I decided to do two strand twists this evening after washing my hair. As I sat under the hooded dryer allowing them to dry, I remembered a very funny scenario that happened about a month or so ago. I did two strand twists on my hair and they turned out pretty good – even had one lady ask me several questions about my process for getting the look so I patted myself on the back for that one. Two days later, I had the brilliant idea to take a kickboxing class to get some cardio in. Wrong move! Of course, getting exercise at any time is always good – that wasn’t the problem. What I didn’t consider before taking the class was that my twists had a very moist almost wet feel to them when I would untwist them to style them. This is because I was too heavy-handed when I applied the curl defining cream and gel. There seems to be a delicate balance when it comes to applying products for a two strand twist style – I hit and miss that balance often.

Before I left home to take the kickboxing class, I started taking the twists down beginning in the front and working my way back. It was taking too long to untwist so I decided to leave the back twisted during the class. I headed to the gym and took the hour long class. I caught a reflection of myself in a window as I was exiting the gym and was very surprised to see what appeared to be the start of an afro on my head. I couldn’t wait to reach my car to see my hair in a mirror. I laughed so hard when I finally got to my car and took a look in the mirror. My hair had puffed up SO MUCH during the class that you really couldn’t even see much of trace of the two strand twist style. The only area that still had a trace of the twists was the back of my head and that was only because I didn’t untwist them in the back.

A similar scenario happened to me before the gym incident but I guess that I conveniently forgot about that one. My lesson learned here is that you should go easy on the curl defining creams and gels as well as give your hair ample time to dry before untwisting the hair. One thing that I tried after the gym incident and it seemed to work was to utilize my old faithful wig to allow my two strand twists ample time to dry completely. I was able to leave my hair twisted for a few days while rockin’ my wig – that accessory has come in handy more times than I would have imagined.

If you’re not big on surprises, please allow your hair to dry completely before untwisting…unless you’re past due for a good laugh 😉 And if you’re heading to the gym, just leave the hair twisted.