My journey with kinky twists has come to an end and I’m both sad and happy to have parted ways with them. I initially planned to keep them in for 4-6 weeks and boy did the time fly! In total, the “Kinks” and I spent a solid 6 weeks together and I can’t believe I made it that long. I knew our time was coming to an end when I kept seeing all the beautiful, loose, natural hair pictures floating around on my Instagram feed. As much as I didn’t miss styling my hair, I genuinely missed my hair. So when I came to the fork in the road of whether to freshen up the edges, or take the twists down altogether I took the road less traveled!
After spending 16 hours installing 160 twists, it was almost a relief to begin taking them down. It wasn’t an easy or quick process by any means, but as soon as I took down the first twist I felt an overwhelming sense of excitement. The removal and subsequent detangling process is just as important, if not more important than the initial installation. You can very easily pull hair out, create larger knots and tangles and damage the strands if you’re not careful. The take down took between three and four hours for me. I had the hardest time with the twists at the nape of my neck, as this hair is fine and easily tangled. What was surprising was that my hair was still super soft, even though it had been in the kinky twists for six weeks!
How I Took Them Down
I used a combination of Blended Beauty Natural Hair Oil and Qhemet Biologics Cocoa Tree Detangling Ghee to gently coax the tangles apart, while removing a month and a half of shed hair. It really helped me to tackle this in sections, detangling then twisting one section before moving on to the next. I then proceeded to wash and condition my hair one section at a time, still twisting back up before moving to the next. The Elucence Volume Clarifying Shampoo really did a great job of cutting through the buildup to give my hair a fresh and clean start. EDEN BodyWorks JojOba Monoi Revitalizing Conditioner provided the extra conditioning I needed to replenish the nutrients my hair desired. My hair was back!
Styling After the Twists
My first style after taking my kinky twists out was my hands down favorite: a twistout! It feels great to have my hair back and I’m rocking it in all its glory! Wearing a long term protective style for me has been a great experience and it was a nice breather for my hair. It also taught me to be proud of my curls. When it comes to natural hair, the grass is not always greener on the other side as some people would assume. Enjoy your hair, no matter where you are in your journey! Happy styling!
