Senegalese Twist

Senegalese twists,  or rope twists, are twist extensions done with Kanekelon jumbo braiding hair. Kamekalon hair is straighter than other than kinds of synthetic braiding hair, so you can  usually see where the hair extensions begin. Of course, if your hair is long enough, you  don’t need to use synthetic hair at all. Senegalese twists aren’t difficult to do,  but there is a technique to them.

First, wash, detangle and dry your hair to prepare it. Senegalese  twists tend to be big.  To install them, first take a section of the Kamekelon hair and bend it in half to get a U shape.

Take a section that is a wide as you want the twists to be. To make the end of the twist appear more natural, separate the bottom of the strands, making sure that the ends of the hair taper off.

Take a section of your own hair that  you  want to  attach the hair to and divide it into two sections. Place the bent section of the extension in between your two hair sections.
Take the right section of Kamekelon hair together with the right section of your natural hair and twist clockwise.  Twist for two or three inches.
Repeat this on the left side, twisting counter-clockwise instead.

Decrease the amount of unraveling by twisting the hair sections separately as you twist them together.  You can also use gel for this as well.  Because Kanekalen hair is so straight, unraveling is pretty common with this technique.  If this is your first attempt, you might want to try Marley of Havana twists, both of which take kinkier hair to install.

Speaking of first attempts, practice makes perfect.  There are some excellent videos on YouTube that will give you simple, visual instructions  and allow you to practice.  Below is a video of how to do senegalese twists on relaxed hair, however the same rules apply for natural hair. I chose this video because it was brief and straight to the point; no sitting through 10 minutes of talk to learn a 2 minute technique.  You can practice with your own hair.  And if the ends really become unravel city, dip them – without your natural hair – in boiling water to help them set.