The Pros & Cons Of Mini-Twists on 4C Hair

I love two strand twists. They are my go-to because they are quick to install and take down and easy to style and remoisturise. They are a great two-for-one because after you've worn your twists for a while you can wear your hair in a twist out. Win-win. 

I decided to try mini-twists because I wanted to break out of the '4C Hair Is Boring' rut but still wear a style a low manipulation style that would would help with my length retention goals. Plus I wanted a break from walking around looking like Da Brat. 

Pros:

• It is REALLY easy to trim your hair in mini twists. I just lopped the ends off every single one.

• They were easy to style and surprisingly versatile. They generally looked much neater than my usual larger twists. At least initially.

Cons:

• They took FOREVER to put in. And my hair isn't even long! It took the better part of 7 hours (interspersed with household and mummy duties). Some vloggers break it up by doing them over a period of two days but I just wanted to get them finished so I stuck it out. 

• To install them, I had to manipulate my hair much more than I usually would with large or medium twists, which was kinda counter-productive. 

• If your hair grows unevenly, it is painfully obvious in mini-twists.

• If you have fine hair, they can look scalpy.

• They matted when moisture touched them: I exercise often so washing, or at least rinsing, is a must. Unfortunately, my hair tangles easily and by the end of the first week, I was constantly redoing them, particularly in the crown area as they started to loc. 

• Because of the matting, I had to reduce how often I was remoisturising, cowashing or deep conditioning my hair to try and minimise tangling and stop them looking so..fluffy, which meant my hair was much dryer than normal by takedown.

• By the end of the first week, everyone thought I had dreadlocks. 

• They required regular repairing to look neat: I had them in for 3-4 weeks and by about halfway through, I had probably redone all the twists around my hairline so they could look neat. 

• I missed my hair! Weird right? Even though they were quite versatile, sometimes (often) I just wanted my hair OPEN!

Conclusion:

Although it started really well, by the end I couldn't wait to take them out. It was a lot of work to keep them from tangling, which for me defeated the purpose of having them in as they were supposed to be low maintenance. I wonder if someone with a looser curl patten would have the same problem. Bottom line, that was a first and last for me.