Hi people! Welcome to the month of August and a fabulous year bolting away!
As in August, already?!
Whew!

Well, today I was working on a product review post.
I have a lot of product reviews waiting to be shared but haven't really gotten round to sorting them out.
I was still trying to organize the PR's when I had a pleasant visit from Cyndy and her lovely sis.

Cyndy is a fab professional MUA (makeup artist) going natural by gradually transitioning.
(I really should get her to spill on makeup secrets...what dy'all say to that...hint hint)
Her natural hair has grown to that 'in between length' I was talking about earlier.
Her hair is healthy and moisturised and her sis (a transitioner by association) had done a fabulous twistout for her but she needed more styling options.


I'd like to digress a bit and give a big SHOUTOUT to "transitioners by association"!!! God bless you all!
Who are TBAs?
These are family members, spouse, partners, friends, neighbors, colleagues etc who though aren't transitioning to natural hair, still offer their support, patience,encouragement and assistance to those who decide to begin their natural hair journey.
It's not easy to wait for your wife, sis, friend or babe to finish detangling, moisturising, sealing, twisting, pineappling or styling her natural hair as she learns what works for it.
Sometimes you may be forced to participate in her natural hair journey by holding a comb, waiting patiently as she reads product labels in stores, waiting a turn in the bathroom as she uses up all the hot water, braiding or twisting her hair, taking down her style and telling her she looks good always!
So big Kudos to y'all!

Okay, back to Cyndy!
She wanted a style that was easy to do but still fabulous at the same time so here's what we did.

Products used:
- Clean water in a spray bottle
- Ecostyler Argan oil gel (for hold)
- Personal oil mix

Her hair was washed, detangled and moisturised a day before so no comb was necessary.
- I misted her hair with water to revive it and cause it to shrink.
I like working with shrinkage especially at this length and for this style.
Working with shrinkage gives me a real idea about the length and type of the curly hair I'll be working with.
It also makes twistouts last longer and it's less time consuming than trying to battle with shrinkage.
It's not a rule. If it's easier to work with stretched hair then it's fine.

- Then I divided her hair into two parts from ear to ear.

- I applied Ecostyler gel (for hold) to the bottom half and French braided (is this a word?) it upwards and tucked the end in.

- Then I made four little cornrows on each side and held them in place with a bobby pin.

- For the top half, I made several twists (for a twistout) using a mix of gel and oil (for softer hold).

- When the twists were about 90% dry, I carefully untwisted, fluffed to hide parts and patted the hair down carefully tucking the ends in towards the scalp to make it shorter and to hide the relaxed ends.

- Sprayed a little water for more shrinkage and her hair was done!

TIP. For smoother results (especially the edges), hold down with a scarf for a while then remove.
To preserve the style, loosely retwist the front and put on a scarf or bonnet.
If you're fully natural you don't need to retwist.
Loosen twists in the morning, mist hair a little, pat and go.
You may tie a scarf around the braided sides to smoothen then take off when you head out.

Here's the final result (shared with kind permission from Cyndy.

side view

The back