Diagonal Cornrows & More Sister Twists

I'm now officially obsessed with sister twists. In my opinion they are less fuzzy, stay longer, and have cooler twist-out effects. But I haven't quite figured out: do sister twists = rope twists? Would love anyone's insight on this.

Anyway here are a few pictures of a more recent style with cornrows and sister twists. All bling was purchased at Snapaholics.

Have I ever mentioned that JJ is not one for posing? Or sitting still for that matter? Even if I haven't mentioned this you've likely noticed. These pictures all feature JJ, and pizza.

I think I finally figured out sister twists!!

At least I think they're Sister Twists...

Sister twists have been on my To Do List for a while now. I've tried and failed enough times to be super-motivated to overcome the challenge! 

What I did before (step-by-step): 

• Take a section of hair. 
• Divide into two sections. 
• Put one section in each hand.
• Completely twist one section clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. 
• Try to twist the twists around each other. 
• Get frustrated when these unravel. 
• Give up and do plain old two-strand twists. 

To me this always felt like patting my head and rubbing my tummy at the same time, and I've never been very good at that. I admit I can be easily confused by right/left/clockwise/counterclockwise, and I could never quite coordinate the whole idea of twisting some hair clockwise and some counterclockwise all at the same time. I am a pretty fast two-strand twister though. I find them kind of mindless. I just have to look to get them started, and then I can pretty much speed through them without even looking (how wonderful; this means I can really attend to that favourite hair-time movie for the millionth time - most recently a fascinating Dora video). 

Anyway, it was really bugging me that  I couldn't get my head around the sister twists. So, I watched the how-to video at Beads, Braids and Beyond, and then played around with JJ's hair a bit. I realized that when I do two-strand twists I tend to use my two hands differently. I almost always twist clockwise. I start with a section of hair that I divide into two sections. I use the middle finger of my left hand to grab the right section of hair which I pull under (or behind) the left section. I then continue grabbing the right section with my left hand, twisting all the way down to the bottom. Hmm, maybe I need to get that on video, it's challenging to describe. Speaking of challenging, here now is my attempt to describe how I am now doing what I think are sister twists!!!  

What I do now:

• Take a section of hair.
• Divide into two sections.
• Put one section in each hand.
• Pull right hand section under left hand section (I use the middle finger of my left hand to do this).
• Switch which hand is holding each section (because I use my left middle finger to grab the hair I have already switched this section, I then use my right hand to grab what was the left section).
• Twist section now in left hand between thumb and first finger. My hands naturally want to twist the hair clockwise, so I do that.
• Again pull the right hand section under left hand section (again, I grab the right hand section with my left middle finger). 
• Again, switch which hand is holding each section. 
• Again, twist the section now in the left hand between thumb and first finger, the same direction as before (in my case, clockwise).
• Continue pulling the right hand section under the left, switching hands, and always twisting the hair in the left hand section the same direction. 

I'm sure that's all gibberish to anyone but me, but at least I've recorded what I do in case I forget one day. 

Most importantly I am ***loving*** these twists. They really do seem to be less fuzzy, and don't take me that much longer than regular twists. They have withstood the tests of swimming lessons and washing. And the twist-outs have a very, very cool texture and are easy to put into ponytails, etc. 

Why can I never get the (auto) focus right?
Anyway look at how much the sister twists stretch out JJ's hair.

Twists after a few days, a swimming lesson, and co-washing!

Cool twist-out texture. The rather noticeable part lines were not so noticeable in real life.

JJ lovin' the twist-out

More recent twists with cornrows at the top.

   

Three-Layer Braids with Bling

It's taking a while for things to get back to normal at our house. JJ seems to be coming down with something again, and went to bed tonight complaining of feeling hot and cold all at once. She's fast asleep now, so I thought I'd quickly post a few recent pictures before another potential illness does the rounds!

Lately I've been making a diagonal part for most styles. This allows JJ's hair to hang in such a way that it's out of her face on one side. She likes the other side to hang down in her face a bit, but it can be easily held back with a barrette or claw clip.  After washing JJ's hair and removing the twists, I kept the diagonal part and changed the twists into braids. 

I made three "layers" of braids. I cornrowed the top layer and did box braids on the middle and bottom layers. I added green and white beads in the spirit of St Patrick's Day (yes, it was that long ago...).

sorry - little focus problem - as usual

These lasted at least two weeks. I played around with them - pulling the braids into one or two ponytails, changing up the beads, and eventually removing the bottom two rows of braids and keeping the cornrows for some puff styles.  Silly me, I neglected to take pictures of most of the variations, but here's one: 

Next: Finally - Success with sister twists (after many failed attempts)!!