Hair: Twistout Updo

I decided to try this whole twistout idea.  I haven't given up because I see other naturals with twistouts and they look beautiful.  So, one evening I co-washed my hair, and applied leave-in conditioner and detangled as I sectioned off my hair.  As I did little rectangular sections, I twisted my hair.  I have no idea how long it took me to go through this process because I took a lot of breaks.  I started from the bottom and worked my way up to the front.  It took a long time to do this, so the front part of my hair air dried.  When I got to that part, I would spray water on it, apply the leave-in, detangle, and twist.  I even experimented with doing a few flat twist in the front.  I am impressed I managed to do it.  My flat twist didn't look the best.  However, practice makes perfect.

Looking at my ends while my hair is twisted helps me clearly see where my relaxed ends are and approximately where my natural hair starts.

Check out my attempt to flat twist in the front.

Go back to last January's twistout pictures and look at this picture.  Last January my hair was so short in the middle of my head I couldn't even twist it.  I had a duck clip holding the hair down. My have I come a long way.

So, I let my hair dry and I kept the twist in for a whole day before I took them out.  (I guess I was trying to achieve the ultimate definition.)  As I took them down, I applied extra virgin olive oil to my twists.  When I took my hair down I was not pleased.  It didn't look right and I did not take ANY pictures of that.  Maybe I made my twist too small to wear a twistout at my length.  I think I should let my hair grow longer before I do my twist this small again anticipating to wear my hair down. 

I had to be at church in a few minutes and I panicked.  What was I going to do with my hair? Well, I had two options at this point: (1) wear a hat or (2) pin it up frantically hoping that it looked decent.  I chose option number 2!  I really couldn't even try to do a tutorial on my final result.  I'm not sure if I could reproduce this look.  Plus, I don't have a tripod to hold the camera while both hands are in my hair.  However, I will try to explain what went down as I was putting bobby pins and pins in my hair like a mad woman.

I took grabbed the back left nape section and twisted it and pinned it in place.  I did the same with the right back nape section.  Then, I pinned the right side section in place.  At that point, pins alone weren't cutting it so I also used those mini banana clips to hold the hair down.  Then I took the front left section.  I took my hands and tried to hump the hair up a little to give the look some dimension.  Finally, I pinned that section in place.  I wasn't too crazy about it but it was time to get in the car.  I had to go to church looking like that whether I liked it or not.  The crazy thing is, three people came up to me complimenting my hair.  So, maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

Now, I am thinking I need better products to help me set the twist and to give my hair some shine.  Maybe that will help.  I am still learning how to come up with cute natural styles.  In fact, at this point I think I need more advice about styling versus giving advice.  However, at this point in time, my blog and YouTube channel are all about documenting my hair and make up journey and sharing my experience with whomever thinks it can benefit them.  I am the farthest thing from a know it all.  I don't even want to be considered a guru because I am no expert.  My blog and channel is just simply a diary to see how creative I have become and how my style and hair length has grown over time.

Will I ever try another twistout again? Yup! I'll just wait a few more months to let my hair grow longer first.

Yours truly,

Coily