Take your locks from flat to fat. Photo: Peter Buckingham

When you have fine hair, there's nothing fine about it. It's limp, lifeless and lacking serious volume-even after an hour of backcombing (grrrr).

To understand why your hair is constantly battling your body-boosting efforts and continuously falling flat, you need to understand its structure.

Fine hair, by definition, means the diameter of each hair strand is smaller. In other words, says celebrity hair stylist and Hair Basics expert Ted Gibson, "The strand is a little more fine and not as full." And because each individual strand is smaller and more sheer, the hair tends to look thin, go limp and act lifeless.

But despite its delicate composition, notes Gibson, "Fine hair is actually easy to manage. You can create interesting shapes as well as lots of volume."

Really?

Like any hair type or texture, it all starts with the cut. "Keep your hair at a one length shape. It will add strength and volume to your hair," says Gibson. "If you put in a lot of layers what ends up happening is that it has no shape," he adds.

Using a volumizing shampoo is also critical. "It will help to expand each hair strand in order to give you ultimate volume," he says. A lightweight conditioner (preferably one designed for fine hair) is also essential to help keep the hair weightless rather than weighted down.



The fragile structure of fine hair makes it more prone to breakage. Trimming it every four to six weeks will keep split ends to a minimum, while a weekly deep conditioning treatment will help to nourish and strengthen.

When it comes to styling the hair, the more products the better. "You want to use a volumizing product on the scalp to create fullness and something else like a gel on the ends to penetrate the cuticle and give the hair a lot of body," notes Gibson.

During your blow dry, always use a round brush with mixed boar and nylon bristles. "The combination of the two smoothes and detangles, and creates volume," says Gibson. Rotating the brush in a circular motion while blow drying individual sections of hair also helps to increase volume.

Not, about that volume: Watch the video for Gibson's five easy styling tips for making fine hair fab. Click through the gallery below for the step-by-step, and visit our Hair Basics section for more easy hair how-tos.