new thread
Hello,
I have been comtemplating growing longer hair for awhile now. I have typically always had very short hair (1-2 inches max) with the exception of when I and I had hair down to my shoulders.
After much thought, I have decided to undertake the journey. I'm not planning on getting it too long just around shoulder length again.
Anyways, heres my question:
I have very thin/fine hair (in diameter). I am 20 years old and if you look at the top of my head my scalp is visible and some people think I am balding (i've heard this from maybe 4 people in my entire life though). My hair line is not receding. However, this top view of my scalp has consistently looked the same at least for the last 6 years. It does not appear to be getting worse (I think and hope!). The way I used to style it (messy spikey up) concealed it very well and it was barely noticable. Now, my hair is getting longer (its about 3 inches long uniformly around my hear) and i'm having a hard time finding a style at this length that helps minimize the appearance. I don't think I am going bald (male relatives all have hair), I just have very thin hair like my father. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to minimize this perception? Would volumizing or some sort of hair thickening product work? I really want to grow long hair, but I have a feeling that the bad-hair phase for me is going to look REALLY bad which is making me really think again about growing it out.
Thanks in advance.
Well they do make shampoos that help make your hair look thicker but they do this by swelling the hair shaft. I'm not sure on the science of it but that's what I was told by a stylist. You could
try those and see if you notice a difference.
Otherwise Wash it a lot as clean although drier hair wll look thicker than greassy hair. At least that's been my experience.
Kevin
Your stylist friend was right. MOP (Modern Organic Products is what it stands for I think) makes a pretty awesome shampoo based on lemongrass for volumizing. Lemongrass absorbs water and holds it and when you add heat, it swells tremendously. Anybody who's cooked with it knows. Anyway, the lemongrass bonds to your hair when you wash it, and when you blow dry it, your hair shaft increases in diameter. Most volumizing shampoos work in a similar fashion but usually with some kind of chemical instead of lemongrass.
All very true, but blow drying is bad for your hair. Frequent and/or hot use of a blow dryer is bad news, as it can do real permanent damage, even if it may look good right afterwards.
How your hair looks during the awkward phase has less to do with whether it is thin and/or fine, and more to do with whether it is straight, wavy or curly, which is not related to whether it is fine or thin. I have wavy hair, which springs out in crazy directions at that length. Those with straight hair have the fewest problems. At the opposite extreme, curly haired people have a different problem, in that their hair grows outwards before it starts to grow down.
So what's the difference between fine and thin, you say? Fine means small diameter hairs, and thin means less of them, although it has nothing to do with thinNING, which is a euphemism for balding. With balding you usually get less hair in certain areas, like the temples and the crown to start with, but everyone with male hormones has some thinning in those areas and most don't go bald, but for those who do it gradually spreads, usually being obvious before age 30, and being inherited. Thin hair, OTOH, is a lower number of hairs all over, which usually stays the same all your life, although this is genetic too.
It sounds like you do have thin hair, just like you said. Mine is both thin and fine, which means I suffer from a lack of volume since both affect that, and it sounds like this might apply to you too, but I'm not sure. OTOH, it sounds like yours is thinner, although not necessarily as fine or finer. I only worry that no matter how long I grow my hair (and it is pretty long) it never really seems like there is much of it, but at least I don't worry (too much) about my scalp showing.
All these differences between different people's hair become more obvious when you grow it out. In some ways that's part of the fun, although it's easy to get frustrated when you can't get your hair to look like your favourite rock guitarist or WHY, which few of us can because the chances are we have different hair from that person.
Mind you, my favourite guitarist was always Jimmi Hendrix, and it never occurred to me to want to have hair like him because he was half black and half Sioux tribe! OTOH, I sometimes wish I could have had hair like keyboard player Rick Wakeman (when he had it longer, not after he cut it back to shoulder length), but I've never been willing to bleach and straighten it (both really damaging processes) to try to look like that.
One other thing that can help is using henna. This basically just makes the hair thicker, but it also improves shine, and it's also a red/orange dye, which has different effects depending on what colour hair you have to begin with. OTOH, there is something called 'neutral henna' which doesn't colour your hair and has similar effects (strictly speaking it isn't henna atall, but a completely different herb). If you are interested, take a look at :-
http://www.hennaforhair.com
Thank you very much for the incredibly thoughtful reply. My hair is very straight, fine and a little thin on the scalp. I will likely try the henna. Once again thanks. I will post back with my impressions.
You're welcome, just be sure that if you dye it you really want it that colour. It's not something that just washes out.
I've done some researching from the links you provided. I'm going to try something called "Cassia Obovata" or "neutral henna" (2nd name is misleading as it is not actually henna but from a different plant). It gives approximately the same effects but does not dye or alter the color of dark hair (I really hope! Haha). It is used purely for conditioning purposes.
I've ordered some off the internet and will hopefully use it late or early next week.
I have very fine, thin hair. I use Aloe Vera gel as a leave-in after towel drying my hair. It adds both moisture and volume. You can pick up a bottle in the skin care aisle of any mass market or drug store.
Carol