Or have you Plunked? Frankly I prefer the name Plunking rather than Plopping but hey I didn’t come up with the name.  Anyways..the name refers to a hair styling technique for (mostly) curly haired girls in which you ”plop” all of your hair on top of your head and wrap it in a towel or t-shirt to dry and the results are supposedly life changing.

I first read about plopping on XOJane.com Plop, Lock And Drop It: How To Style Wavy But Not Yet Curly Hair and I was shocked to hear of a hair technique that I haven’t tried.  After reading the article I went to YouTube as it suggests, and watch about 3 or 4 videos on the technique and tried plunking the very next day.  Here is how it worked for me (Note: I have pretty long naturally curly hair, fine texture, loose curls.):

I washed and brushed my hair, and while wet I applied a healthy dose of PureShine Curls Lotion, a quarter sized amount of PureShine Polishing Serum, I scrunched with a bath towel and then applied Finesse Extra Control Mousse, at least 3 handfuls.  I followed this up by the infamous plopping hair wrapping technique were I laid out a large t-shirt on the back of my toilet seat, gathered up my wet hair and placed in the center of the towel and gently folded over the t-shirt, twisted the loose ends and knotted it the back of my head creating a wrap that looks like this:

In the article and videos they make the hair wrapping seem trickier than it actually is.  I had no trouble getting the job done in the first shot but that could just be me.  I then left the wrap on my head for about 45 minutes while I ate breakfast, put on my make-up and got dressed.  I took off the t-shirt and blew dry my hair gently the rest of the way with a diffuser.  If you have curly hair and don’t have a diffuser you must get one, its in the curly hair bible, I’m certain.  I have an ancient one from Conair called the Conair Pro.  The results (hair not entirely dry yet):

The theory behind plopping,  keeping your wet curls piled safely on top of your head for a period of time will allow the curls to set, form more solid longer lasting curls and prevent frizz.  Air, motion and impact during the curly hair drying process is what causes little strans of hair to break away from the curl, fly free and create frizz.  If you keep them together longer the less frizz will occur.  Here is what my curls looked like at the end of the day:

For me personally, I love the results. I’m now a complete convert and I will now and forever plop.  I will tell and teach my friends the technique and they can then pass it along to their friends and generations to come.  Adding plopping to my morning hair routine only adds another 2 minutes onto the process and that makes me thrilled.  I’m happy with the shape of my curls especially now that my hair is getting really long. For me, the weight of my long hair pulls out the curl and plopping helps give it back some spring.  I’m happy that the curl does last longer and frizz is a bit less.

What I am unhappy about in the article and all the videos, not to mention every single hair product company out there, claim a “frizz free” result.  Let me just say it, there is no such thing as FRIZZ FREE. If you are prone to frizz you will no matter what glop, iron or technique you use on your hair you will get frizz.  We have to accept it once and for all. Your hair is eventually going to give way to its natural demeanor and fly away.  The next thing I’m unhappy about is the claim that it cuts down your drying time, I don’t agree. It took me just as long to dry my hair plunking then if I were to do it without.  This was also confirmed by my disappointed best friend who has super thick hair and is always on a mission to dry her hair quicker. Sorry ladies, its not happening with plunking. Unless of course you do try out one of those super absorbant ShamWow-type microfiber towels the article talks about but it certainly isn’t going to cut your dry time down by using your boyfriends Fruit of the Loom tee. Lastly, if you do not have true curl or real wave in your hair this will not work for you.

All that being said. I LOVE Plopping/plunking. Try it.

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