Caribana weekend, the Hubby’s aunt, cousin, wife and kids were in town to get on bad and palance throughout Toronto. The Hubby’s cousin’s wife had some cute kinky twists in and I was like, “how long did that take?”

“I did them myself,” she answered. “It took about eight hours — I did other things, looked after the kids, took some breaks — but it was about eight hours.”

Hmmm… I thought about it. Back in the day, when I was a poor university student who didn’t have $60 to get my hair done, I would take a weekend and braid my own hair. That’s why I realized how much my hair benefited from protective styles. I braided my own hair until I moved to Toronto and started working full-time. At that point, I had the money to pay a skilled braider to hook me up.

Now, after a fun-filled, travel heavy and expensive summer, I remember what it was like to be a student with no cash flow. I knew I had some afro kinky hair knocking around the house and Labour Day weekend was coming up. Why not twist my hair myself?

On the Friday of Labour Day, my plan was to wash my hair and start braiding, but my sister-in-law and I made plans to see Takers. (Good movie. Great man candy. Idris is HOT.) So, I washed my hair that morning with Val’s Veggie Bar Pure Olive Oil soap, conditioned with Aussie Moist and braided it in about 10 thick braids – making sure to detangle my ends. That, readers, is my biggest issue. I never seem to detangle my ends well and then I have to deal with trashy ends. This time I did a good job of making sure that my ends were smooth and curly — with lots of Giovanni Direct Leave-in Conditioner and oil.

After all of that, I slapped on my wig and headed off to the movies.

The next morning, I started twisting at 9:15 am. I was using Cantu Shea Butter Leave-in Conditioning Cream… but that didn’t do the job. It was  too light — it didn’t feel like there was anything on my hair. I needed something that was thick. I pulled out Carol’s Daughter Healthy Hair Butter.

Now, that stuff is thick! I really do like it.

I’ve learned that the key to good twists, aside from technique, is good twisting hair. Get good quality — if it feels dry in package, it will look dry in your hair. I had another brand of hair that I had bought in Montreal — I would give you the name to warn you, but I was so disgusted by it I tossed it. And I realized why I still had it: I brought it into the salon to have my hair twisted with it and it looked so dry and bad that I took the twists out after three weeks. You don’t spend over $100 for three weeks. That dry, dusty hair hit the garbage with a quickness.

Back to the recent twisting. A couple of hours later this is what I had:

It was a lot of dang work, but it was well worth it. I think I will keep these in for four weeks — I was aiming for eight, but I want to try it out again. Then I’ll re-twist for Canadian Thanksgiving (second Monday in October). I’ll probably get it blown straight for Christmas and a length check and back to the twists for 2011.