It’s ironic, but true: A soft, fluffy towel is too rough for curly hair, as it has fibers that both disrupt the curl pattern, and contribute to frizz. That’s why curlies, coilies, and wavies in-the-know use a microfiber or t-shirt towel or plop with a t-shirt to dry their hair.
What is plopping?
Plopping is a method of drying curly hair in which you plop your hair into the center of a t-shirt, microfiber towel, or other cloth and tie it up so that it dries in a pile on top of your head. This helps our hair to dry in curls and spirals rather than stretched out.
Curlies are a resourceful bunch. They invented plopping here on the NaturallyCurly CurlTalk forums and over the years and continue to innovate – like CurlTalk member CurlyJennyD who has discovered a new use for her lingerie bag.
“I think that most of us who are trying to embrace our curls experience endless amounts of frustration in trying to figure out what works, and eliminate what doesn’t,” said CurlyJennyD. Among her discoveries: Plopping with a lingerie wash bag. She finds that the delicates bag also works to protect and dry her delicate 3A/B (+2C”> curls. It allows for curl definition, and a more thorough drying of her hair, compared to plopping with a t-shirt.
Here’s how to plop with a lingerie wash bag:
- Instead of placing your hair in a t-shirt, plop it into a rectangle lingerie wash bag.
- Keep the bag on your head with an alligator clip to close it.
- If the bag is too long, tie a knot at the bottom of the bag to reduce the plopping area. This should give you a closer cup.
This new method has been “a breakthrough” for CurlyJennyD. Previously cupping with a diffuser was too cumbersome, and required too much effort. Her lingerie wash bag cups her hair while it air-dries, resulting in effortlessly springy curls. Also, the bag doesn’t constrict the hair around the temples and face like a towel, t-shirt, or even a hair net does. And if you find that plopping with a towel takes too long to dry, the benefit of the lingerie bag is that it allows better air flow and faster drying time, according to CurlyJennyD.
CurlyJennyD shared this idea, among others, in hopes of helping her fellow curlies with the same hair type or to spark ideas for other curl types. Thank you, CurlyJennyD!
What do you plop with?
