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There’s nothing like voluminous locks. Hair with decent volume frames the face well and gives a more healthy appearance. But if you’ve been abusing your hair, your hair could be limp, scraggly and an all-around mess, leading you to wonder how you’re supposed to get thick hair in the first place. Below are several ways to get some bounce back in your locks.

Learn how to tease hair without looking like an ‘80s nightmare

After entire decades like the 80s, hair teasing has a bad rap. People would tease hair so much that it would look like a skyscraper, and in worst cases, people would risk their hair falling out from too much physical manipulation of the hair shaft.

But that doesn’t mean we need to shun hair teasing entirely. Rather than abusing your hair for hours, just get a new toothbrush and tease the roots gently for a little bit. That will get some nice volume without looking like an out-of-style reject.

Check out these Invisibobble hacks to help your limp hair when putting it up. It’s a lifesaver.

Get the right shampoo and conditioner

If you’ve looked in the shampoo and conditioner isle lately, you may have noticed that every brand of hair care product seems to have a volumizing shampoo and conditioner line. This may take some experimentation to see which brand works best with your hair, but some good places to start are the Pantene Pro-V Sheer Volume line and the Aussie Aussome Volume line.

Pay attention to your roots

When in doubt, reach for a root lifter product, like Kenra Root Lifting Spray. It’s a quick and easy way to add some instant volume. Any brand of dry shampoo could also work in a similar fashion when massaged into the roots.

Treat your hair well

One of the worst culprits of thin-looking hair is, unfortunately, actually thinning hair. Many of these issues could be hormonal or related to medications. But another likely cause is too much hair breakage and pulling. An easy solution to that is to invest in quality hairbrushes, like a boar’s hairbrush for dry hair and a brush made for detangling wet hair.

Also make sure you are not drying out your hair or damaging it with heat. Try to avoid heat styling tools as much as possible and only use shampoo when necessary. Shampooing every day can be much too drying.

A neat trick is to only shampoo the roots and leave conditioner on the lengths for a couple minutes on most days. You’ll end up with some bounce at your roots, but sleek, moisturized lengths.

You can also treat your hair better by not tying it in continuously tight, high ponytails. Try these invisibobble hacks for better ponytails!

Look into extensions

If you’ve tried everything else and really want to have thicker-looking hair, look into some quality extensions. These are best obtained through a stylist so they can match your hair exactly and show you how to use them best so your hair looks naturally thick. It’s not like getting cheap extensions at the mall for some extra highlights and length. Just know that this option is not cheap, and can range in the hundreds to thousands of dollars to do correctly. But hey, they will for sure help you figure out how to make your hair look longer.

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