Yes, thickening shampoos can help make hair temporarily look and feel fuller and thicker.
Products that make hair thicker usually refer to increasing volume within hair. “Volume is used to describe the 3D state of hair,” Wnek explains. “There are a number of hair properties that influence volume which include curvature of the hair strand, the amount of hair on one’s head, the diameter of the individual strand, and the friction between strands—the more curls in your strands, the more hair on your head or the larger the diameter of the hair strand, the more space it will take up and the more voluminous it will look.”
Currently the GH Beauty Lab is not aware of any ingredients that can permanently increase the diameter of hair, she says. Only a handful of products claim to actually increase the individual diameter of hair strands; most refer to increasing volume. “We believe that the thickening claims echo volume in the sense that the overall hair appears and feels thicker,” Wnek adds.
In that sense, thickening shampoos can “work” to impact the appearance and feel of the hair. “They can work in different ways: one being by coating hair so strands repel each other and hair appears fuller overall,” adds GH Beauty Lab Director Sabina Wizemann. “Plus, they usually have less conditioning agents not to weigh hair down and they can help reduce breakage.”
Wnek shares one more piece of advice: “It’s important to use shampoos with their matching conditioners as a pair. Companies test how well shampoos and conditioners work in tandem, so to get the benefits promised by either, you’ll need to use them together.”
