How Long to Keep Twists in Natural Hair
After getting the perfect two-strand twist, there are numerous questions you need answers to for your hair to keep being perfect. Perhaps the most important question that most people can’t answer is how long to keep twists in natural hair.
The average length of time that two-strand twists can spend on your natural hair ranges from two weeks to six weeks. However, it’s best if you don’t leave it for that length of time. You should redo your hair as frequently as you can, only pushing it to the extremes whenever necessary.
In this article, you’ll learn more about making your twists last longer on natural hair. Firstly, I’ll show you how to twist natural hair, while focusing on optimization to make it last longer. Then, you’ll learn how to make twists last longer in natural hair. Without further ado, let’s jump in.
How to Twist Natural Hair to Make it Last Longer
When trying to make your natural twist last longer, it’s best to start from the origin, which is when the hair was made. If you didn’t make the hair with an intention of making it last as long as possible, no after-the-fact optimizations will ever be as effective.
If you’re trying to make a two-strand twist for someone looking to sustain it for as long as possible, here are the steps required to make that possible.
1. Dampen and air-dry the hair
One question that most amateurs ask is if you should twist dry or wet hair. The correct answer will vary depending on the kind of hair you have, but there’s something true regardless: dampening the hair before the twist will make it last longer.
Now, the question becomes how long to dry the hair before starting the twisting properly. Regardless of how long you eventually settle on drying the hair, you should ensure that it’s air-dried all through.
2. Prep the sections and make the twists
After air-drying the damp hair, you can proceed to carve out sections of your hair for the twists. You’ll need to separate your hair into several sections, with each representing a single twist. If you want larger twists, you’ll want to go with larger sections, while tinier twists will also have tiny sections.
To keep the twists for a longer period, tiny twists are far better than larger ones. Ultimately, it all comes down to your preference and how much hair you have to spare.
You should also remember that you’ll have to divide each of the sections into two before beginning the twisting process. The division should be even, and once you have each of the two divisions in your hand, you can start twisting them to create a twist.
3. Lay the edges
To make your hair look its best after the entire process, you may want to lay the edges to make the entire thing look smooth. All you need for that is an old toothbrush and any decent hold styling gel. Simply apply the gel to the tiny rebelling strands of hair and lay them to rest using the toothbrush.
When you follow these steps, you have an excellent two-strand twist ready to stay for another three weeks or more. However, that’s not all you need to make your natural hair twists last for a longer time. You may want to continue reading this article to learn more about preserving your hair to make it last longer.
How Long to Keep Twists in Natural Hair
Your twists will start looking bad as soon as the second day of making them, and that’s a natural behavior of the style. However, when days start running into weeks, you’ll start seeing more pronounced but negative changes to the twists, but how long should you keep the twists in your natural hair.
You should only keep twists for as long as it looks tolerable. Once it doesn’t feel okay to wear anymore, it’s time to loosen it and try redoing the twists on your hair. Of course, the time before it starts feeling “not okay” to wear will depend on many factors, some of which you can’t control.
Most people report being able to keep their twists for around two to six weeks. If you can only carry it for two weeks before it starts looking too terrible for your liking, it’s not too bad, and if you can persevere for up to six months, that’s fine too.
However, you should generally consider trying to redo your twists as often as you’re chanced. If you have enough time to redo it after a week, there’s very little justification for pushing it for up to six weeks before making a redo.
How to Make Twists Last Longer in Natural Hair
If you’re the type that asks many questions, you should already know one or two ideas about making your twists last long. However, the problem with ideas that fly around is that they’re almost always misleading, which makes them hard to trust. But seriously, how do you make your two-strand twists last longer?
Here are some ideas that should help you keep your twist for a longer period without looking like you’ve been banned from making your hair.
1. Moisturize your hair first
If you noticed, my steps to creating the perfect two-strand twists start by moisturizing your hair, and it’s for one reason: longevity. It’s no secret at this point that moisturizing your hair will make the twists last longer in the long run, making it a necessary part of the process.
Since we’re dealing with natural hair here, water remains the best agent to use in moisturizing your hair. You can also use a moisturizing cream with no artificial chemicals to make the hair hold well together.
2. Use a twist pudding
Another magic formula that will make your job massively easier is using a twist pudding for the styling. While there are several on the internet at a cheap price, you can go for a homemade one that you can trust to be natural. You should apply the pudding on individual sections of your hair as opposed to applying it to everything at once for even distribution.
3. Wear a satin scarf over your hair at night
Some of the biggest threats to the longevity of your two-strand twists happen when you’re asleep at night. If you’re hard on hair care, you should already know that wearing a satin or silk scarf over your hair at night will do so much to protect your twists from coming off while you sleep.
4. Make the twists tinier
It’s not exactly a secret that smaller twists tend to hold together better than larger ones. If you’re looking to make your twists last longer, you may want to make those sections a bit tinier, thereby making individual twists smaller.
5. Look the other way
If you’re looking to keep your twists for an extended period, you have to come to terms with the reality that it won’t look perfect throughout. Over time, the once adorable hairstyle will be overcome by frizz and puffs that will look unattractive to you.
When that happens, you’ll need to learn to ignore it. While you can redo a few terrible twists here and there, you’ll have to persevere for the entire duration if you want to keep the twists for long.
Conclusion
If you’re new to two-strand twists, one of the issues you’ll be having would be with the regularity at which you should redo your twists. There’s a lot of conflicting information on the internet that it might be difficult to determine what the best advice is.
This article tries to answer the question of how long to keep twists in natural hair. While there’s no one-size-fits-all answer for this, you can get an idea of how long you should be looking to keep your twists to retain an alluring look.
