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I have 4b fine natural hair and I would like to try mini twist . My concern is, I fear my hair will start locking.
For those who had experience with mini twist
1. How did you care for your twists
rere32 I care for them as I would my loose hair, only it's less work as there is no combing. Baggy every night. Shampoo, condition and ACV rinse twice a week. Mid week wash involves a regular conditioning; end of week wash involves DCing. I don't use leave-in moisturizers.
2. How long did you leave them in
Well...I put the twists I have in in August 2010 and I just redo one at a time as I feel like it. So really, all twists have been redone many times, but I have not undone them to wear my hair loose since 8/10. Because I like to play with my hair, I don't know exactly how much time lapses between my redoing a particular twist, but there was a time I managed to keep my hands off my hair and I posted a photo of my twists after 4 weeks and 8 washes and they still looked fine. My photos are missing or I would upload it again. I have no effin idea what the heck is going on with Fotki. I was giving them time to put back our photos but it seems as if they have lost them and really effed up but are not coming out to tell us.
Anyway, here's how my hair looks today:
No my hair had never not locked from twists. I think these are the reasons why:
- I don't use any product on my hair so there's no gluing effect;
- I twirl each strand before twisting which keeps the hair in each strand separate from that in the other strand so that undoing is easy. See the videos below.
- I redo my twists so get to remove shed hair;
- I do avoid putting conditioner at the base of my twists where it's easy to get caught and that residue cause matting;
- I do an ACV rinse or spritz my twists with one when I want to style them (as they are easier to stretch when wet) and this means my strands are kept smooth (cuticles closed) which also helps in preventing tangles.
I do find that my hair is easiest to work with after it has been washed. You can see how easily the strands separate after washing (pics below), so I tend to redo a more twists after my hair dries following a wash, just because my hair feels so good to work with.
4. What products did you use
I do not use any leave-in moisturizers when wearing twists. I shampoo with any moisturizing gel-like shampoo whether sulphate-free (like Giovanni 50:50) or sulphate (like Garnier Fructis) applying it directly to my scalp and massaging it. I squeeze the sud through my hair and continue to do so as I rinse.
To condition, I apply any moisturizing conditioner to my twists using the relaxer style (meaning I take a few at a time, apply using fingers by smoothing from close to base to the end...and I do that till I have a good chunk of twists with conditioner on them, then I braid them to get them out of the way. Alternatively, I will cornrow all of them forward in a forward French braid, then starting from the back, pull out a few twists, apply conditioner and so on till all are covered. I leave them hanging to let conditioner drip to ends where it's most needed and not to my scalp. I also skip about on inch of hair at the base onto which I don't apply conditioner because I try to keep it off my scalp. I don't worry about the hair at my scalp coz it is stronger than my ends and it has sebum from my scalp to take care of it). For DCing, I use reconstructors: either Aubrey's GPB or Nexxus Emergencee. I follow the directions on each bottle to a T. With Emergencee, I use the old directions that said to leave on for ten minutes. I don't use heat to DC. In both cases, I shampoo after the DC and then use a moisturizing conditioner (eg Aussie Moist, Humectress Mask, Organix line of conditioners, etc).
I end my wash with an ACV rinse made of about a 1/4 cup of ACV to 2 gallon of water and 20 drops of EOs of lavender and rosemary. I usually dunk my head in it and massage my scalp to my heart's content. I do keep a spritz of the same solution in a spray bottle and if I don't feel like doing a CW to restyle my hair, I spritz my hair to wet it for easy styling with it.
Other than that, I baggy nightly to retain moisture in my hair or when wearing hats/wraps...or I should say, when I'm being good to my hair I do that.
5. Did you twist on wet or dry hair.
I twist on dry. I braid my wet hair to airdry and stretch. Then I twist on stretched hair. Then I usually CW the twist (not putting conditioner on my scalp) and rinse and let them drip dry so that the twists can hang straight. I used to have an image that showed what I mean but once again, Fotki done eaten my image.