Not So Mini Twists on Short Natural Hair

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On Sunday, August 18, I installed mini twists on my 6-inch natural hair. They took me just under 3 hours to complete (2 hours and 46 minutes, to be exact). However, since I knew I only wanted the style to last for two weeks, I decided on medium-sized twists instead of the popular super tiny ones. I also opted to go the two weeks without washing or co-washing my hair. Although I normally am a strong believer in weekly washings, because my hair has a tendency to “lock up” and get matted and tangled when water is added to certain low-manipulation and no-manipulation styles (especially protective styles worn over an extended period of time), I made the decision not to wash my hair while in mini twists. In addition, I didn’t want to have to worry about stretching my hair daily and putting unwanted stress on my strands. So,  I decided to ditch the water all-together.

However, I took certain precautions. First, I shampooed with a sulfate-free shampoo, conditioned with a moisturizing conditioner, and deep conditioned my hair under a hooded dryer for 20-30 minutes. Afterward, I spritzed my hair with a leave-in conditioner and sealed in the moisture with my shea butter glycerin soufflé. Then, I let my hair air dry for a few hours until about 80% dry so that my hair would be as stretched as possible. If your hair is longer, you may need to blow dry it until it is about 80% dry, especially if air drying will take too long.

Because of the length of my hair, I didn’t feel the need to section off my hair in quadrants but, if your tresses are longer, sectioning your hair off in quadrants and then parting each quadrant into smaller sections may be necessary. Here’s what I did:

• I shampooed, conditioned, and deep conditioned my hair.
• I spritzed my hair with a water-based leave-in conditioner.
• I sealed my hair with my homemade shea butter glycerin soufflé.
• I let my hair air dry until about 80% dry.
• I sectioned off my hair at the base of my neck and clipped the rest of my hair out of the way. (Parting is optional. If you don’t care about having clean parts, you can just grab random sections of hair like I did.)
• I grabbed 1-inch sections of hair. (You can grab more or less hair, depending on the size twists you want to make.)
• I applied a small dab of some of my homemade Eco Styler custard.
• I two-strand twisted the section, making sure to twist as close to my roots as possible. When I got to the end of each twist, I twirled the bottom of each twist around my fingers to give each twist a slight curl (and also to prevent each twist from unraveling).
• I repeated this process until I twisted my whole head.

To maintain my twists, I did the following:

• I spritzed my hair every two days with my DIY glycerin spritz.
• I slept in a satin bonnet each night.
• Every 4-5 days, I let the steam (not water) of the shower moisturize my twists and then resealed with my shea butter glycerin soufflé.

Day #1 of My Twists

Day #7 of My Twists

For additional info on mini twists, check out Naptural85’s YouTube video below.