How to Add Volume to Men's Hair

Flat hair is rarely a haircut problem. Most of the time it's what happens after the shower. You've probably got the hair for volume. You're just flattening it without realising, usually before a product ever leaves the tin. Height and body come down to how you wash, dry and lift, far more than which pot you grab off the shelf. Get the order right and it's not hard. Here's how to actually do it.

It starts in the shower, not the styling

Volume dies in the wash, before you've reached for anything. Conditioner slathered over the whole head. Product that never rinsed out properly. Yesterday's residue still sitting there. All of it adds weight, and weight is what flattens hair.

Wash with something that rinses clean. Our Shampoo 300ml is SLS-free and rinses out properly, so hair doesn't carry invisible build-up into the style. If you condition, keep it to the mid-lengths and ends, nowhere near the roots. Roots want to be light. That's where the lift comes from.

Drying is where volume is won or lost

This is the step most men skip, and it's the one that matters most. Let hair air-dry flat, or towel it and walk off, and it sets in whatever direction it fell. Usually down.

Rough-dry with a towel first and get most of the water out. Then dry the roots with your fingers pushing the hair up and back, against the way it naturally sits. A hairdryer earns its place here. Warm, not hot, aimed at the roots rather than the lengths. Thirty seconds of drying against the grain does more for volume than any product. Finish on the cool setting if you've got one. It helps the lift hold.

No hairdryer? Towel-dry, then keep pushing the roots up with your hands while it finishes drying. Slower. Still works.

Lift at the roots with a quiff roller

For proper height, the Quiff Roller does a job nothing else quite manages. You roll a section of the front hair up and back, hold it while it dries, then unroll, and the hair keeps the shape. It's how a barber builds a real quiff without half a tin of product dragging it back down.

Works best on the front section and the crown, the two spots most men want height. Damp hair, roll, heat, cool, release. A bit of practice and it's a two-minute job.

Then pick a product that holds without flattening

Product comes last, and its job is to hold the volume you've already built, not create it. Get the finish right and this part's easy.

Matt Clay is the strong pick. Grip and volume together, a matte finish, and the minerals in it add texture that helps hair stand up rather than lie down. Warm it properly between your palms before it goes anywhere near your head, then work it through. Especially good on thicker hair.

Matt Paste is the lighter option. Medium hold, stays flexible, and it doesn't drag hair down the way heavier products do. If your hair's on the finer side, start here. It builds without collapsing.

Sea Salt Spray works differently again. Spray it into damp hair before you dry, and the salt leaves a texture and grip that holds volume through the day. Good on its own for a looser look, or as a base under clay or paste when you want the height to last.

How much volume can you actually get?

Volume isn't unlimited, and a lot of it comes down to length. Worth knowing before you fight your hair for something it isn't going to do.

Short hair, a crop or a short back and sides, takes volume well. There's not enough weight to drag it down, so a bit of clay and some proper root drying gets real lift fast. Easiest length to work with, honestly.

Medium length is the sweet spot for height. Enough hair to build a quiff or a blown-back style, not so much that gravity wins. Most of the volume-heavy looks live here.

Longer hair is the hard one. Past a certain length the weight pulls everything flat, no matter what you do at the roots. You'll still get body and movement. Sea salt spray helps a lot at this length. But stacked-up height gets difficult. Layers cut in by a good barber make more difference than any product here.

Styles built on volume

Some looks live or die on height. If volume is the point of the style, the drying and lifting matters more than ever.

The quiff. The obvious one. Volume at the front, swept up and back. Quiff roller for the height, clay or paste to hold it. Nothing flat about it. That's the whole look.

The pompadour. More volume than a quiff, carried further back over the crown. Needs serious root lift and a firm hold, so dry hard against the grain and reach for clay. Not a low-effort style. A striking one, though.

The textured crop. Shorter and messier. Volume through texture rather than height. Sea salt spray into damp hair, dry it rough, a little paste to finish. The easiest volume look to live with day to day.

Blown-back and undercut styles. Short sides, longer on top swept back with height. The whole thing depends on the top section standing up rather than falling forward, which comes straight back to how you dry it.

What kills volume

A few things quietly undo all of the above.

Pomade. It's built for shine and slick, structured styles. Weight, flat finish. The opposite of what you're after here. Leave it for side parts and slick-backs.

Too much product. More doesn't mean more hold. It means heavier, flatter hair. Start with less than you think you need.

Soaking wet hair. Product needs hair mostly dry to hold a shape. Put it on dripping hair and you've just watered it down.

Hands. Every time you run a hand through, you press the volume out. Style it, then leave it alone.

Keeping volume between washes

You don't need to start from scratch every morning. Day-two hair holds volume fine with a bit of reviving.

Damp the roots slightly, a spray of water or sea salt spray, then dry them back up the way you did on day one. That resets most of the lift without a full wash. Washing every single day actually works against you here. It can leave hair limp, and it strips the natural texture that helps volume hold. A style you can revive beats a daily rewash.

When the roots have gone genuinely oily and flat, that's the point to wash. Not before.

A few common questions

How do you get volume in fine or thin hair without it going flat?▼

Keep everything light. Clean rinse, dry the roots up and back, and reach for paste or a light hand with clay rather than anything heavy. The drying does most of the work. For the full product-by-hair-type breakdown, our guide by hair type goes deeper.

Does short hair hold volume?▼

Better than long hair, usually. There's less weight pulling it down, so root drying and a little clay get height quickly. Short doesn't mean flat. A crop can carry real texture and lift.

What's the best haircut for volume?▼

Ask your barber for some length on top and layers cut through it, that's what gives hair somewhere to rise. A good cut does half the work before any product's involved. Tell them you want height, not just a tidy-up, and they'll cut for it.

How do you add height at the crown or back?▼

Same idea as the front, just aimed further back. Dry that section against the grain with your fingers, and the quiff roller works on the crown too. It's the flat spot most men forget to lift.

Can you get volume without a hairdryer?▼

Yes, it's just slower. Towel-dry, push the roots up with your hands as it air-dries, and use sea salt spray for grip. A dryer speeds it up and gives more height, but it isn't the only way.

Does sea salt spray actually add volume?▼

It adds texture and grip more than outright lift. That texture is what holds volume in place and stops fine hair going slippery and flat. Best used alongside good drying, not instead of it. For more on getting the most out of it, our sea salt spray guide goes further.

How do you keep volume all day?▼

Build it properly at the drying stage, hold it with the right product, then stop touching it. Most volume is lost to hands, not to time. A little sea salt spray under your styling product helps it last, too.

Why does my hair go flat by lunchtime?▼

Usually one of three things. Too much heavy product, not enough lift built in when you dried it, or oil coming through at the roots. Lighter product, better drying, and a clean-rinsing shampoo between washes sort most of it.