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If you have fine, colored hair that lacks volume, all is not lost. There are ways to add some oomph to your tresses with the right products. But you should also know that the right techniques are just as important as the right tools. Once you know what to do and what not to do for volume you'll be in good shape to make the most of your hair type. Bonus: color actually adds extra molecules into your strands that can help it look and feel thicker.
Start with the Right Cut
Fine hair typically does better in shorter styles. Keeping it long is only going to weigh it down and kill volume. Shoulder length or above is best. Have your stylist use razors and other texture hair cutting techniques to build layers into your style to make it look like you have more hair than you actually do. A cut that's meant to be concave or rounded in toward your face with wispy layers is always a good idea. The length of the style also depends on your face shape. Longer faces should go with shorter layers and cuts, whereas shorter faces do well with something as short as the chin or cheek bones. Get your hair trimmed regularly to combat messy ends the dyeing usually causes.
Get the Right Products
Before you style your hair, you need to use volumizing or thickening shampoos and conditioners. Then pick up mousse, thickening cream or volumizing cream. All of these products should be put into your hair when it's damp from the shower. Start with your cream, combing it through your hair to get an even distribution. Then put a small amount of mousse in your palms and apply it to your roots by lifting them up as you do it. After you blow dry, use a silicone-based hairspray by lifting up your roots and then spraying at their base. A shine spray will finish your hair off nicely. These products work for natural and colored hair just the same.
Blow Dry It Right
After you've used the right products, you need to have the right drying technique to insert volume in your hair. Your tools of choice should be a thermal round brush and a blow dryer with a cool shot button. Start drying your hair on a medium heat setting to get out extra moisture. Lift your roots up with your fingertips as you do it. Then separate your hair into three sections, the top, middle and bottom, pinning up the top and middle with clips. Blow dry the bottom section of hair with your round brush, and push the cool shot button right before you take the brush out. Lift the roots up with the brush as you go. Move on to your middle and then the top section using the same technique.
What to Avoid
Products that rob your hair of the volume you worked so hard to achieve are a major no-no. Whenever you're following hair styling advice, realize that most of it is for normal, medium thickness hair. Avoid using heavy styling products like waxes and pomades, which weigh hair down. Conditioners that have "deep conditioning" on the label and weekly conditioning masks will add weight too. To get shiny hair, use a ceramic, ion blow dryer. The technology closes the cuticles in your hair shaft, smoothing them down and cuts down on drying time too. Flat irons don't do a thing for volume, so put yours away and stick to the round brush and blow dryer for styling purposes.
