Havana Twists Tutorial And How To Maintain Them

If you are a fan of those wonderful thick and lush looking havana twists we have seen flying around the net lately and you are wondering how to achieve them yourself, well search no more.

If you already know how to do normal twists, and most of us do, havana twists should be pretty straightforward to install by yourself and they really don’t take up much time at all. I managed to do mine in 2 hours while watching TV. Aside from the fact that they are an easy summer hairdo, they also make an excellent protective style!

I was actually worried a while ago that because of the seemingly large amount of extension hair that you are using that the style would be hard on your edges but actually, since you are putting the extensions on a relatively large section of your own hair too, as long are you don’t go overboard with making them too tight, they are just fine as a low maintenance protective style.

In terms of what hair to use, you genuinely don’t need any special hair. I actually did mine with standard Marley hair that you can find at your local BSS. Of course you should always start on freshly washed and deep conditioned hair and remember that synthetic extensions* tend to suck the moisture out of your own hair so please add some extra moisture with a leave in or pomade before you begin twisting each section.

Here’s a quick video tutorial from Jouelzy on how to install the twists.

In terms of maintenance, you can use your any high quality braid spray that you find being mindful of the ingredients of course. If you are a kitchen mixtress like me on the other hand, just make your own!

I make mine with 1 part vegetable glycerine, to 2 parts aloe vera juice and 3 parts water all combined in a spray bottle. Sometimes I may also add 1 part of infusium 23 if I feel that my hair needs some added strength.

Just lightly mist your hair every morning with your mix and your hair will remain soft, supple and most importantly, strong, for the duration of the style. If it’s really hot and dry where you live, you may need to mist it again in the evening.

You will be able to find information on YouTube about how to wash havana twists but personally, I wouldn’t recommend washing your hair with the twists in. Actually, I prefer not to wash twists in general because in my experience they tend to cause more knotting in natural hair than braids usually would.

I suggest wearing havana twists for up to two weeks then taking them out to thoroughly wash and deep condition your own hair. You can then wash the extensions* and of course re-install them.

Honestly this is just as easy as attempting to wash your twists carefully without causing too much frizz, which will invariably still happen anyway! I have also found that when you allow yourself to at least stay in touch with your own hair periodically during long term protective styling, it allows you to retain length without feeling like you are missing your hair too much. It’s a win win situation really!