Lori P asks Jamila of For The Fabulous and Frugal:
When I do my twist and curl, the end result is my hair sticking up like 3″ from my head instead of a downward motion like yours..what can I do to fix this? Straightened, my hair is about an inch past my shoulder! Any assistance you can provide will be super appreciated!
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Jamila responds:
This is tricky. Regardless of what you do, your naturally might not lay down flat, which is one of the beautiful curses of wearing your curls the way the come out of your head. If you don’t feel like rocking your Angela Davis with your twist outs, here are a few tips to keep your hair from reaching to the heavens:
- Flat Twist Roots: Curly Nikki taught me this one (of course!) You can flat twist your roots, coaxing your hair not to stick up.
- Banding: Check out this tutorial on how to stretch your hair via banding.
- Product: I’m not sure if this is the answer, but my twist-outs are most defined when I use a libearal amount of product on my hair, and when I style on hair that is soaking wet (and has plenty of time to try). A lot of curlies will style on damp hair (and use minimal product), but what works best for me may not work for you! Try it out. Check out this link as well.
- Scarves: After twisting, I usually secure my twists with a bonnet or a satin/silks scarf for bedtime (or if I’m just sitting around alone). This will help your hair “set” laying down.
- Don’t Fluff! When you remove your twists, unravel them from the ends to the roots. Be careful not to separate the twists too much, which will yield bigger (poofier/frizzier) hair. When I want my hair to have lots of volume, I’ll fluff it with my fingers to make the roots stand up.
Curlies, what tips do you have to avoid a twist-out with a mind of it’s own?
To Doria@BigApple Style: I think it is YouTube's Naptural85
I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but I do two strand twists but when I'm twisting, I'm acting like I'm doing a french braid. So, I start with two strands, do about 5 twists and then start adding sections as I work my way down the portion of hair that I'm working with. I learned this from a youtube vid (can't remember the poster at the moment) and it's the best thing because when you take the twist down the next day, you're not dealing with worries about frizz, because you already created "individual segments" with each section of hair that was taken up when creating the 2 strand twist.
Hope that helps!
I do braid outs instead of twist outs because they don't come out right on me either. I have to tell you though, I love how your hair looks on the picture. Beautiful :).
I LOVE Twist Ups, Out, To the Side, in the Shape of a Fro ♥ Been rocking the pictured look, in a more shrunken state, since the beginning of my journey (in other words, I see nothing that needs to be fixed, but great suggestions to those seeking a different look :0)
Hey ya'll, I'm Lori P and my girl Jamila has been excellent in helping me with this, as have you! Thanks so much for the suggestions – I just hope my thick-behind hair lays DOWN!
Happy holidays!
Tying down the twists at night should do the trick.
I'm with JuneEllieJ & vrb0107 – you're hair is amazing!
I know this isn't what you were asking for but I love the way your hair looks in the pic!
I guess it's all about what we each want on our own heads; when I saw the picture of your twistout I just about died, because that is EXACTLY how I want mine to look! =)
I know this is totally the opposite of what you wanted, but could you share the method you used for this twistout? It looks awesome to me, and I want it!
Oh wow! I use to have this problem all the time when I had a twa! I stopped twisting my wet hair at night…i'd twist it earlier in the day so it'd have enuff time to dry b4 bed..tht usually helped me.
I have recently discovered mid strand splits on my bangs, which I would twist and secure with bobby pins on pretty much a daily basis. I am going to leave them alone for a while… at least in that location. I plan to avoid concentrating bobby pins or any other styling tool/accessory in any one area.
I have begun to notice more mid-strand splits (needle eyes). I was using bobby pins to set my two-strand twists in place.
Has anyone experienced hair damage from sleeping on bobby pins?
These are great comments, y'all! I'll be sure to share them with Lori. Thanks! 🙂
Braiding my hair helps it to hang as opposed to sticking up. Double strand twists almost always give me volume. Also, as the article stated, I don't do too much fluffing when I unbraid.
I use clipse to weight my wet hair down. It works very well. Here is a link to the blog that I read that gave me the idea. Try it out!
http://shelleybean729.blogspot.com/2010/03/stretching-my-2-strand-twists.html
Be careful with blowing out your hair because if it is fine you could damage it. Damage is rarely discussed but it does happen. It happened to me because my hair was fine and I had to cut it off and start over.
what about 3 strand twists? I don't know the outcome but I'm wondering if the result is different / maybe it has more "hang"?
L
I wear a lot of twist out. I twist my hair every night then take them out in the morning. The trick to twisting is to twist downward not outward. Untwist and push the hair up to get it to stand up. It's just like twist little girl ponytails. I love your hair
I don't have any suggestions, but I must say that I luv the hair in that pic. i wish mine hair could look like that.
Mary in Md
When I started doing twists and twistouts,I was dealing with a different issue, namely, heat damaged ends. So, I always curled the twists on satin covered sponge rollers to camouflage the stick-straight ends. However, I found that putting the damp twists on rollers gave me more control on the direction that the twists and eventual twistout would take.
So, if length is not high on your list of priorities when you're wearing twists, you might try curling them on rollers or rods.
Also, I always do my twists on wet-to-damp hair. I find that I get better results with more product rather than less. I know that some have indicated that their experience has been just the opposite. So, you may need to experiment with the amount of product that works best for achieving the results you want.
As you probably already know, our hair is fun and very individual. So it's just going to take some time to figure out what works for you. But, for what its worth, I think your hair looks FLYYY!
Peace
…Also, as your hair gets longer, you'll probably get closer to seeing your desired results.
i agree with Anon @4.33p
one thing i had to accept is that my hair grew up and not down. rest assured that this will be alleviated through time; the longer you hair gets, the more it weighs on itself and hangs. also, maybe you should consider that you have thick strands or dense hair. after being frustrated on why my sets never turned out like some curlies, i soon found out they they were working to build volume because of their thinner strands, whereas my thick and dense hair didn't need the extra volume. that was a game changer for me.
I used to have the same problem…until I realized that it wasn't really something I could help. After a few good tries; I realized that my hair grows UP and OUT–not downward.
And, I think alot of us kill ourselves doing twist out after twist out, never realizing that the direction in which our hair grows plays a HUGE role in twist-out results.
But you can definitely achieve more length and a softer look or effect by blowing out your hair first with a blowdryer to stretch the hair prior to doing the twist-out. HTH
The products you use play a huge role regarding shrinkage. Twisting the hair while wet also plays a role regarding shrinkage. To minimize shrinkage you can dry your hair first. Either air dry or blow dry. Air drying gives me my preferred results.
To minimize tangles, I put my hair into big twists while air drying.
For products I recommend Miss Jessie's Curly Pudding or Curly Meringue. I know a lot of people really "don't get/like" Miss Jessie's but I've been natural since '96 and so far their products provide the best elongation, moisture and hold.
A good book regarding the techniques of twisting is "Let's Talk Hair" by Pamela Ferrell.
HTH
Think of each twist as a curl rod and you are setting your hair. Remember when you were straightened and how you set the hair; some small rods placed either on angles or vertical or horizontal. Place your mind back in the mindset of thinking of twisting as a set for your hair and the direction you want it to go.
Also use tools such as bobby pens to hold down twists. Think creatively. Or you can roll a twist like a pin curl going in the direction you want the curl.
so lets say you want your hair to have a part. Then make the part and make a decision of the direction you want hair to go and section the twists accordingly. Always pull the hair you are going to twist in the direction you want it to go and twist close to the head.
When twisting you think about direction of hair, how curly you want the twist(tension of twist and number of crossovers) and size of curl or wave(for more curl twist tighter)and make more twists over the head.
Take a look at the braid out and twist out for one of the YT'ers: Divine Nubienne on you tube. She wears her hair with a part and a looser curl and she does medium braids and in the direction she wants the hair to grow.
In fact look around you tube for those who do two strand twists and braidouts paying attention to the direction they twist their hair and the end result of the style.
This could be a great topic for curlynikki or other blogs: Two strand twists for two weeks and people can show their twist set and then show their style. This would be a great education.
Have fun twisting!