Kinky Twists: The Take Down & Wash Day @ 13 Weeks Post

"I had to say goodbye to the kinky twists.  They have been in for two months now and although I think I could get away with another 2 weeks at least, I know they have to go for the health of my hair!"

On Thursday night I took down about 4 twists at the nape and put them back in.  I did this just to check out how the plan of action would work the following day and to find out whether I would need to have any specific tools or products close to hand that may have not been availalbe to me otherwise.  I was going to do the whole of the very back section but I quickly got bored - this didn't bode well for having to take the whole lot in one go the following day!  The four twists that I took out had a lot of fluff /build up in them.  I lost some shed hairs during the process but was very careful not to cause any breakage.



When I removed the extension hair I coated the entire length of my hair with my Nutiva EVCO I then applied more EVCO to the section between the new growth and the relaxed ends where the hair had been attached and the build up of lint was present.  I then squeezed the EVCO into the build up and then topped that with a drop of CHI Silk Infusion.  I then gently squeezed it through to soften the build up and lubricate the strands before beginning to separate my hair strands from each other and the area of build up and lint. This process [although very tedious] worked pretty very well so I adapted it a bit for the following day.

1.  I made my 'Take Down Spray' using equal measures of Aloe Vera Juice, Hemp Seed Oil and Grapeseed Oil and then decanted into a spray bottle and shook to mix the ingredients thoroughly.  

AVJ & Oil 'Take Down Spritz', messy but very effective!

2.  Next I sprayed the mix all over the kinky twists, including the new growth, squeezed it through the braids and then baggy'ed my whole head for 1hr.

My lovely New Growth, I have missed it since my 6 month stretch last year!

3.  Next, I sectioned my hair into four and then worked line by line unraveling each twist within a line of braids and then once all the extension hair was removed from that line I applied CHI Silk Infusion to the entire length of each piece of hair which was previously braided and concentrated extra CHI SI serum to the matted section of hair where the extension hair had been attached, then applied a small amount of Giovanni Smooth As Silk Conditioner before I set about removing all the shed hair using my fingers.

Once all the shed hair was removed I repeated the process on the next two rows and then applied Giovanni 50:50 Balanced Conditioner to the section twisted it into a two strand twist and clipped it out of the way. Doing it this way meant that I never had more than 5 or 7 braids to tackle at any one time.  PERFECT!

3.  After all of the twists were removed [this took on average 2.5 hours per quadrant, split over one evening and the following morning]  I applied more Giovanni 50:50 deep conditioner to each section.  I didn't have any of my Sagemann combs or Denman comb with me so I didn't bother detangling at that stage, I just pinned my hair up and got on with things I had to do, including making my U Part Wig.  I left my hair marinating in the Giovanni 50:50 Balanced Deep Condtioner until the following day.  I baggied my hair overnight and then continued with my wash day on Sunday.

My new growth, prior to baggying and detangling - prior to anything really as I was just about ready for my B.E.D.!

My hair after baggying overnight

4.  After removing the shower cap from my head, I spritzed my hair with AVJ and followed this up with CHI Keratin Mist (to provide strength and reduce breakage) I set about detangling my hair, first using my fingers, next up was my HS Jumbo Rake, followed by my HS Mini Rake and then lastly, the wide side of my Denman Ebonite Comb.  I was thorough in my detangling as I didn't want any locing to take place when I washed my hair!!!

My baggied hair prepped and ready for the detangling session ahead!

I worked in the same sections that I had removed the braids and after detangling a section I applied ORS Replenishing Conditioner and then sat with this on my hair for 30mins under my heated cap.  I would have used my steamer but I didn't have it with me.

AVJ decanted into my spray bottle.

My hair with three of the four (split) sections detangled and coated in ORS Replenishing conditioner.  The clipped up section still needs to be detangled and coated in ORS.

5.   Next I shampoo'd my hair. I wasn't going to shampoo but I needed to do so after adding ORS on top of all the oil that was in my hair from my 'Take Down Spritz'.  I used Elasta QP Creme Conditioning Shampoo which doesn't contain sulphates and is very mild mixed with ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo to make sure that any build up was dealt with.  Both of these shampoos are very moisturising to my hair.

6.  Next I got  a little bit confused and did a Black&Green Tea rinse which I brewed using 2 x green tea bags and 4 x PG Tips tea bags.  I left this on for 3 mins and then applied my iC 1 Minute Reconstructor.

I meant to add the reconstructor before the tea rinse and then leave the tea on for 30mins before applying my moisturising deep conditioner. 

Anyway,  as it was, I ended up rinsing out the reconstructor and tea rinse after about 4 mins in total and then applied a towel to my hair to soak up the extra water.

7.  After my hair was towel dry, I applied my conditioner mix as shown below.

I also ended up adding a little KeraCare Humecto to make the mix even more moisturising but this was an after thought after I had applied the conditioner to one section and felt it needed a little something extra, so I didn't take a picture of the additonal ingredient.

I left the conditioner on my hair for 45mins under my heated cap before rinsing.

Deep Conditioner Mix:  Aloe Vera Juice, Matrix Conditioning Balm, Lustrasilk Mango Butter Cholesterol, Roux Porosity Control (& KeraCare Humecto - not pictured)

8.  I applied my leave ins of Elasta QP H20, Cantu Shea Butter Leave In Treatment, Giovanni Direct Leave In Conditioner and air dried to 50% dry before blowdrying slightly using the hand tension method and then detangled using my three combs.

During all of these thorough detangling sessions I lost quite a bit of hair.  I didn't mind this though as the shedding I experience after being in a long term protective style (2 months in this case) is far less than I would have lost during 8 weeks worth of washes so I figure this is acceptable.  I was very careful with my hair when detangling and my hair was well moisturised to reduce any breakage.  I lost most hair when I took out the twists, followed my the second largest amount when I detangled prior to washing, less again when I detangled after washing and then less again when I prepped my hair for the U Part.

Total shed hair during detangling hair at the top is from the back sections, hair at the bottom is from the front sections

Total hair shed during detangling, compressed

Hair shed during take down.  The picture with four bundles shows the hair in four sections as they would have come out i.e. the hair in the bottom right is from the back section on the right and the hair in the top left is from the front left hand section.  The other pictures show the hair compressed.

Hair on the left is from removing the twists, hair on the right is from detangling before washing.  The amount of hair lost is less than both previous kinky twist take downs

As you can see from the above, I totally wimped out of doing a full head of  henna!  I just don't think it was the right thing to do this time around.  Maybe next time!

I will be wearing my U-Part wig for the next few weeks until I am ready to do my relaxer touch up.

Ciao 4 Now