.png)
If you read our blog on Coping with Thinning Hair looking for solutions, you may be feeling pretty discouraged. Six months seems like a long time to wait for results when you’re suffering from hair thinning or loss, doesn't it? It’s completely natural to be wondering "What can I do right now?"
These quick tips will help you make your hair look thicker today.
Top tips for making thinning hair look thicker
Fill in thin spots with makeup
Use a matte eye shadow in a shade close to your hair color with a short, stiff makeup brush, and fill the areas in gently (like you would your eyebrows). Use short strokes to create a shadow. This won’t make thin spots as obvious, and it's a great option if you like to wear your hair up.
Hopeless with makeup? We get it! There are several super helpful tutorials on YouTube to guide you through the process, like this one by Deepa Berar.
Change your part
Many women see hair loss in the temple/front part area—pretty much front and center. Rude! If this happens to you, try sporting a middle part to camouflage these areas, or a hard side part to cover the middle. You can also try rocking a fat cloth headband or bandana to cover up in style.
Try a thickening or volumizing shampoo
The best shampoo for thinning hair is any shampoo that adds volume and oomph to your locks. The active ingredients in these shampoos can bulk up your hair strands, making your mane look thicker and more voluptuous. Try Verb's Volume Shampoo. It really cranks it up!
Use less conditioner
Many women dump too much conditioner on their hair, weighing their strands down and adding to the appearance of thin, greasy locks. Use just a small amount—start with one or two quarter-sized dollops—and massage the product into your ends before distributing it up the hair shaft. Try keeping conditioning products away from your roots, too (unless it’s specifically for your scalp).
Use a texture spray or dry shampoo
These are absolutely the best products for thinning hair! Texturizing products can lift hair up off the scalp to create more volume, and they can be reactivated part way through the day with a simple head flip and shakeout! At Le Petit Salon, we carry Verb dry shampoo, which has a brown tint for extra coverage. Brittany Kate Hair also recently became a Hairstory distributor, which has a phenomenal powder dry shampoo (which is great for your hair AND the environment—no aerosol)!
Bosley makes a product called Thickening Fibers that we love—it’s similar to a dry shampoo, but it's specifically made for thin or thinning hair. Tinted fibers bond to hair, helping it look thicker.
Be gentle!
Avoid rubbing your wet hair with a towel, and make sure you aren’t ripping and snapping your wet hair as you detangle. Try using an old t-shirt or a bamboo hair turban, like this one on Etsy, to wring out hair while it’s wet, and use a wet brush, a wooden wide-toothed comb, or a bamboo brush with natural bristles to detangle.
Don't be nervous about switching from your trusty plastic brush; wooden combs have been used for centuries by absolute queeeens (and kings, y'all!). They're much softer on our hair and scalp than plastic brushes. Natural combs and brushes also help reduce breakage! Look for rounded teeth, which stimulate the scalp and increase blood flow—and they carry your essential scalp oils from your scalp all the way down the hair shaft, naturally protecting your locks! We carry some at Le Petit Salon—they’re great for your hair and the aesthetic of your vanity. ;)
Turn down the heat
Think about your hair as a fabric. What temperature would you set your clothing iron to? If you cranked up the iron on high and went to iron your silk blouse, you’d cook it—ending up with a nice big hole in your beautiful shirt. Treat fine, silky hair just as gently as you would your delicates. Try gently adding volume using Velcro rollers or a curling iron at a low temp instead!
When you do blow out your hair, be sure to clean out the lint trap in your hair dryer! A clogged lint trap causes your dryer not to vent properly, causing uneven and extreme heat that can cook your hair. For extra safety, add a heat protectant to your product repository, like this one from Hairstory!
Be yourself
Hair thinning and loss is so common—it affects approximately 40% of women and 50% of men—so you’ll rarely be the only person in the room going through it! If you don’t want to add time to your beauty regimen, don’t feel like you have to. You’re beautiful just the way you are, in our expert opinion. If, however, you’re seeking ways to gain confidence and feel your best, we encourage you to give these tips a try. Some are just ways to enhance the health of your hair, and that’s a cause we can all get behind!
What works for you?
We hope you try out these simple tips and tricks for making your thinning hair look thicker. When you do, we want to hear from you! Give Brittany a shout so we can share YOUR success stories on our social media! Feel free to shoot an email over with any questions or tips of your own, too!