How To Get Voluminous Hair: Our Best Tips and Products for Big Hair

Learning how to get more volume in hair can completely transform your daily styling routine from frustrating to flawless. Achieving voluminous hair is all about understanding your specific hair type and making small, strategic adjustments to your hair care habits. Finding the best volumizing shampoo is only the first step toward transforming your flat mane into one that speaks volumes.

While flat hair certainly has its place in the styling world—we love it for a slicked-back look—a lack of volume can be frustrating if you are after a fuller, fluffier hairstyle. If you are dealing with flat hair, you are probably wondering how to give your hair more volume at the roots for a fuller mane.

Ahead, we will explain what causes flat hair and share our best tips for giving your strands a much-needed boost. You’ll also discover our favorite volumizing products for flat hair, along with everything we know about adding volume. Keep reading to achieve long-lasting fullness and rewrite your daily styling routine.

Why Do I Have Flat Hair?

Learning how to make hair more voluminous starts with pinpointing why your strands lack natural lift. Genetics, daily habits, and your lifestyle can all contribute to flat, limp hair.

It is important to remember that flat hair is incredibly common and is not a sign that your hair is inherently unhealthy. However, understanding the specific drivers of your hair type can help you find a lasting fix for voluminous hair.

Here are the main culprits:

• Your natural hair texture: Naturally fine or perfectly straight hair lacks the built-in thickness and structural diameter of broader strands. Because fine individual strands have less natural density, they naturally tend to lie flatter against your scalp instead of propping each other up.
• Oil accumulation and scalp buildup: These are primary drivers of overall limpness. When you practice infrequent washing or touch your hair too often throughout the day, excess sebum and oils from your fingertips collect at the roots, quickly weighing your hair down.
• Heavy products and residues: Using thick formulas, heavy emollients, or hard-water minerals can coat your mane in an invisible film. The wrong products trap oils, leading to a flat, lank look rather than clean, airy movement.
• Over-styling habits: While certain styling products are great for building volume, overusing them can have the opposite effect. Piling on too many sprays or creams creates product weight and crunch, which inevitably results in limp-looking locks that refuse to hold a style.

Flat hair vs. thin hair

To know if a flat hair fix will work, you must tell the difference between flat hair and thin hair.

• Flat hair lies close to the scalp: Flat hair simply lacks lift at the root and lies close to the scalp, which can happen even if you have an abundant amount of naturally thick hair.
• Thin hair lacks follicle density: Thin hair refers directly to actual follicle density on your head, meaning you can have thin strands that still possess plenty of hair volume and natural movement.

This means you can have:

• Thick hair that is completely flat due to heavy oil or length weight.
• Thin hair that has plenty of hair volume and natural movement.

Products for voluminous hair are specifically formulated to target lift, root tension, and airy fullness at the base rather than changing your actual physical follicle count.

How To Make Hair More Voluminous and Big

Achieving big hair requires a combination of weightless moisture, strategic product placement, and specific styling techniques. If you are trying to figure out how to fix flat hair, keep reading to find the best products for voluminous hair, a streamlined routine, plus tricks that will surprise you.

1. Start with a volumizing wash routine

The foundation of any high-volume hairstyle begins directly in the shower. To maximize lift, you need to remove heavy buildup and avoid over-conditioning your roots, which can flatten your hair before you even pick up a blow-dryer.

• Clear away heavy buildup: Weekly detoxing removes weight-inducing residue, dead skin cells, and minerals.

  Try the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Clarifying Shampoo, a deep-cleansing formula infused with antioxidants that gently removes stubborn styling product buildup, heavy residue, and hard-water minerals without stripping hair color. It detoxifies the hair and scalp, leaving a clean, weightless foundation. Use it once a week in place of your regular shampoo.

  Finish with the L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Restoring Conditioner to replenish essential, lightweight moisture.

• Use lightweight formulas: Opt for lift-focused ingredients that strengthen hair fibers without leaving behind heavy residue.

  The L’Oréal Paris Elvive Collagen Peptide + Lifter Shampoo is a premium volumizing shampoo powered by collagen peptides to plump and support flat, fine hair fibers. It provides immediate structural lift at the scalp while clearing away debris and oil from the roots, offering a lightweight feel and an expansive foundation for full-body fullness. Massage it thoroughly into your scalp to break up excess oils before rinsing.

  Follow up with the L’Oréal Paris Elvive Collagen Peptide + Lifter Conditioner to expand hair fullness, detangle, and hydrate.

• Apply conditioner wisely: If you want big hair, it’s best to keep conditioner away from your roots and focus entirely on the mid-lengths to ends, starting at ear level or below, because over-conditioning can instantly flatten your roots.

For more targeted advice on optimizing your shower routine, check out our guide on how to wash thin hair properly.

2. Use lightweight styling products for lift

Choosing the right styling products can make or break the longevity of your voluminous hair look. You want to avoid thick creams, dense waxes, and heavy natural oils that smother the root area, swapping them out for dynamic, gravity-defying products.

• Avoid heavy-duty treatments: Swap out dense, oil-rich liquids for weightless mists and gels that won't leave your hair feeling limp.
• Target root lift vs. texture: Use precise root lifters to create vertical tension at the scalp, and reserve texturizing products for adding piecey grip through your lengths.
• Turn to mousse and dry shampoo: These are your primary volume-building heroes because they deposit weightless polymers to lift individual strands.

  The L’Oréal Paris Elvive Collagen Peptide + Lifter Mousse is an advanced, weightless styling mousse designed to deliver maximum all-over fullness and root lift for a perfect big hair look. The collagen-infused formula encapsulates strands to expand hair diameter and thickness, creating long-lasting body and flexible movement. Work a generous dollop through damp strands from root to tip before styling.

To extend the life of your style between wash days, the L’Oréal Paris Elvive Collagen Peptide + Lifter Big Fresh Volumizing Dry Shampoo is a high-performance, residue-free dry shampoo formulated to refresh limp hair. It instantly absorbs heavy surface oils and impurities at the scalp, depositing invisible structural volume to provide clean root lift and long-lasting fullness.

Remember that when using voluminous mousse for hair or dry shampoo, less is often more to prevent product accumulation.

3. Blow-dry for maximum root volume

The way you dry your hair sets the structural memory of your roots. For the most effective lift retention, use smart heat-styling techniques that coax flat hair into an upright position.

1. Dry your roots first: Always remove water from the roots first so they do not have a chance to dry flat against your scalp.
2. Blow-dry upside down: Flipping your head upside down leverages gravity to force the roots away from the scalp naturally.
3. Create upward tension: Pull your sections upward and away from your head with a round brush, and hit the base with the cool-shot setting to lock the shape in place.
4. Set with rollers: For extended volume and a classic bounce, wrap warm sections around Velcro rollers and let them cool completely.

To protect your strands from thermal damage during this process, try the L'Oréal Paris Elvive Dream Lengths Heat Slayer Leave-In, an ultra-protective heat styling leave-in spray that shields long hair and fine strands from heat damage up to 450°F. The lightweight formula tames frizz, reduces flyaways, and locks in sleek smoothness without weighing down the roots, making it ideal for pre-drying prep.

Read more on how to use a heat protectant spray correctly to keep your hair protected.

4. Styling tricks that instantly add volume

When you need an immediate boost without a full wash routine, there are several temporary, high-impact, voluminous hair styling hacks you can use to create the appearance of thicker hair.

• Switch your part: Flipping your hair to the opposite side instantly challenges your roots, forcing the hair follicles into an unfamiliar position for instant natural height.
• Tease the underside: Back-combing the underside of three-inch sections at the crown with a fine-toothed comb adds sudden fullness. Minimize damage by utilizing a gentle technique and a light-hold spray.
• Sport a double ponytail: Stack one ponytail directly underneath another to double the appearance of your updo's thickness and length.
• Try a loose bun: Wrapping slightly damp hair into a high bun at the crown with a soft silk scrunchie for an hour creates beautiful, heat-free lift.

5. The best hairstyles for big hair

Your haircut and daily styling choices play a massive role in how much body your hair can sustain over time. Choosing styles that discourage strands from nesting flatly together will keep your mane full of body.

• Add layers: Ask your stylist for a strategically layered cut, as shorter interior layers reduce overall weight and create natural bounce.
• Rock voluminous curls: Incorporate loose curls or soft waves with a large-barrel iron to introduce continuous movement and fullness.
• Utilize shorter cuts: Opting for pixie cuts, bobs, and lobs reduces the weight of your hair, so your mane feels lighter and looks fuller.
• Give rollers a try: Using foam rollers, hot rollers, or flexi-rods sets your hair into a bouncy, red-carpet structure that holds all day.

6. Best voluminous hair products to try

Building a curated arsenal of targeted products ensures you can hit your volume goals at every stage of your routine. Choosing lightweight formulas across all categories maintains an airy, touchable structure from morning to night.

Wash and prep

• L'Oréal Paris Elvive Collagen Peptide + Lifter Volumizing Shampoo: A premium shampoo powered by collagen peptides to plump and support flat hair fibers while creating a clean root foundation.
• L'Oréal Paris Elvive Collagen Peptide + Lifter Volumizing Conditioner: A lightweight, fiber-lifting formula that expands hair fullness and detangles lengths without flattening the roots.
• L'Oréal Paris Elvive Collagen Peptide + Lifter Big Fresh Volumizing Dry Shampoo: A high-performance dry shampoo formulated to absorb heavy surface oils at the scalp and deposit invisible volume between washes.

• L’Oréal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Volume Shampoo: A lightweight, color-safe shampoo formulated with lotus flower extract to revive fine strands with essential root tension and weightless body.
• L’Oréal Paris Elvive Hyaluron + Pure Oil Erasing Serum: A purifying pre-shampoo treatment with a 6% exfoliating complex containing salicylic acid to dissolve and erase excess root oil.
• L’Oréal Paris Elvive Hyaluron + Plump Moisture Plump Serum: A lightweight daily leave-in spray with a hyaluronic care complex that flash-hydrates dry lengths and expands the hair fiber diameter.

Styling and finishing

• L'Oréal Paris Elvive Collagen Peptide + Lifter Big Lift Volumizing Mousse: An advanced weightless styling foam designed to expand hair diameter and thickness for maximum all-over fullness and root lift.
• L’Oréal Paris Studio Line Overworked Hair Putty: A versatile styling putty that adds definition, texture, and workable thickness to shorter hair and layered cuts with a flexible matte finish.
• L’Oréal Paris Advanced Hairstyle BOOST IT Volume Inject Mousse: An ultra-lightweight styling mousse infused with thickening agents to inject long-lasting volume and lift from roots to ends for up to 24 hours.
• L’Oréal Paris Elnett Satin Strong Hold Hairspray: A color-optimized version of the iconic micro-diffusion spray formulated with a UV filter to protect color-treated hair while maintaining long-lasting hold.

Common Mistakes That Make Hair Look Flat

Many people inadvertently sabotage their own voluminous hair goals through a few easily avoidable daily habits. Structuring your routine around lightweight prep and proper heat styling will yield immediate, long-lasting rewards.

• Over-conditioning and overusing heavy oils: Applying standard conditioner to your scalp or slathering heavy oils down your lengths smothers the root area. To fix this, apply products from the mid-lengths down and use a clarifying system once a week to maintain a fresh foundation.
• Product buildup and excess touching: Piling styling product on top of product or constantly touching your strands transfers oils from your fingertips to your hair. This creates a dense film that anchors hair to your scalp and collapses your styling efforts.
• Using too much dry shampoo: Spraying large amounts of dry shampoo to mask grease can flatten your strands. Over-application of any leave-in product can weigh down your hair, making it look flat rather than full and voluminous.
• Standard air-drying techniques: Letting your hair air-dry completely allows water weight to pull damp roots down, effectively locking them into a flat position against your head as they dry.

Next Up: Bad Hair Day? Try These Quick Fixes

Photo courtesy of L’Oréal Paris