School of curls...

I don't know abut you guys but in the Cooper household, getting ready for school is a busy affair. There is not always time to restyle the girls hair every morning, and it's not like you can just grab a brush and tidy up curly hair in two minutes. (Unless you want them to go to school with the hair brush stuck in there!) Wouldn't it be great to have a hairstyle that lasted a few days - without turning to frizz.

The answer may lie in working with some 'protective styling' techniques. Now, there’s some debate over what protective styling is and how well it protects - I’ll cover that at another time - but in this case we’re talking about braids and twists with the natural hair. Essentially a way of wearing your hair in a form that avoids tangling and helps to lengthen the natural curl pattern.

So by trying out some protective styling techniques like twists or braids I'm hoping to help my girls get longer out of their hairstyles for the school week.

I'm a big fan of the Two Stand Twist - it's really easy to do and if you take the time to make sure the hair is cleansed and hydrated with the correct products, you'll get a beautiful protective cast during the twist phase and then beautiful curl definition when you dress the twists out later in the week.

Two things to watch out for if you are trying the twists - the hair really has to be hydrated first and then you have to make sure it's totally dry before you untwist it.

Nicole tried the Two Strand Twist on Bailie's hair this afternoon.

Step 1: Cleanse and hydrate the hair - Nik used Innersense Hydrating Cream Hairbath and then Hydrating Cream Conditioner. Detangling the hair during the conditioner phase with a Tangle Teaser, smoothing the cuticle down.

Step 2: Rinsing out the conditioner and adding Innersense I Create Hold while Bailie's hair was soaking wet.

Step 3: Finding a comfortable place to sit for the twists with a Microfibre towel around her shoulders! Have your styling products and a water spray close by.

Step 4: Hand Bailie the iPad! (or whatever your go to distraction is)

Step 5: Starting from the nape, take small sections and use the Tangle Teaser to smooth through to the ends. Take your section and separate it into two and simply twist them one over the other and so on.

Step 6: Remember to keep the hair nice and wet, so use your water spray often and if you come across a section that needs product you can add some.

Step 7: You can do the whole head in twists or section the front off and do a Flat Twist for the front section - like we did with Bailie. A Flat Twist is when you create a braided in effect by adding sections to each of the two strands as you go along.

Step 8: FREEDOM! You are both good to go. Leave the twists as they are until the hair is completely dry. Then you can use claw clips to secure a different style (whist in the twists) - buns for example.

So you've maybe had twists for Day 1, twists in buns for Day 2, Day 3 you can try untwisting each strand and playing with different styles.

Claw clips are a great alternative to hair bobbles because they won't break the hair or pull out the curl (as shown in the pic of Io)

I would have shown you a few different ways to style hair with twists in but Bailie (little minx) took them out before they were completely dry!!!

Have a go with the Two Strand Twist and let me know how you get on...