A Headful of Twists

It rained last Friday. And we had just cleaned our house fairly thoroughly. So I was stuck at home, wondering what I was going to do all day. No cleaning. No gardening. No playing outside.

So I decided to practice more on Kenson's hair. This time I knew a bit more about what I was doing. I did start with four sections of hair, parted nape to forehead and then ear to ear. His hair is so short though so keeping it parted with clips was a bit silly. I did keep a few spots clipped back but I didn't worry about the whole head. My parts were much better. I did try to do a grid but one of the things I learned was that Kenson has some shorter places in his hair (probably from the ring worm) and those sections can't support as big of twists so I had to break from the grid to divide those spots into smaller twists. Also, once you get going, you kind of realize that some spots aren't going to lend themselves well to keeping with square parts so some of mine were a bit odd shaped in places. But all in all, I thought they looked pretty good.

Since Kenson's hair is pretty short, the twists are a bit tricky to keep in. Twists just don't last as long as braids do. But they are an easy style to start with and people who don't know any better think they're braids. (After you've got one section ready, just divide it into two and twist tightly one section of hair over the other. With heavily textured hair, it will stay without any rubber bands or fasteners. You will want to work with wet hair rather than dry so spray or douse small areas with water as you work. Also, you'll need to apply gel or another styling product to the section of hair before you start twisting to keep the twist in and to help you smooth out the hairs along the parts.) I did blow dry them in sections and that seemed to help them stay in.

Also, the blow dryer helped us get the whole head done since it was a novelty and Kenson wanted to keep going so he could use the blow dryer. I started during a tv program I thought would keep him interested but then worked through a snack and lunch. The food bit was the most helpful in keeping him occupied. I would say it maybe took 1 1/2 hours to put them all in. It's hard to say exactly how long because you're allowing wiggle time and time to take breaks. And if I were more experienced (and Kenson too) it would probably take less time.

The twists lasted until Monday when I thought they looked a bit too ratty to really keep. I did retwist before church on Sunday but I kept all the parts and just took one twist out at a time so it only took like 30 minutes to fix it. I think I could have probably done the same thing on Monday but I thought the parts were looking a bit haphazard too. Plus once you take the twists out, if you don't brush the hair all together, you kind of get a new hairdo for a bit too. Kenson is a bit short to really look good like that so I'll spare your the details but if his hair gets a bit longer, taking out twist is a good way to have some funky "free" hair.