Quick Pretty Style with Twists

There was a dance at Syd's school last week. It was really just an informal thing where most kids wore jeans, but Syd and her friends wanted to dress up....so they did!

(Gotta love it when they display their personalities with confidence!)

Syd's hair was in about 120 twists, so that meant parting for an intricate style was out of the question. Then I remembered that there was still a center part under those twists from the cornrow style she had before I did the twists.

I decided to use that center part and make two french braids that met at the nape of her neck. I gathered the ends of both french braids into one ponytail and added a flower that coordinated with her dress. The style took less than 5 minutes, but definitely looked nice enough to wear while all dressed up.

 

And because I'm a proud mom who loves showing off my pretty girl, here's a shot of her right before she walked out the door. :)

Twists to Twists, Still No Comb

Hi all. I apologize for my recent absence. My computer decided it was finished working for me, so that was that. But now we're back, and I wanted to give you a hair update from these past few weeks.

The last time I posted about Syd's hair, I showed you how I created this twist style without using a comb to detangle between styles.

Well here it is, a month after first doing that simple twist style, and I still haven't used a comb on Syd's hair. Sounds crazy, huh? Here's what we've done.

After a week, the twists I mentioned above were looking pretty rough...we never get much more than that out of such thick twists. So I removed the twists one at a time, used my fingers to gently detangle and remove shed hair, sprayed the hair with plain water, added a bit of styling product, and then made a new twist out of each of the tendrils that resulted from the previous twist coming out. Does that make sense? Basically, each twist became 2 twists. Her hair went from this:

To this:

The new set of twists lasted about a week and a half. They didn't look horrible yet, but I knew it would be another week before I could devote some time to Syd's hair, so I figured I'd be proactive and style while I had the chance.

It had been a few weeks since her hair had been washed with shampoo, so she shampooed her twists before I styled them. Then I did the exact same thing I had done before: remove one twist at a time, detangle with my fingers, spray with water, add product, turn each old twist into 2 new ones. Here's what that process looked like.

10 day old twists, after being shampooed earlier in the day:

2 old twists becoming 4 smaller new ones:

The end result:

We're just about 2 weeks into these latest twists, and they're not looking too bad at all. I'm pretty sure we'll keep them for another week....I'll let you know!

So in the last several weeks, Syd has gone from cornrows to big twists to medium twists to small twists....all without a comb touching her hair. And this means little to no damage caused by detangling and styling. Can't beat it!

Twists and Keeping Damage to a Minimum

After 12 years of styling Syd's hair, I've gotten pretty good at minimizing damage as much as possible. However, now that Syd is taking over a lot of the detangling, we're starting to see some damage at the ends. We're definitely going to have to trim the ends very soon to get rid of all that damage.

But that's ok!

We all know that learning to properly care for curly hair takes time. Be careful not to expect too much from your child as she learns to take care of her own hair...I know I did my fair share of damage over the years. But with patience and practice, I have learned several little tips and tricks that help keep damage to a minimum.

This post is going to focus on one of those tips...and here it is: Since we weren't shampooing between styles, we moved from one style to another without a comb touching Syd's hair!

When I took down Syd's latest cornrow style, I removed the cornrows on 1/4 of her hair at a time. After I removed those cornrows, I put that quarter of her hair into one big loose braid to keep it detangled. When I had removed the entire style, we were left with this:

We then focused on one of those sections at a time. I tied three of the braids up out of the way and started with the back left section. I removed that braid and used my fingers to gently detangle the entire section. Remember, I braided this hair immediately after removing the cornrows, so there really weren't any tangles. The best way to keep detangling easy is to prevent the tangles in the first place. This finger detangling was done mostly to remove the loose strands that were shed while her hair had been in the last style.

I decided to start in the very back of Syd's hair, so I used my fingers to separate out a section of hair at Syd's nape. I just clipped the rest up and out of the way for a minute.

Since I like to do twists on hair that is slightly damp, I misted this piece of hair with plain water in a spray bottle. I then added just a bit of styling product, ran my fingers through her hair to distribute the product evenly, and started twisting.

In order to make sure the twists last as long as possible, it's important to twist as tightly as possible. It's tempting to rush it and not twist as tight, but the twists loosen up on their own. If you don't start off with a very tight twist, you will end up with very loose twists that will quickly become frizzy. In the two pictures below, you can see how tightly I twisted this section of hair, and then how it loosened up the minute I let go.

The twist while I was holding it

See how it got looser after I let go? It will loosen/plump up even more as it dries completely.

And then I repeated that process 33 more times as I moved through the rest of her hair.

In the end, we have a head full of great looking twists and my fingers were the only tools used. No brush, no comb, no damage. =)

Twists and Cornrows to the Side

This style was pretty easy to do. First, I made a part that was slightly off-center. Then I added a handful of cornrows that went from her ear up to the part. There wasn't much rhyme or reason as to where the cornrow parts were made...I just started parting. The rest of her hair was then put into about 30 two strand twists.

Syd only wore her hair down like this once. The rest of the time, she wore the twists pulled into a low side ponytail (and sometimes wore a huge flower with it).

Excuse the black box. Her last name is on this shirt and we had to block that out. :)

If you 've been following us for any length of time, you can probably guess what happened next. After a couple days of the twists being in a side pony, the twists became a twist out. The twist out was then pulled into the same side ponytail.

We may have to revisit this style again soon. It is so versatile, being worn 3 different ways in one week. And if we change the size and parts of the cornrows, it will again have a completely different look!

Short Cornrows, Green Rubber Bands, and Two Strand Twists

After over three weeks of Syd's mini twists, I was ready to get back to some styling. Unfortunately, we didn't have a ton of time, so I had to pick something reasonably quick. I decided to do some short cornrows in the front, with some bright green elastic bands to make it fun. Then I just put the back into our staple...two strand twists.

After a few days with the twists in, Syd removed them to give herself a twist out for a couple more days. Here's how that looked just before the style came down.

This is an age appropriate style that is simple and easy, while still allowing for some variety as the twists become a twist out.

Many Mini Twists

Syd and I decided to use the long holiday weekend to give her a head full of small twists. Since it takes so many hours to finish the style, we used a slightly different method to do these twists so that we could hide the half-finished state of her hair if we needed to. Here's how we did it.

We started out by having her hair washed, detangled, moisturized (Bee Mine Luscious Moisturizer), and put into 30 braids. As I turned each braid into twists, I added just a bit of Miss Jessie's curly pudding for some extra hold.

Each of those braids was turned into 6 twists, with the exception of the braids at her crown. Several of those were turned into 9 twists because her hair is so much thicker right there. Below, you can see the step by step process of turning one braid into 6 twists.

In order to make it possible to hide the half-finished state of her hair, I started the twists at the back of her head, then moved up to the very front.

Once the braids around the perimeter of her her head were transformed into twists, we took a break. I pulled all of her hair into a ponytail and the braids were covered by the twists. Although she didn't have anywhere to go, she could have easily worn this ponytail to school, if she needed to. Some of the braids were peeking through just a bit, but it wasn't very noticeable and still looked ok to wear as an everyday style until the twists could be finished.

A while later, we finished the twists. The actual styling time was just over 6 hours and we had right at 200 twists.

You can see here just how thick her hair is and how many twists there actually are on her head.

When it was time for bed, I pulled her hair into a ponytail and wrapped a satin hood-style scarf around her head, with the ponytail hanging out the back. She also slept on a satin pillow case to preserve the twists as much as possible.

Syd will probably wet her hair today. She likes the look of mini twists after they shrink because she says they look fuller. Go figure, the girl who loves big hair wants the twists to look as full as possible. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, huh?

Stay tuned for pictures of her shrunken twists, updates about how they hold up over the next couple of weeks, and pictures of the different styles she wears with them!

Twists and Side Cornrows

We've been in a creative hairstyle slump lately. Life is hectic at this time of year, so we've been sticking with basic twists, twist outs, and ponytails. Here's an easy way to add a bit of interest to an otherwise simple twist style.

I did 6 cornrows halfway back on one side, secured them with lime green rubber bands, and twisted the remaining hair. It didn't take much time at all, but it was a nice change from the "boring" styles she's been wearing so often.

This style had a bit of staying power, as well. After the twists started looking fuzzy, we removed them and she had a twist out for a couple more days.

Relatively quick, easy (as long as you can cornrow), and lasted an entire school week. That makes it a winner in my book!

Twist - Twist Out - Retwist

Syd has been wearing a LOT of twists lately. It's quickly becoming her signature style. Here's a picture of some medium sized twists she wore last week:

She only wore those twists for one day because we wanted a big, full twist out for our Thanksgiving get together with my family. It was almost painful to remove such pretty twists when they were still looking so good! Luckily, it made for a wonderful looking twist out.

She wore that twist out for two days, but we had to twist her back up because this week is going to be a busy, rainy week and we won't have much time to worry about hair.

Since her twist out was still really defined when I was doing a new set of twists, I decided to let the definition help me out. I simply grabbed each tendril that resulted from the first twists, lightly misted it with just water, and twisted. Her hair still had enough product in it from the first twists, so we didn't have to add any more product.

Each defined section of hair went from this...

...to this!

Since each twist from the first set made two defined tendrils, the second set of twists had twice the number of twists as the first one did. Here was the final result:

These 78 twists (yes, we counted) should definitely get us through the week. Maybe even longer!