How to make hair thick again after aggressive thinning

[User181019]

DD used to have lovely, long thick hair. Last summer, she had it cut short so she could donate it to the Princess Trust. However, the hair dresser aggressively thinned her hair even though I asked her not to. I did say I didn't want it thinned but she did it anyway. Suffice to say we won't be going back there again. It's been a year now and DD's hair is still looking very lank and lifeless. It's also very thin. We used to struggle to tie a hair band around her pony tail as her hair was thick. It makes me so sad. What's the best way to get the thickness back? I'm worried the aggressive thinning may have damaged her hair. I really thought a year on we'd be back to her thick hair of before. I've been regularly giving the ends of her hair regular trims to get rid of the wispy bits. We've also been using lavender oil massaged into her scalp to encourage hair growth. Is there anything else we can do? Thank you..

Just a case of waiting for it to grow. My hair went from massively thick to looking like a rats tail tied up because i lost most of it for a multitude of reasons. Took a few years but its all grown back now

Rats tail tied up is exactly what it looks like when she ties it back now. I'm sorry you had a similar experience but it's good to know yours has grown back. Seems like my expectation of it being back to full thickness after a year is unrealistic. We'll keep growing then and have regular trims. Thanks.

Jamaican black castor oil is good for hair growth if you massage it into her scalp

Thanks @Catchasingmewithspiders I will look this up. We've been massaging lavender oil mixed in with a carrier oil but will definitely check out Jamaican black castor oil.

How old is she? I hope you don't reflect your obsession with her having thick hair in front of her???

Hair is dead- so I'm unsure how cutting something dead would damage future growth? Depending how high up the thinning took place- its surely just a matter of time for the short hair to grow and catch up to the rest. Unless she has been ill or has deficiencies which might make the hair growth slow? Anaemia, Vit D deficiency, thyroid?

Yes, this. Unless the "aggressive thinning" involved chemically treating the roots then it will just need the shorter bits to catch up to the longer bits.doesnt grow that quickly.

I thought you were going to say it was related to an illness and subsequent treatment. Not healthy to be so fixated when it's just going to take time to grow back.

@CC4712 I don't have an "obsession". I said I felt "sad" but that's a reflection of how I feel which I think is a valid sentiment. Of course, I don't tell her that or let on at all how I feel about her hair. I'm just expressing it on Mumsnet. From what I've since been told, aggressive use of thinning shears can damage hair depending on how they were employed by the hair dresser. I'm not a hair dresser. It's just what I've been told. I don't know if this is true or not.

@WeAreTheHeroes I'm not "fixated" either. I came on to ask for advice about how we could encourage her hair to grow back to its previous thickness.

DD is high school aged. She misses her old thick hair. She misses her old long hair but she cut it for charity. Her idea and she built up to having the length cut off as it was previously down to her back. But she hadn't banked on the thickness disappearing. To clarify, she misses her old thick hair but she isn't obsessed or fixated either. We thought it would only take a year to grow back but clearly we've underestimated how long it might take so I guess we'll be more patient!

To clarify, we thought it would take a year for the thickness to start returning not that she'd have very long hair again. Of course, that will take several years. Right now, it's still very, very thin and lanky.

OP- I wrongly assumed you meant a 4/5yr old DD!

If she is a teen, has she lost weight, does she eat well, very stressed or does she have heavy periods or anaemic? When I was anaemic in my late teens, and also when I lost weight when older- my hair thinned, was and much more than normal came out, it was also slower to grow. Almost like a shedding. It was thinner to me- but not patchy or noticeable to anyone else. Does she tired easily? Recurrent infections, lightheaded or dizziness?

Strangely, when I hit puberty, my hair changed from being slightly wavy to almost ringlet curls. Its now in between. Maybe its a hormonal reason behind it not growing back sooner?

A year on her hair should have grown by about 12 cm at a rate of roughly 1 cm a month. The new hair growing out will not be affected by the "hair thinning cut" and I doubt the hair dresser thinned it out by the scalp? If the new growth is thin then it's related to something else and not the hair cut. How long is her hair now? Perhaps a bob/lob for now and in another 6 months her hair should, with all new hair growth since the cut, be roughly to her shoulders. No products applied topically to the hair can make it thicker because, as someone pointed out, hair is dead. Well done to your daughter for donating to the princess trust.

Massively reduce how many times she uses shampoo. Use water daily but shampoo only a few times a month.
To be clear not baby or mild shampoo - just your regular one.
Give it a few months it's a dramatic change.

Stops going greasy after 6 weeks

Would you try biotin to encourage growth?
https://www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/product/holland-barrett-a-year-s-supply-biotin-1000ug-360-tablets-beauty-bundle-60063592/

@Moonshine5 this is interesting. Previously, when she had thick hair she only needed to wash it once a week. My hair is also super thick and I only need to wash it once a week at most and I've always thought that this actually helped with my hair health. Now that DD's hair is thin and lanky, it gets greasy really quickly - visibly so - and she's having to wash every couple of days. She also doesn't like that as she thinks it's a faff to take the extra time to wash and blow dry! With the summer holidays coming up, we'll give your suggestion a go. Right now, she has to wash it when it's visibly greasy as she has school.

@miri1985 we started this last month actually. We got the children's version as unde 18s can't have the normal dosage. Luckily, H&B do stock one especially for children. No change yet but we'll keep going with it as it can't harm!

@Shakespeareandi it's roughly shoulder length now. As the charity needed 30cm minimum and then the hair dresser needed to cut off above the hair band and then trim, it ended up being a few cm shorter than we expected. Cut to her ear lobe level! As her hair was so thick, the hair dresser kept on saying it needed a lot of thinning so it didn't sit like a helmet. So I think she did go fairly close to the scalp. But, yes, a bob for the foreseeable. I think the thinness then is all the hair that's dead so we'll keep regularly trimming this away until it's all new hair.

@CC4712 thanks. She's in general good health all round. However, interesting you mention puberty. She's going through that right now. Hasn't occured to me think it would impact hair growth. I'll look into this! Thanks.

Do you have silicone free and sls free? Something Like
this
But there are lots of others out there these days
I wouldn’t put anything in any hair let alone thick hair hair out of choice beyond silicone and sls free shampoo

Applying any oil to her hair is going to make it appear greasy.

Hormonal changes are probably the biggest culprit here though, both in terms of texture and oiliness of her skin/ hair. My hair changed texture in my teens, it's pretty common unfortunately

Get a dry shampoo spray so that she doesn't have to wash as frequently.

Honestly it really works but it's zero / no shampoo not a mild/ baby shampoo.
Try using Batiste dry shampoo in-between

@Icedlatteplease yes, we've been shampoo bar converts for a few years now. They are good aren't they? We get that one from Ocado too.

@AltitudeCheck we massage the oil into the scalp on wash days. Let it soak and absorb then she washes her hair. We'll stop it for a while to see if it changes. As you and another poster pointed out, puberty and hormones may be a factor here. Something that hadn't I considered. Thanks.

@OrderOfTheKookaburra good idea! Will get some today. Again, had not thought of that.

Thanks everyone. Some really useful and reassuring advice here.

Thinning is essentially just shaping or can be lauding layering and only goes so high up the hair. You could consider a blunt cut above the level of the thinning layers and start the growing out again. She'd lose length but it would grow out thicker. I'm just regrowing mine after a deep undercut - 18 months and 3 haircuts and I finally feel I've got full thickness of my ponytail back.

And you are definitely a bit obsessed with this - getting a teenager to rub oil into their scalp and take pills for their hair isn't normal. And the oil will likely be contributing to the hair looking lank. Don't forget that hormonal changes will also affect how her hair looks and grows.

@PinkFootstool definitely not obsessed. But we can agree to disagree on this.

@PinkFootstool whilst I don't agree I'm obsessed, I do like your advice about a blunt cut above the thinning layers. Thank you.

I think you are making too much of this. My dd lost half the hair on her scalp due to alopecia and it grows back when it grows back. All this massaging oil in will be making it greasier unless you then shampoo it to hell to remove it.

I would wash it as it needs washing as she's a teen and sitting around with lank greasy hair to try to do some no-wash thing will be unpleasant for her and not great with her friends.

It sounds like her hormones are possibly to blame for the greasiness. Then if she's had Covid, Covid is also linked to hair loss, mine fell out quite badly and then started growing back, it's now at the spiky stage of wispy bits. One of my dd's had the same after a bad bout of Covid, the other didn't, so it's all a bit random.

Between Covid and teen hormones, having hair which is a bit thin and needs washing every two days is completely normal. Just stop with everything else, stop thinking about it, wash it every two days to keep her self-esteem high and think about something else!

Of course get it cut nicely to trim it and make it a good style but stop acting like having thinner greasy hair as a teen is some type of catastrophe. All this massaging and pills and new tactics is not healthy, she is not ill and what if she lost her hair from actual illness, or shaved it off or had it styled in a way you didn't like. Help her move on to this other stage, be breezy, I'm sure it'll grow back and support her with good healthy food (with plenty of iron, if you think she's iron deficient check that but only if other signs) and don't talk about it!