Mixed Feelings About Havana Twists

There's nothing quite like building up your expectations for months only to have them dashed to the ground. 

For months, I've been wanting Havana Twists. And to add salt to my wounds, I've been wanting Havana Twists with hair from Fingercomber. Like you, when I saw that "image," I fell in love.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!

So, biting the bullet, I followed Fingercomber's suggestion and bought six packs of hair to achieve the look above. Since I've never worn extensions before, I practiced with some much cheaper Marley hair for a month until I deemed I was ready to use the Fingercomber hair.

First and foremost, DO NOT purchase this hair if your own hair is armpit length or longer. Mine is so I had to fold my hair in half so the Fingercomber hair covered my ends. After all, I'm doing this as part of my winter protection regimen so I can't leave the ends of my hair out!

Other complaints are that this hair is super rough and dry, sheds a lot and is incredibly stiff. The first time I used it, I didn't put anything in it so I could get a feel for how it was going to behave. Big mistake as quite a few of the ends of my twists kept unraveling. I'm on week two of using this hair so this time I used Organic Root Stimulator's Carrot Oil in an attempt to soften it up. I know Fingercomber says the hair will soften after a few days, so let's hope that's true.

My other complaint is Fingercomber suggests buying 5-7 packs of the hair at $12.99 each to achieve the look in the picture. Well...I did that, but I think it was overkill, at least for me. I'm very conscious about weight and tension on my roots, so I can't fathom using more than two packs on my head. While my hair was wet/damp, I sectioned it into two-inch sections and added two pieces of Fingercomber hair per section. My twists don't fall into a nice neat bob like the model's. I'm guessing the stylist cut the Fingercomber hair, but I can't do that for fear of cutting the ends of my own hair since my hair is longer than the Fingercomber hair.

Sorry, long weekend sans makeup!

In my third and last attempt to work with this hair, I'll add one weft of Fingercomber to a one-inch section of my hair. If that doesn't work, I'm done with this hair and will go back to my Marley hair which I LOVE!

Overall, I am deeply disappointed with the end results. The only thing I like about this hair is it gives me much thicker twists than what I'd have without it. This product gets two coils down. Seeing how I have four extra packs of hair, if you want to buy them for just $10 instead of $12.99 plus S&H, let me know. This product gets two coils down. It just didn't perform the way I'd hoped it would.

Winter Hair Upkeep

My Marley Twists are working out quite well...even if I do have 6 packs of extra hair, but it's wash day and my scalp's driving me crazy. Last week I redid my twists, but I didn't feel like redoing them this week so here's another first! 

I hopped on YT to see what alternatives there were to washing hair with extensions and picked the no-rinse method using a liquid shampoo. Excited, I hopped on Google to find a no-rinse shampoo in my area and was directed to Walgreen's...their web site said my desired product was in stock. After a 15-minute search, with my eyes landing on two different dry but powder shampoos, I left empty-handed. On a hunch, I stopped at my fave beauty supply store on the way home and OMG, why did they have exactly what I was looking for?!

I need to keep this stuff around!

Clean Life Products' No Rinse Shampoo and Conditioner have the consistency of water and lack scent and color. Both are applied directly to the scalp. The shampoo is massaged into the scalp until it foams. Then, you have to towel blot your hair dry. The conditioner is used similarly, but it doesn't foam.

It took no more than 20 minutes to use these products and I must say, the results shocked me! Not only did my hair feel soft and clean, but my scalp stopped itching...it always itches when it wants to be washed and cold, dry winter air makes it worse. 

Since the ingredients in these products are questionable, I decided to grab something else to ward off the itchies until I get ready to wash and redo my hair next week.

Might have to keep this around, too!

I've been using my Snake Oil (a blend of black castor oil and Ayurvedic herbs) on my scalp throughout the week, but decided to try Organic Root Stimulator's (ORS) Anti-Itch Scalp Oil. Not only am I a huge fan of ORS products, but this oil is in gel form so there's no dripping or oozing! The ingredients are 100 percent natural, but this does contain a paraben.

Overall, I'm VERY pleased with my no-wash results and will definitely use this as a back up plan to extend the life of styles with extensions!

Marley Twists Redo

So, my Marley Twists held up all week for the most part. Only four got loose at the roots so I had to redo them mid-week. Fortunately, my hair is long enough so there was never any fear about them slipping off my head to be left behind at my desk, the grocery store or the gas station.

I'd never done anything like this before, so first I watched a ton of YT vids to see how to best approach this. The general consensus is to add the hair to blow-dried or stretched air-dried hair. But, this weekend I opted to redo them and had much better results on wet hair!

Prior to reinstalling, I washed my hair as usual, applied Giovanni Direct Leave-In Weightless Moisture Conditioner and  OBI Natural Hair Care's Curl Enhancing Custard to one inch sections of my hair and then twisting in the Marley hair.

I LOVE Marley Twists!

Immediately I noticed a remarkable improvement compared to last week. This time around, my roots are tight and the Obi product, which has a gel-like consistency, helped my own hair blend with the Marley hair. Doing this on wet hair also shaved two hours off last week's time of six hours! While my hair air dries overnight, I suspect I won't have any slippage or loosening of the roots as the week goes by although I liked the loose, fuzzy roots look better.

So, when it's time to do my Havana Twists, I think I'll be doing them on wet hair. Anyone else prefer to add extensions to wet hair?