How To Get Voluminous Hair Without Heat

If there's any person who looks like she can't hear anyone over the volume of her hair, it must be Kate Middleton. The Duchess of Cambridge's signature voluminous, bouncy waves that look stunning on every occasion are the envy of long-hair devotees. A va-va-voom mane like Kate's isn't difficult to create, but it might be a risky business. Because the key to instant, natural-looking curly locks is the heat from heat-styling tools like blow-dryers, hot air brushes, and curling irons. 

Frequent exposure to extreme temperatures is damaging to your hair. Putting your hair through a heat setting that surpasses 284 degrees, according to a study in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science, can result in weaker hair, split ends, and breakage. In other words, heat styling can give you magnetizing hairstyles, but it can also cheat your hair out of its elasticity and make it as dull as a bundle of straw down the road, Ogario London cautions. Nonetheless, the absence of heat doesn't have to be the end of voluminous hair. There are heat-free methods that can help you volumize your hair and emulate the stunning look of Her Royal Highness.

Dry shampoo, which usually comes in the form of sprays, goes beyond refreshing your scalp and giving your hair a new lease on life when it feels dull. Containing alcohol, petroleum, and clay, dry shampoo goes to work by soaking up oil and sweat from your roots, Kerastase points out. In addition, for those with thin or flat hair, dry shampoo can add volume to your hair, making it look denser. 

Shake the product up and aim it approximately 15 centimeters from your head before spraying it onto your scalp and hair roots. Then, use a brush to gently remove any excess shampoo. When it comes to increasing hair volume naturally, blogger Daryl-Ann Denner recommends applying dry shampoo before going to bed. After working the product into the hair, flip your hair upside down and pull it up into a "super high" ponytail, secured with a cotton scrunchie or a coiled hair tie. If you go to bed wearing your dry-shampooed hair like that, you'll wake up to impressively voluminous hair locks the next day.

Using velcro rollers, a vintage beauty treatment hailing from the 1960s, is a surefire technique to give your hair tons of volume sans heat. Heatless and affordable, these cylinder-shaped tools come in various shapes and sizes and can be used on wet, dry, or damp hair, per All Things Hair. Velcro rollers also give you complete control of the size of your curls, as in large-size rollers for loose, wavy locks and smaller rollers for tight spiral curly hair. This method works best on slightly damp hair. 

Coat some styling mousse through your hair to keep frizz in check, and let it air dry. When you're done, separate your hair into sections. After that, begin wrapping each hair section around a roller in an inward direction toward your scalp. Make sure the roller is rolled to the root of your hair and secured with a clip and some extra bobby pins for better hold. Work through your head in that manner until all the locks are secured in velcro rollers. The only problem with this method is that it's time-consuming, as they should be left in your hair for a minimum of 10 minutes or up to an hour. To better maintain the shape of your rollered locks, you can spritz each hair section with hairspray. When it's time to remove the velcro rollers, carefully slide them out one by one instead of yanking them.

As its name suggests, volumizing mist is designed to add volume to your hair. Spraying this mist to the roots of your hair strands helps to remove the excess sebum and grease that weighs your hair down and adds thickness as well as softness to your hair, per Influenster. Lightweight and anti-static, one volumizing spray on air-dried locks can leave them feeling silky smooth without any stickiness or frizz, lending extra texture and hold to your tresses. 

If you struggle with flyaways as a result of broken hair or the growth of new baby hair, the volumizing properties in the mist can give you a frizz-free look, per Hair Rules. It's best to use volumizing mist on your hair when it's still damp. However, you can keep it in your bag for some midday touch-ups. For an extra inch of body to your locks, run your sprayed hair through a round brush repeatedly from roots to tips.

Creating curls with a dressing gown is a heatless styling hack that's been making rounds on TikTok since 2020. According to TikTok user loxieshairwear, what you need to do is to split your hair into two sections, place a dressing gown cord on your head, and twist your slightly damp locks around the cord on both sides of your head like double French braids. Once you're down, secure both ends of the cord with scrunchies. Now, have a beauty sleep with your curls in place, and you'll wake up to bouncy, natural-looking curls. 

If you have short hair, consider curling your locks with socks, which is also a TikTok-worthy styling hack. You can use as many socks as you want to, but four tends to be enough, explains TikTok user mypawfectfamily. To begin with, take a section of hair and split it in half. Clip a sock in the middle and twist each lock around a sock. Once you're finished wrapping, pinch the end, flip the sock up, and secure it with a hair tie. Repeat the process on the rest of your head until all your hair strands are secured in socks. You can leave your hair like this overnight or remove the socks after a couple of hours. Perfect your wavy curls with a spritz of hairspray for a soft finish and extra hold.

This may sound unheard of, but caffeine has been proven effective in thickening your mane if you wash your hair with it over a long time. Almost everyone encounters hair loss as they age, with the rate of hair growth slackening and hair strands having less pigment. Over time, some hair follicles stop producing hair, which is what causes the hair to get thinner and lighter colored. According to The Hair Fuel, topical caffeine can slow down, if not prevent, this process, as well as promote healthy hair growth. 

A 2007 study in the International Journal of Dermatology revealed that caffeine was effective against the effects of Dihydrotestosterone (DHT), an androgen in male hair follicles that's responsible for male pattern hair loss and balding. According to the study, a stimulant like caffeine also had a similar hair-promoting effect in the hair follicles of females, making the hair grow faster and stronger. If you like to have fuller and thicker hair, wash your hair with caffeine regularly or use a shampoo or conditioner containing caffeine.