How to give volume to your hair? It’s something that many of us will have Googled at some point and yet it still sounds like one of beauty’s greatest puzzles. In fact, Philip Kingsley’s trichologists cite limp, flat hair as one of the most common hair frustrations they bring to their clinics.
Now, a strategic haircut can instantly add tons of volume to the top of your head – just look at the popular mullet and wolf cut hairstyles in a minute from TikTok that are currently all the rage. But if you’re not looking for a drastic makeover, your focus should be on the products you use.
One celebrity known for her healthy, voluminous hair is Jennifer Lopez – just see how amazing it looked during her Super Bowl 2020 halftime show. Of course, we’ve already covered how the hairstylist Lopez’s longtime star Chris Appleton protected this glossy hairstyle from intense moisture with a strategic blow-dry.
But another thing he says is important when styling someone’s hair is the products he uses to get ready. Previously, Appleton mixed a few different products to create volume. And now, to save you the trouble of trying to make your own concoction, they’ve teamed up with Color Wow to take all the benefits of these volumizing products and put them in just one bottle. Enter: Color Wow Xtra Large Bombshell Volumizer, £ 23.
Suitable for all hair types and textures, but especially those with thin, thin strands, this hair innovation uses polymers to thicken strands of hair without drying them out and help create bounce and shine. It also contains bamboo extract to coat each strand and lift it off the cuticle without leaving hair sticky.
There are many factors that can cause flat hair. Your hair may be very thin, your scalp may produce excess sebum, or you may be applying conditioner to your roots. For me, my flat hair is the result of the length and thickness of my hair hanging down at the roots. I’ve tried a lot of mousse in an attempt to revive my hair, but all I’ve managed to achieve is a crisp, stiff finish.
To use it, I washed my hair and wrapped it in a microfiber towel for about 10 minutes while doing my care. Then, when it was wet, I got to work.
The first thing that struck me about this product was the texture. I expected a thicker, lather-like formula, but instead it’s airy lather. Now foams generally get a bad rap when it comes to drying, but this formula was created without alcohol or salt. Science, eh?
I watched an explanatory video from Appleton, in which he asked to use “two to three push-ups per quarter hair”. I divided my hair into four sections and, fearing to go too far, I used two push-ups for each section, sliding the mousse along the hair from root to tip.
Of course, the only place we want the most volume is in the roots, which is why Appleton recommends adding an extra pump of mousse along the hairline (note for your future self: be sure to clean properly along the hairline later, to avoid breakouts around that area). I also took some product along my parting, hoping it would give me a little lift there too.
Unlike most volumizing products, Xtra Large actually doesn’t require any heat – just what someone who’s avoided styling for most of the past 12 months wants to hear. Finishing the product with heat will of course help give the hair even more lift at the roots, but since I was testing on a random Tuesday afternoon, I decided to see how it would go with blow drying. air.
When my hair was completely dry I did a bit of a double take. I had more volume than I could ever get with any other product and so much lift in the roots.
Best of all, as someone who loves to style their hair and refrains from sticking to just one parting throughout the day, I was delighted to see that it didn’t leave my hair heavy, grainy, sticky, or straight in the hair. roots. The mousse is so light that I didn’t feel like I had anything in my hair.
Even though the only place I needed to go was my local Tesco, I couldn’t help but wiggle my hair, enjoying the volume, bounce and body it had from root to tip. This product is a genius.
