‘My Hair Always Goes Flat at the Roots’: How to Tackle Flat Hair (for Good)
Michael Douglas is a celebrity hair stylist with a passion for empowering beauty fans to feel more confident with their hair. He is also a regular Live That Glow columnist, answering readers questions on all things hair care. Here, he advises on achieving volume.
I’m 23 with long (past my boobs) very straight hair. I’ve tried so many ways to get volume in it (blow drying, volume sprays, hair sprays) but my hair always goes flat at the roots within a few hours. Is there anything else I can try?
Michael says:
Having very long hair makes it difficult to put body and volume in it, simply because of the length and therefore weight of the hair pulling it down at the roots.
Having some long layers put in the hair is a great idea to remove some of this weight, making it easier to put volume in the top of the head.
Start with shampooing with a volumising shampoo and only a small amount of conditioner such as OGX Biotin & Collagen, keeping conditioner away from the roots. Then, blow drying your hair with a really good blow dry spray such as The New Form by Arkive by Adam Reed is a great idea.
With your damp hair, spray plenty of the product in the roots, tip your head upside down and start to blow dry the hair getting the hair away from the head. If you can imagine the hair being lifted out 90° from the scalp that’s what you want to do. Making sure the hair is completely dry at the roots while simultaneously keeping it away from the scalp is how you put body into the hair.
Using a blow dry brush such as the Mdlondon Radial brush (in size 2 or 3) is a great way to encourage this and also putting a bend or a wave in through the hair with the blow dry is also a good way to encourage body and volume further down the hair shaft.
Once the hair has been blow dried and is completely dry, once again tip your head upside down and spray into the roots a texturising dry aerosol spray such as The Movement by ARKIVE or Texture Boost by Umberto Giannini.
These texturising sprays have starch in them as well as the properties of a hairspray which helps maintain the volume and also hold it in place.
These things combined should really help you get body and volume into your flat hair. The most important bit really is drying the hair at the roots away from the scalp.
You can also try a small amount of backcombing and teasing around the crown area to encourage more body and volume.
The thing to remember is that it is YOU that puts the body in your hair, not the product or the tool, but a combination of the product tool and your technique and effort of getting the hair up and away from the scalp during the blow dry process.
Get Glowing!
