You spend all that time trying to put volume in your hair, you put all the products and you do all the right things, you get some good volume in your hair, and then the next thing you know, 15 minutes later, it’s gone.
This is when you are trying to figure out how do I get volume in my hair that will last.
This is exactly what this article is all about – tips, tricks and little things that are going to help you get volume in your hair.
Table of Contents
Hair Volume Tips
Blowdry Upside Down
The one thing you want to make sure is that after you applied your products, you take your head upside down and dry it like that.
The reason for that is because it’s getting those roots lifted up. The more you can direct your roots to the opposite direction of which they going to fall ultimately, you’re going to create more root lift.
Dry Your Hair in a Ponytail
The next tip is all about a little ponytail holder.
There is a difference between small ponytail holders and larger ponytail holders.
If you want to minimize the damage to your hair when you are pulling your hair back in any kind of ponytail, the larger the surface area is, the less pressure it’s going to apply, and therefore it’s going to be a little bit less damaging.
Before you go to bed, dampen your hair down, pull it up on the top of your head in a ponytail and then let it dry like that.
You can let it dry overnight or if you have time in the morning.
What you will find when you get up in the morning and your hair is dry, you take it down from the ponytail and your hair is normally going down, falling down your head, those roots are actually lifted up, so you are getting an immediate root lift.
Here is one little pro tip.
Put a little bit of root lifter in your hair when it’s damp before you pull it up. As those roots dry, they mold themselves into that position and then when you let them out, you have that foundation for extra volume.
Cold Air Locks in Volume
One thing that people forget is to do a little cold shot or just allow your hair to cool down while still in round brush or even while it’s in the bend that you had created with the flat iron.
When hair heats up, it becomes pliable. But when it cools down, it’s locking that bend or that shape into place.
If you allow your hair to cool down, while it’s in the position that you want it, with the bend that’s going to create that volume, you’re going to find it that bend is going to last longer, and therefore your volume is going to last longer.
But what if you don’t want to shampoo your hair or you are not really in the mood to get it wet in the morning? But it’s still feeling flat and you want to add more volume.
Here is one way.
Understanding where that lack of volume is coming from.
Many times that’s coming from oil production. Maybe your scalp is a little bit more oily, and therefore that little bit of oil is weighing your hair down and it’s stealing some of the volume that you created.
Dry Shampoo
So one of my favorite things to use is a dry shampoo.
What you can do is take your head upside down and just spray it at the roots. Just doing this alone can help to get a little bit more volume back.
When you do that and then couple that with my next tip, you are going to see you’ll be able to get a lot of volume in your hair without doing a lot of work.
Use a Flat Iron to Create Bend
Use a flat iron to create a little extra volume.
A lot of people think that flat irons take volume away. That’s just not true.
Now that you have dry shampoo to soak up some of that oil, use your flat iron and create bend, create actual C-shape with it.
That’s going to help create more volume.
Uneven Parts Create Volume
My next tip is about parting your hair.
There actually is a method to creating the illusion of more volume with how you part your hair.
If you are parting your your hair straight, either down the middle or even to one side, wherever that part comes together, you gonna find that you are lacking volume.
One thing you can do is simply take a part and instead of parting it straight down, take it and actually zigzag it a little bit.
A little bit of disheveled parting is going to help to create the illusion of more thickness, density, and volume.
Even if you don’t zigzag it, even if you just go in and mess it up so that it’s not a perfect parting, that alone can help improve the illusion of volume. But it will also improve the illusion of density. More importantly, if you’re doing color, it will help to hide any grow out of your roots.
Switch Your Part
This tip is one of my easiest but it is also one of more awkward and it creates lots of volume.
Over time what will happen is your hair will actually get used to parting on one side and it’ll start lacking volume.
Simply styling it to the opposite side can create a tonne of that root bend that is the foundation for part of your volume.
If you have longer hair, you might be doing this throughout the day and you might be just flipping it back and fort, it encourages a little bit more lift and volume. That’s totally fine.
One little caveat is try not to touch too close to the roots because simply applying that oil that’s in your hand to the roots constantly throughout the day, that alone can start to weight your hair down a bit.
Use Toothbrush For Teasing
This tip is a little bit controversial. If it’s not for you, I get it. Don’t do it.
You’re going to need a toothbrush. It works really well for this.
You can use a toothbrush to tease your hair.
The reason I like this is because it’s not quite as aggressive as teasing with the comb but it still encourages a little bit of that foundation for volume at the roots.
I realize that teasing can be damaging to hair. I get it, especially for fine, thin hair. I’m just mentioning this as an option for you so you’re aware of it.
What you would do is you take a section of your hair and then you would just comb down at the roots like you normally would.
When you let that down, you’re going to get a little bit of extra root lift. It’s a great way to fill in that little bit of part line and a great way to encourage a little bit of that root lift.
Hair Volume Mistakes
Now I’m going to talk about mistakes you’re making that are laying your hair flat.
Not Using Products
The first mistake you could be making is not using products.
I know there are some people out there that just don’t want to use products. I totally get it.
But, have you ever gone into the salon for maybe a big engagement, maybe you were going to a wedding, and you had to get your hair done or and they asked you to come in with dirty hair. They said don’t wash your hair before you come in. Or maybe some of them told you to use products before you came in.
The reason they did that is because they want it to be dirty. At the end of the day, squeaky clean hair, super soft, silky hair seems amazing, and it’s what most people want, but it’s the worst in terms of trying to create volume.
So if you’re not using something in effect to actually make it dirty (I know, it doesn’t sound awesome), then you’re gonna have a really hard time having any foundation for creating volume. It’s like building a house without a foundation.
Here’s the thing!
Most products are created to make hair feel dirty. Typically they make hair feel dirty without the oil and that’s how you get volume.
So not using products is gonna be your first mistake
Let’s talk about your second mistake.
Too Much Curl
The next mistake is creating too much curl, specifically curls at the ends.
Many times what will happen is people think if I can just get some curls, I’ll get some volume.
But then what happens is they create this wave at the very ends and not all the way up starting at the roots. There’s no wave through the mid-shaft, it’s just wave at the very ends.
Ultimately what ends up happening is that starts compounding on itself and then you lack actual true volume. You just get big hair, basically around the bottom. You don’t get root lift which is part of where actual volume comes from.
When you create some curls at the very end, it does give you a little bit of fluff at the bottom, a little bit of width, but it’s not creating true shape or volume. It’s just creating larger hair at the bottom and it’s creating a bit of a triangular shape.
Not Enough Bend
The next mistake women make is not getting enough bend in your hair.
At the end of the day, bend is what creates actual true volume.
Root lift just creates root lift.
A lot of people mistake the two. They mistake root lift for being what creates volume, when in reality you have to have bend from the roots all the way down to the end.
You get true bend, you’re creating true volume!
One of the biggest mistakes I see when people are trying to get volume when their hair is laying flat is simply not adding enough bend.
Using Stripping Shampoo Too Often
The problem is that stripping shampoos also remove natural oils that your hair needs.
And that’s part of what’s giving your hair a little bit of volume.
So if you’re a person that uses stripping shampoos more than once a week, your hair probably feels silky clean, but it also probably lays very limp and lifeless.
Does that mean you can’t use stripping shampoos?
Absolutely no. You can use them, you just wanna make sure you don’t use them very often. Using them once in ten days is fine. Just don’t use them every day or every time you shampoo your hair.
Not Having Layers
That brings me to one of the biggest things that I see when it comes to lack of volume and that’s lack of layers.
I know that many people are very scared to do layers, maybe you feel it’s gonna thin your hair out too much, it’s gonna make it look too shattered, it’s gonna make it look flat to your head because it can take all your hair away.
I get it!
But what we have to understand is layers create volume!
So here’s the thing!
Volume is an optical illusion inherently. The more volume you have on the sides of your hair, the flatter the top is going to appear.
The more volume you have on the top, the flatter the sides are going to appear.
Many times if your hair is one length, it’ll create this kind of triangular shape and when it does that, it creates the illusion that there’s no volume in the crown.
Many times because the hair is heavy, when it’s not layered, there is no volume in the crown, but having that extra volume through the sides is going to make the top look even more flat.
Simply taking some of that length out of the side so there’s a little bit less hair there to be full, that’s going to allow it to lighten up that top layer and it’s going to give that layer more volume by itself, which is also gonna take some of that volume out of the sides and therefore create the illusion that there’s even more volume and shape in the top.
I promise you there is a way that you can do layering even on fine hair and not make it look thinner.
Don’t think just because you have fine hair or just because you have thin hair that you can’t have layers. You absolutely can.
You just want to make sure that it’s done right.
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Samantha is a hairstylist with over 12 years of color and stylist experience. She enjoys using her knowledge to create what her clients really want when they sit down in her chair. Her passion is creating unique looks that her clients feel great in.