MONTH 9 (JULY)
So, my sister convinced me to make skinnier flat two-strand twists. I don’t like doing it. In fact, I hate it. It takes me 30-40 minutes to do the darn things. I’m NOT a hair person. The picture below has 11 flat twists and that took me 35 minutes. My sister tells me that they still aren’t skinny enough, but they are skinny enough for me..any more twists and I’d be at it for an hour! She insists that I would get faster at it. It’s been a little over a week of doing this, and I’m not getting any faster. 5-10 minutes a night doing my hair is my thing. That’s what I’m used to. HOWEVER…taking the 30-40 minutes to do these twists (spraying each individual section of hair with my spritz of oil and water) actually is easier to detangle as I go. AND…I can do this one night, and simply roll the ends up the next night (3 minutes top) and wear the hairstyle again. So far, I’ve only been able to do just every other night, so that’s actually not too, too bad. I spritz my hair in the morning (rollers still in or left still twisted), wait for the 20 minutes for it to dry, and take the twists out.
I have NOT had knots this month. HURRAY!!! And I’m thinking the many cuts, the leave in conditioning (after washing my hair with conditioner) and mayonnaise (that you can eat on sandwiches… REAL Mayonnaise) for 5-6 weekends, did the trick.
I also bought a leave-in mayonnaise conditioner. Of course, as you know, I’m not a shopper and I don’t like products, so why did I get a leave-in mayonnaise conditioner? I was on vacation, visiting my sister who has been natural since the late 1990s, and she goes to the Beauty Supply Store. She was asking questions to the sales person, and since I was there, I asked for a leave-in conditioner and was suggested this: Africa’s Best Organincs Mayo Leave In Conditioner. It’s just as good as my other leave-in conditioner, but I think it’s a bit better.
I had to get use to my FRO roots, which the leave-in conditioners seems to bring out even more (and also making it soft). so with skinnier twists, it’s getting the roots curled up as well and not having too much of a Afro-look at the roots for my twist-out curls.
My Routine for Month 9 (JULY) and the time it took for me
SATURDAY or SUNDAY
1) Wash hair every weekend with a conditioner — 10-15 minutes (in shower– 20-30 minutes)
2) Apply leave-in conditioner — 1 minute
3) Put one quarter size of oil in my hand, spread it around in my hair, and put another quarter size of oil — 2 minutes.
4) Wait for hair to air dry (I use my fingers to detangle as it air dries) — 20-30 minutes.
5) Spritz (jojoba, almond, coconut oil 1/3 and water 2/3 ) for each section of the hair before I flat-twist, and then curl the ends with flexi-rod, rim-rod, etc-type of roller — 20-30 minutes
MONDAY*, TUESDAY, THURSDAY NIGHTS– 30-40 minutes
1) Use fingers to section hair
) Use spritz on section hair
3) Flat twist hair
SUNDAY*, MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY NIGHTS
1) Roll up ends of hair — 3-4 minutes
2) In morning, spritz hair and air dry — 20 minutes
3) Morning — Unravel twists, and then use finger tips, JUST AT THE ROOTS, to remove lines in hair by scratching/massaging them out — 5 minutes
4) Put on bonnet for drive to work or whatever destination (helps shape the hair as well)
(*) = If Washed hair on Saturday
As stated before, my routine seems to change as my hair changes…or if I goof up, like I did with month 3-4 and being lazy and get all the knots in my hair. This is definitely NOT something I signed up to do. It is taking A LOT more time now than before when I had permed hair. I NEVER spent this much time just working on my hair. If I did make-up (which I don’t…not even lipstick) then that would be more time taken away for all this womanly stuff. Ugh!
Though I don’t like the time doing this, what’s driving me is …. what is it going to look like? I’m just really, really curious about how my hair is going to look like in the end. That’s what’s keeping me on this path.
I’m finishing up Month 9 (July) and on to Month 10 (AUGUST). Until next time 🙂