This.... - over there to the right →→→
It's a sponge. For your hair. Well, for naturally kinky/curly hair anyway. If you want twists, coils, dreads, curls, locks, This is so the thing.
Who ever would have thought that you could style your natural hair with a sponge? (I'm too lazy to look up the info but, to whoever did invent this: THANK YOU!)
As you can see, the sponge I am now loving for twisting/coiling my hair is the AFROFY Afro Twister.
First of all, what a simple concept. But one that I never would have thought of. I wasn't even convinced that it was going to work.
The trick to using the sponge to achieve twists and coils is in the design.
There are holes in the sponge. And that's the genius of this product.
To use the product, you dampen your hair very lightly, then rotate the sponge over your hair in a circular motion. It doesn't take a lot of pressure - in fact, I've noticed that the less pressure the better. The way that I have been using it (with great results) is to use a light but constant touch.
By the way, this works on hair as short as 1/8 inch and as long as 7 inches.
I have heard that some users will use the sponge to achieve the start of twist/coiling, then apply a little styling gel as they continue. I have not used styling gel yet because I get really good results without it.
Let me share some photos that I got the first time I used this.
The pic right below is the un-styled state of my hair. The photo is taken about 4 days after a shampoo and condition. I just moisturized my scalp, then combed out the hair so that you could see what it looks like without styling.
The next photo is of my hair coiled lightly with the Afrofy sponge. I only had about 5 minutes to get ready to go somewhere, so I spent very little time with the sponge.
The results were so good after such minimal efforts, I had to do another set of "After" photos when I had more time to spend using the sponge. I took 15 minutes to work on my hair for the following photos. I took photos at different stages. Sorry that they are out of order, but you can see progress in the tightness of the twists and coils.
near crown of head. I loosened some coils for styling |
along my side edges. I could have continued, added gel and gotten a really nice pattern of elongated twists |
was still working on my hair that was drying out |
not sure at what stage I was at here but I really like those coils! |
a collage for Instagram and such |
- Work in sections. I separated my hair into sections of 4, then worked on halves of those.
- Use light pressure and go in the same direction for each section of hair
- Make sure not to over-dampen your hair with water or other products.
- Well-maintained hair gets better results. Trim your split ends and make sure your hair is well-moisturized/conditioned. This will result in a nice shine. (Notice that the hair closer to my roots look better than my raggedy ends? Yeh. I'ma work on that!)
- I got away with wearing my sponge twists for at least a couple days the last time. That's without tying on a scarf at night (though I should). I just re-styled my hair with my fingers.
Another issue I have with manually twisting my hair is the damage to my already fragile tresses. My medications have damaged and thinned my hair. I really don't like making matters worse. I thought that might be a concern in using the Afro Sponge, but after using it a few times already, I can see that I'm still not loosing hair to the process.
You can see from this photo of the sponge that there's not a lot of hair collected. And I don't notice any tugging at all when I am actually using the sponge. Thank goodness. I don't need to lose any of this hair!
I mentioned to my niece today that, if I wanted, I could sponge for a longer period of time on smaller sections of hair and get a super-styled look. If you notice, in one of the photos, I had some really cute, small lines of twists going. I could have gone on for that look all over.
This sponge is BIG. I was worried at first that it was going to be tough to grip. No problem there. It's actually designed the way it is for a good grip. The sponge itself is pretty flexible while the lavender and orange bottom piece allows you to hold and control it easily.
I didn't have anything else handy to show size comparison, so I used a standard toothpaste tube to give you an idea of size and width.
Finally, I just want to say that I love this product SO much. I don't never, ever, ever want to be without one. At the time I ordered this (using Prime), it was priced at just under $15. Un.beat,able. Also, there is a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee of a replacement or refund.
Now. Go get your coil on!
Peace
--Free
DISCLOSURE: I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.