Another Small Twist Update

The above photo shows small twists that are 12 days old. She had wet them in the shower earlier in the evening and it was still just a bit damp in the picture. After she wet them, I added some of my shea butter/coconut oil combination, so they're looking pretty shiny here, too. And I'll go ahead and admit it...they're much fuzzier in person than they appear here in the picture.

Syd still likes wearing these twists in simple styles like a ponytail or down with a headband. She did let me put them into one big french braid this morning, though. Here's what that looks like.

Here you can see the fuzz around her hairline a little better. And I'm not sure exactly why her shirt appears to be glowing...sorry about that!

At this point, I'm pretty sure I'll be taking these twists down this weekend. They can definitely last another week, but our schedule for the next weekend is packed. I won't have time to devote hours to removing a style. I'm afraid that if I let them go for 2 more weeks, the fuzz factor will lead to some serious tangles. I hate taking styles down when they still have some life left in them, but it seems like that will be the best option this time. (sigh)

Sharing the Spotlight: Coming Soon!

If you have a style that you're particularly proud of, send me a few pictures of it! I'll start "sharing the spotlight" by highlighting a different reader's style every Friday. But this new feature isn't going to be possible without your contributions, so be sure to send in those photos!

Sharing the Spotlight Guidelines:

1. Only send in your own work. Please don't try to take credit for the creativity and time that someone else put into a style.

2. The styles can be done on children or adults of any age, but try to leave out the bows and barrettes. While I love those things on younger children, I would like to keep the focus of Tweeny Hair on styles that are appropriate for middle school aged kids.

3. You can submit more than one style, but send them in as separate entries. I will do my best to give everyone an opportunity to share, so please understand that you may have to wait a bit before your second style is featured.

4. If you have a blog or website, let me know and I'll include it when I share your style.

Send your name and style photos to me at tweenyhair@gmail.com and put Sharing the Spotlight in the subject line.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you all come up with!

Small Twists After A Week

Syd has had her small two strand twists in for a little over a week now. We had to retwist a few in the front because they were getting pretty fuzzy and I was afraid the hair would start to wrap around itself and cause major tangles. So while Syd was watching reruns of The Cosby Show (her new favorite thing to watch), I just went through and did a bit of tidying up along her hairline.

We both love the way the twists look now that they're over a week old. They've gotten wet so they have shrunk up quite a bit, which makes them look even more full and beautiful.

We haven't done a lot of styling with these twists because Syd really likes to wear them down with a headband, in a ponytail, or in a half-up ponytail. And since it's her hair, and she wants very simple styles, who am I to argue with her wishes?

One thing we did do, though, was curl the twists with Curlformers. We wet her twists, added some Curls Creme Brule as a leave-in, and put 5 or 6 twists in each Curlformer. She slept in the Curlformers and we removed them before school the next day. This is what the curls looked like when the Curlformers first came out:

You can see how the twists were working together to form thick, tubular curls. While it didn't look bad, that wasn't the look we were going for. So I went through and separated the curls with my fingers, letting each twist curl on it's own. Syd pulled one side back and added a flower, and this was the final result. We both loved it!

I'll go through and retwist the really fuzzy twists again in a few days to keep tangles away as much as possible. She'll probably keep these twists for another 10 days or so, which will be right around the 3 week mark. I didn't make the twists as small as I originally planned, so they aren't lasting as long as I originally hoped. Fair trade-off, I suppose.

Hanging out over at Happy Girl Hair

Katie from Happy Girl Hair is featuring Tweeny Hair as part of her "Read. Watch. Enjoy!" series. Head over to her site and check it out!

Time for a Trim

If you saw the post from the other day showing Syd's small twists, you will probably remember how  that style seemed to highlight how dry and damaged her ends looked. If you haven't, here's a shot of her ends from right after we finished the style.

The end of her hair was looking stringy, dry, and just unhealthy in general. I have never really scheduled regular trims because her ends aren't manipulated a lot...rubber bands and beads are rarely used. But after seeing the current condition of her hair, I started trying to remember when her last trim was. I can't remember. It has probably been years. Time to change that.

I decided to trim her hair myself. I have recently been tossing around the idea of having her hair cut professionally so the cut can work well with the multiple curl patterns on her head. I still might do that at some point. But for now, I decided to go ahead and trim her ends while her hair is in small twists.

I looked at each twist individually and snipped off the bottom 2-3 inches, depending on the damage of that specific hair. I cut approximately the same amount of hair off of each twists, but it wasn't an exact measurement. I didn't really worry about getting the length completely even. Her hair wasn't all the same length to start with, and it curls up into different curl patterns anyway. As long as I cut about the same amount off of each twist, I was all good.

The ends before the trim

Sorry so blurry, but here's a shot of the same ends after the trim

Her hair is a few inches shorter, but it's definitely still long and it looks so much better! Healthy looking hair of any length beats damaged waist length hair any day!

I still plan on having her hair cut while it's in its naturally curled state. This way her different curl patterns will appear more even when she wears a wash-n-go. I don't know when we're going to do that, though. I'll let you know how that goes when it finally happens.

Small Twists

A few weeks ago, Syd and I saw this style on another blog and couldn't wait to try it out ourselves. We decided to give it a try today. I didn't make them as small as I originally planned, though, because Syd currently has strep throat and I didn't want her to have to sit through such a long styling session if she got tired or started not feeling well. I actually asked if she wanted to postpone this style for another week, but she insisted that she felt fine and wanted little twists NOW. :)

We had washed and detangled Syd's hair last night. I moisturized with Curls brand Curl Creme Brule and put her hair into 4 banded braids to sleep in. This is what she looked like when she woke up this morning.

I followed the advice Nikki gave over on BBB and parted hair for this style at an angle. I don't know why, but the parting process really seemed to go a lot faster and easier with slanted parts. I'll have to remember that for future styles!

After parting out each row, I added some Twist of Fate (a combination of shea butter and a few oils) and began twisting. I continued parting at an angle for her entire head.

Despite making the twists bigger than I originally planned, this style still took just under 5 hours.

Syd is thrilled with the results, so I guess I'm not too upset that we didn't get to do the actual mini twist style we have wanted to try for the last few weeks. All's well that ends well, right?

Speaking of ends...this style showed me just how rough Syd's ends are looking. She is in definite need of a trim, which I think she'll be getting in the very near future. Stay tuned for details about that!

Products with a Purpose

I've had a lot of people ask me about what products I use in Syd's hair. This isn't an easy question to answer because I'm always trying new products. However, there are a few products that I always have on hand because they do a specific "something" better than anything else I've found. Here's my gotta-have-it list:


Aussie Moist Conditioner
I love this stuff! We use it as a deep conditioner after Syd wears down-and-out styles for several days in a row. I have also discovered that for Syd's hair, this is by far the best conditioner to use when doing the tightly curly method. It also provides enough moisture and hold to be used for two strand twists, although this only works for us when we apply it and twist on very wet hair.

Luscious Balanced Cream Moisturizer from Bee Mine
This product moisturizes like no other! This is our go-to product when we need moisture without hold. Anytime Syd's hair is in a long-term style (box braids, small twists, cornrows, etc) we apply just a bit of Luscious Moisturizer every day or two, especially to the ends. We also use this for dry detangling and for moisturizing when we stretch her hair by putting it in big braids or banded ponytails.

Madagascar Vanilla Styling Creme from Darcy's Botanicals
This is what I use when I need something to give me some hold without weighing her hair down or getting crunchy. It offers moisture and hold at the same time. We use this for most of Syd's cornrow styles and almost every time when we know we're going to go for a braid out at the end of a style. We've also used small amounts of this on top of other moisturizers to offer some hold when Syd wants a wash-n-go.


Twist of Fate from Give All for Love
This is an amazing combination of shea butter and coconut, jojoba, rosemary, and vitamin E oils. Very simple, completely natural, and it does a great job to seal in moisture. We've been applying this product after moisturizers and styling products to seal the moisture in. Syd likes wearing her hair down a lot lately, and Twist of Fate has protected her ends from the harsh winter weather. It also works great when applied before swimming because it helps guard the hair against the harmful effects of chlorine in pools. I haven't tried this yet in the summer, but I'm interested to see if it helps at all against the enlarging effects of high humidity. I'll let you know in a few months!

So tell me...what are your gotta-have-it products?

Half Cornrows with Twists

 By the time we sat down to do the half cornrows, Syd's hair had been in the style shown below for two days. I had done this the other day when I had a headache and just wasn't in the mood to think about hair. This was quick and easy to do, kept her hair detangled, and was great for stretching her hair out for the next style.

For the new style, I separated out the front of her hair by parting across from one ear to the other. I then put the front section into 12 basic cornrows that go straight back. Normally I put them at a slant or in a way that makes them a little unique, but I guess I'm just a little boring this time around.

After the cornrows were finished, Syd and I discussed what would happen with the back of her hair. She wanted curlformers. Unfortunately, it's been rainy where we live and she will be marching with her school band in the St. Patrick's Day Parade this weekend. We needed something that can handle a little weather.

So we decided on two strand rope twists. I did this just like I would do a regular two strand twist, but as I wrapped the 2 sections around each other, I rolled each section between my thumb and forefinger, giving it a little twist as I went. Some people like to twist each section in opposite direction, and I do that sometimes too, but this time both sections were being twisted in the same direction. It went a lot faster this way and we still ended up with great results.

Syd and I decided she will wear the twists for a few days, and then we will remove them for a twist out for a day or two, and then we can curl the back with curlformers for the last couple days of the style. So this is a very basic, simple style that can easily be changed up a bit as we go.

Please excuse my dog...it appears that she likes getting her picture taken. She comes to us whenever she sees a camera flash. What can I say? She's a diva doggie!  =)

Extra Long and Wide Curlformers

I have been wanting to try Curlformers out on Syd's hair for over a year, but I never got around to ordering them. Well I finally did, and we couldn't wait to try them once they arrived.

I have seen enough reviews and how-to posts about Curlformers to know that I had to be careful not to use too much hair, so I didn't have a problem putting them in Syd's hair. But I did encounter a problem. I ordered the extra long Curlformers, but Syd's hair is way too long even for those.  Now I've read that it is possible to use 2 Curlformers to cover all the hair from root to tip, but we only have the styling kit and one extra starter pack, which gives us 46 Curlformers, which is simply not enough to use 2 on each section of Syd's very thick hair. Actually, it was barely enough to cover all her hair using just one per section!

The solution I came up with was to put the approx. 4-5 inches of hair closest to her scalp into 2 strand twists and then use the Curlformer to curl the rest. The curl won't be uniform because it goes from twist out to Curlformer-made curl, but I figured it was worth a shot.

She slept with the Curlformers in her hair. In the morning, I removed the Curlformers. After taking the Curlformer off of each section, I put my fingers between the 2 sections of roots that were twisted and gently slid my fingers down the entire section, separating the entire section in two from root to tip.

Syd and I are both very pleased with the results. Even though the roots aren't curled like the rest of her hair, all we did was add a headband to the front and you don't really notice a difference. If the roots get fluffy or frizzy before the rest of the hair, we can always pull it into a half-up or ponytail style to stretch the style an extra day or two.

I couldn't get a good picture from the back because I'm still using my Blackberry to take pictures and it just doesn't do a good job capturing the curl definition. Hopefully I'll have a working camera again before my next post!

Cornrow Ponytail, Sydney Style

Before I begin, let me say that my camera is broken. The pictures on this post were taken with my phone (thank goodness cell phone cameras have come so far!), so I apologize for the lack of quality. But hey....these are a lot better than nothing, right? 

 
Sydney has decided that she really likes to have some hair hanging down by her face. So when she requested hair by her face, I decided to grant her wish and alter one of her staple styles (cornrows into a ponytail).

I began by parting out the left 3/4 of the front of her hair. I made 5 cornrows going straight across to the left so they would be hanging down on one side of her face only.

Pardon the bulky coat in the picture. I realized right as she was walking out the door that I hadn't taken  a picture of the top. LOL!

Then I worked my way around the rest of her head, cornrowing toward the center of the back of her head. I pulled the cornrows into a ponytail and we were done. Easy Peasy!