After a truly epic homemade pupusa recipe fail today (I’m officially leaving that one to the experts!) I decided to scrap a dinner post in favor of sharing a fantastic tip for adding tons of volume to otherwise flat hair via, what else, Pinterest.
I realize this is primarily a food blog, but hey, variety is the spice of life! Pun intended.
A Ridiculously Easy Way to Add Volume to Flat Hair:
(Pardon the fuzzy iPhone pic!)
Backstory:
I have the most ridiculous hair in the world (is it just me, or does every girl feel this way?!) Each hair is fine, but there’s lots of it, and my mane will hold a curl for approximitely 13 seconds before becoming flat and stringy. Therefore I can wear it straight, straight, or – wait for it – straight.
Because of my hair’s texture, it’s also really hard for me to achieve volume at the roots and crown of my head without a wicked teasing sesh and half a can of hairspray. It works, I suppose, but then I’m walking around with crusty hair all day, you know?
Anyway, last week I was surfing Pinterest when I came across a post for giving straight hair, lasting volume. The post (which I can’t find now) was great, but a lot of the tips had to do with blow drying your hair upside down. This worked really well for the gal in the post, but I have wicked baby hairs and flyaways that stick straight up in the air all day if I blow my hair out upside down.
Still with me?
The moral of the story is, there was one tip in the post for achieving epic volume at the roots of your hair that I had never heard before, and was positively giddy to try.
The Tip:
Shampoo your hair with volumizing shampoo, then rinse clean like normal. Next, condition your entire head – roots to tips – with volumizing conditioner. Before you rinse the conditioner out, squeeze a bit of shampoo into your hands, then add a little water and work it into a lather. Work the lather into just your scalp, then rinse the shampoo and conditioner out. Blow dry and style like normal.
I am telling you, with no other changes made to my hair routine, I have gone from nearly no volume at the roots and crown of my head, to this (which is a lot of volume, for me!)
(Pardon the same fuzzy iPhone pic!)
I was leery about putting conditioner into my roots, because I’ve always heard it weighs hair down creating the dreaded flat-head effect, but from just this one, teeny-tiny change in my shower routine, my hair now has oomph like it’s never had before. Plus it lasts all day! I just had to share. :)
~~~~~
Do you have “challenging” hair? What products and tips do you love?
Do you think volumizing shampoo is safe? I have really fine hair and I don’t want to try any hair product with harmful chemicals. Though I use clip-in extensions from Zala (https://zalahair.ca/) to add length and volume to my hair, I would like to try volumizing shampoo if you can suggest one. Which one are you using?
I will def try this! However, I have another problem in addition to this one, which is oddly the FIRST part of my problem. My hair is also very WEIRD! Thin strands, but a hella lot of them! And… my hair is half wavy and frizzy, a quarter curly but not very frizzy, and straight/kinda frizzy. Therefore, if I want ONE style as opposed to three, I have to add SOME TYPE of heat once dry. And THAT my friend, will REALLY flatten out that crown…which btw is in the wavy/frizzy category. So… when flat ironing or curling with wand… I end up with a flat head! Lol. Oh… but on the upside, the WHOLE head is great at holding curl…. but I am a woman, and don’t we all want the kind of hair that we can’t have!?!?!
Hi Iowa Girl, Farm Girl here from Washington State, Poulsbo (Little Norway). Thanks for your site blog, it popped up for me looking for help with Straight, Straight and Straight hair. I’m 62 with the mind of 21 lol and suddenly my hair is baby fine and extra straight, I’m thinking is it my age, is the cold air or do I just not remember this static in the winter here?? I’ve always thought the same about conditioner so this is a surprising note, but I’ll give it a whirl and see if there is any help? I put some dye in (covering the white the other day) it usually adds volume, no instead straighter, flatter and how I can relate to a easy curl and 30 seconds later with LOTS of product and blah STRAIGHT and frumpy. You are right on us girls thinking such things about our hair ;-) Just wanted to thank you for your tip and I’m looking forward to checking out your recipes. I struggle with auto immune disease after a bad car accident years ago—which turned my thyroid crazy. Had you read/watched Dr. Gundry, amazing data on Lectins that have increased my thoughts further on more than just gluten. Might check him out. Blessings and a Merry Christmas! Ginger
[…] iowagirleats […]
Hi! Thank you for the tips on giving my hair some volume. I am on the verge of just wearing it up in a bun for the rest of my life. I am going to try this in the morning!!
Oh my gosh I’m so happy I found this! I too have fine individual hairs but lots of them and I’ve always had trouble getting volume! And I totally feel you with the fly away problems! Thanks for sharing!
My wife thinks I’m a bit crazy because I can have as many as three different shampoos in our shower at any given time. She has great full hair, and doesnt use alot of volumizing shampoos, but sometimes my hair needs it. She uses the Shielo Smoothing products, but I use the Shielo Volume products. . .it does look fuller after using Shielo and is pretty thick and it has a wonderfully fresh scent, – that’s why they call it anti-flat / volume.
Sleeping with your hair up is the best! It’s how I make a blowdry last for days, and it gives awesome volume at the roots. You have to clip curls more loosely but it still works.
I have thick, wavy hair naturally. Don;t hate me ! LOL, no but we can all use more volume. My hair is annoying because it likes to break…so anything that helps it calm down is fine with me.
Keep using what works for you. I love many drugstore lines and I have healthy hair that colors evenly. The myth of the wax is just that , a myth. Read the ingredients and you will see that salon products are loaded with silicones and oils that build up on the hair. My main rule is avoid silicone in shampoo.
This did the trick for me! Thank you for posting this! You are right, it’s a ridiculously easy tip….but it needed to be said or I wouldn’t have thought of it!
I’d been frustrated with how heavy my hair felt after shampoo/conditioner…and I use salon quality products (Kenra). I knew it shouldn’t be heavy on my hair but didn’t know what was wrong. Such a great/easy fix :)