Riding the Wave: Plopping and Week 2's Update

Seriously, that cute fluffy puppy with the Princess Leia 'do is related to my post today.

The best way to get pretty waves is to step out of the shower with sopping wet hair and let it air dry. Wet hair clumps together as it dries to form natural waves. Combing or brushing separates the hairs, gets rid of the curls and results in frizz. Quite simply:

Hair type x (Water + Hair) = Straight/Waves/Curls

Curls + Comb = Frizz

Sometimes, the water weighs down the hair so much, you end up with limp curls or badly shaped waves. Plus, no one wants to go around looking like a wet cocker spaniel (believe me, I have a pretty, curly pet spaniel whom I adore but she looks terrible wet) while their hair dries.

So here's the problem to solve. How do we make sure that our hair is wet enough to encourage clumping but not so wet that we drip everywhere and encourage limpness? (I am so tempted to geekify the above equations to suit the question but I won't. *slaps inner maths geek*)

This is where plopping comes into the picture.

Because my brains are on strike right now (I haven't slept for the past 30 hours), I am just going to copy and paste the instructions for plopping from the Naturally Curly website:

"As described by a member, after one washes and conditions the hair, you apply product to wet hair and get ready to ‘plop.’ Put a t-shirt or Aquis towel down on a chair - some use the toilet with seat down. Leaning over the towel/t-shirt with your head hanging down bent over from your waist, position the wet hair onto towel so the curls are all concentrated on top of the head. Then pull the towel taut against the top and sides of the head, grabbing the 2 sides and twisting them into long sausage rolls near each ear. Take these rolled up towel extensions and pull them to the nape of the neck and secure them by tying them together.

Says one reader, “Then I put go about my morning routine — makeup, coffee, etc. The towel helps to absorb excess water while letting the curls ’set’ into clumps. When you take the towel off, gently shake down the curls and diffuse ’s’ shaped, individual curly locks, with some volume at the roots.”

If you want extra control, another member suggests spritzing on on some spray gel or scrunch in a bit more gel after you take the towel off."

The page also has cartoon illustrations of plopping so you can check it out here.

Some people swear by it and others don't. Me? I am kind of on the fence with plopping. Maybe I am not doing it correctly but for me, plopping is one of those things which works on some days and doesn't on the others.

I have a problem doing the sausage rolling bit, which is why I thought the Princess Leia hair towel thing would come in handy. I'll report back once I give it a go.

Oh, I haven't the faintest idea what an Aquis towel is but I gather you are supposed to use either old cotton shirts, microfibre towels or paper towels (yup, as in the one we use in the kitchen) for scrunching excess water out of your curls. Normal terrycloth towels tend to soak up too much water and ruins the curl.

CG Week 2 and 3



Check it out. The pics on the left were taken on a "good" hair day in Week 2 while the ones on the right were taken during Week 3. I don't know if you girls can really see the difference but my waves in the second set of picture are less frizzy and a lot more defined compared to the previous week even though I wasn't using any gels or balms to help with the curls.

My hair seems to really like this new routine! Week 2 was a nightmare I would prefer not to remember but my waves started falling into place and staying there towards the end of Week 3.

*heaves a happy sigh*