Can we have a thread for those cursed with thin, fine, straight hair?

[QuimReaper]

My hair is honestly the bane of my life, and I've really lost my way with it.

I thought I'd cracked it a few years ago when I discovered heated rollers which gave it volume and shape but the shine's really worn off. It was great for a while but they absolutely wrecked my hair and now even though I've massively scaled back my usage, I have little broken bits of hair about a centimetre long all over the top of my head which looks horrific. They only lie flat if I air-dry my hair, blowdrying just makes them stand up in a halo.

Velcro rollers are good too, but they have to go on soaking wet hair and stay on for hours to work, and even then a stiff breeze takes care of all their hard work, so I can only use them when I have all day to sit around in rollers and only need to get into and out of a taxi.

I can't seem to use any kind of styling or heat-protecting product without weighing down my hair so I've always just spritzed it with water to make the heated rollers hold a curl, but I think that was contributing to the heat damage; now though, with putting the rollers on dry hair and turning down the heat on the rollers, my hair just goes flat within a couple of hours.

IT IS SO FRUSTRATING!

I think I need to go back to basics. I know there are a few of you out there, has anyone cracked it? Any hints?

The first thing I want to know is, is there a dry-shampoo equivalent for clean hair to get a bit of texture and volume going on without making the hair dull and cloggy? My hair sometimes looks its best when dry shampooed the day after styling (not always though - sometimes it just looks like a strange wispy bird's nest) but I'm loath to use dry shampoo on clean hair, I've heard it's terrible for the scalp. I'm thinking about trying sea salt spray, any recommendations? I tried that powder stuff but couldn't get along with it.

Any tips gratefully received

Oh and I never use hair dryers just leave to dry naturally.

Going to get DD to try the daily condition but no shampoo treatment as her hair is very fine and she currently washes it every day.

The John Freida mouse in the turquoise bottle is fab on my thin hair. It gives it lots of lift at the roots.

I use to make my own hair extensions that kinda attached with a thread and sat under your own hair. It helped repair my hair from years of extension damage (through glue).
I have naturally fine hair anyway so extensions for so many years wasn't the best idea.

My hair has only started looking nice since I had a baby weirdly.

Oh and I got a dyson hairdryer for Christmas which is pretty amazing

www.flipinhair.co.uk/

What I use to make myself was basically these.

Mine is pixie cut and spiked up a little

It has shedloads of wax to make it spike

My hair is very fine and lank after years of box dying it to get rid of the greys that I've had since I was about 13. I wasn't prepared to accept the greys growing up as a teenager so I had flat fine hair with split ends. I bleached it for a while to hide the grey and chopped it into a pixie which looked great but couldn't be bothered with the upkeep so went dark again.

It's sort of a long pixie/crop at the moment but I'm not loving it. If I try to put body in at the roots with rollers, mousse and dry shampoo I get a bit of a mushroom affect going on as the lengths are just so bloomin poker straight. Even a perm only lasted a few weeks instead of 6+ months.

I think I'm going to have to embrace the grey and chop off the dyed damaged hair and hope the condition improves.

I've just spotted this on another thread, have any of you tried it?

I couldn't get along with the Babyliss Big Hair and am wondering if this might be more effective - I am right in thinking the BBH is ineffective shite for thin, fine hair, or was it just me?

I have found my tribe.......

I use the Philip Kingsley system and products... It has made a difference to my hair, but it is not cheap :( The hair on top of my head was very fine and it has definitely regrown after PK.

Fine hair is definitely genetic, but thankfully both DCs have their father's hair...

This was in yesterday's Mail. I know, I know but still it might be worth a read...!

Clever cut that makes hair thicker! How a top stylist has devised a revolutionary concept to make thin hair fuller
By Alice Smellie for the Daily Mail
23:10 04 Jan 2017, updated 07:18 05 Jan 2017

Cara I''m sort of intrigued by that! Might be worth investigating...

QuimReaper I have fine, flyaway hair. I found that the BBH made my hair look great until I left the house. Then depending on the wind/rain/general humidity etc. it just started to wave and frizz again. Possibly I needed to use more, or different, products with it but I couldn't find a solution. If you aready have smooth hair it probably works really well.

Chottie what products were you using?

CaraAspen it sounds great, doesn't it. I'm sorely tempted...

I have simulate experience with the BBH as you ababsurdum - ok for half an hour but as soon as I leave the house my hair frizzes then separates in to three thin rats tails...so attractive!

Similar not simulate!

Such a pain isn't it MrsDesperado, it's so much easier than trying to blow dry with a round brush. I find that straighteners 'seal' the cuticle better which helps prevent re-frizzing but I much prefer the look with the BBH.

I had wonderful thick long hair as a teen/early 20's. Then it started to thin. Despite tests no cause has ever been found. Pregnancy has helped a bit but the loss after has been bad. I have to cut my hair as length emphasises how thin it is but I don't have dainty features unfortunately so I feel really butch and unfeminine with short hair. I look like a man in drag in a summer dress 🙁 I'm having another go at growing it at the moment.

I have a brush similar to the tresemme one linked above (except it's almost 20 years old!) and it is very good - much better than the BBH for holding style.

That "thickening" haircut looks interesting. I always thought layers thinned the hair. Certainly on me my hair ends up looking even more straggly very quickly.

I have found my tribe. All the women in my family have fine, flat hair. It's shiny and soft, but tends to look like we've been licked by a cat. V v unflattering on my big features and square jaw.

I found pregnancy thickened it out (yay) but the resulting fall out was awful. Had an undercut pixie when DC1 was 16 months which looked amazing... until it grew out approx 5 minutes later leaving me looking like a 90s boybander.

Have now got sharp shoulder length back-to-front bob (ie longer at front) and caramel highlights which help with texture, but it's suddenly gone flat and thin again so most days it goes up in a bun. Dry hair shampoo and powders make it gritty and damaged. Even the elvive thickening shampoo leaves it triangular (flat roots, bushy ends). I feel totally unfeminine and haggard. The "posh girl hair" thread on here the other day took me right back to school and wishing I had nice swishy hair like everyone else.

I think soon I'm going to go and get it cut off and dyed blonde. I'd rather look quirky than have sad and tired mum hair

My hair is also fine, thin, and straight with a kink. Lucky me.

I always dry my hair UPSIDE DOWN with a straightening brush and John Freida fine to full spray, then style with hairspray, and a bit of back coming underneath. I have a chin length bob.

I've also found the stuff you use in the shower and it stays in your hair for seven days to be pretty good
here

All this does affect the texture but nobody is running their hands through my hair anymore so no matter and I do get volume/thickness, the days I can be arsed.

Worst is that I need a fringe due to a high forehead but if I have one cut in, that leaves me with hardly any hair on the rest of my head. This is what really pisses me off.

After using the BBH I put John Frieda anti frizz serum on my hair and it has made a difference.

Another one here. Mine's also very greasy, so I have to wash it every day. I have a short pixie/crop a bit like Diablo Cody's in this pic

The longer I grow it, the more static-y and tangled it gets, while flopping down lifelessly around my head – short is the only thing that works. I tend to wear a lot of dresses and pink tops to play off the short crop.

And I use this volume powder after seeing it recommended on here - it really does give you volume and lift at the roots but you do have to be careful not to go overboard or it gets sticky and heavy.

I mainly don't have time to blow dry, but for special occasions I use a narrow Tresseme heated brush to add volume and curl at the crown and fringe, and I love how it looks then - it gets a funky 60s short hair vibe. Doesn't last though so that's just for evenings out really.

I feel your pain everyone. I would love to bounce out of bed with thick swishy hair.

I'm another of this tribe. Mine is fine, greasy and damp weather makes it do all weird kinking stuff.
Am growing out an inverted bob and with all the damp weather it mainly looks horrendous. It's at an awkard length too, last cut tidied it up but is all weird again and not really long enough to tie up.

Funnily enough I noticed my hair looked thicker after a walk in the damp air! My hair is very straight though. So yesterday I washed, dried put some texturising paste on (helps a bit but not something I'd be comfortable recommending). An hour or so later I want for a walk in the damp and came back with thicker looking hair.

So I'm going to try and replicate this at home, after drying my hair I'm going to re-wet it using a spray bottle and see if this works.

Sometimes if you want more volume, you can try steaming the hair for a few mins. Fill a wash hand basin with boiling water - from a kettle - and just bend your head into the steam. Certainly works for a fringe.

Be careful you don't scald yourself!!