Fine strightish hair. How can I achieve shape and volume?

[Underoverunder]

I have my hair just long enough to tie back when I need to.

I grew out my layers last year and had, I think, a blunt cut. I liked it but with the length, it looked lank and shapeless.On holiday it looked great because of the soft water. I could leave it to dry naturally and got soft waves.

Last haircut, I decided to have some layers put in again but now I have awful, fine, wispy ends which have a life of their own and make my hair look dry. I always had fine hair but lots of it. Now I'm in my 40s it is thinning out. Not badly, but even with the layers it looks lank. It's a continual problem. I must post on here every year about my hair!!

I don't want it short or high maintenance and I've a square face so a Bob makes me look young in a podgy kind of way. Any suggestions? How do I get some life and shape in my hair without these awful layers?

Someone? Don't leave me hanging between stringy layers or lank all one length

I sympathise, especially if you are in a hard water area.

I find if I add a couple of generous handfuls of Epsom salts to the bath and rinse my hair in it, I get much better shape and volume. The salts soften the water and you hair gets a lot more bounce and volume. If you hate washing your hair in the bath you could add them to the final rinse water, just make sure you soak it through to the scalp not just the surface hair.

Also Elseve thickening shampoo and conditioner work quite well.

My hair is just like yours (but now also going grey).. volumising shampoo and colouring it help. I find the hairdresser makes a huge difference as to how it sits with layers... maybe try a different one?

A sea salt spray works for me.

I use talc to give my roots volume. I have blonde hair. Also drying your hair upside down might help. My hair goes curly on holiday but I have thin wavy hair that looks flat if I blow dry it so I let it dry naturally, I also don't wash my hair a lot and that gives me a lot of volume.

I wash it every 3 days. Coconut oil also helped my hair, I do a mask before I wash it. I've been on a multi vitamin for 4 months and that seems to help my hair too. It's thicker and grows fast. I have really long baby hairs now.

Mine is similar, it looks better when I use a sugar or salt spray (I like Wella Sugar Lift or Toni & Guy Sea Salt) and use a diffuser to dry. Or try and curl it a bit using narrow straighteners. Otherwise the layers look terrible - I need mine a bit textured and messed up.

Ouai Wave Spray and Bumble & Bumble Brilliantine work wonders for me, as does my Dyson Airwrap but that’s quite extravagant.