Interview with a Fine-Haired Natural: Session II

3. What styles do you prefer to wear?

Currently my preference is for styles that have a lot of volume and texture because like many naturals, I prefer 'big hair'. Therefore, I usually am wearing a 'quick dry' braid-out, a flat twist-out/bantu knot-out combo, or a wash n' go bun. In the summer when the humidity does not allow me to stretch my hair, I prefer mini-twists since I can still enjoy the volume of my hair, and then unravel the twists after a week or two for a fuller twist-out.


4. How has being fine-haired affected you? What are the pros and cons to being fine-haired?

One con of having fine hair is that the density of your hair in its natural state does not always translate into fuller styles outside of an afro. Many of the styles I see may look great on the person wearing them such as medium twists, box braids, and twist and braidouts, but when I try them, they do not come out with the same lushness. I am now more critical of whether or not I decide to try a new style that I see on another natural and I consider if and how I can recreate it on my own hair. Another con is the problem of tangles and split ends. Most naturals have to pay special attention to their ends because afro hair is fragile, but it is at a different level of care when you have fine hair that is fragile and the ends can break and thin out easily. Finally, I find that my fine hair prevents my styles from lasting very long. My hair tends to frizz quickly in protective styles and styles look fresh for a maximum of one to two days before I need to re-set the style. However, this has been helped by using better styling aids and silk scarves to minimize frizz.

Some pros of fine hair are that the density is not the actual thickness so a daunting task such as detangling, putting my hair into braids after washing, or the drying time for a large mass of hair actually takes half as long as most naturals with coarser strands. Another pro is that I can achieve both a sleek look and a voluminous look with one style, such as my mini-twists before and after unraveling for a fuller twist-out.

5. How do you manage with fine hair?

I've learned my hair over the years and found some tricks and shortcuts to manipulate it into certain styles, but at the end of the day, I've found that working with my hair gets me the best results. I take advantage of my hair's shrinkage when styling for volume, frizz when going for a textured bohemian look, and lack of volume when I do not want 'big hair,' but would prefer a sleeker style.

Interview with a Fine-Haired Natural: Session I

{Box braids}

This is session #1 of the interview.  Session #2 coming soon ...


1. How have you "faked the fullness" in protective styles?

The only true protective style that I wear is mini twists. To make them appear fuller, I do them on wet hair and twist loosely, or do them on damp hair and twist tightly. For wet twists, I do not twist my hair as tightly after initially securing the roots, so that my twists can expand as they dry. This means more shrinkage, but fuller twists. The goal in protective styling fine hair is to mimic the natural volume, shape, and layering of your hair when it is in an afro state so taking advantage of your natural shrinkage is key. As my twists dry and every 3-4 days, I stretch them in a braidout to get some length. With the length, I do a variety of down and up styles where I 'fan' out my buns to create an illusion of volume. I try to avoid bunching my hair up together into tight buns or updos so that the volume is not minimized.

{Super micro twists (LEFT) vs. bigger twists (RIGHT)}

For semi-protective styles such as braidouts or twistouts, I set my hair damp rather than wet, I separate my hair strand by strand when unraveling the style, and I sometimes 'bob' my hair to create fullness when wearing the style down. For braidouts, I use the "quick dry method" that I learned from youtuber CurlyChronicles. I set my hair in very large twists immediately after applying my leave-in and sometimes styler, then after an hour, I unravel the damp twists and let my hair naturally start to dry as I style section by section. By the time I reach each section, my hair is slightly damp, but still detangled and easy to manipulate. My hair is set in a braidout with volume in a matter of hours, but I usually take it out the next morning to get maximum definition. I usually create my twistouts from my 'quick dry' braid-out by dampening my hair with a spritz bottle and twisting medium size sections. If I am styling from wet hair, I will do a braidout that I will need to re-braid once more the next evening for fullness, or I do a flat twistout in the front and bantu knot out in the back to wear a pinned up bob.

{Today with longer hair
in micro twists}

2. How do you deal with scalpiness in twists/braids?


I have not mastered dealing with scalpy braids, which is why I do not wear them after several failed attempts. For twists, I simply have to make more of them where my hair is finest. For example, the sides of my hair are very sparse so those twists are usually half the size of the twists at the crown of my head where my hair has the most density. I have tried all sizes of twists and the best ones for my whole head are smaller or mini twists since they are able to show the 'natural volume, shape, and layering' of my hair. I now know my twists are too large when I wear them down and they mimic the natural layering of my afro, but not the volume or shape. Example: I turn to the side and the back of my hair is flat, rather than rounded out. Despite making my twists smaller, I still tend to have scalpiness near the front and sizes so I just do lots of side parts, middles parts, and bangs to cover any exposed scalp. For twistouts, I separate more as I mentioned above and I make an effort to blend any parts that show.

For My Fine-Hair Ladies ...

{2008; First career; big chop; believe it or not,
my hair still shrinks up to a TWA-ish size if I allow it.}

Bear with me.  These next couple of weeks are insane outside of cyberspace.  In the meantime, check out these youtube videos of fine-haired women in twists.  Feel free to ask them questions as well.  (I have a possible fine-haired interview coming soon as well):

Braiding twists forward for volume: Niafloda
Pinned up bantu knots for volume: blackhairchronicles

And as one of my awesome fine-haired subscribers came to realize, perhaps focusing on accessorizing is best.  Though I'm not fine-haired, I understand what it's like to work with what you have (for me, it was and has been crazy shrinkage).  Sometimes it's about the accessories!