End Of The Year Twists

Ahhhh... a sigh of relief. I can't tell you how much I love my two-stranded twists :-) Ever since I began sporting my natural hair back in '99/'00 I have been wearing twists of all sorts... thick, skinny, short, long, kinky extensions, twist outs, flat twists, etc... It's just a feeling of freedom I get from wearing twists, almost like they allow me to just "be." The downside is that they take me away from blogging because there's nothing much I am having to do to my hair. I did however want to say a few words before the year ends. As far as these twists I have in my head right now, I had a friend do them for me. My hair has just gotten to the length where I no longer desire to do such styles as twists on myself--my arms just aren't that strong! Also, I no longer have the time that I used to have when I was in college, so time is a luxury to me now. She is so far the best person I have found in L.A. to do twists because she's very into haircare. She carefully combed my hair with the right tools, used a great moisturizing cream to twist, and had me sit under my soft bonnet to set my curls on jerri curl rods. She did a swoop bang style on me with the rest of my twists curled all around. All this in less than 5 hours, whereas I would have taken all day while snacking and watching t.v. She styled my hair the weekend before Thanksgiving and I'm still rockin' those twists.

This is what I've been doing to maintain them:

• Wash once a week with a moisturizing shampoo and conditioner, and a scalp shampoo/conditioner to keep my scalp flake free
• Use any leave-in conditioning liquid or spray I can get my hands on
• Moisturize with butter or oil-based creams such as The Roots Shea Butter Moisturizing cream, and Organic Root Stimulator's Olive Oil moisturizing cream (in the tall bottle, not the short round container... I don't know why but it's creamier and less greasy than the later).
  
• Follow up with jojoba oil or some light oil spray to seal in the moisture and for sheen (my hair rarely 'shines' per se).
• If I'm styling them, I'll roll them on my own jerri curl rods and sleep in them, or sit under my soft bonnet dryer.
  
• As time goes, I redo a lot of the twists myself to prevent my roots from showing so much.
  
• When I'm ready to throw in the white flag, I untwist my twists ('twistout' style) and leave them like that for a few days until they get really fluffy, and then it's time to comb them out completely and start over.
  

It's a fun process for me because it keeps my hands in my hair just long enough to do what I need to do. I love playing with my hair so I think twists allow me to do this without totally ripping out all my hair. Right now I'm on week 5 for this twist style and I've been wearing them in their natural state, meaning I'm not putting them on rollers anymore. They are fluffier than when I first got them done so it doesn't make any sense to curl fluff. It's a new style all by itself now. People always say twists start to really look good when they get old. I guess that's the stage I'm in right now. So I'm leavin' them free-form, must still take care of them to look cute of course! Anyway, I guess that's about as much as I could come up with without loosing my job, so it's back to work for me.

Weave OUT... finally

Today, I took some time out to remove my weave that I've had for a few months now. I have almost forgotten what my hair felt like. I grew what feels to be around an inch and a half of new growth which I feel could have been more if I focused on regrowth methods. I merely washed and pressed my weave on a weekly/bi-weekly basis and not much more than that. That's okay though, because the main purpose of this weave was to protect my hair from being damaged from the use of direct heat. I was in a pageant and knew that I would have to heat-style my hair on a daily basis. I'm glad I did it because there were several other events well after the pageant where I continued to heat-style my hair.

Now that my natural hair is back I'm contemplating all the possible style options I have for this winter season. I plan to simply wash and deep condition the hair to allow the elasticity to return. Then, in about a week I plan to have it styled in a twist or braided style (no extensions). I also have plans to color the hair either with henna or a dye, to brighten the hair a bit. I've been thinking about this for years so I'm not too sure that I will actually do this! I may hold off until the Spring before I bother lightening my hair. I may tint it a deep burgundy or brown though ;-) The possibilities are endless with my hair.

As I was taking down my hair, one major thing I noticed was that it is in dire need of a trim! It's very dry so a good deep conditioning session should do. In a few weeks, my hair should be back to its healthy natural state.

Coily Hair - My Journey

My first "blog" about coily hair--go figure :-) I created a website many years ago (http://cottonnappy.tripod.com) as a way to share my experience growing out my naturally coily hair. It's funny that I'm just now starting with a blog, but there's a first time for everything. I'm really not even sure how far this will go, like who will even read this. But I love writing, especially writing from my personal experiences. So even if this remains unseen by anyone, I will continue just for the sake of enjoyment.

What type of hair is coily hair? I feel that the term "coily" best fits my type of hair. My "curls" can be as small as that tiny little spring inside of your pen, therefore I deem the texture of my hair to be "coily"--not as big to call them curls, not as defined to call it wavy or anything else. Why not "kinky?" The term "kinky" describes the "state" of hair, as in your hair in its uncombed state is "kinky." But to say that I have a "kinky" texture is like saying my hair is always uncombed and tangled, which is not true. Wavy hair can be "kinky" and so can straight hair. But by all means, if you want to describe your own hair as kinky, be my guest (whever I'm virtually talking to).

I hope to use this blog to talk about my coily hair experience, because by God I've had quite an experience. I would love to share it with everyone who is willing to learn or take something with them as a result. I hope this will be a great experience for everyone (again, speaking to the wall, I guess).