How to Beef-Up Your Thinning Hair

Hair is the one part of your body where fat is better than thin. But eating pounds of butter and fatty meat thrice-daily won’t fatten up skinny locks. The diameter of the hair shaft is genetically determined. You can, however, beef up the appearance of individual hairs by coating them with products that make hair fuller. Cheat Mother Nature in the following ways: Use protein body-builders and conditioners with balsam that envelop the hair shaft, imparting a bit of (temporary) width. Coloring your hair with an aniline tint will slightly enlarge the hair shaft by making the cuticle stand away from the cortex. A permanent wave is another body booster.

Note: Make sure your thin hair isn’t actually thinning hair due to a vitamin deficiency: the B-complex vitamins, along with vitamins E and C, are considered important for healthy hair.

Remember that thin hair has nothing to do with the number of hairs on your head. It refers to the width of each hair strand. Just because your hair is thin, and probably lacks the medulla or innermost layer, don’t think it’s unhealthy- you’re just unlucky. (Coarse hair, the other extreme, means the hair shaft has all three layers, and is thicker than normal.)