Using Okra Gel for Twists-out
Hi Ladies and maybe Gents, My name is Oluwatoyin Yetunde Sanni and you can simply address me as Oluwayetty. I'm a software developer by profession who is deeply in love with her natural hair. I went natural about 5 years ago because I wanted healthy hair. During this period, I've tried the TWA, the dreads and had to cut my hair twice because it was growing too wild to be nurtured.
Over time, you'd be reading more from me about my adventures with my hair of course 😉. Today, I would like to talk about how I used Okra gel to achieve a super soft defined twists out on my 4C hair.
What is Okro? Better not to assume everyone knows that.
Okra or Okro known in many English-speaking countries as ladies' fingers or ochro, is a flowering plant in the mallow family. It is valued for its edible green seed pods. The geographical origin of okra is disputed, with supporters of West African, Ethiopian, and South Asian origins.
Why Okra for the hair?
- It is 100% natural with no chemicals.
- It is less expensive, the picture above is about one-quarter of a dollar.
- Okra’s also high in Vitamins A & C, folic acid, calcium, zinc, including biotin, all of which make it incredibly nourishing for the hair.
- Protein and oil found in the seeds of okra are enriched with amino acids with the likes of tryptophan, cystine and other sulfur amino acids which is really great to give dry or damaged hair some strength.
Okra gel Preparation
- Cut 3-10 pieces of okra vertically.
- Boil the okra until frothy and slimy.
- Strain the mixture into a container.
- You can add lemon or oils if you like(I added just extra virgin olive oil and Vitamin E to make it last longer). This was what mine looked like after the preparation. I allowed it to cool(kept it in the fridge) before using it on my hair.
There are actually different ways the Okra gel can be used; Some use it as a final step conditioner after a wash day, some use it as a detangler, some use it to simply lay their edges for styling purposes, some also use it as a wash and go and some use it for a twist-out which was my case.
Using Okro gel for leave-in
I started out on a freshly washed hair, that I sectioned as you can see in the picture below. Because my hair was a bit dry as I left it in sections and slept immediately I finished washing, I mixed some water, castor oil, almond oil and tea tree oil in a spritz bottle. I call this mix the "Yetty's Hair Therapy". |
| Forgive this poor picture, still learning the art of Hair Photography |
I went further to spritz each section of my hair with Yetty's therapy in order to make my hair slightly damp. I then began sectioning it into smaller portions, applied the gel(it is really slimy, I'd advise you get the kind of bottle I used to store mine, to avoid getting all of the environment messy). In each smaller portions, I applied my okra gel while carefully detangling by strands running my fingers from the tips of my hair to the root. Gosh, it was the best feeling ever and the most stress-free detangling method. I also have to say I have not been using any comb on my hair for about 3 months now and I only used my fingers and the super detangling ingredients from my okra gel.
After properly detangling, using few drops of the Okra gel and my fingers, I added my homemade whipped shea butter to each portion starting also from the tips to the root. I added the shea butter to seal in all the goodness that comes with the Okra gel, we don't want it to waste, do we? The shea butter also added some shine to my hair. The next thing I did after the application of my shea butter was twist my hair all the way to the tips while making sure my ends were well moisturized with another little addition of the shea butter to the tips.
I had my hair in twists using the above steps and I had very minimal breakage like never before.
I left the twists on for about two days while I spritz my hair once a day. On the day I was set to let out the hair, I first added a few drops of anti-frizz argan oil to the tips of my fingers while I gently separate my twists.
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| Back view |
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| Front view + dripping ends (Tired face) |
Few things I noticed while I do this:
- My hair was still moisturized even after two days, thanks to the spritz I applied every day before I unraveled it.
- There were no flakes of any sort. My hair was completely flake-less if there's a word like that.
- The twists were easy to unravel and separated to further smaller sections to have a full hair. There were no tangles at my ends which is a first-time experience for me.
I made sure the anti-frizz argan oil was always on my tips every time I detangle. After separating it to the level I felt satisfied with, I used an afro wide-tooth comb to lift my roots to have a fuller look with the twists-out and here we go:
I wore this look for about 3 days and here's my review of the Okra gel:
PROS
- My hair was still soft and moisturized all of the days I wore my twists-out.
- Detangling with NO COMBS has never been that easier.
- My curls were still very much defined even as the hair grows old. That is something I haven't seen happen to my hair in a long while with other products I've tried.
- There were still no flakes after 3 days.
CONS
- It doesn't have much hold; I think I wasn't really surprised with this since the hair was really moisturized and soft. I can live with hair that's not so crunchy.
- The slimy nature can really piss one off especially if you're not careful with how you handle the movement of bringing it out of the bottle to applying it to your hair.
I did really love the Okra gel as a detangler and styling product for my twists-out. I can live with the CONS, they ain't much of a big deal to me. I will definitely give this many tries since my hair seems to love it.
Have you ever tried Okra gel before? How was your experience? Good, Bad or Ugly? Do you want to give it a try? I'll be waiting to hear from you in the comment section. Until we FRO again, See ya!
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