My Full-Fat Haircare Routine
I’ve written about what I do to promote healthier hair growth (and minimize age-related loss) here, here and here. But I also have a strategy for making the fine hair I have right now look and feel fuller too.
My regimen starts in the shower. I’ve not found a better strand-fattening collection than Kerastase’s Densifique; it includes a Shampoo, Conditioner, Masque, Mousse—and a Minoxidil serum. While the whole line is excellent, my favorite product is the Masque. I can pair it with any shampoo, and it flattens frizz and boosts body. Magic. My favorite way to use it is before I air-dry and wear my hair wavy; it gives my strands guts and makes my waves bouncy.
Post-shower, Living Proof’s Full Thickening Cream is my dense-hair holy grail. Squeezed from the bottle, this styler looks like a rich conditioner, but fear not: It doesn’t weigh down the hair at all—quite the opposite. It makes my strands feel as full and weightless as a mousse would, but without any of the unwanted stiffness a foam can impart. Like the Densifique Masque, my favorite time to use this is when I’m wearing my hair wavy and want extra body. (I am a child of the '80s, after all; I still crave the bounce, just not the gel-crunch.) If I want a soft, natural finish, I will just use the Cream alone; if I want a ropey, beachier texture, I will pair the Cream with a salt spray like Bumble and bumble Surf Spray, John Master's Sea Mist Salt Spray or Living Proof Instant Texturizing Mist.
Finally, if I'm after swingy, very full body and I plan to blow-dry my hair straight, Densifique and the Living Proof Full Cream are also key. But one important caveat, they are potent. So if I desire a sleeker, silkier finish (a la a flat-ironed Gwyneth in the mid-1990s), I will skip them and use a smoothing serum instead. (But I'll save the details of my silky-hair strategy for another post.) What I use every time I style, whether the end goal is sleek, straight, full, wavy, etc., is the salt spray. Years ago, stylist Eva Scrivo taught me that there is no better root lifter. You just spritz the salty styler on your roots before blow- or air-drying. And, unlike traditional root lifters, which can leave your roots sticky (and occasionally, flakey, as the polymers in the product break down and pepper your hair), the salt spray plumps the roots and makes my hair soft. Swell...literally.
