She's Wright : Tales from the roots: Twist Out Reloaded

The thing about going natural is that your products, go to styles & hair regiments change with the season, length of your hair & mood you are in. When I did my big chop 5 months ago I went through a bunch of products that naturals on YouTube swore by and hated all of them but one, Shea Moisture's curl enhancing smoothie. I haven't changed my mind about that product. It gives a me a nice, semi strong hold for my twist out & does a nice job defining my coils but about a month ago I decided to go back & give Eco styler another shot.

My first time using it was a crunchy, kinky disaster but what I couldn't swallow was "How do the girls on YouTube even use this stuff if I hate it so much??!" So after watching a video by MissKenk I decided to try again. I basically used the exact products she did, in the same order and I ended up with great results.

1. After washing, deep conditioning, detangling & rinsing I section my hair off and start twisting from the back.

2. Gather a section about the size that you want your first twist to be. Apply coconut oil. I use an organic coconut oil I got from target for $7.

3. Now apply cantu Shea butter leave in conditioner repair creame. Comb through with your fingers

4. Finally apply the Eco styler gel

The combination of these products will cake together and make a white residue but don't worry it will dry clear.

5. Comb through your hair with your denman brush or similar brush wink wink* this will clump your girls together and give you definition which will make your twist out even better because as the week goes on and the shape of the two strand twist is less firm your natural curls will break free and give you a beautiful Afro.

After adding products & using Denman

6. Now you just need to break the section of hair into two equal parts, smooth the two strands & do a two strand twist, being careful not to borrow hair from one strand to another. This creates frizz when taking down your twists.

This process usually takes me about 1-2 hours depending on how big my twists are and how many breaks I take. I usually let them dry over night, sleeping with a satin bonnet or pillow case. Sometimes I set under the dryer for about 10-15 minutes to set the outside of the twists but usually allow my hair to air dry for the most part.

In the morning I coat my finger tips with a little but of coconut oil and unravel the twists. After they have all be unraveled I go back and one by one tug on the individual stands to see where the curls naturally separate. This also decreases frizz ( I learned this technique from my natural sistas) after I am done I use my pick to gently lift my roots. I never like to comb through my hair too much with my fingers or a pick when my twists or fresh because I like my Afro to look super defined & I don't mind if it looks really right due to shrinkage but You can separate or fluff as much as you like.

Now you are pretty much done, smooth your edges or as a bow and you have a fab twistout. My results seemed better than normal this time and I attribute that to getting my ends clipped and my Afro shaped. I had a lot more definition on the ends because of that.

At night I jut sleep on a satin pillow case & in the am I may rub more coconut oil into my head but usually that's all I need. The Eco styler keeps my curls defined way longer than the curl enhancing smoothie & the layering of products keeps my hair moisturized. As the week goes on I just fluff and let my Afro get bigger and bigger. At the beginning of my Afro days I would feel the need to constantly twist my hair. At one point I was twisting it at least twice a week because I was self conscious about my hair looking nappy or wild but I have since embraced my texture and I now let it run wild. Shouts out to Solange Knowles, my natural hair inspiration / spirit animal lol her bravery & beauty inspire me to rock my fro as is and not feel the need to constantly try to disguise the true texture of my hair. Now I do a dry retwist on Sundays and I wash my hair every other week.