Flat Twist Outs are BAE 🙂
You’ve done all of this work… and now your on the last leg of the race: STYLING!
Everyone loves a good twist out. Whether you are looking for stretch, definition, volume… a twist out is your main man! With a braid out, you’ll get awesome stretch and beautiful definition, but it can leave your hair a bit limp (especially if you have fine hair like me!). Then you have a Wash n’ Go (or a wash n’ do the most THEN… finally go for me) which can leave you with awe striking curls and coils poppington everywhere, and volume that Cleopatra Jones would be jealous of, but hella shrinkage.
I’ve always loved a good twist out because it allowed me to achieve whatever it was that I wanted with minor modifications. If I wanted more stretch, a few bobby pins could solve that. If I wanted more volume, a simple pick with a comb or my fingers was all I needed. I didn’t ALWAYS love twist out because I found that my hair would be tangled as hell at the roots. Matting and tangling at the roots is a very common problem for those of us with type 4, kinky hair. I actually had the pleasure (sarcasm alert!) of learning the hard way that thoroughly detangling is something you want to make sure you stay on top of. I had to make some significant changes in my hair care routine, and break some “natural hair rules” to combat this issue. After essentially having one big dreadlock with loose strands on the end, I made it my life’s mission to make sure that my roots never got that tangled again.
So I had a time period were I exclusively wore braid outs because I could make them more taught, and thus get more stretch at the root. While my roots looovveeedd the braid outs, my fine hair didn’t have the volume that I wanted (as I prefer volume to definition) so I had to reconcile that.
Then one day I decided to try a flat-braided-twist out (I know, leave me alone) were I would flat twist the roots, braid the length of my hair, and then twist the ends. Days later, not only did I still have volume, definition, and stretch but my main issue was solved: my roots were not tangled at all!
This was because I had gotten a good stretch all the way down from my scalp. Also the products that I used help to clump and set my strands into a curl pattern so that each strand could not try and get married to their neighbor. As I went further along in my hair care journey, I stopped doing this more complicated version of a twist out, and just started doing flat twist out that I would modify depending on my desired final style.
Flat twist outs have really helped me with growing longer hair by stretching my hair from the root. This helped to reduce tangles and knots thus helping me to reduce the amount of mechanical damage I was causing (which is crucial for fine, kinky hair) and the amount of knots that I had to cut. All of this is necessary for maximum length retention.
Volume, stretch, definition, and less tangles? I’ll take 2 please.
What is your go-to style?
-Sea
