My Try Again Twist-Out

I am finally getting to the point where I can have a decent twist-out. When I was transitioning, I was so excited about cutting off my relaxed ends so I could do one of those pretty twist-outs I always saw everyone on YouTube doing. I went natural in September of 2010 and I did my BC in February of 2011. And I tried the twist-out only to have it fail. One of the problems is that the shorter your hair, the smaller the twists need to be. But that I could deal with. What I couldn’t deal with were the ends of my hair that still seemed to be straight. Originally, I attributed this to the heat I had used while transitioning so I decided I would table the twist-out issue until my hair was longer and I could get a trim without sacrificing so much length. I didn’t have much at that point to work with.

At least that was the original thought. It wasn’t long before I took some scissors to the top part of my head hoping to do away with the strightees. No luck. The top of my head grows hair that is much looser in curl, so loose that some of it will not lock in when setting a twist. The ends just kind stick out and threaten to unravel at any moment. No amount gel keeps it locked.

So, fast forward a few months. I have some length now and I’m still determined to get a good twist-out. The flat twist has become my setting style of choice because of my looser curls, but I do love the look of the twist-out. Recently I met Chai of Back to Curly and immediately fell in love with her twist out. Her hair is much, much longer than mine, but it inspired me to give it another try. So, I did.

I started with freshly washed hair and set it using a cheap but good styling creme (more on products in future posts). I used smallish twists to discourage the unraveling, but let me show you what I ended up with.

The twists on one side of my head curl on to themselves perfectly, giving me a nice little spiral action at the end of each twist. The other side has twists that seem to be barely hanging together and just loosely stick. But my determination won out and I ended up with a very pretty twist-out. As you can see from the first picture, I styled it the first day with my top pinned back to mask my straighter ends. I was afraid they would become a frizzy mess by the end of the day.

That night, I reset my twists dry and put a little styling creme on the ends to seal them up. This is the day 2 hair.

It was cute, but not exactly what I wanted. That night (last night actually), I reset them by spraying a little water/conditioner mix on the hair and then sealing the ends with the styling creme. Much better results.

So, thank you Chai for the inspiration to try again. The twist- out and I have now made peace and although I still have a looser curl pattern in the top to contend with, I am loving the results. Natural hair is all about trial and error. You can’t give up. Sometimes you just need to walk away and try again later.