Adding heavy fringe around your face works well to add thickness to long, fine hair. And since length can weigh your hair down, putting it in a ponytail is an easy way to fake volume. To get the look:
Step 1: After washing hair, apply gel (try NIOXIN Thickening Gel, $14) and blow dry hair with a boar-bristle round brush.
Step 1: Wrap dry hair up in hot rollers, leaving out your bangs. When hair has cooled, remove rollers.
Step 2: Brush hair into a ponytail several inches above the nape of your neck and secure with a pain-free elastic. Wear your bangs straight down or sideswept.
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Let it all hang down
If you have fine, naturally curly hair, we're talking to you. Believe it or not, just leaving your hair down is one of the best ways to downplay the fact that it is thinning. Just make sure you get the right haircut to better support fine hair, optimize volume, and accentuate your facial features, says Morrison. To style it:
Step 1: Shampoo, condition, and treat hair with products specially formulated for thinning hair.
Step 2: Apply gel all over hair and blow dry using a diffuser attachment on low heat. This will help define your curls.
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Take the mid-length road
Mid-length hair, or a long bob, with a few light layers and sideswept bangs is a versatile style for fine hair. It adds volume and depth no matter your natural texture. To style it:
Step 2: Blow dry your hair while your head is upside down until the roots are almost dry, then flip your hair back over to finish. Be cautious not to over-dry or damage the hair. (Tip: If your dryer has a cool-shot button, use it to locate still damp areas once you think your hair is dry.)
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Use velcro rollers
Need a little something special for a night out? Avoid excessive heat damage (which can exacerbate hair loss) by using velcro rollers. Here's how:
Step 1: On dry hair, coat hair with a light heat-protecting hair spray and roll 1-inch sections up in velcro rollers. Aerosol hairsprays work best on fine hair because they are lightest and typically offer different hold strengths, says Morrison.
Step 2: Blow dry hair all over and let cool. Remove rollers and finger comb to retain body and fullness.
As someone who's always had a relatively thick, healthy head of hair, hair loss wasn't even on my radar. I mean, sure, I knew that it was an issue many men and women contend with. But happily, I'd never had any personal dealings with it. Then a friend -- a contemporary in her thirties -- began regaling me with her thinning hair tales of woe and I learned that hair loss can hit you out of left field at pretty much any age. Swell. Something else to fret about.
To get an understanding of why this happens (and keep myself from freaking out for no reason), I consulted the folks over at Nioxin. It turns out that there are many causes of hair loss, from genetics and diet to severe stress and changes in our environment. While it's normal to lose 50 to 100 individual strands of hair a day, or to lose hair after pregnancy, it's worth seeing a doctor if you experience the following: excessive dryness, flakiness or oiliness of the scalp, patchy spots of hair loss, or excessive facial or body hair. You may also, as was the case with my friend, notice a wider part, thinning on the side of the head, or a smaller ponytail than usual.
Even once you've diagnosed the problem, it can take a very long time for your hair to return to its fuller state -- and for some, it never will. So what's a girl to do about styling her thinning strands? Here are some great tips from Nioxin Stylist Design Team member Diane Stevens, owner of Cole Stevens salon in Washington, D.C., and celebrity stylist Anthony Morrison from TLC's "Glam Squad: 10 Years Younger. See the best ways to cut and style thinning hair now.
