When your hair is fine, thin, or weakened by years of chemical treatments, you can feel like every cut or style puts your hair at risk of looking even finer, thinner, or more frail. But there are cuts and styles that can make your hair look worse for the wear, and there are haircuts that create a fuller, denser, healthier outcome. The trick is knowing which cuts to avoid and which you can feel good about trying on for size. If your hair is looking thin and fine with age, these nine universally flattering hairstyles are loved by stylists.
Lob With Layers
The lob is a lot like a bob in shape, but longer, and usually falls around the collarbone. It’s a great option for thinning, fine hair when you don’t want to go very short, but it’s also short enough that it won’t drag the ends of your hair down and make them look thinner. Add a few shorter layers for more movement and body.
Shoulder Length with Curls
Much like the lob, a shoulder-length haircut is great for giving you length, but without going so long that your hair appears even thinner and finer. Anytime you add texture like waves and curls, you expand the density of your hair, which is ideal for making thin hair look more voluminous.
Bob With Bangs
Ah, the bob — it’s one of our all-time favorites for thin hair because it’s chin length gives your face a lift and makes your hair look thicker. Now for the ultimate style trick that will turn any haircut into a style: add bangs. A few brow-grazing bangs looks chic and polished.
Long with Face-Framing Layers
You don’t have to chop your hair if it’s thin or fine — but adding face-framing layers to longer hair helps keep it from dragging down around your face. As your stylist to start your shortest layer around your chin and to make them gradually longer from there until they reach the ends of your hair.
French Bob
A French bob is shorter than a traditional bob. It may end a few inches above your chin and often features wispier bangs and a few light layers to keep things moving. It’s a chic look (would anything with “French” in the name be anything less?) and does wonders helping to make thin hair look thicker.
Pixie With Texture
One of the first haircuts that comes to mind when stylists are working with their clients to find ways to bulk up thinning hair, the pixie works because it’s short in the back and sides and has more length on top to play with. You can build texture into these top layers by adding waves, curls, or simply some bulk (a great styling gel will help).
Shag
Take things back to the seventies with a cool shag haircut that features tons of feathered layers along the sides and back to take weight off of your style and make it look airy and cool.
Curtain Bangs
They’ve been around a few years now and aren’t novel anymore, but many have caught onto the fact that a curtain bang can give your style a much-needed lift and help make thin hair look thicker. It helps too that it can be added to long hair, medium hair, and short hair — it’s universally flattering, as long as you personalize it to end where it feels best for you, whether that means your cheekbone or longer.
Blunt Shoulder-Length Cut
We mentioned how universally flattering the shoulder-length haircut is on many, but it needn’t necessarily include tons of layers to make the most of thin or fine hair. In fact, keeping the ends on the blunt side can create the look of more bulk in your hair, which is helpful if you want to boost your volume.
