How to Dry Curly Hair With a Microfiber Towel (Plopping and the Turban Twist)

Wash day takes you half an hour of careful conditioning and detangling, and then you grab the bath towel and scrub your whole head like you're drying a dog. Most of us were taught to. Drying with a microfiber towel or a T-shirt, wrapped instead of rubbed, keeps that last minute from undoing the rest.

Why shouldn't you rub curly hair dry with a towel?

Wet hair is at its weakest, and rubbing is the kind of wear it handles worst. A 1982 grooming study in the Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists found that while hair is wet, "it has a much lower resistance to abrasion than when dry." The authors concluded that the routine of shampooing, towel drying and wet combing appears to be the main reason the cuticle wears down. The cuticle is the protective outer layer of each strand.

"Wrap your hair with a towel or t-shirt to gently absorb the moisture, as roughly rubbing your hair dry can cause damage," says the American Academy of Dermatology. Frizz comes up in 7 of the 18 reviews of our own towel. Angela, who has long hair, lists "reduce frizz" among the reasons she gave hers five stars.

What you'll need

• A microfiber hair towel or a soft long-sleeved cotton T-shirt
• Your leave-in conditioner and styler, if you use them
• A counter or a closed toilet lid to lay the fabric on

How to plop curly hair

Plopping means letting your curls fold onto the top of your head inside fabric while it draws the water out. A Refinery29 plopping guide recommends it for wavy, curly and coily hair. It also notes that drying on top of the head can give finer hair a little lift at the roots.

The classic plop uses a long-sleeved T-shirt, because the sleeves tie at the back. A large flat microfiber towel works the same way. Turban-style hair towels are cut for the twist further down, not the plop.

The turban twist, for when you're on the move

The turban twist is the quicker wrap. Use it when you need both hands for the rest of your morning.

1. Flip your head forward so all of your hair hangs in front of you.
2. Set the button end at your nape. Hold it there with one hand.
3. Fold the towel over your hair. Tuck in any strands at the sides, since a loose end will drip down your back for the next half hour.
4. Twist and button. Twist the towel loosely toward the free end, flip it back over your head and hook the loop over the button.

Keep the twist gentle. You're holding the hair in place, not wringing water out of it.

How long should you leave the towel on?

Ten to 20 minutes is the usual window. The Refinery29 guide says many women plop for "10-20 minutes before they diffuse or air-dry their hair," and that some keep it in overnight. One of our customers slept in the towel and woke up, in their words, with "non frizzy curls."

Take it off while your curls are still damp. Your leave-in and styler need some water left in the hair to work with.

You might have seen warnings that long soaks wear hair out, an idea called "hygral fatigue." Michelle Wong, the chemistry PhD behind Lab Muffin, calls it a myth with "not much convincing evidence," and says water going in and out of hair doesn't cause damage by itself. She still warns that hair is "still more fragile when it's wet," which is why the rubbing matters and the minutes don't.

Microfiber towel or a cotton T-shirt?

Both do the main job, which is letting you press and wrap instead of scrub. A soft cotton T-shirt costs nothing. If you have one in a drawer, you can plop tonight.

What to retire, at least for your hair, is the terry bath towel. The Refinery29 guide warns that terry can soak up too much of the moisture curls need. A full bath sheet is also a lot of weight to balance on wet hair.

A turban-style microfiber towel wins on staying put. Ours is 65 x 25 cm and buttons at the nape, so you can walk away from the mirror with it on. One customer says it fits her long hair. Another, who is petite, found it fiddly to get tight.

Microfiber Hair Towel for Curly HairA 65 x 25 cm turban that twists up and buttons at the nape, so your curls stay wrapped while you finish getting ready.$16.95

Kathy bought ours after a run of curly-hair styling videos:

"I'd been wanting to buy microfiber hair towels after watching tons of youtube videos about styling naturally curly hair. I wasn't sure the type of towel I used to dry my hair would make much difference, but I was wrong! They actually do extract the water from your hair faster and they don't get sopping wet in the process. I put my hair up in one of these towels as soon as I get out of the shower and within 20 minutes, my hair is already 30% dry. They're affordable, super soft and wash well, too. Big fan!"

Kathy D., verified buyer

Type 4 hair and kids

Coils and shrinkage. Plopping works on 4A to 4C hair once it's long enough to pile on top of your head. Until then, skip the plop and press the towel around your hair one section at a time.

On thick coils, a towel takes off the drip and no more. Your hair will come out damp. Coily hair also shrinks as it dries, so judge when to unwrap by how damp it feels rather than how long it looks. Not sure where your curls fall? The hair type chart takes about a minute.

Choosing your leave-in. What goes on before the plop depends on how your hair takes in water. Our porosity test tells you which porosity group you're in and what it needs.

Kids. One parent wrote that their 4.5-year-old, who hates having her long hair blow-dried, wore the towel around the house after a bath until her hair was dry. Squeeze the water out while they're still in the tub, wrap their curls loosely, and let them go play. It beats a scrub with the bath towel, especially on a tender-headed kid.

Next wash day, leave the bath towel on the rail and give one plop 15 minutes. Then carry on with the rest of our wash-day routine, and see how your curls look by evening.

When you want a wrap that stays on by itself, our microfiber hair towel is the one Kathy reviewed.