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Byrdie / Chloe Jeong
While your thick-haired friends may envy your two-minute blowout or painless styling, navigating life with fine hair can feel like teetering on a tightrope. While there may be a host of products at your disposal, applying the wrong or conflicting ingredients to your tresses to boost texture often has the opposite effect. Your mane might get weighed down and feel flatter than ever.
The solution? Weaving thickening products into every stage of your hair care routine. Consider layering a wet product and a dry product suggests Houston-based stylist Michelle Pasterski Mesen. “Coat damp hair with a wet formula, such as a mousse, cream, or spray first. Blow-dry and style, then finish with a dry shampoo or texturizing spray. This two-pronged approach really lifts and builds the diameter of the hair,” she explains.
The point being, there are all kinds of products to choose from. Post-shower treatments hydrate and repair tired or over-processed strands and texturizing sprays and mousses will help hold your newly zhuzhed ‘do in place. Scalp care is also important, as well as using products with a lightweight oil or foam to keep everything in place. If this all seems overwhelming, don’t fret—between your favorite brands and the industry newcomers making waves (no pun intended), where there’s a will for volume, there’s definitely a way.
Check out the best products for fine, flat hair below.
Best Overall: Living Proof Full Thickening Cream
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Lightly conditions
Thickens fine hair
Lightweight
Strong scent
It may seem like witchcraft, but Living Proof’s patented thickening molecule will offer your hair more body than ever before. The brand's "thickening dots" create space between each strand so that fine hair behaves the same way it would if it were naturally thick, while an emollient blend adds shine.
What Our Testers Say
"My initial reaction after I dried my hair was whoa. It actually looked like I had more hair on my head." — Joline Buscemi, Product Tester
Best Budget: Got2B Fat-Tastic Instant Collagen Infusion Mousse
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Strong hold
Long-lasting
Inexpensive
Not for all hair types
Luscious hair that holds all day long? This brand has always been a drugstore go-to, but its Instant Collagen Infusion Mousse is in a league of its own. With collagen serving as the key ingredient, the mousse quite literally pumps the hair strand by upping its elasticity. The resulting strands are denser and inevitably stronger.
Best Drugstore: Kenra Professional Volume Spray 25
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Good value
Holds up in humidity
Long-lasting
A little sticky
Many sprays over-promise and under-deliver, but Kenra lives up to every single one of its mandates. Hair that's styled with this product is said to stay in place for up to 120 hours (that’s a whole work week!) and is resistant to high winds and humidity. And no, we didn’t overlook the most important part: this will boost your hair to the heavens, and, obviously, keep it there.
Best Spray: Bumble and bumble Thickening Dryspun Finish
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Travel size available
Light-to-medium hold
Conditioning
Strong scent
While this spray doesn’t boast an endless hold, it does guarantee superior texture. Composed of silk powders with light holding polymers that attach to hair, it lifts roots and plumps in all the right places. Use to extend the life of your blowout, or thicken your ponytail or braid—soon, your weightless style will be the envy of all your fine-haired friends.
Best Anti-Frizz: Moroccanoil Treatment Light
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Hydrating & nourishing
Available in 3 sizes
Doesn't weigh down fine hair
Doesn't provide hold
Oil and fine hair don’t mix, right? Wrong. If your hair is on the lighter side and prone to frizz, Morrocanoil may have the product for you. Reviewers with heavily colored hair claim the product all but saved their ends—in fact, it’s specifically formulated for strands that have come in contact with bleach. Your hair won’t even know itself after this antioxidant overload, which cuts drying time in half, detangles, and adds shine.
Best for Thinning Hair: Toppik Hair Building Fibers
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Boosts strength with keratin
Tinted for root regrowth
Long-lasting hold
Expensive per ounce
You may have heard of fiber-adding eyebrow gel—well, this is the same concept, but on a larger scale. With nine shades to match any hair color, this product adds colored keratin protein to your own hair to create a full-bodied mane. It’s also highly effective to touch up roots or conceal extension tracks, as well as filling in any patches or part lines. Wind and rain are no match for the product, but it does wash out easily with shampoo.
Best Texturizing: Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray
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Doubles as dry shampoo
Contains antioxidants
Ideal for color-treated hair
Contains alcohol
Any hairstylist worth their salt will sing the praises of Oribe for texture. This spray is activated with heat for mega volume but can be used in any capacity—finding the sweet spot between dry shampoo, volume treatment, and hairspray. So, what’s the secret? Well, the product’s patented polymers go to work on your roots to absorb oil, lifting the strands and helping to hold your styled hair for days on end.
What Our Testers Say
"It definitely gave a little more life to my hair, and it still looked totally natural." — Ashley Rubell, Product Tester
Best for Short Hair: Kérastase Elixir Ultime Bi-Phase Oil Spray
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Ideal for all hair types
Contains hydrating oils
Nice scent
Contains alcohol
This product may have a slightly higher price point, but it's warranted. Not only is it an excellent fit for every hair type, it actively expands thickness and boosts shine while healing hair with camellia and argan oils—plus, it manages to achieve this without actually weighing down the hair itself. Oh, and it’s fast-absorbing, so no greasy residue post-application.
Best for Long Hair: Essy Naturals Hair Growth Oil
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Simple ingredients
No drying ingredients
Prevents breakage
Can make hair greasy
Jam-packed full of vitamins, there’s nothing like this Essy Naturals offering to kick start growth. Castor oil, caffeine, rosemary oil, and a biotin blend work together to stimulate their hair follicles, while antibacterial properties ensure the health of hair. The result is stronger individual strands which mean less breakage and eventually, fuller-looking hair.
Best Mousse: Joico JoiWhip Design Foam
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Protects against UV damage
Contains peptides
Light scent
Could add more volume
A firm hold that lasts all day while building volume and conditions hair in the process? Joico has really outdone themselves with this one. The Designing Foam is formulated with evening primrose oil—a hair, skin, and nails essential—as well as fatty acids to facilitate healthier hair while it holds. Not to mention all these protectants defend hair against sun damage. This product is literally a quadruple threat.
Best Conditioner: R+Co Dallas Biotin Thickening Conditioner
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Lightly hydrates
Contains strengthening ingredients
Good value
Not ideal for color-treated hair
R+Co Dallas has also caught on to the power of B5, coupling the vitamin with biotin to encourage maximum thickness from even the finest, flattest hair. With fruit extracts and coconut oil, the conditioner is also intensely moisturizing, so it penetrates each strand to deeply hydrate from the inside out.
Best Volumizing: Moroccanoil Dry Texture Spray
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Great scent
Value size available
Contains argan oil
Contains alcohol
Byrdie senior editor Hallie Gould is a big fan of this Moroccanoil spray, and who can blame her? This not only suits any hair type but also protects your color. Argan oil, the brand's signature ingredient, restores hair’s elasticity, and wheat protein conditions hair while it holds. Not only will your tresses be more manageably texturized than ever, but you can count on this spray to hold them in place for hours on end.
Final Verdict
There are a plethora of plumping products for anyone looking to add volume to fine hair. We’re big fans of the Living Proof Full Thickening Cream; it relies on a patented molecule that creates space between each strand to make hair look and feel thicker (for real). Mousses are a great option for the flat-haired set and the Joico JoiWhip Design Foam is our favorite, full of ingredients that increase volume and maintain the health of your hair. Incorporate a dry texture spray into your routine too, like the Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray (a stylist go-to) or the Moroccanoil Dry Texture Spray.
What to Look For in Products for Fine, Flat Hair
Ingredients that thicken or increase the diameter of the strand
When it comes to fine, flat hair that lacks body, you'll want to look for products that contain ingredients that can thicken and plump. These vary but include things such as polymers, collagen, and even plumping powders. "These are the ingredients that give hair body and guts," says Mesen.
Airy formulas
The lighter, the better. Steer clear of thick balms or pomades, and opt for aerosols, whipped mousses or creams, or featherweight powders. After all, the last thing you want is for the product to be too heavy and end up weighing hair down instead of boosting it up. "With a dry product like texturizing sprays or hairsprays, think about the size of the droplets from a pump vs. an aerosol product," says Mesen. "The bigger the droplet, the more weight it will place on the hair. Fine mists are much lighter, keeping the hair from being weighted down. When it comes to wet hair, a whipped product like a mousse can often give more volume than a gel or volumizing spray due to the light formula and the foamy texture of the product."
Products that are compatible with your hair color
Mesen also stresses finding products that will be compatible with your hair color in order to avoid it looking dull, chalky, or gray. "Blonde and light colored hair does well with most standard dry products [like volumizing and texture powders and powder sprays], while brunette or red hair may require a colored powder or at least very translucent."
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Can you use styling products on fine hair?
Fine hair can benefit from the right styling products, but you’ll likely want to use less than someone with a thicker texture. Celebrity hairstylist Mara Roszak says to avoid applying anything to your roots except for root-volume spray and to focus any other product on your ends first. Additionally, start with a small amount of product, as you can add to it if you need more, but there’s not much you can do if you already applied too much.
How We Test Products for Fine, Flat Hair
Our team works hard to be transparent about why we recommend certain products; you can read more about our product review methodology here
Meet the Expert
Michelle Pasterski Mesen is a Houston-based hairstylist who specializes in dry cutting and razor cutting.
According to our Diversity Pledge, 15% of products in our newly-published market roundups will feature Black-owned and/or Black-founded brands. At the time of publishing, we were not able to find any products for flat, fine hair from a Black-owned and/or Black-founded business. If you know of one we should consider, please email us at contact@byrdie.com and we will evaluate the product ASAP.
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