Sorry for the shallow question, but anyway… what products/techniques get me that thick, shiny, bouncy rich-girl-hair look, like Charlotte from Sex And The City?
My hair is fine Caucasian hair with a very slight wave. I wash & condition it every day with Pantene’s volume formula, then blow dry. I’ve tried using anti-frizz serums in the past but they didn’t make much difference.
I feel that my hair looks windblown and frizzy in the morning, and limp in the evening.
?
If all else fails, try going no-poo. No shampoo, that is. A lot of people have far better hair once they get weaned off shampoo and styling products.
Kill a rich girl. Take her hair.
That is the only way to get “the hair you don’t have,” which is what we all want.
You can’t turn fine hair into thick, luscious waves of volume. It just isn’t going to happen. I have found that my fine hair doesn’t respond well to not using shampoo- it needs to be cleaned with a detergent, or it just gets greasy and limp. The key to having nice, shiny fine hair that has body and style, although you may not want to hear this, is having it short. Fine hair just gets weighed down and stringy if you try to grow it long. There are lots of nice shorter haircuts- don’t buy into the long-hair hype. It doesn’t make you any less of a woman.
I have hair pretty much exactly like Charlotte (but it’s longer and a bit straighter (both by choice). It’s part genetics, part routine. But 80% routine.
ETA: I naturally have a slight wave to my hair. My wet hair often comes out in the shower in what my fiance affectionately calls “lil Jew curls”. I don’t have to straighten my hair with a hair straightener since I gave up “drying, dyeing and frying” it as I did years ago. You might have to use a good ceramic straightener, like Chi. You might want to dry this new John Frieda product, depending on how wavy your hair is.
If you’ve got thin hair, there is only so much you can do but Google Kate Middleton and you get heaps of hints as to how to mimic her hair which sounds like what you are after - basically it takes a little work each day, which if you have a baby you may not have time for!
With a newborn myself, I’m following the advice of Eva Longoria’s hairdresser (another with hair like you mention) to wash hair at night and allow to air dry to keep natural volume, before styling with a GHD in the morning, keeping the styling time minimal.
The other thing to consider is dying your hair darker, perhaps with a temp colour - it becomes more shiny and reflective, and the dye can temporarily thicken each hair strand making it look fuller.
I don’t know. My hair just dries like this.
To actually achieve Rich Girl Hair without 1- already having the required thick hair and/or 2- putting a decent amount of time and (personal) effort into your hair routine, you need to do what Rich Girls* do: get extensions/weaves to give you more hair and have a stylist not only for your regular cut and color but for regular blow-outs as well.
I want to bring you home with me and make you take care of my hair for me.
These are excellent tips, lindaybluth, thanks!
Oh, and while not relevant to my advice, I wanted to second lindsaybluth’s recommendation for a turbie twist. They freakin’ ROCK! I’ve always twisted my hair up post-shower to absorb most of the water, but I used to just use a big bath towel. A towel works fine and it does stay put if you’re not whipping your head around (contrary to what the infomercials show ;)), but the turbie twist is smaller, so there’s less excess hanging around and it weighs less, so there’s less strain on your neck.
But the best feature is the elastic loop to tuck the twisted tail into. You actually CAN whip your head around (a bit) and it stays in place. I bought one on a whim at Big Lots and was pleasantly surprised at its awesomeosity (I’ll allow them to use that adjective at no charge).
I don’t think there’s a magic bullet (my hair has always been straight and quite fine and un-bouncy) but I can testify to the benefit of having a very awesome stylist. If your hair is cut well, and layered and chopped just right, it will hold its shape better.
When I was much younger I used henna to color my hair - it thickens the hair shaft and is a great conditioner. But I’ve never been able to maintain the illusion of think, bouncy hair unless it was layered and kept no longer than shoulder-length, and cut well. Also, instead of standard conditioner, I liked leave-in products. Aveda has a flax conditioner spray that’s really good for making hair feel full and soft, instead of flat.
My brother swears that biotin shampoo holds his thinning hair at bay. But I wouldn’t listen to him; he doesn’t have long, rich-girl hair. 
So sad. I put the things I’m already doing in bold. My late-day hair is not greasy, just crappy, even though I only condition the ends.
I find my hair looks better when I wash it every other day and do *less * to it. By less, I mean, I don’t brush it after washing, I don’t brush it at all that entire day. I let it dry (or blow dry) and then finger through it and go.
I do use an anti-frizz treatment, but if If it still looks a little frizzy or not lustrous enough after drying I’ll use a small amount of baby oil and finger it through the frizzy part (not near the scalp). And then it’ll be shiny with slight waves. I know this sounds crazy. Not brushing and using baby oil. But I use an extraordinarily small amount, using a towel or water to lessen it before it goes on my hair.
(However, we may have different hair types and my advice may be useless. It’s hard to change your hair type.)
I have fine hair and if I go even a day without using shampoo it gets visibly greasy, stringy, and gross. Do not recommend this method. Also see:
Flat iron. The newer ones don’t have to give you stick straight hair, but they smooth the frizz. I don’t have the hair you’re talking about, but it’s close when I use the flat iron. Closer when the stylist does the blowout thing, but that’s only when I have haircuts every 10 weeks. A rich girl might have weekly (or more frequent) blowouts, which last me 4 days if I use dry shampoo and a shower cap or bath instead of shower. So twice-weekly blowouts would give me great hair every day…
Everyone is neglecting the importance of a good haircut and good hair products.
A good cut makes the most of both your features and your hair type. A good shampoo rinses clean and doesn’t leave any filmy nastiness. I am a devotee to Biolage. It isn’t the most expensive shampoo out there, but it is significantly more expensive than Pantene and the like. Every time I try to leave Biolage I end up not even finishing the bottle of whatever I tried to substitute in. For my hair and my water softness/hardness, it rinses clean and doesn’t leave scum on my scalp like a lot of other shampoos have.
Oh, and I have hair people would kill for
Okay, so if I can hijack, I am mostly happy with my hair, but it grows these little pieces/tendrils that appear at the part and look terrible. Is there a way to fix that besides going to get my hair cut every couple of months? I’ve tried hairspray but the little pieces don’t stay down (my hair is fairly thick and doesn’t take well to hair-styling products). Would a good shampoo help at all with that?
I have fine hair, and I’ve recently discovered the joy of a boar bristle brush. The hype is that it moves oil from the scalp (where I have to much) all through the hair, making it shinier, more magical, etc. As I kid, I had one and my grandmother threw it out, and haven’t used one since, but recently I needed a new brush and found one the had boar bristles and also longer nylon detangling bristles (which I need). So, I bought it.
When I got home I showed it to my boyfriend and said, “It’s supposed to make your hair shinier” as I took off the tags. Then, standing in the kitchen, I ran it through my hair and turned around to face him, and, I shit you not, his jaw was hanging open. He said, “Holy shit! It actually works!” and I’ll be damned if my hair wasn’t all shiney and bouncey and shit.
So, maybe try a boar bristle brush? It certainly looks better on my hair. YMMV
What are you prattling on about? I stressed a good cut as well as product, and several other respondents posted their opinions and experience with various products and stylists.
Unless you’re just posting to tout “Biolage”. Hmmm. :rolleyes:
It could be that I was getting distracted by all of the “no poo, yes poo” and don’t condition above the ear or on Wednesdays. My eyes did start to glaze when that started.
And I wish Biolage paid me. Instead I stalk Ulta’s buy 2 get 2 sales:p