Twist Out For Beginners

So I’m trying to figure out my curls & what they like or need rather. Part of that will require me doing less protective styling (a moment of silence for my faux locs & braids ☹︎) & learning what products my hair actually likes & showing the curls some serious love. My first step? Learning to do a twist out!

A little back story, I’ve always noticed that my hair in the centre of my head was always shorter, low & behold my favourite undo is the reason! So, now i’m trying to use less hair ties & let my hair be free to reduce damage & encourage growth.

Now, I’ve been natural for years & in the beginning I was more experimental. I tried all kinds of braid outs & twist outs with absolutely NO success so I gave up & stuck with my protective styles. I’ve always felt like they didn’t fit me or looked down right awful.

Recently, after a curl consultation I learned that I should reattempt these low manipulation styles to allow my hair to prosper. I also had to lose quite a bit of hair to a much needed trim! I legit barely have a ponytail anymore lol, so here I am, on a mission to regrow & I’m going to blog about it.

Now let’s get right into it!

The Twist Out!

So if you follow me on instagram, you would’ve seen that about 2 weeks ago I did my very first successful twist out, yay!

It was actually pretty simple, once I did some researched & asked fellow naturals for some help I figured out how I was going to do this in the least complicated manner. Literally only a detangling leave-in, a defining cream & an oil.

My Twist Out Products

Feel free to use your favourite products but I used these three;

Free At Last – Detangling Leave In by Ettenio

Queen Of Coils – Curl Defining Cream by Ettenio

Taliah Waajid African Healing Oyl

Before I start, if you want to see a video of me doing the entire process from start to finish there’s videos over on my TikTok & Instagram pages.

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My Twist Out Method

Step 1

Wash & condition your hair.

I also moisturise my hair while wet because my hair has been super dry lately. I use the Creme Of Nature Argan Oil Creamy Oil Moisturiser after rinsing my conditioner.

Step 2

I part my hair into 4 sections. For the front 2 sections, I kind of make the front quarter of the part slightly to the left then rejoin it to the true centre because I need my hair to fall to the right (I’m a side part kind of girl). So the twists will fall where i need them to fall rather than centred. I’ll insert a picture!

Its a video grab so bare with me, it slipped me to do pictures since I was also doing a video.

Step 3

With your detangling product of choice, use fingers & gently detangle each section with the product.

Step 4

Starting with one of the back sections, I begin parting my hair with my hands into medium sized sections for twisting.

I don’t use precise parting or a comb for this but if you’re good at parting your own hair then feel free!

Apply the defining cream to the sections one at a time & twist. Repeat this step until you’ve completed all 4 sections.

Each of the 4 large sections we originally created will give me about 3 rows of twists. Each row has 2 twists. So each of the 4 large sections of my hair has about 6 medium sized twists within.

Step 5

Apply your favourite hair growth oil or serum. This is a great time to massage your hair growth product into the scalp while your hair is sectioned into twists. I typically do this right after the twists are done and right before I unravel them which is about 2 days later.

Bonus Step – Nobody Likes This Part..

So, when I went deep diving into how to do a twist out, I learned that part of the reason I probably hated my results in the past was the fact that my hair was not as healthy as it should have been. I wasn’t getting regular trims because my goal was always length. I was compromising health for length which is a no-no.

Basically, with my damaged ends, when I would try a twist out or braid out my ends would be seriously trashy which would lead me to believe the twist out “didn’t work” when really it was just my ends that needed to go.

When you twist your hair, it will be pretty obvious if your ends are healthy or not. If they curl perfectly, like in my picture above, you’ve got a head of healthy curls. If the ends don’t curl up seamlessly or look a little frayed & trashy, a little trim up is needed.

Now, the easiest way to just give yourself a slight trim without losing too much hair is to do it with your hair twisted.

Using only sharp hair shears, all you have to do is snip the little end of the twists that doesn’t curl nicely. Once that damaged portion is gone, you’ll instantly notice the difference in how nice your twists look.

The Take Down

Step 1

Grab your face hair oil & pour some into your hands so that while taking down the twists you’re preventing frizz & moisturising your hair at the same time.

Step 2

Unravel your twists gently.

Step 3

After unraveling the original twists, continue to unravel the strands until you no longer have chunky strands & your hair is looking nice & fluffy.

Remember to keep your hands well oiled to ensure not to cause any frizz.

Step 4

Use your comb or hair pick at the roots to give your hair even more body.

Step 5

Style as needed! I use my edge control on my baby hairs then pin back one side of my hair as my preferred style for when my hair is out. Thats it! Twist out complete ☺︎

Remember if you want to see a video of me doing the entire process from start to finish there’s videos over on my Instagram & my TikTok

Let me know in the comments what your favourite twist out products are or if you do anything differently. I’d love to improve my twist out game! ☺︎

Until next time,

xo Justine-Renee