Tips for more voluminous hair? + hair blues

[Cheele]

I've been feeling rather down in regards to my hair lately. I started suffering from crazy dryness about a month ago, but just recently did a good olive oil soak, and thankfully it cleared it up. Tbh, I'm going to blame shampoo bars (that and my potentially ending greaseballish pubertyness - sebum production has certainly gone down all over my body). I'm fairly certain they've permanently damaged my hair, though.. So, I'm off of them now and have been using AO the past few washes.. which I love. I feel like I have the hair I had when I was a little girl back... sleek, shiny, and slippery as anything... not greaseballish or too dry. Unfortunately for me now, my hair just kind of sits very flat. I've always had flat hair.. but when it was all shampoo bar-ed out, I at least got some volume. I see all you lovely 2b/2c girls with the beautiful voluminous waves spread all about your back and I just about die of envy. I occasionally give myself braidwaves.. which makes me feel a little better, but doesn't address the root of my problem which, incidentally, is with my roots. It's not that my hair is thin (although the massive 1.25" mistake-filled chunk of bangs I have doesn't help the all over thickness), or that my strands are fine.. my hair is just incredibly flat at the roots.

So, peoples of LHC, let me first thank you for reading my whines.. Thank you.
And then I shall ask you all..
Does anyone have any LHC healthy (no backcombing/hairspray/blowfrying-didn't work for me the other day anyway) advice for making my roots fluff up?

I'm in dire need of a pick-me-up.

Pun maybe intended.

:violin:

[Cania]

My standard advice, I'm afraid :P But I use aloe vera gel, just applying it like mousse to wet or dry roots. Once I hit waist, my hair started looking flat, but this works for me every time and is still working at hip, where my hair is finally feeling heavy. It's also supposed to make hair thicker.. no idea how true that is x)

[Sarahlabyrinth]

Try brushing with a Boar Bristle Brush with your head bent over so your scalp is towards the floor. When you gently bring your head up the right way again you will have much more volume in your roots.

[Ocelan]

I have this problem and always have. My hair isn't thin really either, it's medium thickness and medium coarseness, but my hair just lays flat. I also did get a slightly added volume from shampoo bars, but they made my hair awful in all other ways imaginable that I went back to my CO routine which, believe me, really doesn't help the flatness.

Whatever brushing techniques I use, even all the strongest hairsprays and mousses back in the day when I used them, do not work for more than half an hour. My hair laughs at them and goes back to following my head contours. I've lived with it long enough to get used to it, but I would like just one evening of volume every now and then. I will give the aloe vera trick a go I think, but if the mousses won't, I'm not very hopeful...

I'm sorry I wasn't of any help here, but know now that there are people who share the same problem. I'll also be keeping an eye on this thread. :)

[spirals]

I do have a ton of hair, but it tends to go really flat close to the head. So after washing I bend forward and do my herbal rinse upside-down to get the roots to stand up a bit. When I used rinse-out conditioner I rinsed upside-down. I've been doing it for years and it really does help.

[MissAlida]

So after washing I bend forward and do my herbal rinse upside-down to get the roots to stand up a bit. When I used rinse-out conditioner I rinsed upside-down.

I second this.:D I'd also add, that after you rinse it upside down, and you stand up, you shouldn't comb your roots, because then you will flatten them to the scalp, and the whole rinsing thing will have no effect. You should only maybe comb or detangle the length, and only comb it when it's dry. I use mousse with great succes, but you said you didn't want anything like that. But I would try, if I were you, to blowdry my hair upside down. This is what I do: when it's 90% dry, I flip it over and blowdry the roots only. Gives great volume.

[LadyCelestina]

What you are describing is what I call "heavy" hair.It's not just a straighties problem - in fact I learned some tricks from curly hair care forum.

x When drying,clip your roots up,using claw clips or those small beak clips or anything you find comfortable,works best wet.
x Throw it up in a top knot or just a pony on top of your head.works on dry and wet hair,when on wet hair you might want to not do it too tight
x Bend over /my friend likes to do so with powdered hands not to grease up her hair / and massage/ruffle your roots a bit.wet/dry
x Buy a volumizing spray,spray on roots only.
x Comb your hair to the other side :D
x rinsing with various rinses upside down in the shower - acv doesn't do much for me,I have had luck with nettle and ginger.I do a sort of modified WO wash with herbal teas and it gives me more volume from the roots than just shampoo.
x How do you dry? LHC user,Madora I believe,has a method called fanning.Try maybe looking it up,it gives me crazy volume when I do it.
I'm sure I can remember more.They sound silly and sort of obvious,maybe you have tried them all already,but I use them from time to time.

[Sangeeta]

Maybe try rhassoul clay shampooing if you want to try something different and natural! I promise it gives great volume, for me it even accentuates waves and gives shine too. It also cleans the hair really well. Maybe give it a few gos to get a feeling for the mixture and applying technique but really it's easy. For it to be hair friendly only apply to scalp, not hair and don't let it dry out on hair, only leave it on for the duration of your shower, then rinse it out well (when the rinsing water gets clear rinse a bit more). Some people on this forum seem to think rhassoul damages the hair. The people who said they had damage problems with rhassoul used it for a very long time (so it dried completely on the hair) and applied it in large amounts on the hair in an attempt to remove dye (as far as I understand). My personal experience is that rhassoul is very much hair and scalp friendly.
I also second (or third?) the bend rinse. In fact anything done bent over will lift the roots: scalp massage, brushing, rinsing etc. Maybe try out a lemon rinse if vinegar wasn't your thing. It seems "lighter" on the hair.
I have dark blonde fine wavy hair that tends to go flat and straight with shampoo washing and combing/brushing, by the way.

[Anabell]

Do you know how to french braiding? It gave me a braid waves close to the roots, and they more define than a regular braid waves (so will stay longer). You can also try the parnda french braid. It gave me a lot of volume.

[cranberrymoonz]

I second french braiding. I sometimes make twin french braids in the morning after a shower, sleep in them, en remove them the next morning. Those braid waves stay the whole day ^^
You might also want to try and make a top knot bun before going to sleep. It lifts the roots and makes nice waves too:)

[woolyleprechaun]

After washing, tie your hair in a bun right on the top of your head while its damp, securing with spin pins. I find that when I dry my hair like this, it ends up mahooosive. Thats all I can suggest as it works for me :)

[bunzfan]

This can happen to me if i go to heavy on the cones, dry shampoo sprayed on the roots gives instant volume :D

[longNred]

high sock buns create crazy volume for me. like oh here come me & my hair... it's so big it's a whole 'nother "being". Mine has to be very finely misted - only a tiny bit - just a HINT of dampness, not wet, or all over damp.

[torrilin]

Your hair probably doesn't look as bad as you're imagining :). My hair type is similar (1c/F/ii) and I didn't have much volume in my teens.

See, I was *sure* my skin and hair were super duper oily. So I used face stuff for acne prone skin, and I washed my hair daily and and and. I'd get lots of breakouts, and my hair often looked greasy and flat.

Turns out, I don't have oily skin, and never did even as a teen. Even at the spouting oil wells stage of puberty, I probably barely hit normal levels of oil production. Most of my breakouts were due to the products I used irritating my skin. As I started to use gentler products on both my skin and my hair... things got better. Slowly. At first the breakouts were reduced to just around my period, then it gradually trailed off over the last 15 years. Same deal for my hair, since our scalps are skin after all. I started out by not washing my hair and just using conditioner on it one or two days out of the week. Eventually, I worked up to washes every 2-3 days. Finding LHC introduced me to CWC, scalp washes and the idea of diluting shampoo, all of which have helped me to stretch to perhaps washing as often as once a week.

The less often I wash my hair with a straight SLS shampoo, the more volume I have. The more I use strong SLS shampoo, the flatter my hair.

Related, the more conditioner I use, the more volume I have. And products that claim to be volumizing for me are excellent at flattening. I tend to get the most volume with products for color treated or very dry hair, or (sometimes) for curly hair.

[Cheele]

Soo many ideas! :joy:

Thanks so much, everyone!

Cania, I never thought to use my aloe vera gel.. will do next wash.

Sarahlabyrinth, I've been on the lookout for a good BBB. Once I find one, I'll give it a shot!

Ocelan, my flat hair sister! ;)

spirals and MissAlida, I usually do an ACV rinse.. standing up though. I can't rinse my hair upside down - way too messy for me. I'm not that tangle-prone, but rinsing upside down gives me a bird's nest :p. I appreciate you guys' thoughts, though!

LadyCelestina, I'm glad to finally be diagnosed :o.
Claw clips and pony - Been there.. top of my head/bangs still got all flat after a couple minutes being down. I suppose I just need to try different positions.
Root ruffling - I thought of something like this the other day. I sometimes use corn starch as a sort of dry shampoo, and my roots are definitely capable of fluff when I've done it. I don't do it often because I worry about build up. But I suppose I could try a bit of corn starch on my hands and ruffle my hair around. I know that definitely would help.
Volumizing spray - My hair and product outside of the shower does not really go well.. I think my mom has tons, so maybe I can snag one of hers and give it a go.
Drying - I usually put my hair up in my towel for 5 minutes or so to get the bulk of the water out, then I take it off and do some headbanging to separate the strands and to get some air flow, comb my hair upside down (its almost impossible for my hair to tangle when wet, so I don't really need to detangle here) and put it in my Turbie Twist for 10-15 minutes. It's not totally dry after this.. maybe just slightly damp which means I'm okay with it being down and about. I looked up Madora's fanning technique.. from what I understand (I'm a complete visual learner so maybe somethings been lost in the text to brain translation) it's just like a careful version of my headbanging, being that the hair gets separated and falls through the air. All about air flow. Since I'm not prone to wet tangles, would my headbanging just be an equivalent? Anyway, thanks for all your suggestions! I will definitely remember them when I need help.

Sangeeta, ooo, funny you should mention rhassoul clay.. that was actually a large ingredient in the last shampoo bar I used.. the one that brought me to the realization that my hair was now very dry. I never washed the length.. just my scalp. I just don't think it was for me. There was volume though!

Anabell, cranberrymoonz, woolyleprechaun, and longNred, for some reason, I can only (barely) successfully dutch braid. French braiding is very hard for me. There are times when I go to bed in a dutch braid with slightly damp hair (like last night) and it helps a little.. but then my length is poofy (which I definitely love and will totally take as a win) and my roots quickly go all flat. Same thing with a top knot/bun. My length is crazy wild, but my roots still stick to my head. But yes, totally better than nothing :).

bunzfan, I don't use cones (not for the flattening purposes though, in fact, cones give me volume - dry/crunchy volume). Corn starch (I've never used an official dry shampoo, should I try?) does work somewhat for me.

torrilin, using lighter/no SLS shampoos definitely has helped me stretch my washes.. but barely (higher SLS actually gives me more volume, but only for a few hours until the flood of sebum). I'm down from every morning washes and getting greasy by evening to every other night washes with some excess oil on the non washed day. I'm fairly certain I'm just a greaseball. The less I wash my face, the worse it gets. My acne has definitely gotten better overall in the past year - compared to periods of no washing in my teens vs. periods of no washing today. Yeah, I'm lazy. When I wash my face now (alternating between OCM and conventional cleanser - witch hazel is a great toner btw), it's much better than if I let it run wild. And ultimately, the best solution to my acne has been birth control pills. My skin is flawless when I'm on them. Anyway, I reckon my sebum has something to do with my flatness. Bleh. Oh yeah, the more conditioner I use (non-coney), the flatter it tends to be. Interesting that our hair and issues seem to be similar, but the solutions are different :o

Thank you all once again.
You've given me my hair hope back :heartbeat.

[leilasahhar]

Henna always works..mix up a thick paste and leave it on for a few hours.

[Cheele]

I'm planning on jumping on the henna bandwagon within the next few weeks :). I hope it'll help!

[sisi33]

[QUOTE=LadyCelestina;2415351When drying,clip your roots up,using claw clips or those small beak clips or anything you find comfortable,works best wet.
[/QUOTE]

This. But I've also found it helpfully to section out just the very bottom layer of hair, leave that down to dry, and take the rest up. Once the bottom layer is pretty much dry let down another layer, and so on. I've found that this greatly improves the volume at the roots, even if you don't use any product (I prefer not to).

[sisi33]

tfor some reason, I can only (barely) successfully dutch braid. French braiding is very hard for me.

If this helps, with Dutch Braiding, you are taking each main strand, and going OUT with them. French is taking each outer strand, and going IN with them... At least, that's what helps me remember!

[cooklaezo13]

This has probably already been said, but its worth repeating because it really works for me. I sleep with my hair in a bun on top of my head, secured with a scrunchy. It really helps keep me from having flat roots, especially when I spray my roots with a bit of water before I put it up.

[kidari]

I'm surprised to have learned a couple new tips and tricks from this thread! Here are my 2 cents, hopefully it can work for someone: First of all if hair is long, volume at the roots is pretty much not going to happen naturally and if you force it, it will be too much work and not only will it most likely not look right but it will fall out quickly and your efforts will be wasted AND you would have caused damage in the process. (Sorry for that atrocious run on sentence). If you don't want to cut in layers/cut shorter/add in texture by curling or waving, etc. then it's best to just accept it and add volume on your length. It's a pretty look to accept the flatness on the scalp and emphasize your length or poof up the volume on your length by wearing it in braidwaves or something, it's very mermaid like and bohemian and so pretty. Also, aside from dry shampoos, they sell powders that texturize such as Aveda pure abundance hair potion and Osis dust it. This gives lasting lift at the roots but I hate the tacky gluey feeling.

The bun high on top of your head trick doesn't work for me. It feels uncomfortable while it's in the bun and then when I take it down I have horrible dents and my hair falls all wrong. What I've been doing is carefully brushing my hair out upside-down with a paddle brush and then mist it to dampen then flip your head over and carefully try to keep everything still voluminous while loosely twisting it into a med-low cinnamon bun and secure it with the bigger longer updo pins or hair screws. Let it dry completely and you get volume at the crown with gorgeous loose waves. The volume stays longer for me because I have shorter layers in my crown area and all of my hair is texturized and thinned out as well as layered. Being a straight hair, I find it helpful to periodically brush out my hair if I wear it down I carry a brush with me to do this and I also bend over and fluff up my hair upside down afterwards. This refreshes the volume.