You have been asking for a long time for this and here you’re gonna get it – how to make thin curly hair look thicker.
How do you deal with it, how do you manage it, especially curly fine hair, how do you get the volume in the right areas, how do you make it look dense, because we all know that curly hair can get big, but that doesn’t mean it gets the volume in the places that you want it to and it doesn’t mean it looks thick like you wanted to.
We’re gonna talk all about that. We’re gonna talk about different things that you need to know about the haircut, different things that you need to know about styling it, little styling tricks and tips, ways to style your hair that are gonna make it look a little bit denser, a little bit thicker and overall a little bit less frizz.
Let’s dive into some curly hair tips.
I promise you the tips I give will absolutely be geared towards fine, thin hair and actually a lot of them will be geared towards curly hair in general.
So even if you don’t have fine hair, you’re still gonna get a lot of value out of what I’m gonna share with you.
Best curling iron with multiple barrels.
Table of Contents
Cut
First we need to talk about just the cut.
If your hair is over layered at the bottom, for instance, you’re gonna see a very fine, thin looking end. The problem with this is this doesn’t support the right amount of layering, so that you can actually encourage volume.
All the layering is down, so what you’re getting is that top stuff that’s very heavy creates a little bit of this triangular shape.
If you’ve got curly hair, you know that your hair tends to grow out more than it grows down. This is creating very triangular shape and it brings the eye down. It doesn’t create lift and volume up. It creates volume and width down.
So the first thing we want to make sure is that you go in and actually make sure that bottom line is strong, so that then you can cut layers internally up and create the actual volume and shape that you want.
Typically speaking, in straight hair, you’re in a situation where a lot of the overall shape can be created in the actual styling process.
When you’re dealing with curly hair, because of the process used to style it, we’re a little bit more limited in how you create shape.
So it’s very important that the shape is cut into the hair with the haircut, so that when it gets volume, it gets volume in the right areas. And then when you dry it, you’re naturally gonna have the volume where you want it.
Many times that’s gonna mean layering. Even with curly fine hair layering is going to help it look a lot thicker, a lot fuller and again create volume in the right areas.
Drying
What do we do when we dry it, how do you maximize the volume in the right areas, how do you minimize the frizz and how do you get the shape that you’re ultimately looking for.
The first thing is when you get out of the shower and you towel blot your hair, make sure that your towel blotting it, as opposed to roughing it up and drying it.
Then make sure that when you go through to apply product that it isn’t dry in some areas. A lot of people will stop and put on their makeup or do whatever it takes and then before they put on product, it’s maybe been ten minutes, and the top will get dry or maybe sometimes the ends will get dry.
It’ll just be an inconsistent moisture level throughout the hair. You want to make sure that it is not dripping wet, but towel dried. Equally damp from roots to ends.
The reason for that is because it’s going to help the product distribute more evenly and ultimately it’s gonna keep it from diluting the product in some areas and grabbing on more in other areas. You’re just gonna get a better finished result.
Then I’m going to apply the product.
There are a ton of products out there that work well. I like L’oreal Bouncy and Tender.
What I’m gonna do is I’m gonna work this into my hand and then I’m going to work it into the hair from roots to ends.
The way I’m gonna do that is I’m not gonna comb through it. I’m gonna start by just scrunching it through the bottom and then I’m gonna work it into the crown and I’m just gonna scrunch it in to the hair.
Some people have different application techniques. Some people will take their hair and get big ringlets and twist it back.
The key is just to know that you’re getting the product from roots to ends before you take a blow-dryer to it.
Frizz
When it comes to curly hair the number one thing you’re trying to do from the point that it is wet and to the point that it is dry is minimize frizz.
What we want to do is minimize the manipulation to that cuticle.
One way to do that is to let it air dry. Literally let it air dry, but if you do that, you have to make sure that from the time that it’s wet to the time it’s dry, that there’s no manipulation. You’re not touching it, you’re not in a car with the window down and the wind is blowing and it’s messing your hair up.
If you look at curly hair and straight hair under a microscope, straight hair is shaped like a pin or like a pencil, it’s round and tubular. Whereas curly hair is actually like a ribbon it’s flat. Imagine it like bark on a tree. If you take that bark or that tree and it’s flat, and you bend it, the bark is going to come up, it’s going to split and you’re gonna see that roughness.
In essence, that’s what you’re trying to do.
You’re trying to smooth your cuticle down so you can minimize frizz.
Everything that we do, since we’re not gonna be taking a round brush or a flatiron, or something else through it to smooth that down afterward, we have to do that in the drying process.
If you have time to let it air dry, fantastic. Most of us don’t. If you’re going to use a blow dryer, here’s a technique you want to use.
Use your blow dryer with a diffuser. These diffusers are diffusing air, so that it’s not so disruptive to the cuticle.
If you want volume in your hair, an easy way to do it is to tilt to the side, so that you can get your roots up off of your scalp or tilt upside down, so you can get your roots up off of your scalp.
All you’re trying to do is add heat to the equation so that that heat dries the hair faster.
Whatever is easiest for you to get your roots off of your scalp and then allow that to create volume.
What we’re trying to do is create root lift so that it doesn’t just get wide, it gets the right shape.
The more you can get your roots to go the opposite direction of the way they’re going to want to fall, the more inherent root lift and volume you’re gonna get.
Breaking It Up
Once your hair is dried, what I would do at this point is start breaking it up. Typically what happens is after your hair is dried, it’s gonna be a little crunchy or a little bit wet looking or whatever. Not just kind of soft like you want it.
Usually what we would do at that point would be to start breaking up.
This is also a time where you start encouraging a little bit more volume. The key to this is go in and scrunch it, but do not comb through it.
For instance, you can go in at the scalp and you can do break it up with your fingers, but then bring your fingers straight back out. Don’t do it and then comb through the ends with your fingers.
The one thing you want to be sure of before you start going in and actually breaking up that product, if there’s any sort of dampness in it, that damp area can start to get frizzy.
Many times what happens is people think ‘oh my hair is dry because it’s warm’, just took the blow-dryer off of it; now it feels warm and it can feel dry, but in reality, once it cools down, you realize it’s actually still got some moisture in it.
Once you remove the blow dryer, just allow your hair to cool down to ensure that it’s actually dry before you go in and start breaking it up.
Now that we’ve got all of that done, you can get an idea of the amount of volume that you are getting.
When you tilt your head forward and give it a little bit of movement, shake it out a little bit, you will see that it’s staying off your face a little easier.
You actually look like you got more hair and if you flip it forward or back, it’s going to give it more shape, more movement, more texture and more overall style.
That’s why I say layering is such a beneficial thing for curl, even if you’ve got fine hair, fine curly hair.
The things you want to pay attention to are making sure that you’ve got layers up so that you can get some movement, but you just don’t want a ton of layering down.
If it’s fine and there’s a lot of layers down, it’s gonna look thinner at the ends.
When all of this stuff has layers and movements, you are getting the illusion of more density and more volume, but you are not sacrificing the strength at the ends to achieve that.
Back to hair tools.
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.