Plopping has been around forever but the curly hair hack has become even more popular as of late thanks to TikTok. Even those with only slight waves are plopping their hair to achieve their best, frizz-free curls. Since plopping involves using a T-shirt in place of a towel and you might not have one around you want to get dirty, Sun Bum created a T-shirt Hair Towel in collaboration with Daniella Perkins. This is the tee you’ll always use and have around.

There are a lot of ways you could be familiar with actress Daniella Perkins. The 20 year old starred in the Nickelodeon series Knight Squad, as well as guest spots in Girl Meets World and Legendary Dudas. And if you haven’t seen any of those shows, there’s a good chance she’s popped up on your TikTok For You Page considering she has a whopping 2.3 million followers. Here she shows off her cute style, beauty faves and curl routine. She’s the perfect partner for Sun Bum’s curl collection.

Instagram PhotoSource: Instagram

Though, it hasn’t always been easy breesy. “My curl journey has been a long one and I’m still on it! You’re always learning with curly hair,” Perkins tells STYLECASTER. “It went from healthy to damaged to a little bit healthy back to damaged and now it’s on its road to recovery for the past two years.” She admits that she hasn’t always loved her natural texture.

“I didn’t always love my curls. I wanted to be one of those girls with pretty wavy hair that you can put up in a ponytail and take out whenever you want…brush it whenever you want to,” she says. “When I was about 14, I would literally go in the shower [and] spend two hours curling my hair with my finger, and as soon as I got out of the shower would take a straightener and put it to my wet hair so I could get that ‘wavy look.’ It never worked.”

Instagram PhotoSource: Instagram

She admits it’s all a bit of a bummer. “An ex of mine would always say ‘Oh, I wish you had straight hair so I can run my fingers through your hair,’ or people always want to touch it and act like it’s some crazy thing to have,” she says. “But I realize my curls are beautiful and I shouldn’t try to change my hair texture for anyone. It’s hard finding your perfect hair routine, but once you do, loving your curls becomes a little easier. I never want any little girl to feel like her hair isn’t beautiful. Because it is beautiful.”

sum bum curls shampoo

Sum Bum.

Sum Bum. curls conditioner

Sum Bum.

Perkins says one of the reasons she had trouble embracing her hair was because of the lack of representation in media. “I never saw anyone whose skin color or hair looked like me on TV,” she says. “When I was 10, I wanted to be Hannah Montana so badly. I went to the Disney store and my aunt bought me a blonde wig. I lived in that wig. I wanted to have straight blonde hair for so long.” Luckily, there are a few things that can help you love your curls. One is really nailing that routine.

“It takes a minute but once you understand your curls, you can become a master at it,” she says. “To help with frizz, I have been loving the Sun Bum T-shirt Hair Towel for drying. To get the bounce once my hair is dry enough for me, I flip my head over and I take a toothpick comb and just go to the places where my hair kind of sinks down a little bit.”

sun bum towel shirt

Sun Bum.

This “towel” is actually a cute T-shirt you can wear and then use to wrap your hair sans frizz. It’s all part of the curly girl routine. The super-soft, absorbent cotton will cut down drying time and keep hair smooth.

Sun Bum. hair towel

Sun Bum.

Meeting Zendaya helped Perkins be more confident and even inspired her future roles. “The first thing [Zendaya] told me was, ‘Don’t ever let them touch your hair. Protect your curls,’” she says. “That stuck with me. That’s why when I booked Knight Squad my curly hair was a big part of that character.” She’s gotten incredible feedback from young fans and their mothers about her character’s natural hair.

“I actually had the most touching experience at a Nickelodeon meet greet,” she says. “This little girl saw me and started crying her heart out. She told me she was so happy that she saw someone who looked like her on Nickelodeon. That shows you the lack of representation. I’m so glad things are changing. We’re definitely nowhere near where we should be, but we’re getting there.”

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