My Twist-Out Technique

I've posted a lot of twist-out styles, and decided that I would share with you all how I achieve my twist-outs!

Products Used:

- Any favorite moisturizer, followed by a good sealant like my shea butter mix to seal in the moisture, and a bit of aloe vera gel for hold.

- Any favorite styling product that provides both good moisture and hold, and does not contain any glycerin (which makes the hair absorb water and can swell up a twist-out style.)

For these twist-outs, I used Darcy's Botanicals Madagascar Vanilla Styling Creme. It is the BOMB! Excellent moisture and excellent hold in one!

Pointers:

- I usually twist the night before and take it out the next morning. I always make sure I allow my hair to dry completely. Otherwise, once you unravel the twists, the hair will swell up and turn to fuzz!

- I twist tightly - not tightly at the scalp, but I try to create tight twists (hope you know what I mean.) In other words, I don't twist loosey-goosey. Have a good grip while you're twisting. This will help maintain definition.

- To maintain my twist-outs, I use a hair elastic and very loosely tie my hair back. If you tie it too tightly, you'll get a dent in your hair from the hair elastic. I then cover it with a satin scarf for bed. The next morning, I simply shake and fluff my hair back out!

- I use a bit of coconut or olive oil on my hands while taking out the twists to keep them from frizzing.

Method 1: The Flat Twist Technique

When I want a big, fluffy, voluminous twist-out, I'll use flat twists instead of regular two-strand twists to achieve it.

I create about seven flat twists going straight back. Flat twists are done simply by doing a two-strand twist while picking up hair along the way to get the twist to "attach" to your head. In the second picture, you can see that I parted my hair in such a way that some of the flat twists were falling toward the side. That's how I wanted the twist-out to fall once taken out. Be sure to part your hair the way you want your twist-out to lay/fall.

I get a pretty loose wave/curl pattern, and my hair is nice and fluffy. This is also the method that gives me the most length. So, I get lots of length, but not much curl definition.

Method 2: The Two-Strand Twist Technique

The second method I use for twist-outs is of course the regular two-strand twist. It gives me awesome definition!

I make about 20-30 two-strand twists all around my head. Again, depending on how you want the twist-out to fall, you'll have to not only part in the direction you want, but twist in the direction you want as well. If you want your twist-out to fall to the side, hold your hands to the side while you twist. If you want them to fall a bit toward the front, twist going toward the front like I did.

 Here's how it looks immediately after unraveling the twists. Check out that definition! I usually separate it out even more for volume and fullness. I also massage my roots to hide my parts.

You can see that using this method gives me great curl definition, but I don't get quite as much length as with the flat twists.

Comparing both methods:

(click to enlarge)

Method 1 (Flat-twisting) gives me a really fluffy look, with lots of volume and body, and gives me a loose wave/curl rather than tight curls.

Method 2 (Two-strand twisting) gives me awesome curl definition, and can result in a ton of shrinkage (which I don't care about - shrinkage is awesome!) I also don't get the volume I want until several days later (as I said above, tying a scarf over my hair each night after loosely tying my hair back will help protect the twist-out style.) The twist-out curls get bigger and fluffier as the days pass!

(click to enlarge) 

Here is a comparison of day 1 and day 3 of a twist-out style that I did a while back. See the difference? 



I am definitely going to play around with twist-outs more to see if I can find a method that gives me awesome definition, volume, and length. What is your favorite twist-out method?