How to Volumize Fine Hair (and The Best Products for Thin Hair)
If your hair is thin/fine, then you need to use products that don’t weigh it down, while simultaneously building texture, volume, and density.
by Adam Hurly
July 16, 2024
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If you have fine hair, you want solutions that combat flatness, lifelessness, or just a general patchiness that comes from a lack of natural density. The best products for thin hair will do exactly this, as well as certain habitual changes to your routine.
First things first: Please don’t confuse “thin/fine hair” with “thinning hair”. These are two different things. Having thin or fine hair refers to the natural density of your strands—it doesn’t refer to the overall fullness of your hair. Of course, people with thin hair will have less natural fullness, but it’s important not to follow a prescription for fine hair if your hair is actively thinning.
Guys with thinning hair, on the other hand, might have naturally thick or voluminous hair, but gradually are noticing it becoming less so. Yes, some of the advice below will also help them, in terms of general texturizing and volumizing. But I suggest separating the two terms—thin vs. thinning—in your head. Everything here is for the guys who have had thin/fine hair from the jump. (Although strand density can also lessen over time, so perhaps you’re experiencing this midlife for the first time too, since part of hair loss is an overall miniaturization of the follicles.)
OK, enough about those distinctions. Let’s get into the ideal routine and best products for fine hair.
The Best Products for Thin Hair
These are some of the thin hair products that appear throughout the article.
- The Best Volumizing Shampoo for Thin Hair: Horace Fine Hair Shampoo
- The Best Clarifying Shampoo for Thin Hair: Olaplex No.4C Bond Maintenance Clarifying Shampoo
- The Best Thickening Conditioner for Thin Hair: EVO Volumising Conditioner
- The Best Dry Shampoo for Thin Hair: Living Proof Perfect hair Day Dry Shampoo
- The Best Dry Shampoo Styler for Thin Hair: Hanz de Fuko Quicksand
- The Best Texturizing Spray for Thin Hair: STMNT Definition Spray
- The Best Mousse for Thin Hair: Paul Mitchell Extra-Body Sculpting Foam
- The Best Curl Conditioner for Thin Hair: It’s a 10 Miracle Leave-In Lite
- The Best Blow Dryer for Thin Hair: Conair Infinitipro Flomotion 1875W Hair Dryer
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The Key Concerns for People with Fine Hair
One upside of fine hair? It’s super soft to the touch… but only because of its smaller diameter compared to thick hair. The same can be said of its inability to hold many common men’s hair styling products like clays and pomades and fibers; they often weigh the strands down. Hence why you need products and steps that work for you.
Here are some key gripes that most thin-haired people share.
- Lack of volume: Fine hair may appear flat, as the smaller diameter makes it more susceptible to lying down against the scalp. This can make it challenging to achieve and maintain volume in hairstyles.
- Poor oil distribution: Fine hair may become oily more quickly than thicker hair because the smaller strands allow oil to travel down the hair shaft more easily. This can make fine hair appear greasy sooner after washing.
- More breakage: Fine hair is more prone to breakage and split ends due to its smaller diameter.
- Poor style longevity and range: Fine hair may have difficulty holding certain hairstyles, particularly those that require a lot of volume or structure. Styles may flatten out more quickly.
I don’t mean to suggest that having fine hair is a bad thing—not at all. But the primary rule for anyone with fine hair is to use products that are targeted towards these variables specifically. Finding targeted solutions is a rule for all hair types and textures, not just fine hair. People with thick or coarse hair have their problems and respective solutions, too.
But keep in mind that your hair fineness is one variable of many. Along with those fine strands, you can also have curly hair, or long hair, or straight hair, or even thinning hair. So combine whichever variables you’ve got, but prioritize the fact that your fine hairs are easily weighed down and compromised if you don’t put that variable at the front of the list.
It should be added that people with fine hair and oily scalps should put both of those variables on an even playing field, because the oil is going to significantly weigh down strands. But for the below, I’ll primarily focus on fineness instead of making a bunch of hybrid scenarios.
With that said, I think it’s best to break apart your fine-hair-raising strategies into hair care and hair styling.
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Shampoo, Conditioner and More: The Best Hair Care for Thin Hair
Jump to: Volumizing Shampoos | Clarifying Shampoos | Thickening Conditions | Dry Shampoo
There are certain “indicators” you should look for in shampoos and conditioners for thin hair, which will tell you how that product will perform, and how it will work with your hair. Above all, look for words like “volumizing” and “thickening”. Chances are the shampoo will promise volume, and the conditioner will promise thickening (often by coating a stand with a protective film to provide more body; while this can weigh down many fine strands, sometimes a great styling routine can provide the extra lift and lasting hold.)
As for those “indicator” words like “thickening” and “volumizing”: Shopping with this terminology is more useful than shopping by ingredients, since every formula is going to be different from one another, and just because a company calls out an ingredient on its label doesn’t really tell you whether it is a primary player in the formula, or just the 25th one listed on the ingredients label.
Shampoo vs. Conditioner Frequency
I think fine hair is one of the few conditions that begs for less conditioner than shampoo—or certainly a more evenly balanced blend of the two (given that most peoples’ shampoo frequency suggests shampooing 2-3 times weekly, and conditioning potentially every day). Many fine-haired individuals will go light on the conditioner (and sometimes even forego it), since shampoo on its own can volumize hair by virtue of stripping away its natural oils—and since conditioners will coat the strands to smooth them out, and will often just weigh down fine hair past the point of any volume or body. Plus, there are conditioning or protecting sprays you can apply after the fact for similar benefits.
So by shampooing more often, you prevent oil buildup and allow the strands to stand up higher; and by conditioning less often, you reduce the heavy buildup that coats strands and protects them from dehydration. I love contradictions!
If your top priority is volume and fullness in a short style—maybe a nice choppy or textured cut—then you can break from my advice. Your thin strands might actually benefit from receiving little-to-no conditioner (maybe a once-a-week dose is all). You can probably shampoo daily or every other day, so long as you don’t get too oily. That oil is what weighs your hairs down, after all—but remember, it’s also a damn good natural conditioner, so don’t go parching your scalp with shampoo or you risk getting dandruff or dry itchy scalp.
With all of this in mind, remember: Not all conditioners are bad for you—and certainly not all shampoos are good for you. You still gotta stay in your “thin hair” lane.
Alright, here are the ones I think are worth your money:
The Best Volumizing Shampoos for Thin Hair
These shampoos are the ones that will hydrate thin strands (in the sense that they are not dehydrating strands). But remember, the primary task of shampoo is to soak up the excess oils that are weighing your strands down. Really, all shampoos are volumizing by nature since they risk running your strands dry. But you still want to keep hairs nourished.
I trust Horace and Davines here the most—and they’re the brands my thin-haired partner has gone back to most. Horace’s feels more like a deep cleanse, if you have an oily scalp; Davines’ is probably better suited to frequent washing or dry scalps. Still, they’ll both do exactly what I described above: nourish, but rinse thoroughly.
The Best Clarifying/Detoxifying Shampoos for Thin Hair
These are more so scalp cleansers than hair cleansers, but they’ll flush away any excess oil buildup and help you reset whenever you need it most. Don’t make a habit of using them daily (maybe once weekly at best), lest you crave a dry/itchy, and flaky scalp. But keep them on hand for a toning and a total blank slate.
OUAI’s detox shampoo is incredible at resetting the scalp. It really dries out the hair, though, so be warned and ready to follow it with a conditioner. And then there’s Olaplex’s clarifying shampoo, which has every single hair variable in mind—even if you’ve got coils or long hair, this one will preserve their bounce and volume. That one is easily my most universal pick.
The Best Thickening Conditioners for Thin Hair
While a less-is-more policy is best for conditioning fine hair, there is one class of conditioners that is miraculous for these same individuals: The thickening conditioner. The idea here is that the conditioning product coats each strand and effectively thickens its diameter, so the overall effect (of tens of thousands of coated strands) is more fullness and density. That said, these same products can often weigh down strands, so you’ll want to rely on a good styler to keep things texturized and locked in place, otherwise you’ll just have visually thicker albeit lifeless strands.
When calling in products for my thin-haired partner, EVO’s thickening conditioner is top of the list. (Yes, they chose the indicator term “volumising” but the effect is the same here: Visibly thicker individual strands—so much so that you’ll feel the thickness when you run your fingers through the dried hair.)
And before I juiced up my hair regrowth plan, I used Sachajuan’s Thickening Conditioner quite religiously to gain drastic fullness; I find that one is great for all hair textures (I have thick hair strands); so if you want more general fullness in a medium-sized cut (and one that will also receive texturizing styling products), then I think Sachajuan’s is a terrific choice.
The Best Dry Shampoo for Thin Hair
Thin hair is one of the best reasons for using dry shampoo regularly, too. Keep in mind that these powdery products can really build up on the scalp, so be sure to balance their use with regular shampoo at the end of the day. However, dry shampoos help volumize by soaking up any excess oil at the root of the strands. In turn, this prevents the hair from being weighed down by an accumulation of that sebum.
Dry shampoos can be powders, spray-ons, and even infused into other hair styling products like clays and pastes. For most people, I’d suggest sticking with a light spray-on dry shampoo, since the other two options might prove too heavy for your delicate strands. Many dry shampoos, like Living Proof’s absolutely freaking incredible dry shampoo will even add a pinch of texture in the process, which helps them double as hair stylers.
That said, Hanz de Fuko’s Quicksand is such a superhero hair styler, I’d be remiss not to mention it here. It is a hybrid of dry shampoo ingredients and wax; if you have really short hair that needs light choppy volume, then target this stuff at the roots of your hair for all-day lift and tangible grit; seriously, it’s fantastic (albeit otherworldly for its gritty texture).
And on the topic of hair stylers, that brings us to…
The Best Hair Styling Products for Thin Hair
By and large, you should stick with light-hold products for thin hair, for the obvious reason: You do not want to burden the strands and weigh them down. That said, there are many higher hold products that you simply apply at the roots of the strands in order to build separation and induce lift. So, there are always exceptions to and contradictions to the rules. Curly-haired folks will also want to factor in their variables and prioritize lightweight, bounce-building leave-in products.
But if I may call attention to two types of products in particular, it would be texturizing sprays and mousse.
Texturizing Sprays / Salt Sprays
These include salt sprays as well as general spritzable stylers that coat strands and build separation and definition. Many standard-fare hairsprays will add texture, too, though you’ll want to muss them a bit before they fully set in the hair. I think Brickell has the best sea salt spray these days if you have medium-length hair and want some “fresh from the ocean”-esque build.
STMNT’s texturizing spray is the best volumizing and defining product you can get across the board. While it does give hair a nice eye-catching sheen, it’s certainly not glossy. More like a dimension-building radiance. My partner uses it religiously because of its natural, no-crunch finish, and it never leaves his fine hair feeling dried out. Plus… all STMNT products smell exceptional.
Mousse
Yes, mousse. It’s a secret weapon for fine hair. And if you need convincing, then consider all of the following: Mousse is lightweight, and it adds volume, texture, and hold to hair.
Give it a shake to properly mix it. You only need a golf ball sized amount for short styles, applied to damp hair. Give it an even distribution, combing or brushing through for that needed coverage. For more volume, use a blow dryer since the mousse will leave hair looking quite wet and separated upon application.
Common mistakes include using too much product, applying to dry hair, distributing poorly, and skipping the blow drying. You can finish with a nice texturizing spray or, in medium styles, some higher-hold products at the base to lock things in place.
I’m gonna give Paul Mitchell’s mousse the shout-out here—it’s a salon staple, the perfect entry point for mousse rookies, and is cost effective at that. No contest.
Curl Conditioner
Your hair has many attributes, and its fine nature is just one variable to factor into your regimen. If you have any curl pattern in the hair, you may require more conditioner than other thin-haired individuals. So, how do you get the nourishing and protecting benefits from conditioning products without weighing down the strands? Stick with the sprays: A leave-in conditioning spritz or, if your hair turns unkempt due to humidity or parched air, then something with heat protection/environmental shielding properties is your best bet.
The secret weapon here is the lite version of It’s a 10’s leave-in spray.
Blow Drying for Thin Hair
Lastly, I’d be remiss not to call out the specific benefits of blow drying on thin hair (not just when using mousse). With high-speed heat, these tools can add volume and lift to the roots, especially if there is a product at the roots holding things in place, which the blow dryer will more effectively “set”. By directing the airflow from the roots upward, you can create the illusion of fuller, more voluminous hair.
The process can also enhance the texture of fine hair, making it appear thicker and more dynamic. It can help define layers and add movement to your hair styles. So, invest in a good one.
This Conair pick is one of my favorites to recommend to men, since it doubly protects your hair’s cuticle—with a ceramic drum and ionic-powered drying. It rapidly sets the style to avoid frizz, frying, or breakage by minimizing heat damage.
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