Styling Adventures: 3 Strand Twist Out

Hey guys!!

If you follow @thekinkandi on Instagram, this is old news but here’s how I wore my hair last week, and a break down of how I was able to achieve it.

3 Strand What?

You’re definitely familiar with regular two-strand twists: twisting with two sections of hair. The 3 strand twist is a different way of twisting, with three strands. How is this possible? Isn’t that a braid, you ask? Nope, it isn’t.

To 3 strand twist, you need 3 sections, like a braid. You can start it as a braid, so that your roots can firmly hold, and then you start the twisting.

After the braid beginning, you have three strands yes, left, centre, right- let’s call them A, B, C respectively.

Make the rightest the leftest, as in- move the section on the right to the innermost left. The centre is now the rightest. Make it the leftest now. By so doing, the one that was originally on the left is now on the right, so you now make that one the leftest once more. And you repeat till you’re all the way down your twist.

ABC
CAB
BCA
ABC. Repeat.

If your hair thins out down the twist, you can finish with a 2 strand twist or just twirl the end round your finger. And that is all.

tada!! 😀 Took me about 90 minutes, because I’m a bit of a snail

Nahhh, who am I kidding? Everything I’ve said may only make sense if you actually SEE it. Watch this really helpful video tutorial from Alyssa Forever, to see how it’s done.

I saw a pictorial showing how to do a 3 strand twist without starting as a braid and it really confused me. Still, it may be the thing to help you get it. Go see it here.

Products Used

I did this on clean, damp hair, fresh from Washday.
My leave-ins are humectant packed and I was trying to avoid frizz small, so I decided to do without them, and use just shea butter as a sealant and styling pomade. I used Cecees Curls Whipped Shea Butter (review soon)

The Unraveling: Twist Out

– I had the twists in from Friday night to Monday morning.
– I oiled my hands with a little shea butter and carefully undid the twists, twisting in the opposite direction, very careful with separating the sections as too much movement can cause it to frizz and lose definition.
– I held the front sides up with 2 hair combs. (I bought my hair combs in July from Fashion Strings at NITC 6. Contact deets in Directory) Voila!

My Weather app predicted 94% Humidity on Monday so I prepared myself for the possibility that my twistout would be totally unrecognisable by the time I came home. Yes it swelled, but I liked the chunkiness.

#teamSwelly

Maintenance:

At night, I took different sections and braided the hair Simbi Style, taking care not to disturb my parting. I didn’t comb and I didn’t finger detangle either.

Simbi! 😀

Day 2 hair had less definition, but it was still alright.

Pinned to the sides for court

And after 3 hours of wearing the wig, the back had no curl

By Day 4, the twist out had pretty much expired. I tried to wear it to work. It was fine when I left the house…

Day 4 hair

…But by the time I got to work, it was limp and looking somehow, so I couldn’t resist the urge to ‘Fro It. Which I did! Just a few runs with my wide toothed comb, and I had the best looking fro I’ve had so far. 😀

check me ‘fro outttt

Why 3 Strand Twists Are Awesome

I personally prefer the way braid outs look to twist outs, at least on kinky hair. Braid outs give chunkier curls or waves, with more texture. 3 strand twists appear to give curlier results.

3 strand twists hold better than 2 strand twists. Long story short, I’m just team #3StrandTwist.

Do You 3 Strand Twist? Could you? Would you? Why or why not? Let’s talk in the comments!

Love,

AB

Xx

P.S. I know “leftest” is not in the dictionary. :p