How To Plop Hair With T Shirt Step By Step
How to Plop Curly Hair for Perfect Air-Dried Curls – Real Simple
Curly-haired goddesses know all about it: There’s a downside to a majestic mane of curls, and it’s called post-drying frizz. To avoid this fate—and achieve sleek, well-defined curls—you must style your Hair at just the right moment: smack in the middle of its wet and dry stages. The term “plopping” is a curl-enhancement technique that takes advantage of that sweet spot.
How to plop curly hair? “Hair plopping is the new term for an old technique of towel-drying wavy or curly hair,” says Annie Rush, a senior stylist at the Marie Robinson Salon in New York City. “It’s the simplest way of getting the best frizz-free and natural air-dry. The process is easy and can also be applied to straight hair if you want a more lived-in, bohemian texture.”
So, what is hair plopping? As the name implies, you plop your hair into a towel or T-shirt and roll the fabric around your head like a turban. Your curls are thus “accordioned” on the top of your head, helping them keep their defined, spiral shape after they dry. And the best part? how to plop short hair? Plopping requires no heat and shortens drying time, so you’re ready in 10 to 20 minutes. If you’re ready to give your hair its best plop, here is the effortless three-step routine.
How To Plop Curly Hair: A Complete Guide to Curly Hair Plopping
Move over hair straighteners – your time in the sun is done (for now). Natural curls are the hottest hairstyle on the block, with today’s curly and wavy babes turning away from time-consuming straightening and embracing their corkscrews, ringlets and coils in all their glory. And it’s partly thanks to a TikTok-approved drying technique called plopping, yes plopping.
- How to plop your hair
If you’re blessed with curls but have never heard of hair plopping, you’ve been missing out on some of the best hair days of your life! A method of heat-free hair drying that tames frizz and flyaways, hair plopping is an easy, breezy way to enhance your unique curl pattern. And the good news is it’s just as effective on fine, frizzy-prone strands as it is on thick, luscious locks!
While it can take a little bit of practice to get right at first, once you’ve gotten the hang of plopping you’ll never turn back. So, to discover exactly what hair plopping is, why it’s beneficial and a step-by-step guide to doing it right, read on!
What Is Hair Plopping?
Hair plopping is a simple technique that uses a cotton or microfibre towel, t-shirt, pillowcase or something similar to dry wet curls in a self-contained mound on top of the head. Helping to increase the definition of your curls while also cutting down on frizz, it’s a smarter alternative to wrapping your hair in a towel at the end of a shower.
As everyone with curls knows, the twisted-towel method is simply a no-go. Why? Well, when you twist your curls in a towel, they get stretched out from the twisting motion and frizzy from the fabric of your bog-standard bath towel. With hair plopping, on the other hand, your wet curls stay compact and scrunched on the top of your head. This keeps your roots nice and volumised, your curls clumped together and your hair cuticle silky smooth.
The Benefits of Plopping
While hair plopping has been around for years, until recently people with curly hair have had very little guidance in the mainstream media on how to make their curls look luxurious and voluminous after a wash. Now, with the abundance of hair products formulated specifically for curly hair and hair plopping taking over social media, curls have never looked better.
What makes plopping such a popular hair-drying hack? Well, for starters, curls and waves are very easily weighed down by non-optimal drying methods. The weight of water and hair products naturally pull curl patterns down before hair has a chance to dry. This results in waves or curls that are loose, stretched and kind of ‘meh’. Hair plopping is so great because it actively works against this, giving curl patterns a fighting chance to come out the other side of the drying process intact.
What’s more, plopping cuts your post-shower maintenance work in half. Usually, once you’ve finished washing and conditioning your hair, you’ll add a leave-in texturising product and scrunch your curls to encourage the curl pattern to become more compact. Plopping is essentially doing a lot of the scrunching for you because it presses your hair to your head and keeps it there for an extended period of time, resulting in better definition and volume.
Lastly, hair plopping can significantly speed up your hair’s drying time, especially if you frequently let your curls air dry. Plopping takes away a lot of the excess moisture that you would want to be absorbed before drying, without causing frizz. Plus, it absorbs any excess product if you’re a bit heavy-handed with your application.
How to Plop Hair – Step By Step
What You’ll Need:
- A microfibre towel, cotton T-shirt, or a T-shirt towel
- Your favourite styling products for your curl pattern
Step 1
Once you’re done washing your hair, scrunch out the excess water and apply your favourite leave-in conditioner and curling products. Our tip? Double down on the frizz-fighting action with a few drops of our Like A Virgin Miracle Hair Elixir.
Step 2
Lay your towel (make sure it’s microfibre!) or t-shirt out on your bathroom counter or chair.
Step 3
Bending at the waist, flip your hair forward so that all of your hair is in the centre of the towel and on top of your head.
Step 4
Take a flap of fabric that is behind your head and flip it over your neck. Tie the excess fabric (or sleeves if you’re using a t-shirt) behind your head and secure it with a knot. If you have extra material, wrap the extra length around to the front and tie the ends in a knot.
How Long Should You Keep Your Hair Plopped?
Ideally, you should leave your hair plopped for at least an hour for it to work its magic. Then you’re free to air dry or diffuse your hair. However, many people keep their hair plopped for way longer than that. Some even rock the plop overnight to ensure they wake up with beautifully defined and bouncy curls. With zero, zip, zilch frizz.
Should I Use a Towel or a T-Shirt?
How to plop hair with t shirt?
A t-shirt and towel are equally effective for hair plopping – just make sure you stick with a 100% cotton tee or a microfibre towel. That means regular bath towels are off limits. Why? The weave and texture of regular terry cloth towels are a total tress trap. It’s super easy for individual strands of hair to get caught, causing them to separate and create frizz.
- How to plop hair with t shirt?
Microfibre and cotton towels and shirts, on the other hand, are made with smaller, smoother fibres that are gentler on hair. So, reach for either when it’s time for you to plop!
The Best Products for Plopping
Hair plopping is a great method for taming and styling your curly hair, so we highly recommend you try it your next wash day. Just remember that the products you use are just as important as the method itself – and our That’s a Wrap Bundle can help you get the curls of your dreams! With a microfibre towel, detangling brush and the iconic Like A Virgin Coconut & Fig Hair Masque, the kit contains everything you need for killer curls. Check out the bundle, smoothing hair serum and all of Coco & Eve’s products, today!
How to plop with a T-shirt (my fav)
How to plop with a short-sleeve T-shirt
1. Get yourself a big T-shirt. The unofficial favorite pick of the internet? An XXL long-sleeve cotton T-shirt (I use this Soffe Men’s Shirt for the low, low price of $10. Whattup).
2. Before you hop in the shower, lay your T-shirt upside down—i.e., with the sleeves and neck hole closest to you—on either your bathroom counter, a chair, or on top of your toilet lid (hey, I did this throughout college, and I’m fine).
3. After showering and applying your stylers (specifically the stylers you’d usually use on your sopping-wet hair, like leave-in conditioner or gel), flip your wet hair over and onto the center of the T-shirt, pressing your head down on the curls like an accordion.
4. With your head/hair still upside down, grab the end of the shirt furthest from your head and fold it over your hair/head (so it’s touching the nape of your neck and completely covering your hair). Think of it like creating a little folded bag around your curls.
5. While holding the edges of the shirt at the nape of your neck, grab at the sleeves near your forehead and twist them together to tighten the “bag” around your head.
6. Wrap the twisted sleeves around your head and tie them in place to keep the shirt from sliding or falling off. If you look like you’re wearing some sort of wet helmet, then congrats—you did it correctly.
Once you flip your head back over, all of your curls will stay perfectly nestled on top of your head like a bunch of compressed Slinkies, allowing them to dry in their natural formation, untouched by gravity, humidity, or the roughness of a towel. Which means by the time you unwrap the shirt, your curls will have already started to dry with better definition and volume, without any of the frizz.
How to plop wavy hair (or fine hair)
A common plopping complaint is that fine hair—especially fine, wavy hair—is left looking squashed, flattened, and chaotic. If you’ve tried your best with the original method and you know it’s not working for you, try the slinky method.
Slinky blotting/plopping
This plopping modification for fine hair, waves, or loose curls. Essentially, you just blot your hair with an open hand (and T-shirt) to help create and define your waves without any of the weird crimping, creasing, or bending that can come from plopping. It’s super easy, and all you need is your normal T-shirt or microfiber towel.
How to plop tighter curls (3b/3c)
Okay, this one sounds wild, but certain curl types—especially tighter curl types—have had awesome results from this modification. Net plopping involves plopping your hair with fishnet stockings (!) before diffusing your hair. Why can this work? Because it keeps your curls from getting smushed like with regular plopping, and it also creates more airflow within your hair while diffusing.
Net plopping
Note: Net plopping won’t completely dry your hair (especially your roots), but it’ll help encourage major curl definition early in the process, which can be especially helpful for low-density, fine curls. The method was originally inspired by content creator Penny Tovar, who used a wig cap, but was then popularized by HiF3licia, who experimented with fishnets instead.
Out of all the plopping methods, this one is definitely experimental—but still worth trying!—and tends to work best if you stretch the fishnets out first (literally stick ’em on your legs to really widen the net).
How long do you plop your hair?
There’s really no right or wrong answer here—some people only plop for 5-10 minutes, some people plop for 15-20, others plop for an hour, and some swear by plopping overnight while they sleep. How long you plop your hair depends on your hair type, length, porosity, and lifestyle, so this is one of those time’s where experimentation is a requirement (as you can clearly tell by now).
I’ve personally found that plopping my fine, low-porosity curls for 15-20 minutes is the sweet spot for encouraging definition and soaking up just enough excess water. Anything over 20 minutes dries my curls a bit too much, making it hard to add products afterward without risking frizz or messing with my curl pattern. I’ve also tried plopping overnight, and found that—as is a common complaint—my hair stayed too damp and eventually made my scalp itchy (dandruff/yeast growth loves damp scalps).
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