5 Tiny Hair Plopping Mistakes That’ll Ruin Your Curls

Esther GodswillLast Updated: April 19, 2022

There are hundreds of ways to ruin your curls, but today we will talk about the common ones that we barely notice. This post will outline and explain the 5 common & tiny hair plopping mistakes that’ll ruin your good-looking tresses.

If you have curly or wavy hair, you must be considering plopping your hair to keep it looking its best. While it may sound like a magic technique to keep your hair at its best forever, it’s simply a technique for drying your hair.

Since most drying techniques will probably wreck your curly hair, your options are pretty limited. While plopping is one of the few guaranteed techniques for drying your hair, there are also mistakes that may ruin the process.

In this article, you’ll learn about some of the mistakes you should avoid at all costs before, during, and after plopping. Also, I’ll show you the step-by-step processes required to plop your hair without ruining your curls.

Hair Plopping Mistakes that will Ruin Your Curls

Since you typically plop your hair yourself, it’s very easy to get it wrong the first time if you’re inexperienced. The success of plopping doesn’t rely too much on your intensity of your curls; instead, it’s usually marred by some beginner errors that are completely normal.

Here are some of the commonest hair plopping mistakes that will likely ruin your curls if you continue making them:

1. Wringing your hair to remove excess water

If you’re planning to plop your hair without damaging your curls, you must follow the no-touch rule after washing. While it’s important to remove excess water before commencing the plopping process, you must find a way to do that without touching your hair.

Fortunately, the workaround is pretty simple. You only have to bend over, leaving your hair in an upside-down position. Then, you shake your head vigorously, getting rid of the excess water without having to touch your hair.

When your hair is moderately moisturized, you can proceed to apply styling products before starting with the plopping process.

2. Not using a microfiber cloth or towel

There’s only one material that’s capable of drying your hair during plopping, and that is microfiber. If you don’t have a microfiber t-shirt or towel, you should probably try a different drying technique, since there are no alternatives.

The dangers of using a regular cloth, as opposed to a microfiber cloth are endless. However, the most important one, and the one that really matters, is that you’ll be ruining your curls, which is what you were avoiding by using plopping in the first place.

3. Using a thin cloth or tying it too tight

It may seem logical that tying the microfiber cloth around your hair as tight as you can is the best way to dry your hair very quickly. However, you’re only thinking that because you haven’t fully understood the point of plopping your hair yet.

During plopping, the microfiber t-shirt or towel isn’t expected to act like a towel that you use to dry your body after a bath. Instead, it should only hold your hair in place while it naturally gets rid of water, while it seeps through the cloth.

With that said, you should already understand that you’ll get the best results from hair plopping when you use a thin microfiber cloth. Since it will allow water to seep through more quickly, you’ll get rid of excess water faster, increasing the success of the entire process.

4. Using the wrong shampoo

If you go through the step-by-step hair plopping process below, you’ll notice that the plopping process starts from shampooing your hair correctly. Predictably, the best way to ruin the entire hair plopping process is to make a false start with a shampoo that’s incompatible with curly, wavy or coily hair.

Generally, you should try to avoid shampoos that include sulfate and alcohol. If you need to keep your hair looking fresh and bouncy, a sulfate-based hair shampoo will work to ensure that doesn’t happen.

Fortunately, that’s the only rule that applies across all kinds of curly hair. Apart from that, you can use whatever kind of hair shampoo you want, depending on your hair type and the results you want.

Hair Plopping Step by Step Guide for You

The best way to avoid silly plopping mistakes is by following a guide that walks you through the entire process carefully. Unfortunately, these guides are pretty rare on the internet, as most plopping tutorials tend to miss important steps.

If you’re planning to plop your hair without damaging your curls, here is a guide for you. Before going through this guide, however, it’s crucial to review the common mistakes people make while plopping their hair to avoid ruining your curls.

After learning those, here are the step-by-step processes to the perfect hair plopping technique that lets you retain your beautiful curls.

1. Wash your hair and rid it of excess water

When plopping curly hair, the obvious first step is washing the hair with a shampoo and a conditioner. Since this is not a guide about the best shampoos for excellent hair, the shampoo and conditioner you use are totally up to you. Just ensure the hair turns out smooth and slippery after the wash.

An obvious mistake that most people make at this point is grabbing the bulk of their hair and wringing out excess water. While you’ll need to get rid of excessive water, wringing is a highly discouraged way to do it, especially if you have curls.

A general rule of thumb when plopping curly hair is to avoid touching it after the wash. Instead, bend in a position where your head is upside down and shake your head from side to side gently to eliminate excess water from your tresses.

2. Apply your styling products after getting rid of excess water

After washing gently and getting rid of the excess water in the first step, you can touch your hair, but only to apply styling products. Put some of the styling products on your hand and rub it on the curls, spreading it evenly across your hair.

Repeat this process with each of your styling products, while gently squeezing out whatever water is left in your hair. If you go through this process expertly, your curls should be coming out gradually, proving that the technique is working.

3. Plop the hair using an appropriate cloth

Plopping your hair with the wrong type of material may be the most damaging thing that would happen to your hair this year. Before plopping, it’s important to confirm that you’re using a microfiber cloth; could be a t-shirt, as long as it’s microfiber.

Plopping your hair is as easy as wrapping your hair with the piece of cloth to absorb all the moisture. While that sounds easy, it takes some practice and getting used to. If you’re plopping your hair for the first time, it’s best to go for a micro-fiber t-shirt, as it’s easier to wrap around your head literally.

You can place the microfiber t-shirt on a flat surface with the neck hole facing you to make the plopping process easier. Bend your head, flipping your hair over and onto the t-shirt until it makes contact with the middle of the microfiber t-shirt.

Then, grab the shirt or towel from the end and wrap it around your hair without pressing too hard. If the cloth is quite large, you can tuck any excess cloth underneath the wrap to prevent it from falling apart too quickly.

How Long Should You Plop Your Hair

Plopping is an effective drying technique for curly, coily, and wavy hair. Since it works across many different hair types, there’s no one-size-fits all when it comes to the optimal timing for plopping curly hair.

Interesting, your hair type isn’t the biggest factor you should consider while determining how long you should plop your hair. The biggest factor is actually your hair porosity, which you can measure easily at home.

To measure the porosity of your hair, get a glass of water and throw a strand of your hair inside. If the hair sinks to the bottom, your hair is as porous as it gets; BUT if it stays at the middle of the glass, you have normal porosity, while the least porous kind of hair will float.

If your hair is very porous, you only need to plop your hair for about 10 to 20 minutes. However, you’ll need to keep on the cloth for much longer if your hair has moderate or low porosities. If your hair floats atop the glass of water, you should consider plopping your hair overnight.

However, it’s important to note that the porosity of your hair is not a measure of quality. It’s barely important for anything, but it’s certainly great for checking how long you should plop your hair.

Hair Plopping Doesn’t Work? Here’s why

Hair plopping is a common process among ladies with curly, wavy, and coily hair, but sometimes, it feels ineffective. In most cases, the ineffectiveness is a result of many mistakes that plague the regular hair plopping process.

If your hair plopping doesn’t work as desired, you should review all the mistakes listed above to ensure that you’re not making any. Avoiding all of those mistakes will make your hair turn out perfectly each time without ruining your curls.

I hope you enjoy and find this post on hair plopping mistakes that’ll ruin your hair helpful?

Before you go, here are some other posts you might find helpful as well.

And that’s it for now, if you got questions or feedback, do not hesitate to let me know by leaving a comment below right now

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Tiny Hair Plopping Mistakes