DIY Marley Twists

Ever since Thanksgiving, my co-workers and I have been playing catch up on a couple of projects.  A Thanksgiving wrap-up post will be available later this week.

Happy December! 

This past weekend, I had my heart set on Marley Twists.  When I went out of town for Thanksgiving, I found out that my sister twisted her hair for the winter.  They looked so nice that I wanted them too, especially since I haven't had them since 2009.  Braids and Twists are kinda expensive and it takes forever to do, so I decided to see how install them myself.  Ever since I had my latest trim in October, my hair has been shorter than what I’m use to.  Co-washing has been making my hair much softer, but I experience shrinkage; making it harder to put my hair in ponytails.  So I decided protective styling will help with letting my hair take a break and give it time to grow.

I saw a post on CurlyNikki and alovelyDAYbr about how to install medium size Marley twists and how simple it was.  I decided to buy the Marley hair before I went out of town and did my research on how to twist the hair and blend it with my kinky-curly hair.

Estimated time: 4 hours

• Prep
• 1 hour: washing (sulfate free shampoo and conditioner), deep conditioning and leave-in conditioner
• 1 hour: 80% air dry and tension blow drying the rest
• 2 hours: Moisturize hair, Parting sections, separating and fluffing the marley hair, and twisting hair with gel

 Total amount of twists: 26 

• I brought 2 packs of LoMe Marley hair. 

• I tangled two twisted so that cut my sections down to 26.

Brian helped me separate the hair.

•  I parted my hair in 4 big sections.  Next I divided 26 by 4 to see how many mini sections I had to create.  The front sections had 7 and the back had 6.

Maintenance:

• Spray with oil daily.
• Wipe through scalp when itchy/on the weekends.
• Wrap hair with a satin scarf.

Results: Love em’!

Next time I think I will make them tinier but they work for now.  I have gotten so many compliments from everyone, so I think I will do this again after my 3 month trim in January.  Basically I spent $8 for an $80-$180 service! 

And they looked awesome on my birthday yesterday!

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Update: January 2013 

I kept this awesome hair style in for a month and it was still low maintenance!  When installing this, make sure you use gel that will keep your natural hair inside the twists.  I had to refresh some areas because my gel didn't have a strong hold.  I will be installing these again in February.  Here are other hair styles I had during the month of December: