When you have fine hair, it can feel like creating lasting styles is nothing but a pipe dream.
Take it from someone who has had thin, limp and lifeless hair their whole life. You can spend hours crimping and curling, hair spray spritzing and scrunching and yet five minutes after walking out the door, it’s as flat as ever. Frustrating doesn’t cut it.
But find the right routine - that tightwalk between enough product to make a difference and not too much as to overload the strands - and you’ll find you may even be able to tap into the latest TikTok hair trends - be it the wavy lob or the bombshell blowout.
This all begins with your shampoo. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
What causes fine hair?
Celebrity hairstylist and beauty entrepreneur Frédéric Fekkai explains, “Having a fine hair type is from having less protein in the strands, and typically, it’s genetic. This tends to lead to flat hair due to overactive sebaceous glands, using the wrong hair care products, and product buildup.”
Celebrity hairstylist, Halley Brisker adds that “a whole range of issues can cause fine hair from medical conditions as well as lifestyle factors such as stress and malnutrition”.
How important is the shampoo that you use?
Fekkai stresses that “Choosing the right shampoo is essential”. He continues, “they are all formulated differently to work with your specific hair type, and for fine hair types, using the right one can make all the difference in boosting your strands. I often recommend alternating two shampoos to accommodate two different benefits.”
Brisker agrees, “Using a good shampoo is an important part of your care routine as it can strengthen, repair and enhance all hair types among many other benefits.”
What ingredients and terminology should you be looking out for? And what should you avoid?
“Because fine hair gets oily quicker, avoid formulas that have a creamy consistency with ingredients like silicones or rich oils”, suggests Fekkai. “It can weigh down the roots, making fine hair appear flat.”
“The main bulk of ingredients where possible should be naturally occurring, organic and/or sustainable”, reveals Brisker. “Key words or phrases such as biotin, keratin and amino acids are a good sign your shampoo is of a premium quality. Always try to avoid things such as parabens and sulphates”.
Styling tips to make hair look thicker
Fekkai says “It starts with a great haircut, the foundation of any form of styling! I am loving the Butterfly Cut and recommend anyone with fine hair to try. It adds incredible volume and texture to long hair. The butterfly wings are created with shorter face-framing layers that land at chin level which then blend seamlessly with longer layers that land at the shoulder level and beyond.”
For Brisker, “It’s always in the preparation”. She adds. “A good blow dry cream or thickening spray should be applied after your cleanse while hair is damp. Once blown out, with sufficient product, you should find your hair looking fuller and plumper ready to style as desired”.
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Oribe Shampoo for Magnificent Volume
If you have already lived through 80s Big Hair once, you might feel inclined to steer clear of volumising shampoos. However, in the case of Oribe’s Shampoo for Magnificent Volume, this would be a mistake.
The delicious-smelling shampoo contains an intriguing blend of watermelon, lychee and edelweiss flower. Alongside the accompanying conditioner, it leaves hair smooth and shiny and with a resilient bounce thanks to keratin bodybuilding polymers.
Amber and moringa seed extract are known for their antioxidant hair-strengthening properties, while rice bran oil detangles. It is more expensive than your average shampoo - but can you really put a price on a bouncy bombshell blowout?
Buy now £42.50, Space NK
Leonor Greyl Bain Volumateur Aux Algues (Specific Conditioning Shampoo for Thin and Limp Hair)
To achieve that enviable seemingly effortless French girl style, call on none other than legendary Parisian haircare label Leonor Greyl - a pioneering brand that has been offering professional-level products since 1968.
This shampoo is designed to make fine hair feel healthier from the very first wash. It is powered by brown seaweed extract, alaria seedwear extract and spiruline extract that combine to provide a vitamin-rich, conditioning and strengthening formula, while also offering an effective clean. You won’t be able to stop stroking your silky strands.
Buy now £32.50, lookfantastic
Viviscal Gorgeous Growth Densifying Shampoo
You may best know Viviscal for its game-changing supplements but did you know the brand offered haircare too? Recommended by hairstylists, the label opts for the same growth-enhancing ingredients in its product line-up as in the dietary add-ons so that they can work in tandem to give you the enviable thicker and fuller locks of your dreams. You will find biotin, keratin and zinc contained within as well as the label’s phytonutrient-rich Ana:Tel complex. Hair cycles take around three months, and after that time you will notice that the hair that has grown in this time is stronger, healthier and there’s greater density compared to the ends.
Buy now £19.00, Amazon
Fekkai Full Blown Volume Shampoo
This shampoo from celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai’s eponymous range is designed to plump up the individual strands for thicker, more voluminous tresses. It is enriched with the likes of green coconut water to transform limp locks in an instant as well as rosemary leaf extract and a trademarked Phytenssence complex to stimulate and strengthen the hair respectively. This also forms a shield against external aggressors that could be the cause of the fine or thinning hair or be exacerbating the situation.
Buy now £20.00, Sephora
Philip Kingsley Body Building Shampoo
In Philip Kingsley’s famed haircare collection, there is a range to suit all hair types, and the same runs true for those with fine hair. As the name suggests, this is all about injecting body and bounce to the strands with a weightless formula. If you find you’re needing to constantly wash your thin hair, you are in need of a shampoo that will offer body without causing it to get oily in order to minimise that daily chore - and this may be exactly what you’re looking for. Natural cellulose alongside keratin proteins plumps and strengthens the strands, while removing excess build-up and controlling those pesky flyaways.
Buy now £24.00, Cult Beauty
OUAI Fine Hair Shampoo
Not only will OUAI’s shampoo make a stylish addition to your shower shelf, but it is packed with nourishing ingredients and a beautiful fragrance to match. The sophisticated bottle is only where the magic begins. The formula has been created to encourage shine and bounce in equal measure. It is infused with hydrolysed keratin and biotin to fortify the stands as well as hemp seed extract and chia seed oil that boost moisture levels. Counteracting frizz and without weighing down your locks, it also imparts the subtle aroma of peony, magnolia, jasmine and musk that you’ll catch whiffs of throughout the day.
Buy now £28.00, Cult Beauty
The Nue Co SUPA_THICK SHAMPOO
The Nue Co is likely best known for its supplements (and its gut health offering has already had our seal of approval) but don’t sleep on its hair collection. The latter is evolving with an expansion of its hugely popular SUPA_THICK range that already includes a supplement for hair growth and scalp treatment to counteract shedding.
The new launches come in the form of a shampoo and conditioner that work together to balance the scalp’s microbiome, strengthen strands and reduce breakage.
The gently foaming formulas do so with a coconut derivative rather than traditional SLS, while there’s also apple cider vinegar, amino acids, vitamin B5, red algae and oat oil extract that combine to protect and fortify.
Founder Jules Miller explains, “Using efficacious actives on your scalp is a health ritual rather than a vehicle to simply clean your hair. Having used hundreds in my time, I have never come across a clean formula that creates such a luxurious foam, truly cleans, builds volume without weighing the hair down…. whilst actively protecting and restoring the scalp microbiome and therefore encouraging hair-growth”.
In a consumer trial, 95 per cent reported thicker, healthier hair just after use, while 86 per cent felt their hair was stronger and healthier after 30 days of use.
Buy now £18.00, Cult Beauty
R+Co Dallas Biotin Thickening Shampoo
Efficacious products no nasties included is transparent beauty label R+Co’s MO. The haircare label will make a bombshell blowout achievable with its voluminising shampoo that boosts fine and flat hair types so that lasting styles will actually be in your tresses’ future. The ingredient line-up reads like a dream combination for the strands; biotin, pro vitamin B5 and coconut oil take a starring role in aiding hair’s health. It is also scented with an aroma that the brand calls Dark Waves that has notes of cardamom, pineapple, tangerine, lavender, bamboo and blonde woods. Free from parabens, sulphates, and petrlatum.
Buy now £24.50, Space NK
VIRTUE Full Shampoo
Give your hair the oomph it has been sorely missing with Virtue. The innovative label has its signature Alpha Keratin 60ku protein as the basis of its products that mimics the keratin found naturally in hair, thereby rebuilding and filling damage strands.
Fine hair types will appreciate that this is all possible without weighing down the hair that would otherwise leave it more limp and lifeless than before. As your shampoo ritual, it works to dissolve oil and impurities, plump and creates volume that lasts throughout the day.
Buy now £38.00, Cult Beauty
Beauty Pie Super Healthy Hair Daily Strengthening Shampoo
Whether it’s from colouring or excessive heat, fine hair types will see lifestyle and chemical intervention causes their hair to feel flat and dull. Enter the Super Healthy Hair Daily Strengthening Shampoo from Beauty Pie. Bouncy beach waves, or princess curls, no matter the style you opt for, this will be the first step in achieving lasting looks where the use of peptides and amino acids strengthen and add volume without causing build-up that will weigh the hair down.
The hi-tech ingredient line-up includes the label’s array of trademarked complexes, from the quinoa-derived Colourplus Amino Acids that gives staying power to fresh from the salon colour and the Lustreplex Shine Enhance that provides frizz-free lustre, to the PerfectHair Peptides that shield against environmental damage, give XXL appeal and smooth strands.
Buy now £25.00, Beauty Pie
K18 Peptide Prep Ph-Maintenance Shampoo
This is the kind of brand and product that you’ll be happy to make space for in your shower rituals. Science-backed haircare label K18 is named after the innovating peptide at the centre of the products (K18Peptide). The brand is likely best known for its Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask that has been lauded by beauty editors for its ability to strengthen strands, and this shampoo will further enhance its effects.
As part of your frequent hair washing routine, you are treating your tresses to a really thorough clean, all without stripping its natural oils. At the same time, it is encouraging added moisture to reach the strands, leaving stronger, heathier hair in its wake. This is achieved through the optimised pH level of 4.5 to 5.5 that makes sure the hair cuticle has minimal swelling and results in a smoother style.
Buy now £39.00, Cult Beauty
Matrix Total Results High Amplify Volumising Shampoo and Conditioner for Fine Flat Hair
Silky, shiny and with swish factor, Matrix Biolage is one of the brands of choice for professional hairdressers for the simple fact that it works. The shampoo - offered here as a duo alongside the conditioner - is made up of the brand’s trademarked Full Boost Technology that is all about long-lasting volume. It works by removing dirt and impurities that build up as part of your fast paced lifestyle, but in a gentle way and while offering a dose of strengthening proteins. As a result, hair isn’t weighed down by residue and strands looks thicker and fuller.
Buy now £18.90, lookfantastic
