What’s your idea of “thick hair”?​

A head full of lots and lots of individual hairs, or just heavy, coarse strands. Or both?

When most hair scientists talk about hair thickness, they mean thick strands or a large strand diameter.

If you have neither large strands nor high strand density, you can still play on either one to get thicker-looking hair, naturally.

In our previous articles on making hair thicker, we gave you natural ways to make your hair look thicker instantly. These all temporarily increase  the size of your strands, using ingredients from nature which either swell the hair shaft, or place a coating on it that makes it look thicker.

That’s the way La Aplanadora Treatment thickens hair: it uses tiny fragments of keratin to plug in missing sections on your hair shaft that make it look thinner, and to attract moisture which plumps your strands instantly.

Protein-free atrActiva Keratin Rich Conditioner works similarly, using ceramides to do the plumping and filling instead of keratin.

Because they also strengthen your strands, these conditioners also help prevent your hair thinning out at the ends through wear and tear.

You’re actually helping and waiting for hair to grow out from your scalp, so it won’t give you instant results like applying  bentonite clay to your existing strands. But the good news is it lasts longer, too.

And if you’re looking to speed up hair growth, to get longer hair faster, the same processes that help increase hair density will help too, because they’re all about enhancing growth.

If you’re low on essential nutrients and are experiencing thinning hair, then increasing intake through your diet or supplements seems like a pretty obvious route. But what about if your hair is thin, but your diet is fine?”

Unless the hair is impaired due to nutritional deficiency, there is only so much that nutrients can do to increase the size of individual hairs because hair thickness is largely genetic, ” states Dr Trüeb, a dermatologist based at Center for Dermatology and Hair Diseases, Zürich, Switzerland.

But Dr Trüeb adds a caveat: since external factors can influence hair health, increasing your intake of micronutrients might still be able to help your hair if the lack of thickness is due to a hair disorder.
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Our first three natural hair thickeners are all micronutrients you should look into if your hair is thinning and you want it thicker. If you’re low on any of them, this could be just what it takes to give you thick hair.​

Always remember, it’s a good idea to get the OK from your doctor before you begin any supplementation programme.

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In another study, this time with the vitamin E taken internally, the numbers of hairs on the scalp increased by an amazing 34.5% percent after 8 months. This has to be one of the most intense volume boosters around – and it’s completely natural.​
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If you’re a woman experiencing hair thinning, and are unsure about your iron intake, having your blood iron levels checked is a good place to start. Iron deficiency is the most common nutrient deficiency in the world and women and girls are the most affected.​

Having low iron doesn’t always mean obvious symptoms, but it is frequently linked to a host of hair problems such as thin hair, slow hair growth and hair loss.

Ever heard of this fruit? Zizyphus Jujuba, more commonly known as jujube, is an edible bush and fruit that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for generations. Recently, it’s been shown to have powerful anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and even anti-insomnia powers.​

The reason we love it, is because it’s really good for making your hair look thicker, too. A 1% concentration of the essential oil, used directly on the skin, was shown to increase both growth and strand thickness.

​These early results look really good but the method still needs to be tested out to see if it helps thinning from other hair loss conditions. ​

Oh, and the pumpkin seed oil supplement used in the study also included other plant extracts (which could have had some impact on the results), so maybe pumpkin seed oil shouldn’t get all the credit just yet.

Scalp massage has long been linked to boosting hair growth and thickness, but the results from this specific type of scalp massage are really impressive. Standardised Scalp Massage (SSM) is a massage process which involves a series of scalp pinches, presses and stretches and can be done with a scalp massager or by hand.​

In one study, just 4 minutes of massage per day over 24 weeks (using a special massage device) was enough to increase hair thickness.

Standardised Scalp Massage is so powerful it has even been shown to stop active hair loss and increase growth on people suffering from androgenic alopecia. In that study, a more intense 20- minute, twice-daily, by hand massage technique was used.

Another cool thing about Standardised Scalp Massage is that it also worked on people who were not experiencing hair loss or thinning. These people were able to increase their natural thickness even further by using the massage techniques.​This really offers hope for anyone who has always wanted to boost their naturally thin or fine hair, but saw no changes from good diet or haircare.
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We’ve saved the best for last: Onion juice – that same stuff that burns your eye when you’re slicing them up for dinner – can thicken your hair. It works by kickstarting inactive follicles into growth​, which increases your hair density.

When it was used in a study to treat people with alopecia areata, a good 87% of patients treated with onion juice saw full hair regrowth.  To use this method at home, just apply fresh onion juice to your scalp twice a day, for two months.