Naturals Who Wash or Rinse Their Twists

[TrulyBlessed]

Is this possible without getting matting and tangles of mass destruction? I've peeped some fotkis and noticed that many naturals have received MBL to WL natural hair through keeping their hair in twists and washing or rinsing them weekly for up to a month.

I'm not gonna lie, I wear small to medium sized twists 90% of the time and I can go at least 3-4 weeks without washing and it has successfully gotten me to thick BSL hair with no tangles, no fuss. But now I feel that my hair could grow a lot faster if I wash my scalp and twists at least every week or two weeks so I recently attempted to wash and deep condition my hair in twists, once a week for the past two weeks. This made my hair, scalp and ends feel good but after the second week when it was time to take them out, I got lightheaded and naseous from the major tangles and matting at the roots that were forming.

Thank God I was able to carefully take them out without major damage but it took about 45 minutes compared to the 10 minutes it takes when I haven't washed my twists in weeks. I have 4a super coily strands that are indeed tangle prone. Is washing hair and scalp in twists just not for me or is there a certain technique that I should apply to avoid severe tangles and matting? Please help.

 

[donewit-it]

I've tried it, but I get a tangled mess too. I prefer to continue to daily wash my hair when it is loose as opposed to twisted.

Twists for me are for when I'm feeling lazy and don't wet my hair.

 

[Nonie]

I think the secret is in the twisting method. I was telling someone the other day how much I love being in twists and especially when they have gone through 8 washes in 4 weeks and look fluffy. My twists are easiest to undo either after baggying or when damp after a wash.

The way I twist is a way I haven't seen anyone else do on Youtube, but I know Anherica does it like me, and Mwedzi tried it too. It involves twisting the strands first before twirling them around each other, thus keeping the two strands separated in their detangled states. Now I know you've seen this done on Youtube, but while most people twist the two strands in opposite ways (one anticlockwise, the other clockwise) before wrapping them around each other, I twist my two strands in the same direction first (clockwise) then wrap them around each other anticlockwise. I demonstrated this way of twisting here and how easy it is to undo my twists and finger-comb w/o any hairloss or tangles here.

 

[anon123]

I think the secret is in the twisting method. I was telling someone the other day how much I love being in twists and especially when they have gone through 8 washes in 4 weeks and look fluffy. My twists are easiest to undo either after baggying or when damp after a wash.

The way I twist is a way I haven't seen anyone else do on Youtube, but I know Anherica does it like me, and Mwedzi tried it too. It involves twisting the strands first before twirling them around each other, thus keeping the two strands separated in their detangled states. Now I know you've seen this done on Youtube, but while most people twist the two strands in opposite ways (one anticlockwise, the other clockwise) before wrapping them around each other, I twist my two strands in the same direction first (clockwise) then wrap them around each other anticlockwise. I demonstrated this way of twisting here and how easy it is to undo my twists and finger-comb w/o any hairloss or tangles here.

This really worked for me! I can't promise anything for anyone else, but this method makes all the difference in tangling. It, unfortunately, takes me about twice as long to do but maybe that's because I'm just not used to this hand motion. It's really counter-intuitive to me at this point. But perhaps I could improve on this. Anyway, when I would wash my hair even once under the regular way I twist it would mat all up. This was the final straw in my recent hair break down which led me to cut my hair. So I tried Nonie's method on a handful of twists (because I wasn't willing to risk my whole head after the other fiasco) and I washed them 3 times and let them dry completely and they came apart so easily. The twist out didn't look like my regular twist out, either, which was honestly a bit disappointing to me but gotta take the good with the bad. Give it a try on a handful of twists like I did and see how it turns out.

 

[Southernbella.]

I washed/rinsed my twists when we were in Florida this summer because of the ocean/pool water. It wasn't any more tangled than usual when I finally took them down.

I don't do it on purpose, but I think I tend to do what was talked about above. When I take my hair down, I still have two uniform sections. All I have to do is turn the twist back the opposite direction and I have the two original sections. If I'm doing a twistout, I'll separate them some more.

 

[TrulyBlessed]

Wow, talk about an innovative approach, thanks ladies! Nonie, I'm completely speechless that you managed to get 8 washings out of 4 week old twists. I'm glad to see this method is working for others as well and I think I'll have to give this a try. I can kinda see how this method would prevent tangles in that the individual twists within the twists are seperated and any shed or loose hair can't travel and get caught in the twists so easily. Sorry to hear about your hair fiasco mdwezi and I'm glad to see you found a method that works! I'm excited but I'll definitely start with a small section in case my hair starts cussing again.

 

[oooop2]

I think the secret is in the twisting method. I was telling someone the other day how much I love being in twists and especially when they have gone through 8 washes in 4 weeks and look fluffy. My twists are easiest to undo either after baggying or when damp after a wash.

The way I twist is a way I haven't seen anyone else do on Youtube, but I know Anherica does it like me, and Mwedzi tried it too. It involves twisting the strands first before twirling them around each other, thus keeping the two strands separated in their detangled states. Now I know you've seen this done on Youtube, but while most people twist the two strands in opposite ways (one anticlockwise, the other clockwise) before wrapping them around each other, I twist my two strands in the same direction first (clockwise) then wrap them around each other anticlockwise. I demonstrated this way of twisting here and how easy it is to undo my twists and finger-comb w/o any hairloss or tangles here.

Thanks for posting this. I am going to try your method on my daughters hair for practice. I would LOVE for their twist to stay in that long...

 

[JustKiya]

I don't do the full Nonie version, but I basically 'twist' each section of the twist, as I'm twisting them together. They actually seem to 'fluff' better after I get them wet, and they look fuller. It's the fuzzies that kill me, though. After a week, I've got hair escaping EVERYWHERE.

 

[cutiebe2]

Nonie your method sound good...I may try it if I decide to twist again, but twist didn't work out for me

thanks for the PM!!!