How to Plop Your Hair

Plop: v. To put wet hair up into a cloth; n. Said act of putting hair up.

If you are looking for way to decrease the drying time of your hair and help enhance waves and curls, plopping is for you! Plopping involves putting your hair up in a cloth, which behaves like an accordion, almost scrunching the hair by itself. This is a different method than just putting your hair up in a towel. You can encourage your natural waves or curls with less time and effort than traditional curling methods.

Edit Steps

Wash and style your curly hair. Add any mousses or gels to the hair before plopping.

Lay your cotton plopping cloth on a flat surface. (You can also use a t-shirt). Good places include the toilet seat (with the lid down!), chairs, and low beds or shelves.

Bend over at the waist and position your hair on top of the cloth, near the edge closest to you. Move your head until it is pressed firmly against the surface.

Take the far edge of the cloth and drape it over the back of your head.

Grab the sections of the towel on either side of your head and twist them tightly away from your face in two "sausage rolls." They don't have hair in them, because your hair is plopped on top of your head, remember? The sausage rolls are just a convenient way to secure the towel.

Move up slowly from the bent over position.

Twist the sausage rolls to the back of your head near your neck and secure them. You can tie them together with a hair tie, or pin them with clips. If you used a long sleeved t-shirt, or if you have ample fabric, you can simply cross the two rolls and pull them tight.

Leave the plop on for as long as you like. If you notice frizzing after you remove the plop, add a little gel to your hair then and try plopping for less time. 15 to 20 minutes is a good amount of time to try.

Remove the plop. Let your hair air dry, or blow-dry with a diffuser so as not to disturb the curls. Do not touch the curls while they are wet or they will frizz.

Rock those curls!

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Edit Tips

Some people like to sleep in their plops. Make sure to clip the cloth where your head does not lie on the pillow, if you choose this option.

Another way to get waves into curly hair is to use a scrunchy to tie your damp hair into a loose ponytail on top of your head (if you can comfortably bend over at the waist, gravity makes this easy). Leave your hair this way for 20 minutes or more to get some extra "lift" at the crown.

If you don't have a length of cotton cloth, you could also cut up an old t-shirt into one.

There are many variations on plopping, so experiment and see what works best for you.

Edit Warnings

If you have short curly hair, this may squash some sections weirdly.

Do not use a generic, terrycloth towel to plop with if your hair is prone to frizz! The little threads of the material will pull out strands of hair and create frizz! (Cotton or linen is the preferred material.)