Everything You Need To Know About Plopping Your Curly Hair
Curly hair is a blessing and a curse. There's no denying that nothing quite matches that perfect ringlet curly hair look, especially when it's done well. But it's the doing well that's an issue. Curly hair takes a lot of maintenance. You may be blessed and born with natural goods, but a lot of upkeep and products are needed to keep it in check. You don't want the curl pattern to be lost, you don't want super frizzy curls, and you don't want to use too much product and end up with crispy curls but you also need to use some amount of product to keep them bouncy, per Good Housekeeping. It's a never-ending cycle.
Fortunately, there's no shortage of knowledge today on how to care for your curly hair correctly. There are even more products on the market to help you out as well. In fact, there's even a diffuser designed in the shape of an actual hand. But at the end of the day, you can apply all the curl mousses and creams you want, but if you don't start the second you're out of the shower, you and your curls are never going to succeed.
Curly hair veterans are all too familiar with the many methods, and everyone has their own unique way. One TikTok curly hair trick went viral when @Curlyzia.xo showcased her method of dipping her hair into a bowl of water to help achieve the perfect curls (via Allure). Well, you may want to start out with a much simpler and trusty OG curly hair trick: hair plopping.
An old T-shirt could give you the perfect curls
One thing is gospel when it comes to handling curly hair, and that's scrunching. Whether you're reaching for a diffuser and doing it the professional way or simply scrunching your hair in your hands: the more you squeeze the better the curls. Scrunching your hair helps support your hair to naturally form tighter curls with much better shape, per Naturally Curly. Well, the effect only gets stronger with this method that keeps your hair in that scrunched position for a prolonged time.
Hair plopping is the simple added step that can take your curls from frizzy mismatched waves to a ringlet fantasy. All you need is an old T-shirt and your favorite hair curling product. After you step out of the shower, while your hair is still wet you can apply your leave-in conditioner or curl styling product and then simply plop your hair by wrapping a T-shirt around it instead of the typical towel head wrap, per Cosmopolitan. Lorraine Massey, the owner of the Spiral XYZ salon, explains the science behind hair plopping, saying, "What happens is, that [T-shirt or microfiber towel] acts as a layer of hair in the way, so the cuticle can't rise — the cuticles have nowhere to go" (via Today).
How long you plop your hair is up to you. Some prefer to leave it up until your hair is fully dried; however, Massey recommends not prolonging your hair plopping as it could disrupt your natural curl pattern.