You get out of the shower, wrap your hair in an old t-shirt, and wait half an hour as shown in the video. Then you take it off: your hair is flat, plastered to your head, and shorter than it was before washing.
Plopping, scrunching, and finger coiling have been circulating in the natural hair community for about fifteen years, and they have proven their worth. Our position is simple, and it does not call into question either your patience or your technique: the first two were designed for curly hair, where they excel, and they flatten hair with a kinky texture. The third holds its own, provided you know what it does. None of this works, however, on poorly prepared hair: our step-by-step tutorial details the six steps of the Rituel Texture®.
Where these methods come from
All three techniques belong to the same family of movements, born around curly and wavy hair in the movement that put natural hair back at the center. They are all based on a simple idea: a curl that dries without being disturbed retains the shape it had when it emerged from the water. We gather it, compress it, leave it alone, and it sets.
This logic works because a curly strand forms a fairly regular spiral. Neighboring strands spontaneously gather into clumps, and the weight of the water pulls them down without deforming them. Kinky hair does not behave this way. It changes direction several times in the same strand, intertwines with its neighbors instead of aligning with them, and shrinks significantly as it dries. Compressing this hair does not shape it: it flattens it.
The mistake I correct most often in a disappointed client is applying a technique designed for a curl to kinky hair. Plopping and scrunching are made for curly hair, and they are very effective. Finger coiling interests me more, but I almost always find the result a little flattened.
Ghana Elin, founderThat is the whole difference between a method that does not suit you and a method you performed incorrectly. Women who get beautiful results with plopping are not more patient than you: they do not have the same hair texture.
Method 1Plopping
Plopping is not a styling technique; it is a way to dry hair. Just after washing, with the hair still dripping and product already applied, place it in the center of a cotton t-shirt or a spread-out microfiber towel, wrap it, and tie it behind the nape of the neck. Leave it for twenty to thirty minutes, sometimes longer, then let it finish drying in the open air.
On curly hair, this operation solves two problems at once. It removes excess water without rubbing, which prevents the frizz caused by a terry cloth towel. And it prevents the weight of this water from stretching the curl while it forms. The benefit is immediately visible, and it explains the method's success.
On kinky hair, the fabric does exactly the same job, but on hair that reacts differently. The lengths remain held folded upward for half an hour, at the exact moment the hair fiber begins to shrink. The roots are flattened, the volume ends up anywhere, and the shrinkage, already significant by nature, adds to the flattening. The sign does not lie: when you take it off, the hairstyle has a shape, and it is not yours.
There is still the wringing out, which is a real need. The t-shirt and microfiber remain good tools for this. The difference lies in the technique: pat, press gently, do not wrap the lengths for thirty minutes.
Method 2Scrunching
Scrunching is the fastest of the three. On very damp hair, once the treatment is applied, lift the strands toward the scalp by pressing them into the palm of your hand, in small strokes, as if folding them like an accordion. Two minutes are enough.
Once again, the technique was designed for a curl that already exists and needs to be shortened and made to bounce. On a kinky texture, it gives a little spring, never a shape, and it comes at a cost: you are handling a fiber that has started to dry with your bare hands, so you are messing up the style strand by strand. Many women notice more frizz after scrunching than before and conclude that they did it wrong. They did it very well.
The squish to condish variation, where you press water and conditioner into the lengths in the shower until you hear a squelching sound, belongs to the same family and deserves the same caution. On kinky hair, what gets the treatment into the fiber is working section by section, not compression. And that happens during the mask, not the rinse.
Method 3Finger coiling
Finger coiling is different, and it is the only one of the three that gives a real shape to kinky hair. Take small damp sections, apply product, and wrap each strand around your finger until it holds on its own. No accessories, total precision, and a uniformity that nothing else achieves as easily. It deserves to be judged for what it is: a definition technique that works, with two drawbacks.
The first is time. On dense hair, it is a matter of hours, not to mention the drying time, during which you must not touch it again. It is a day dedicated to it, not a weekday morning. The same goes for the wash and go, which, on kinky hair, is worked strand by strand and is only fast in name. You will find the details in our article on the wash and go.
The second is visible in the next-day photo. Each strand is closed in on itself, so the entire hairstyle closes up: the result looks a little flattened, shorter than it is, and it barely moves. For a kinky texture, this is a defensible aesthetic choice, provided you know you made it.
What we do instead
Plopping answers a specific question: how to dry without losing the shape? The Rituel Texture® answers the same question at step 05, and it answers it in the opposite direction. Instead of immobilizing the hair folded under a fabric, we guide it as it dries, strand by strand, with La Crème Coiffante applied first and the dryer that is never placed anywhere. The details of the movements are in our article on drying and the diffuser, which also explains why the nozzle is not our tool.
The result is not a closed curl, it is open hair: soft, mobile, whose length is finally visible, and which can then be styled however you wish. This does not mean taking out the dryer every week. From one routine to the next, the hair dries very well on its own, provided it is held in mini-twists or a loose braid rather than left loose.
There is still the question of defined curls, the one that brings most readers to plopping. We have the answer, and it is neither a variation nor a finishing touch of the Rituel Texture®: it is the Rituel Définition®, our second method, performed by the hairdressers we train. It aims for clean and mobile curls without sacrificing length, that is to say exactly what finger coiling seeks, without the closed-in effect. The details of the movements belong in the salon, not in an article. For the principles, see our article on defining curls.
What matters more than technique
Whatever method you choose, yours included if it suits you, three habits weigh more heavily on the result than the technique itself. They cost nothing and can be verified in a single routine.
The three points that determine the result
- Do not touch it again during drying. Every time you touch it, you undo the shape as it sets. This is the hardest rule to follow, and the most rewarding.
- Work section by section. Kinky hair is not styled in one piece: at least six sections, more if density requires it.
- Leave the water in on wash day. A fiber that is re-dampened every morning becomes porous over time, while the hydration of a complete Rituel Texture® lasts seven to ten days without it.
Finally, there is a prerequisite that no technique can work without: detangled hair. On knotted hair, plopping traps the knots, finger coiling works around them, and protective drying sets them. Our method of detangling goes back to basics, starting with the fingers, on dry hair.
