How to deal with FINE/THIN 4a/b Natural hair?

[Sexyred]

I have fine/thin natural 4a/b hair and the back layers are almost APL. The middle is past shoulder and the front is a little above shoulder. The problem I am having is that when I do a twist or plaits my hair looks very anaemic. I dont know what to do I love my texture but I just wish I had thick juicy/plum twists. I am just so frustrated with my twists. I do not know what to do. How do other fine/thin hair naturals deal with this?

 

[Eluv]

Same here

I wear my twist or box braids in a bun, ponytail, or French roll with cute accessories.

 

[ladytee2]

I dont where twist. When I air dry I put in from 6 - 10 big twist to dry. And it never fails everytime I take my hair down my dh walks by me and says "Your hair is coming out. You have plugs missing. He is not very observant.

 

[almond eyes]

I never do twists. I do braid outs.

Best,
Almond Eyes

 

[msa]

It's extremely frustrating and right now I'm forcing myself to accept it. I don't wear twists and when I have braids in I wear them in a bun.

Basically if I want my hair to appear full I have to wear it in an out style.

 

[QueenHav]

A friend of mine suggested that the parts for the twists need to be alternated...like bricks to hide the parts. (I hope that made sense to you). I've also started using MegaTek.

 

[kweenameena]

Just to add to the above....your parts should be upside-down V's at the bottom and then diamonds all the way up so that the twists on one roll are falling in between the twists on the row below. I hope that makes sense. Kinda like this:

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Oh and I do it on damp hair because it seems to puff out when it dries and looks plumper.

 

[QueenHav]

So, the parts should look like this:

----------------------------------------------
^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^
----------------------------------------------
V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V

???

 

[Geminigirl]

I just twisted my hair last night and was expecting something different.

I didnt know you would be able to see my parts so good.
It's ok cause I am still learning but I was thinking of parting my hair next time and I will try the weird parts next time.

 

[discodumpling]

I just accept my hair for what it is & keep it moving. I admire fat, juicy twists & braids...but I don't have them & I don't have the time to make my hair do something it doesn't.

After a fresh set of twists my hair plumps up either from baggying, shower steam or co-washing. Within a few days my frizz conceals my parts. When I twist out I raise the roots with a pick so any remaining parts aren't showing.

 

[glamazon386]

My hair is fine too. For that reason I don't wear twists or braids. Maybe when it gets longer?

 

[Sexyred]

My hair is fine too. For that reason I don't wear twists or braids. Maybe when it gets longer?

Do you think as it gets longer it will appear fuller? I was thinking the opposite would happen because the hair hangs more which exposes the parts. I dont know anymore

 

[Sexyred]

It's extremely frustrating and right now I'm forcing myself to accept it. I don't wear twists and when I have braids in I wear them in a bun.

Basically if I want my hair to appear full I have to wear it in an out style.

I know how you feel. Your hair looks so thick and full in your siggy

 

[Fhrizzball]

I wear mini-twists because the big nice full looking ones never turn out full on my head. Maybe with more length and volume. They're so time consuming though so I haven't been doing that in awhile though.

 

[Rocky91]

This is why I don't usually like wearing twists/braids very often-it looks too thin.
i prefer out styles for the volume, or just a bun

 

[NerdSauce]

twists on wet hair with oils/butters/conditioner--- no gel or tight holding products work fine for me. also since i upped both protein and moisture and i use a lot of castor oil, it honestly looks to me like my strands have gotten a lot thicker.

 

[msa]

I know how you feel. Your hair looks so thick and full in your siggy

I've been telling people that I can perpetrate thickness, but that's only in out styles. Curly hair takes up more space so my hair appears fuller. But if my hair were straightened or in braids/twists it would be obvious that I don't have dense hair at all.

But I'm learning to accept it...it may take a while though. I'm sad that I can't wear twists and be cute. That's part of the reason it's hard for me to retain length, because protective styles don't look good with just my hair and I'm trying not to wear fake hair. So I'm stuck over manipulating my hair to make it look good (and messing up my retention at the same time).

 

[tocktick]

Interesting. My hair is dense but I have a ton of fine strands. Twists and braids look pathetic and puny . Every time I've tried them, I've usually been quite disappointed. I've decided not to bother trying them again until I'm MBL/WL.

 

[sunshinebeautiful]

I have fine/thin natural 4a/b hair and the back layers are almost APL. The middle is past shoulder and the front is a little above shoulder. The problem I am having is that when I do a twist or plaits my hair looks very anaemic. I dont know what to do I love my texture but I just wish I had thick juicy/plum twists. I am just so frustrated with my twists. I do not know what to do. How do other fine/thin hair naturals deal with this?

I have fine hair - and when I was natural I just couldn't wear twists.

 

[Nonie]

I'm natural with fine 4B hair which does look sparse when twisted but I find making the twists small and hence many helps to hide the fact. Also soon after twisting, I CW to get them to shrink and fatten up and also hang straight. I took these photos to demonstrate this:

The thickening increases with subsequent washes as can be seen in this pic:

Another thing I've found is not using a comb but just grabbing and twisting helps prevent the parts from showing as easily and thus makes my hair appear fuller. You can see this difference in the pics below that show ways you can wear twists so as to take the focus from their fullness or lack thereof.

These twists were done by just grabbing instead of parting with a comb and I think make my strands appear to be plentiful:

These twists were done with careful parting with a comb and I think betray my few fine strands: