Volumizing Blowouts: How to Pump up the Volume of Your Hair

Ever notice this? When your hair has loads of prettifying volume you just feel better about yourself?

You definitely feel more self-confident and captivating that’s for sure.

Maybe even more statuesque as you seem to walk taller with a smile that radiates.

All this full, flirty fabulousness gives you a glow that’s reflected in your eyes – leaving you to live out your very own personal Kardashian moment. Or so it seems.

Yeah so most would agree that ultra-lush, full looking hair works in similar ways for most everyone. And by “works” I mean is universally flattering.

Which may be why hair care product seller Schwarzkopf noted that almost half of us would love for our hair to have more volume to show off.

Sound familiar?

If so you want ways to play up the volume of your hair, right?

Great! I mean as I just said who doesn’t want a youthful kind of carefree volume and movement in their tresses?

Now as you’ll see from the two videos here with a little help you can get just that.

Using the right volumizing products, your humble round brush and a better than average blow dryer and/or maybe Velcro rollers you can achieve long lasting, natural looking volume and give your mane unbelievable body. Sound good?

Nothing Says Smart Street Style Like Voluminous, Selfie Ready Hair

But before we get to the first of those voluminous hair vids, let’s first explore some common techniques used to achieve this added fullness.

Plus we’ll talk about what products you might want to get and the tools most use to produce these coveted results.

So if the thought of dryer volumizing turns to bad memories of blow drying until your arms fall off think again.

Not only will the ideas shared produce volume galore, you’ll save your hair and your arms too. All the better since there are few looks sexier than hair styled with a noticeable amount of body and bounce.

You just can’t go wrong with dramatic lift that seems to defy gravity.

One way to get that is with…

Products That Give Your Roots a Mega Boost

Okay so we all know volume starts at the roots.

And since we all want body to spare companies like TIGI Bed Head, John Freida, and Tresemme have created incredible volumizing solutions that work wonders yet in a subtle, natural looking way – at the root level.

You know stuff like mousse or root lift spray?

These are loaded with body building formulas that instantly thicken the look of most anyone’s hair toward the crown without leaving it all stiff or sticky. Which makes it easy to fake the all-day volume you weren’t born with but totally dream of.

Ideally you’ll want to apply your root booster of choice all over your roots at the crown.

Then use your fingers to work it into the part of your strands closest to your scalp to rev them up.

Also you’d like any of these root lifters to be alcohol-free – most are. Especially if your hair tends to be on the dry side anyway. That way you’ll get the casual looking volume you want without drying it out unnecessarily since some are heat activated for best results.

Is it any wonder given these benefits these products often turn into must have solutions for those who want volume?

Quick Technique Run Down

Now to volumize properly you really want to focus on the hair around the crown. And any routine for getting there will kinda run through these basic steps.

Divvy It Up
After towel drying to remove most of the wetness divide the damp hair into smaller, more manageable sections for blow drying.

Maybe four or five sections? Think of it as the front, back and each of the two sides.

The idea is to work with one of them at a time so you want to twist and clip the rest out of the way for later.

Protect it
After applying heat protectant take the hair in one of the sections and brush or comb it out to remove any tangles and distribute the heat protectant well.

Lift It
Take whatever volumizing mousse or root lift you prefer and apply it to your hair focusing on the roots – obviously.

Do it a small section at a time.

Applying product is an important step. Maybe the most important.

Redirect It
The idea here is to redirect the roots in the opposite direction they normally lay.

Like if you usually part on the right side, when doing this direct your hair to the left. Then when dry you can lay it to the right as usual lighting smoothly things out.

Blow drying your hair against the grain like this surprisingly does create volume.

Blow Dry It
Using a round ceramic brush to put tension on it pull your hair while laying some heat on it with the blow dryer with the nozzle attached. You’re not wrapping the hair around the brush. You’re just using the brush to stretch out the hair, if you like. Then unravel the hair from the brush.

Cool It Down
Use the cool shot button to seal the deal and give your style a frizz free finish.

Lock It In
If you like you can spritz your comb with hair spray to nail down any flyaways and lock down your carefree look.

What About Back Combing?

Good question. You can if you like but shouldn’t have to.

Yet if you choose to tease some first apply your volumizing spray, foam or mouse. Go ahead and back comb from there and you’ll build in somewhat less than obvious lift.

The bonus benefit being that the lift created can help to keep your blowout from falling flat later in the day.

Next let’s see all this in action with this nicely conversational video that walks you through one way to get added lift into your hair. Watch as she transforms her hair from damp and flat to full of vivacious volume.

The Secret to Extreme Volume Blowouts with NO Frizz

Terrific’s Take

Anyone can duplicate these results with a little practice. All she uses for her impressive blowouts is a blow dryer, a brush and a few products.

She starts with hair that is 50-60% dry. Reason being you want the hair at the scalp to retain enough moisture to enable you to train and lift your hair.

Spritz in Root Lifter
Next she sprays the root lifter – taking care to spray it on the understand of the strands at the root level all around the crown of her head.

Roughly massage your product or choice throughout your hair.

There’s an added bonus from using a product like this. Curiously root lifter helps to make the blowout last much longer. Not to mention you’re left with insane volume.

Now for the Initial Blowout
That done next comes the initial blowout.

When it comes to the blow out, you can do it with your hair upside down or overdirect the hair in the opposite direction it normally lays. Either way will help to create some of that volume you’re looking for.

You also want the nozzle firmly in place when doing this.

Grab Your Round Brush
Once the roots are sorta try time to reach for your round brush.

Tip It’s not true that the bigger the round brush the bigger the volume. However a bigger brush does allow for better air flow however.

The downside to a bigger brush is you can’t get as close to your scalp with the brush to keep tension on the hair while blow drying. In that case you might want to try a smaller diameter brush so you can zero in on the part of the strand closest to your scalp to affect the volume from there.

Myth – Many fear round brushes thinking are prone to getting caught in your hair. Not so. In part because you are not looking at winding the hair all around the brush. Instead you want it ride or glide down your strands to keep tension on them.

In this phase you want to aim the airflow from your blowdryer down the hair shafts.

Also what the roundness does is to help you add a bit of flip to the ends. That’s when you maybe twist just a little to grab some hair to slightly curl under. But no, you’re not looking to wrap around the hair near the scalp.

Round Brush Trick: When it comes to working with the hair on the top of your head you do not want to blow dry with the part.

Do this instead.

Divide and Conquer
Grab the hair around your crown.

This will then be sectioned off or divided into four or five sections.

Start with the front most section, hit the root area with the heated air, while putting tension on it downwards with your brush. Now is the time to wrap the hair around the brush in the opposite direction you just blasted it, the hair will be hot and in turn react to the barrel of the brush which is warming up.

Much like using Velcro rollers the hair will accept that shape since it’s been warmed up. So you’re just holding the brush in shape to heat the strands of hair.

Move back a bit and take another section of hair taking care not to let the damp hair of the new section touch the already styled hair.

Do the same thing as before with the brush and blow dryer. First blow down the hair then wrap it around the brush letting the brush do the work of shaping the hair.

Repeat with all the hair at the top of your head you sectioned off. Clip if off and give it a few minutes to cool down and properly set while working on the sections around the rest of your head.

Dry the Rest
Then turn your attention to the rest of the hair. The idea is basically to smooth the hair lower down out rather than volumize. Your hair around the crown is going lay over this so you won’t see any volume you do create anyway. So silky smooth is what you are going for.

If you insist, you can tease it to give that hair lower down on the side some added lift. That’s the only way that’s going to happen. But it isn’t really necessary.

Smoothing Cream
Finish off the look with a smoothing cream which will also fight frizz. Spread a small dollop on your fingers and palm and run that through the ends all around your head.

Before looking at the second video with takes a little different approach to getting to volumized, here are some

The Right Tools for the Job

As with many things hair styling the right tools can make all the difference. Luckily for a healthy lift you don’t need many.

Now the best way to produce amazing volume in next to zero time lies with the blow dryer you use.

A rule of thumb when blow dryer shopping suggested by Fitness magazine is to go with “a model with “professional” in its name to ensure that it has a turbo motor, to dry hair faster, and operates on no more than 1,800 watts, to minimize damage.”

Tips like that can help shortcut the decision process when looking for a blow dryer, no?

Sure this may run you more money. But the payoff will be reliably good blowouts.

Tip: You always want to have the nozzle attachment firmly in place to easily direct the heated air where you want it to go.

Going old school can help too. You can always get yourself a pack of medium or large Velcro rollers to give some oomph where you need it most.

Finally a round ceramic brush, as you saw in the first video, can double as a giant Velcro roller if you prefer. It’s a super easy way to add volume to longer, straight locks.

5 More Tips To Cure Oomph-Less Hair

Sometimes it’s the little things that can make a big difference.

1. For instant bounce and body easily part your hair on the opposite side you usually do.
2. Size your round brush right. Did you know that the longer your hair the bigger the brush barrel needs to be? You can tell you got it right if the bristles slight show through the rolled up of strands of hair wrapped about the brush.
3. While Velcro rollers can be used, a ceramic core round brush can do much the same thing only better. After it’s heated up, is will almost function as a curling iron building in body and lift.
4. Easily get more volume from of all things your hair spray. Instead of throwing up a cloud of spray to settle on your hair, go for the underneath side of things. As it dries lift will set in.
5. Along the same lines you can use a mist of texturizing spray to do the same thing. Flip you hair upside down. Spritz away. Massage into the roots and flip back and take in the added body.

Now I promised two videos. And while you should be getting the idea by now, this second one shows how to use Velcro rollers in your volumizing routine. So watch this if you want to up your Velcro roller game.

Big Voluminous Hair Tutorial

Terrific’s Take

This approach is laid out for you in eight steps.

1 Section off your hair

2 Apply your root lifter right into the roots as products like these dry they lift up your roots giving the appearance of a lot more body.

As before use a ceramic brush and hair dryer with nozzle to dry your mane.

3 Take small sections of hair, and with the brush keep it taut while blow drying upwards. This way your hair will dry up which builds in lift. Honestly this is quite an effort depending on how much hair you have to dry. For sure you’re getting a serious arm workout when using this approach. But then you already knew that.

4 Roll up your hair in medium sized Velcro rollers. Simply slide each to the end of your strands and roll it under towards your scalp. Secure with a bobby pin. This will continue to lift your hair while it cools down.

This she does with the hair around the crown since this is obviously where you want to infuse the volume.

She feels the medium sized ones give just a hint of curl and adds body.

5 Repeat with all the strands of hair around your head.

6 The hair on the top of your hair needs to be divided next. That hair is now blown the opposite direction it usually lays. In other words she blows it towards the front of her head (or forwards) so when it goes back like it is supposed to fall naturally, there will be lots of volume and body built in by the drying technique used.

Notice how she glides the brush through the strands just like in the previous video.

Like before she rolls these sections around the rollers.

Tip: To avoid any risk of frizz take care to dry your strands completely

7 Once all dry and rolled up use a finishing spray spritzed over the roller. Then give your hair at least 10 minutes to set up before removing the rollers.

8 Spritz with more hair spray after the rollers have been removed and your hair is “finger” styled as you want it. Full of glorious body and volume!