How to get thick hair: Genius styling tips

If you suffer from thin hair, we feel your pain. But don’t worry, you’re not alone, because lots of women in the UK have ultra fine locks. How can you solve it? First, let’s face the facts: there’s nothing you can do to make your hair physically thicker, but there are tips you can try to make your hair appear fuller (which is the next best thing, right)? So, if you want to learn how to get thick hair, follow our styling tips below, and you’ll be on the road to fuller-looking locks in no time!

How to get thick hair

As well as sharing the knowledge our expert editors have picked up over the years, we quizzed Unilever creative director and head stylist Dan Lynes on some of his expert styling tips for achieving fuller-looking locks.

Tip 1: Invest in a hair dryer

Although you don’t want to expose your hair to too much repeated heated styling, using a hair dryer on a low heat setting to help style your hair can boost its volume. Try tipping your head upside down and using a hair dryer to blast your roots for a fuller-looking mane. Don’t forget to apply a good heat protectant before blow drying to help minimise damage.

Tip 2: Mix up your parting

Firstly, a defined parting can expose a lot of scalp, which can make your hair look thinner. Secondly, keeping your parting in the same place all the time encourages your hair to fall in the same direction, which results in it becoming flat. Mixing up your parting will help avoid falling into that trap, and can make your hair appear more voluminous at the roots.

Tip 3: Tease your hair

If you want to learn how to get thick hair, then a teasing comb will become your new BFF. Teasing creates volume, and volume helps mimic the appearance of thicker, fuller hair. To tease, lift a sectioned portion of hair up, and use a comb to lightly brush the back side of your tresses downwards towards your scalp. Repeat this teasing motion until you have achieved the desired amount of volume.

Tip: try spraying some TIGI Bed Head Superstar Queen For A Day Thickening Spray (£14.95*) onto your roots, and dry it in with a hair dryer, before teasing. The clever formula, containing carbomer, helps to make hair look thicker and more lifted without leaving any residue.

Tip 4: Opt for shorter hair

We don’t want to burst your bubble, but if you have thin or fine locks and you’re searching for a solution on how to get thick hair, medium to short length cuts tend to be better-suited options. That’s because the longer your hair gets, the more it weighs itself down, meaning regular morning battles with lifeless, flat roots. The key is to fake the illusion of fullness with blunt cuts and choppy layers, both of which work brilliantly on short-to-medium hair (see Alexa Chung for proof). So, if you find your lengths looking straggly and your roots are limp, opt for the chop!

Tip 5: Get acquainted with the pancaking technique

The pancaking technique works a charm on thin braids. Once you’ve braided your hair, gently pull and tease each weave by using your fingertips and thumb. This technique will help to make your braid appear fuller and thicker, as well as adding a cool, undone texture.

Tip 6: Use hair mousse

When it comes to styling your mane, a hair mousse is a great product to invest in: it’s formulation swells when it dries, and it’s this enlarging action that makes the hair appear thicker and fuller (clever, huh?).

“Mousse has a polymer content that when dried swells and holds together to give great volume and hold. When left to dry naturally, the formulation will feel crispy on the hair, but if fully dried using a hairdryer, it should feel soft and touchable. Use a good tennis ball size of mousse on towel dried hair before blow-drying into your desired style. For a less messy way of applying the mousse: squirt it onto a comb and brush it through the hair,” says Dan.

We recommend trying the VO5 Volume Extra Body Mousse (£2.99*), which will give your tresses added body, lift and volume. Plus, the special climate control technology provides 24 hour humidity protection to help prevent frizz. Win-win!

Tip 7: Apply dry shampoo before you go to bed

Applying dry shampoo in your hair at night can work a charm on thin hair. Not only does it help to absorb oil that’s produced overnight, but all of that tossing and turning on your pillow will help to give you more volume, too. Try spritzing some Toni&Guy Glamour Sky High Volume Dry Shampoo (£7.49*) onto your roots at night, and we reckon you’ll wake up with more voluminous, thicker-looking locks.

Tip 8: Use a bodifying spray

You may be wondering exactly what a bodifying spray is: let us tell you. A bodifying spray is a product you apply to damp hair before you blowdry – it works to make locks look thicker by pumping volume into your mane as you dry it. Our favourite? It has to be the TIGI Catwalk Bodifying Spray (£15.95*), which contains styling polymers. This formula forms a fine, hair-holding film on the strands’ surface to help scaffold your style and make your hair feel thicker. See? You can really cheat your way to fuller-looking tresses.

Want even more great tips on how to get thick hair? Read our step-by-step guide on how to add volume to fine hair.

*RRPs are Unilever suggested retail prices only, it is at the discretion of the individual retailers to set the actual price.