My quick wash and twistout

See this is the great thing about natural hair. You’re always discovering and learning… and if you’re anything like me, forgetting and re-learning.

Towards the end of last month, I started to get tired of twists and updos, and my general failings when it comes to styling.

After bemoaning, in my braidout post, the fact that I couldn’t get a twistout or braidout to last for more than a few hours, and spending months trying to crack the humidity code, I suddenly remembered how I used to do it back when I first started my healthy hair journey.

I only started doing braidouts on mostly dry hair when I was out of Nigeria for work, and discovered that they yielded much bigger, much more stretched out hair, however it suddenly hit me that when I used to set my twists or braids on wet hair, the result would last for at least 3 days. So I decided to give it a whirl again.

I divided my hair in 4 sections. Cowashed each section, rinsed, re-applied conditioner and finger detangled gently. (And to dispel rumours that every wash session has to take all day, this took a total of about 20 minutes. Note, however, that I skipped the deep conditioner stage). 

I rinsed my hair still in 4 sections, got out of the shower, undid each section, applied my leave-in and twisted into smaller sections like I normally do, but this time I added my styler at this stage. I waited a few minutes between shower and applying my leave-in, with my hair wrapped in a t-shirt, and that prevented the “dreaded drip-drip”. Pretty soon I was left with this (One hour total from the beginning of the wash, by the way):

Products used to style were Kinky Apothecary Whipped Batter and Pink Ecostyler

I left the twists in for about 2 days pinned up like so:

When it was time to take them down, I rubbed a tiny bit of jojoba oil in my palms and on my fingertips and lightly coated the twists with them.

I was left with this:

Yes yes, a trim was definitely in order. Has since been addressed but more on that later

Now I did this when I happened to be staying at my Grandma’s for the weekend. She lives in what can only be described as rainforest, and is literally the most humid part of Lagos I have ever been to (well, technically it is on the outskirts of Ogun State).

Several hours later though, my hair still looked like this:

Much later that night:

A close-up of the definition that night:

The next morning, after putting my hair in 2 loose “pineapples” and covering with satin scarf):

Pineappling hair overnight definitely stretches it out, making it bigger and fuller the next day

Ravaged by humidity near the end of the second day, but still going strong:

Yeeeeah...so it wasn't just my hair that was ravaged by the heat and humidity. Eek!

I only left it out for 2 days, as I then decided to experiment with an updo, but I am sure I would have made it to day 3, albeit much bigger and fluffier, and with much less definition, but still all good.

So there you have it, peeps. If it aint broke, don’t fix it. 

So in addition to the tips I gave in my braidout post for a longer lasting set, namely:

1/ Avoid humectants

2/ Use a product with hold

3/ Pay attention to your nighttime routine, and

4/ Do not use a liquid moisturiser in-between

add

5/ Style on damp to wet hair

to the list.

I was also able to demonstrate how wash days don't ALWAYS have to take hours.

I think I will go back to wet styling for the time being…well, until I’m distracted by something else again that is.

Until next time!

xx