Do you plop?
Fortunately this isn’t related to any vile toilet humour. Plopping is actually a method to help relieve curly and wavy hair of frizz and to boost volume (like actual magic)!
The struggle is real, fellow curlies, when it comes to taming our crazy hair. One day we’ll be blessed with flowing bouncy locks, and the next day (when we have that important date or big meeting of course) we emerge with a frizzy birds nest of hair. We slather various potions and lotions into our locks, with the aim of trying to control that God awful frizz.
Fortunately there is a solution (just don’t tell people you’ve ‘been plopping’). The basic idea behind plopping is to apply frizz-taming products after washing your hair, followed by ‘Plopping’ it into a t-shirt for a few minutes and then styling.
There are a few slight variations to the method and it involves a little trial and error to figure out what works best for your hair type. This is the way I personally find plopping the most effective:
- Wash hair and apply conditioner as normal. De-tangle hair with a wide toothed comb or with fingers and then rinse. Squeeze out just a small amount of excess water – you still want your hair to be dripping slightly.
- Apply a generous amount of frizz taming products. I like to use a leave-in conditioner followed by a curl gel. Then scrunch your curls up towards your head.
- Lay out an old cotton shirt upside down on a large, flat surface and bend forward, flipping your head upside down and lowering your hair until your head almost touches the towel.
- Bring the top of the T-shirt back toward the nape of your neck.
- Grab the arms of the t-shirt and wrap them around the sides of your head, securing them in a knot at the back. You should now have your hair in a t-shirt turban.
- Leave for 5-10 minutes, gently unwrap and style as normal without using a brush.
You can wrap your hair in a cotton t-shirt or use a microfiber towel or turban. Avoid regular terry towelling material as it can cause extra frizz.
Some people like to leave their hair in the towel for 30 minutes, an hour or even overnight. Experiment to see what works best for you.
Check out the fab diagram below from NaturallyCurly.com:
Have you tried plopping? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!
