As for the look, as you can see from the picture above, although the twists looked properly executed, the twist style that I used wasn’t very flattering to my face shape (in my opinion, anyway).

Twist Take Two, which came just three weeks after Take One, wasn’t any more successful than my first attempt, but I was getting better with manipulating the twists and had perfected the skill of moistening each section as I got to it.  Visually, I still was not pleased with the result, mostly due to the length I lost as each twist dried, which further contributed to the “picaninny perception” I had of  the style.  Furthermore, I was still having the problem with twisting the base tight enough so that it would not unravel, which made necessary my third attempt:

The third time was very much the charm for me.  I like the appearance of the twists, although I was still disappointed by the natural shrinkage once they dried.  I’d enlisted the use of steel clips to aid in keeping the strands from unraveling so much at the base of each twist, as well as to keep each twist straight, which resulted in neater rows throughout.  I also added the element of a side part. Following the side part I was able to control the direction of the twists a bit better, and I could style them from center to side instead of simply from front to back.  I was pleased enough with this effort to wear it on short excursions to the outside world.

Twist set four was sublime perfection!  In just two months from my third attempt I’d gained a bit of length, which graced me with thicker twists from  base to tip and helped give a  fuller look to the style.  By three months into the game it was pretty much old hat, so I could pattern the twists however I wanted to.  I pretty much stayed with the regular so that I could achieve this:

A head full of thick and luscious corkscrews, which was part of the reason I’d started working with two strand twists in the first place.  When I’d first started the journey back to natural I’d envied twist out and braid out styles I’d seen on celebs and other Journeyers, which reminded me of times when I was younger and loved the crinkle wave look of my hair when it was unbraided.

It’s funny, now that I look back to my beginnings of dealing with this style, to see how nervous I was at the start of trying twists on for size.  I saw it as so complicated and was scared I’d do it wrong, resulting in being ticketed by the Naptural Hair Police for “perpetrating a fraud” because my nappy virgin efforts were so removed from what two strand twist “should” look like.  I was scared to wear them too far from home because I wasn’t sure I’d gotten the process down right, and for the most part they still reminded me of Buckwheat.  Now… I see it as a process in learning my hair, learning the style and learning not to compare myself to media images I see represented on celebs and models who have had their twists professionally styled.  It was also an exercise in patience… knowing my hair would not look how I wanted until it regained health and length, and until it did I’d have to make peace with what I had to work with.  And I did.  I cared for my hair as best I could, kept my hands out of it, which was my promise to myself, and learned to deal with it on its terms.  Three months later I was blessed with this result of my labour:

So there is my Twist Transformation, from start to “finish”.  It has been both frustrating and fun and helped me to learn my hair, so I would not trade any moment of it for the world.  It’s been a beautiful struggle.

Healthy Hair Wishes,