Alongside your hair’s natural thickness, thin hair can be caused by environmental reasons, such as over-styling and excessive traction, it can be down to your diet and it can be due to medical reasons.
“How can I increase hair thickness?”
Now, for the question we all came here for. Once you’ve identified why your hair isn’t as thick as you’d like, you can take steps to tackle it. There are a number of ways to do this.
Density
First, look at density – for instance you may have thick strands, but just not many of them. You can improve density by “taking care of the scalp (cleansing frequently), making sure to eat well (three balanced meals a day, including proteins and carbohydrates), as well as using targeting products and supplements such as biotin, vitamin b12, vitamin d, zinc and iron,” says Anabel.
Volume
Second, you can look at volume. If you’re determined to have finer strands, there are ways to inflate and boost them to create the appearance of thickness, which is where styling and cuts come in.
Here are the pro-recommended ways for how to get thicker hair…
Think of food as hair fuel
Yes, once again, what’s going on on the inside really does make a difference. Good hair starts with good health, so think of food as hair fuel. “Always start with what you are putting in your body as your quality of nutrition will dictate the quality and quantity of raw materials your body has to work with to make new tissue (like hair),” says Eleanore. “Excessive hair shedding is very commonly down to deficiency within the body, therefore making sure you are consuming a diet rich in protein, omega 3 and 6, vitamin D and Bs is essential. Remember your hair is just one long strand of dead protein, but your whole body also relies on access to protein to repair and make new cells. Your body’s cells will take priority over your hair if protein becomes a limited resource,” she insists.
“Eating a healthy, balanced, and varied diet is key,” concurs Anabel. “The impact that nutrition has on hair growth should not be underestimated. As hair is non-essential tissue, and hair cells are the second fastest growing cells your body makes, its nutritional requirements are very high,” she says.
READ MORE: How to stimulate hair growth.
Only supplement if you actually need to
It can be tempting to hit Holland & Barrett as soon as your hair isn’t playing ball — especially with countless TikTok videos telling us we should — but it shouldn’t be your first port of call (see above: start with your diet). “Whilst supplements can be helpful, they are there to supplement. If your levels are already good, chances are that supplement isn’t adding further value to your body and will likely be excreted out or may even cause complications if levels build up too high. Remember, an excellent diet should always come first,” says Eleanore.