MY SHEALOE SUMMER TWISTS II
WEEK 5
By week 5 I was getting a better idea of how I wanted my mix.
I reduced the amount of shea butter and increased the amount of AVG.
However, I left this mix standing without a lid for a couple days before I got around to using it, so despite melting it and adding more AVG it kept thickening up. Strange!
It wasn't quite the texture I wanted but I used it anyway.
In the picture below you can see the difference between my messy twist (which were only a couple of days old) and my the ones I retwisted before rushing to work.
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| Left: Neatly retwisted / Right: Messy twists |
To be honest, with the exception of the first week, I felt like my hair looked as it does in the picture on the right for most of the challenge up until this point.
I think my twisting technique was partly to blame. When I tried to rush my twists just came out messy.
I played around with pinning and plating my twists, to create other styles but also as a way of disguising twists that were messy.
WEEK 6
More messy twists and twistouts...
WEEK 7
I finally found the Shealoe consistency that was just right for what I wanted.
This involves plenty of AVG to make it very runny. It was pretty much gel with a bit of shea butter.
I finally got the hold I want AND it wasnt greasy!
WEEK 8
So I guess I came full circle.
Finally, twists that had the smoothness and hold that I wanted, and lasted for a good few days before frizzing up.
CONCLUSION:
It was a very loose challenge I set myself and I wasn't particularly scientific or disciplined about it but I still learned some useful things about my hair.
CASH
One of the main things Im pleased to have discovered is a wonderful money saver for my hair. Now I know how to make the right Shealoe for me I think I'll try and make sure I stock the house with some back up Shea butter & AVG.
CONSISTENCY
I definitely prefer my Shealoe mix to be more AVG than shea butter, otherwise my hair is too greasy and soft to hold the twists neatly.
CHEMICAL FREE
Although I can pretty much guarantee excellent hold and perfectly defined twistouts using my Eco Styler Gel, and its probably cheaper than the cost of Shealoe ingredients, I do like the fact that my Shealoe mix is all natural and I doesn't cause as much shrinkage as I get with Eco Styler.
DAMAGE PREVENTION
Maybe I did manage to reduce the number of SSKs and damaged ends I would've otherwise had this Summer, but by the end of the 8 weeks I definitely still needed a trim. As for my edges, I did pin and pull my hair quite a bit so I'm not sure if the twists did much to protect them, but maybe I can set a new challenge for them.
CREATIVITY
My twistouts are not very defined using my Shealoe mix but I think some of my most creative stlyes have come as a result of the messy twistouts from this challenge.
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| My favourite twistout hair-experiment |
