How To: Senegalese Twists FOR BEGINNERS! (Step By Step!) | Breanna Rutter

“Hey ladies! This is Breanna from Breanna Rutter! And I want to show you how to do the Senegalese Twist for beginners!”

“These are the supplies you will need to do your Senegalese rope extensions. To start off, you are going to need rollers to add curls to the ends of your twists. You are also going to need a wide tooth comb for detangling. You will also need Hick’s edge control to slick your edges. For this look, I used 5 packs of Kanekalon braiding hair. You can also use African braiding hair. Optionally, you may want to use a hair growth oil or a hair grease for your hair.”

“Now, I have a small section left so that I can demonstrate exactly how to do these twists. We are starting off with the blonde braiding hair because I want to make sure that you can easily see the style. So, the very first thing you want to do, is remove the braiding hair from the package. And, you are going to separate the rubber bands or hair tie holders that are on the package of hair. Now, what you want to do is take the ends and take a good look. See how blunt the ends look? You don’t want it to look like that. What you want to do is actually a technique called feathering. You are feathering the ends of your hair, you are pulling on the ends, so that you can make them look more tapered. Because, fresh out of the pack, the ends are very blunt and straight across, this is going to make it very difficult for you to twist all the way to the end, because the twists will abruptly end and will cause the ends to unravel. To prevent the ends of your hair from unraveling, it has to come to a finer point. So, as you can see here, I am grabbing the pieces that still need to be worked on a little bit more by slightly pulling on it while my other hand is loosely holding the package.”

“Now, run your fingers through for any tangles and take a good look at how you feathered the ends. And now, to keep working on the rest of the hair, you want to make sure that you run your fingers through because as you are feathering it in, you are basically creating a tangling effect along the hair. So, after running hands all the way through, it’s now time to start cutting those loose ends. So, I am just going down an angle to cut so I am not creating a blunt and straight angle at the ends. Cut in an angle. And this is how your packet of hair should look!”

“Now, to begin twisting, I am going to demonstrate on this section that I have here by dividing this is into two parts because I have two twists to left do. Make sure you clean up your parts good so that way, whichever way you decide to wear your style, your parts look very neat. Now, put the rest of the hair out of the day with this duckbill clip and we are going to focus on this piece here. So now, I am just showing you all the way around that now you need a square size. If you want other types of partings, then you can do triangle partings if you wanted to.”

“Now, take some hair growth grease, you can also use hair growth serum if you wanted to. This is optional. You want to use a hair growth serum if you want to speed up the growth of your hair. So, what I am doing is that I am applying this along the part of my scalp, and then divide the strand in half, in preparation of my twists. I am also adding some hair growth grease in the center of my part as well. So, now these are your two pieces, and you want to make sure that they are equal in size, so that you have a very consistent twist.”

“Now, taking the light color braiding hair, I am going to show you the amount of hair you want to pinch off. And you want the hair to be slightly thicker in width than the hair on top of your head, so that the twists don’t look too thin or too thick. Now taking that direct center, I am going to lay it right at the part where you see my scalp. And I am going to begin twisting here where you see me holding. So now, you are just going to place it there, and use your left hand to hold it down firmly on the other side, as you prepare to twist your hair into the braiding hair. So, as you can see here, I am rotating this hair towards my face. So now after twisting a couple times, you are going to hold it with your hand and then, this section here is going to begin twisting with the other section, going away from my face. But, if you were to twist this piece of hair off your scalp, both sides are actually going in the same direction, but you are going to twist in the opposite direction when you are actually twisting your hair. Another way to see which side to twist is that one side will automatically start twisting on its own.”

“Now, at this point, the second area that we twisted, you are going to overlap that at the top of the first area that you twisted. So, remember, you are going to twist your right strand first, and then your left strand on the opposite side, and then the left strand goes over the right strand. Now, as you see here, I am twisting both pieces of hair, opposite of one another, and rotating this in my left hand, over the piece that is in my right hand. If you notice that your twist is loose, I suggest that you start over and repeat the process because once you perfect this twist at the top, you can actually create a perfect twist going all the way down!”

“Continue to twist both pieces in each hand, as you overlap one strand over the other. You should see that it’s not loose at all as you are doing this, it’s actually tightening up every single time you twist and overlap. One important thing that I want you to keep in mind is that you have to consistently twist both strands, at the same time, with the same amount of tension and pressure to make sure that the twist does not look lopsided.”

“Now, we are near the ends, and one side is longer and thicker than the other side, so you just pinch off a small piece of hair to the other side so that both strands are even in thickness and in length. This is very, very important in getting your twist to reach down all the way to the ends without unraveling. If one of your twist’s ends unravels, it’s going to cause your twist to not be able to be effectively twist down to the ends. And, what is really important is the tapering, as you can see, the twists are getting thinner, this reinforces the strength of the twist so that it does not unravel. You want to twist that bad boy all the way down to the ends!”

“When you’re done, this is exactly how your twist should look, and letting go, your twist should not unravel, and if it does, I suggest that you do your twist over again. So, as you can see here, I am just holding it up to show you how well it tapers at the end. And now, as you can see here, when you don’t twist too tight, you can rotate your twist in all directions. You don’t need your twist to be extremely tight on your scalp, you just need to make sure its firm and in place.”

“Now, for my second demonstration, I will show you on black hair, because you will be doing these twists pretty much on the color of your real hair. Again, you can use any type of hair, such as African braiding hair or Kanekalon hair. So, I am going to show you as realistic as possible how this twist looks, and I am going to demonstrate the steps once again, just in case you haven’t gotten it.”

“So, I am laying a piece of my hair over that braiding hair, and I am twisting this section, towards my face. As you can see here, I am just rotating it very firmly, making sure that my hair is greatly intermingled within the weave. Now, as you can see here as you are twisting the hair and using your other hand to hold it in place, you are going to start twisting the other section, going away from your face. So that means, my second is rotating the second piece going away from my face. So now after twisting this section far enough, that second section goes on top of the first section and then both sides have to be twisted in opposite directions before you overlap the strands. This is very important for preventing your twists from unraveling. You always want to twist each twist going opposite of one another and overlap the appropriate strand over the other strand. So, as you can see here, I am just moving the hair around, and I am just going to continue twisting all the way down. Now, don’t mind if the twist is not extremely tight at your scalp, this is actually preferred when you are wearing Senegalese twists; because tightness causes Alopecia, which is so unnecessary. Tight styles don’t last longer, neat styles do. So, as you can see here, continue to twist in the opposite direction as you overlap the piece in your left hand, over the piece in your right hand.”

“Always move about your hair to prevent any lumps within your twist. And, rotate each section in between your index and thumb, so that way it tightens before you overlap. Now that, I’ve finished, you are going to use your scissors to cut off the excess ends out. The reason you are going to have ends sticking out is because of the braiding hair. When you taper, all of the ends don’t run at the same point, that’s why you have random pieces of hair sticking out at the bottom.”

“Make sure to be careful not to cut up too far up your twists because you have end up cutting your real hair. So, keep that in mind, because it may be easy to forget how long your real hair actually goes. So, I suggest that you only do this at the ends of your twists.”

“Now that the twist is finished, look at how gorgeous it looks! With three simple, but key techniques, you can create such beautiful Senegalese twists by only using braiding hair, such as African braiding hair. And, you can rotate your twists in all directions if you don’t twist too tight!”

“So, now that all the twists are up, I want you to check out how gorgeous this style looks. So, I am just going to do a spin around to show you how this looks once they are fully installed.”

“At this point, you are free to go if you like, but I have some cool techniques to show you, so stay tuned to see how to curl the ends of your twists!”

“As you curl the ends, what you want to do is grab a chunk of hair, about 4-5 twists, if they are about this size. You want to grab the ends of your twists to make sure that they all end at the same point, so you can curl the ends very effectively. Wrap the ends around the rod and once you wrap the ends, you are then going to wrap the remaining section around the ends and then roll your way up the rod so that you can effectively curl all the way down to the bottom without it unraveling. And this is how it should look, right before you dip it in hot water. Now, slowly insert your twist in hot water, and you are going to leave it in there for about a couple of seconds, and you are going to do this to release air bubbles. When you are taking the twist out, try to drain as much water as you can before putting it on your towel. Then, you are just going to press and release all of the water and to release all of the steam from your roller as well. When you roll your twists off of the roller, make sure to do this carefully, because if there is snagging and pulling, it is going to cause some of your Senegalese to unravel, as the twists are so warm. Now run your hands through the twists to release them individually, and then you are just going to use your scissors to clean up the ends!”

“So now, this is how it should look, and now that all the curls are finished, check it out! How beautiful does it look?! It just added that slight touch of jazz to this style. I absolutely LOVE curly Senegalese twists! Now, I just want to show you how much fuller they look at the ends, being that the ends were tapered!”

“So now it’s time to style up these edges honey! What I am using is just a little bit of my favorite edge control, I have so many favorite edge controls that its’ not even funny, but for this look, I am using Hick’s edge control to actually style up my edges, as well as using a small tooth comb! But hey, if you would rather use a tooth brush, then I am perfectly fine with that, just as long as it is for your edges alright? But for this look and for many of the looks I like to do, I always like the look of the small tooth comb. That’s why I use a small tooth comb to add that touch of style to my edges. So, as you can see, we barely had to use any product, because we barely had any edges left out. So, a little later, I am going to do the other side, and this is exactly how my edges are going to look when I finish both sides! As you can see, you have got some little cute waves going on, which I love!”

“So now ladies, as you can see, I got a high ponytail going on here, with those edges looking slayed! So, now I am going to just spin around to show you how gorgeous and simple this style looks, with such a beautiful, classic and high ponytail style!”

“The very first thing you want to do when creating a high ponytail, is using a small patch pf hair, to determine exactly where your hair placement will be. This is very important so that you can smoothly create a high ponytail without that extra fussiness. What I mean by that is because you just finished installing your twists, the scalp may feel just a little bit sensitive. SO, you don’t want to pull or maneuver your hair more than necessary. That’s why you want to predetermine what your placement will be, and then smooth your twists into position. So that way, you can effectively create a high ponytail. Be sure to also rotate from one hand to the other to give your shoulders a rest if it takes you a little longer to actually create your ponytail. So now further smooth all of your twists into position until its very flat and smooth so we don’t have any kinks.”

“And now, I am going to show you how it looks all around, as I get ready to put it into a ponytail. So now at this point, I am going to go ahead and put this hair into a ponytail, and because of the size of my ponytail holder, I only need to loop it around my ponytail once. If you have a large headband or large hair ties, you want to loop it around maybe about 2-3 times. The thing is, you don’t need your ponytail tight, because I am going to show you how to tighten it up a little better to create a banded effect on your ponytail. But for now, just loop it around once, and I am going to show you this little trick, that I like to do with my high ponytails to make them just a little bit tighter. So now I am just spinning around real quick to show you that that is exactly where you want your ponytail to be for this look. Now, at the very back, I am grabbing anywhere from 5-8 twists and I am going to go ahead and wrap it really tightly around the band of my pony tail. This reinforces the ponytail holder, but without actually needing to tie it too tightly on my head. So, very tightly, I am grabbing the twists and I am wrapping it around my pony. Then I am slightly twisting the ends, and I am going to make sure to use a bobby pin to pin it at the very back of my ponytail. And, this technique also gives you a slight lift to your ponytail so that it is not flat at the top, but it has a slight lift at the very top of your pony.”

“And, now with your hair in position, this is definitely a simple and cute style that you can wear with Senegalese twists!”

“Ladies, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!”

“These twists are called Senegalese Rope Twists, also known as Senegal Twist or Rope Twists! These twists are achieved with Kanekalon braiding hair but feel free to use whatever braiding extensions you would prefer to use, just as long as you follow the same twisting techniques to achieve similar results with your rope twists.”

Here comes Senegalese twist 

Outre synthetic Hair crochet braids X-pression Braid Senegalese Twist Small 10", 18"

How To: CROCHET BRAIDS For Beginners! (Step By Step) |Breanna Rutter

“Hey Everybody! Today I am going to teach you how to achieve this natural, gorgeous, BEAUTIFUL look by doing the Crochet hairstyle! So, this of course is the original crochet style besides doing braid crochet. But I am going to show you how to actually do this look on your own hair.”

“You only need a few supplies to do this look and some of these supplies are optional. SO, make sure that you have your hair ready so that you can be looping it onto your braids. And I used three packs of pre-crochet hair. Now, to begin, this is the braid pattern you want to do to achieve this exact look. You want those two braids to cross and go all the way down to the back. Then, you want to be braiding away from those two braids, making sure to add the tail in until the very next braid. So that, you can create a braid pattern that looks like this. So, every time you braid, make sure to grab the tail end of the previous braid and put it into that braid. So, the tail in braid one goes into braid two, and the tail in braid two goes into braid three. And, you keep doing the same thing until you reach the back to have a one tail end braid.”

“What you want to do is bring your tail end of the braid up because that’s when you are going to begin stitching it down to your braid pattern! So, cut off a little bit of weaving thread and then you are going to take a curved or straight needle, which ever you prefer. You are going to put the thread through the eye of the needle, bring those two pieces together and simply form a knot. It is so easy to thread needles, but a lot of you actually ask me in the comment section how to do it. So, I am showing you a demonstration of how simple and easy this is. So, you need one needle to stitch down that one braid you have in the back. So, you just off that little bit of thread at the top, make sure to tighten your knot, and there you go! That’s simply how you thread a needle!”

“So, now we are going to start by stitching that braid, and I am going to start where I just pointed. You want to start by putting your needle through your braid, under your braid on your scalp. Then begin doing the stitching technique to actually stich down your braid. The stitching technique that I like to do is, I like to grab the thread, wrap it twice around the needle, and then pull the needle through. Or, you can wrap it twice around your fingers, insert the needle and pull the needle through. The only thing you need to do is, like I stated, make sure you wrap it around twice. Whether you do it around your fingers or the needle. It is simply extremely easy to stitch it down. This is the same stitching technique I do when I am actually doing a sew in. So now once you secure that last knot, you just cut off that remaining thread.”

Here comes Weaving Thread. It is used to stitch down your Braids

“At this point, this is optional, but what I am doing is I am greasing my scalp. Or, you may refer to this as oiling your scalp. So, I am using a hair growth oil to actually put on my part before I begin crocheting. Now this is the pre-looped crochet hair that I purchased. So, what I am going to do is show you how to prep it. So, what I do is I grab one of the coils and unravel it all the way out. And then, once I do that, I gently separate it into two parts. So, as you can see here, this is one of the pieces that I took from it, and I only divided it into two. Now if you divide it any further, it will make your look look frizzy and afro-type, it’s up to you on the look you want to achieve. I already stitched in one row and I am going to show you an example of how you want to actually space each piece. So, you can see here it’s about a finger space between each piece in the back. When you are crocheting your hair in the back, it is very important that you space it, because it tends to very full very quickly. You want to make sure you are closer near the top with the pieces you add than further in the back. And I am going to show you how to do that. To crochet your hair on, you want to grab a piece of hair, and you want to hold it very tight at the point that you are going to crochet it. So, you have no loose hairs that stick out and get tangled. And this is how tight you want to form it around your finger. Now what we are going to do is we are going to go two finger spaces at a time at the very back of our head. This is extremely important if you don’t want your look to be too thick but full enough. So now, we are going to insert the crochet latch and then we are going to hook the hair onto it, and then we are going to close the latch, and then pull it through the braid.”

“Every time you insert your latch, make sure it is open. When you pull it back through the braid, make sure its closed. And you just, loop the tail end section once, pull the loop at the top, and that’s how you actually want to tighten your hair in the back. Once we get to the top, it’s going to be a little bit different. But this is how you are going to do it for the most part. So, now for the second section, we are doing the same thing. Make sure that you are about two finger spaces away from your previous section. You can go underneath both of these braids that you stitched, loop your hair on, and then close the latch. And then, when you pull it through, all you do is insert your fingers inside the loop to grab the two tail end pieces. And then, you just pull it and tighten it by pulling the two sections and make sure it is tight on your braids.”

“As you can see, we are already getting pretty full. But, you want to continue to space and the look will come out just fine. So, as you can see here, you want to make sure you go about that distance as you are in the back until you get to the top. So, this is how your hair should look so far. “

“So, now at this point, I already crocheted most of my hair, and I am just lifting it up to show you guys how it looks on the sides, as well as the back. Because this look is short, I am going to be wearing it down. But, if you had a longer look with this technique, you could wear a ponytail if you so desire.”

“So now that we are at the top, you still want to coil the hair tighter. So that way you can loop it on, so that the sections at the top will be a little bit smaller, and it would be about a finger space width away from one another. So, you loop the hair on as I previously showed you and as I go back through the braid, you close the latch. Insert your fingers through and grab the two tail ends and pull them together. Now you continue to tighten your knot exactly like this for most of the part. But as soon as you get to the top, we are going to do a slightly different technique. So now I am going to show you one more time since we are at the very top of this braid. We are going to do the same technique, but you want to get closest to the top as possible for a very seamless look. So, you just insert your hair through and then you insert your fingers through to grab the two tail end pieces to actually tighten it on your knot. Make sure that when you are at the top, the spacing with is a finger width apart. But as you can see, it looks extremely close together because the hair is so voluminous. Because it has so much volume, it looks like I literally stitched it side by side, but in reality, I did about a finger width apart. So, now at the very back, you are going to do the same thing, because you are at the top of your head. It gives the illusion that your hair is not extremely thick at the top but is full enough to look very natural. The problem with a lot of crochet styles that look unnatural is that the chunks of hair are too big and also that the chunks of hair are stitched too close together. As you near the top, make sure that each of the pieces of hair that you are adding is actually smaller in comparison to the pieces of hair that you added in the back.”

“So now we two braids left in our part and this my friends, is the most important part of the style because it ties in the look together perfectly. When you loop your hair through, you want to make sure you only grab one tail end of your lock and pull it through. You create a knot while leaving the other piece outside of the knot. This is exactly how you want to stitch your hair at your part because this is how you do the invisible roots technique. So, I’m going to continue to teach you EXACTLY how to achieve this look because it is extremely easy.”

“Now, when you loop your hairs through, make sure to do a slight turn, so it helps to enhance the tightness of the knot in your part. You don’t have to do that throughout the rest of your style, but you definitely want to do it right here at the top. Now that most of it is done, we have a little section left. I am going to demonstrate how you want to do it on the other side. Now, this may be a little bit tricky depending on which hand is dominant for you. For me, it is my right hand, so when I loop it on the left side of my head, it’s just a little tricky. So, what I do is I just do the same exact thing, but I just go a little slower to make sure you don’t cause any tangling. Because, you always want to make sure that you are always going underneath the braid in the part. So, always come in going towards the part of your head, not away from the part. That way, it helps your hair to lay perfectly for the style.”

“So now, on this last section here, make sure to go as closely to your hairline as possible, because this makes it look extremely seamless. Because, if you don’t do this part, you will see some of your hair and it will not look blended. So, it very important that you get very close to your hairline, all the way near the top of your part, so that way you can continue the invisible root technique to tie in your look!”

“So, as you can see, this is how it looks when I finish doing the invisible look near the part, as I’ve added all the hair onto my style. I’ve used about two and a half bundles of the pre-crochet hair for this look. So, you’re going to need hair thinning shears or scissors to actually thin out the hair. But, I love the thickness of this look because it looks so beautiful and natural. So, I am just trimming up any frizzy or loose ends that don’t tie in as well. And I am also slightly shaping it as I cut. So, I’m not cutting off any length, I am just cleaning up the shape that it naturally has.

After trimming it up, I like to go ahead and fluff out the hair a little bit, so that it looks more tied in together. And I am just checking the other side too, to make sure that it is just right for my look!”

“Thank you so much for watching my Crochet Braids hairstyle! So, ladies, I want you to rock this look and wear all types of colors and curl patterns to see what you like best!”

Check out our crochet braids 

Outre X-pression Crochet Braid - 3c Whirly Loop

Outre x-pression Crochet Braid - 4c coily loop