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Monday, March 12, 2012

A Month of Yarn Twists

Hi everyone!! First, I'd like to thank you for your patience as I try to balance family/work/life/blog. Blogging has certainly taken the back-burner, but I do have a line-up of exciting hair stories to tell. Slowly but surely, I'll get them out!

I wanted to start by sharing how JJ's sparkly twists for New Year's Eve ended up becoming a longer-term protective style.

When I started the yarn twists, I figured I would leave them in for a few days post-NYE. I wasn't planning on leaving them in too long, because I figured they'd be a bit too "flashy" for everyday. But as you may remember, JJ cut off a big chunk of her own hair on NYE, while I was taking a break from finishing up the twists...

So I decided the yarn twists would stay in a bit longer to buy some time (hair growth time!) before figuring out how to camouflage the short hair in her next style.

Luckily, the sparkly-ness of the yarn twists was quite subtle. The subtle but sparkly twists stayed for all of January! I washed them as per Rory's detailed instructions about washing yarn extensions at Chocolate Hair Vanilla Care. I also spritzed frequently with diluted Taliah Waajid Protective Mist Bodifier or live clean Exotic Nectar Argan Oil leave-in spray.

Here are JJ's yarn twists, not too fancy for the mall!

The beads stayed in for about a week.
Once the beads were out, I knotted the ends.
After about three weeks, I could not take the fuzz at the front anymore! The front yarn twists came out, and I did five simple flat twists towards the back. The back yarn twists stayed in.

Too much fuzz!
Flat twists at the front
After 4 1/2 weeks, I undid the knotted ends. The twists were super easy to unravel and the yarn actually seemed to help keep the two strands of the rope twists very distinct. There was no tangling of the two strands together as I unravelled the rope twists; usually JJ's hair does tangle with long-term 2-strand twists.



I left them as a yarn + hair twist-out for a day (sorry, forgot to take a photo of her whole head!). 

The next day I took out the yarn, by simply sliding it off of JJ's hair. Again, I was surprised at how non-tangled JJ's hair was, at how easy it was to simply untwist the strands, and at how moisturized her hair had stayed. 

And the patch of cut-off hair gained some length! 

JJ's hair went straight into another protective style - cornrows and box braids - for the month of February. Hopefully I'll catch up on blogging about February's style before too long - but here's a sneak peak in the meantime...



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10 comments:

  1. Tav March 12, 2012 at 1:23 PM

    Awww, she's so pretty! So did you do yarn down to the length of her hair or was it longer. Like were the beads on her hair or just on the yarn?

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  2. Mama MMarch 12, 2012 at 1:45 PM

    Thanks Tav! The yarn was just a little longer than her hair length - enough to attach the beads without beads on her hair, and enough to tie in a little knot once the beads were out. I always feel way better about beads on yarn than beads on hair, so this was a great way to have no-guilt/no-damage and still have beads.

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  3. UntrainedHairMomMarch 12, 2012 at 2:17 PM

    These styles are great. I really want to try yarn twists.

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  4. Mama MMarch 12, 2012 at 3:46 PM

    Thanks, UHM - and DO IT!!!! they're fun!

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  5. Precious HenshawMarch 12, 2012 at 5:03 PM

    Awesome! Love the new protective style!

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  6. Mama MMarch 12, 2012 at 5:11 PM

    Thanks Precious! I'm on a posting roll now - hopefully I'll get that February style out soon!

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  7. ggmixMarch 12, 2012 at 8:08 PM

    You have done a great job she looks gorgeous(",) I have contemplated doing yarn twists before but Ive worried that it would be too heavy on ky daughters head or make her itch or have alot of product buildup. Did u find yourself come across any of these? I love the February style cant wait for the post (",)

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  8. Mama MMarch 12, 2012 at 8:51 PM

    Thanks Dimitra! I used 6 strands of (thin) yarn per twist, which didn't add much weight. JJ did not seem at all bothered by it, and I did ask her, 'cause I wondered about the same thing. There was no itchiness, but I was keeping her hair and scalp well hydrated with a moisturizing spray (that reminds me, I still need to try out your itchy scalp recipe!). As for build-up, when I took the twists out, there was a little, just at the base of the twists where I added the yarn in, but not much considering they were in for almost 5 weeks.

    Thanks for your compliment on the February style - extra incentive to get that post done!

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  9. UnknownMarch 3, 2014 at 6:49 AM

    I love the twists. I am having trouble finding a good color. Where did you find the dark brown/black mix, or did you mix the yarn?

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    Replies
    1. Mama MApril 9, 2014 at 8:52 PM

      Hi Angie - this was a sightly sparkly black yarn, and the brown you see is actually JJ's hair. I have also struggled to find the right match. I think of JJ's hair as being black but in reality it is very very dark brown. Another time that I did yarn twists (but forgot to blog about it) I used a very dark brown color that ended up being perfect. Good luck on your hunt!

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