Self Maaaade! : Havana Twists

Hey guys!

Last Monday, I decided to get my hair did. Havana twists had been on my mind since March, so I knew just what I was going to do.

Rather than go to the salon, I got my tools together and set up a mini salon at home, in front of the TV. I had seen Jouelzy’s invisible root Havana twist tutorial (below) like 10 times and it looked so easy, I really wanted to try it.

I had also seen another Havana twists tutorial by youtuber, GodCallsMeBeloved using a different technique, and this infographic on Finger Comber. I decided to go with Jouelzy’s.

Hair prep: I co-washed my hair, moisturised with Cantu Shea Butter Leave-In Repair Cream, and sealed with Olive Oil. Then I put my hair in chunky twists.

I blow-dried one section- with medium heat, but I didn’t do this when I got to subsequent ones because I felt the twists stretched my hair well enough.

For this, I used my usual Supreme Royal Silk Afro Twist Braid extensions. To be as thick as I wanted, I needed 4 strands of the extensions for each Havana twist. And to be as long as I wanted, I didn’t cut the extensions in any way. Before twisting, I fluffed each strand of the braiding hair.

My progress in pictures:

My usual kinky extensions, Supreme Royal Silk Afro Twist Braid Hair

1, 2, 3, 4 strands

my 4 strands picked out

the very first twist

Invisible roots

All done! 😀

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Well, no. Not really.

My 3 packs of braiding hair could only do about three quarters of my head. I was able to do about 21 twists. The whole process took me 4 hours (1pm-5pm) and I was not in the mood to take a walk to go buy more hair as I was definitely in no mood to continue working that day! So I chunky twisted what was left of my own hair and tucked it in. My own twists blended in nicely with the Havana twists.

I was pretty pleased with my results, especially as it was my first time twisting or braiding my own hair or anyone else’s for that matter. I’m not very good with my hands- but I’m trying to be.

The next day, I was with my mom doing some rounds, and 4 different people complimented my hair. When they asked, “Where did you make it?” it felt really good to say “I did it myself!”  ^__^

My excitement and gloating aside, I know my twists weren’t perfect:

To my eyes, the first twist was the best. The others were slightly poofier because I just couldn’t keep my twisting firm. Also, when you twist, you’re supposed to twist in the same direction all the way but I got confused or forgot myself on quite a few.

Finally, because of the poofiness, the hair seemed a little heavy. I do like big hair, but I was worried about this because I still needed to add at least one more pack of hair- and if the additional twists looked like this, it would definitely be annoying to manage.

Have a look at my sleeping situation Monday & Tuesday nights 😦

I had no hairnet to squeeze it into and my bonnet was much too small.

So, on Wednesday- I got my fourth pack of braiding hair. I had to decide whether to add it to what I had or start all over. Wednesdays are my DC days and my hair LOVES its weekly dose of Honey and Olive Oil. I only had 20 twists to loosen so I just decided to go on and take them off. I washed, deep conditioned, moisturised & sealed, chunky twisted, and then I went to the salon. Between all the typing I had to do in preparing Going Back To Natural, and trying to function with a BB missing some keys (the struggle!), my fingers had cramps! I couldn’t commit my hands again to twisting for hours.

I showed my stylist the pictures and she looked like she meant it when she said I shouldn’t have loosened the hair, I should have just brought it as it was for her to finish. ^_^ Also, I was a little smug about the fact that she didn’t know how to do the Invisible roots method. Ha! #JouelzyTaughtMe!

I learnt a few things from watching my stylist, and I’ll be trying this again one day. Hopefully, I’ll be better. 😀

I’m happy wearing my salon-made twists, but I’m not totally over myself yet and the fact that ‘I Can!’. These photos of my own twists make me mentally do the Rozay grunt! Okay, I’m going to stop now.

Self-maaaaaade! *haughn*!!

Till next post,

Love,

AB

xx