stretch it out for mini twists.

I left her hair like this for about five days (I intended to leave them in for two or three days, but that’s just how it ended up unfolding), so her hair was super stretched out and completely tangle free! I tied up the top eight sections, which left me one row of four Ghana Braids in the back. I took down one Ghana braid at a time, added a little Beija-Flor Naturals to the entire section, combed it through with her Denman and began twisting. I parted her hair on a slight slant, which seemed to help the process go by much faster.

In my head, I saw me knocking her minis out in about three hours; however, we ended up doing them for two hours over the course of three days. By the way, I think I’ve seen my fair share of Disney movies! We watched Aladdin, Toy Story 3, the Princess & the Frog, and the Fox & the Hound.

Here is the end of day one of twisting:


Here I the end of day two of twisting:

And finally, here’s the finished masterpiece:

The first thing I did was give her a good trim (I took off the bottom inch or so) for which she was long overdue. She LOVES her mini twists! They’ve been in for about two weeks and they’re still going strong! Bunny’s goal for her hair is for it to be long enough for her to sit on! She just turned tens year olds, so I hope she will reach her goal before she’s a teen! And of course, we had to do a quick length check.

I think that she can claim waist length now.

Each day I spritz her hair with a little water and moisturize with a water-based moisturizer. We’ve used two different ones – one by Its Perfectly Natural and one by Mixed Chicks. And I think that’s it! You can check out more of our styles on our = Website: natural-hair-care-info.com Blog: natural-hair-care-info.blogspot.com Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Natural.Hair.Care.Info Thank you so much for reading!

Apr6

Versatility

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I just love the versatility of natural hair. I was especially aware of it this week when I went from twists to a tame twist-out to a huge twist-out and back to a twisted-bun in less than 24 hours without washing my hair or using any heat and with minimal product, time and effort.

(I used a sock bun in the last two pics)

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Do you find your natural hair versatile? Do you prefer to stick with the tried and true or are you a switch up artist?

Feb24

Two Strand Twists

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I really feel like doing some twists this weekend. I did those really haphazard twists about a week before I got my hair pressed, but want to do a nice set that will last for a week. I also really want to try the Sofn’Free Nothing But Mold & Hold Wax to see if it will help prevent my twists from unravelling at the ends.

Anywho, we’ll see if I’ll actually take the time to do them. I’m not making any promises. On another note, I was looking through my older picture files seeking inspiration for a post. Came across this pic of my twists from May 2011.

And these were the messy twists I did 2 weeks ago.

I wonder how long my twists will be a year from now?!

Jan30

“Protective Style”: Relative Term?

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by M of Hair and Other Stuff

Yesterday I had a conversation about twist outs with a friend who has natural hair. She expressed frustration about the fact that she loves the way twist outs look but they don’t last long and they require entirely too much hair manipulation. She has also noticed that she loses much more hair when styling a twist out than not. That got me thinking about my own relationship with twist outs and with protective/low manipulation styles. I read about this a while back on a blog post from Jamila of College Curlies: Are Protective Styles Damaging Your Hair? Dunno why it didn’t click with me then.

It occurred to me that twist outs and/or low manipulation styles are only protective for people who don’t have to retwist or manipulate often … duh! LOL. I have a theory that this has something to do with hair texture/elasticity or the springiness of one’s hair, if that makes sense. I have a friend with super springy hair who can rock a fabulous twist out from 5-7 days. That’s definitely not the case with me. My twist outs only look stellar on day one, if that. I’ve decided to revisit the wash and go ( WnG) and the puff.

If I remember correctly I experienced the most growth when I was wearing WnG’s and knew nothing about natural hair “rules”. I was using the Pantene Curls line conditioner as a leave- in and wetting my hair almost every day.

Now I’m certainly not going to be washing or wetting my hair every day this time around. I don’t know why I was just doing the most back then. *lol* I am also going to alternate between roller setting for a bun (to protect my ends) and the WnG Puff :-)! Wish me luck.

Do you find “protective” styles require too much manipulation for your hair? Weigh in!

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I’ve worn twists sporadically over the last couple of years and love the look … on others! LOL! I have the same problem as you M in that they tend to unravel pretty quickly and require re-twisting every few days. As I try to keep my daily manipulation low, twisting is not a regular protective styling option for me and that’s why I do a lot of simple updos. However, every now and again, I’ll want to experiment with twists again and try a new product to see if it’ll give me the hold to allow the style to last longer. Murray’s Loc and Lock gel does an okay job, but I doubt I’ll ever have twists that last two weeks without a lot of re-twisting.