Katy’s combing question: A lot if my friends backcomb their hair. They say it adds more volume. My hair is fairly short and I tried this but I looked like a bird’s nest. What type of products would you recommend for people with short thin hair who are looking for a little extra volume boost for their hair?
The Right Brain’s reply:
Good question, Katy. The answer is a combination of hair biology and product chemistry.
What is backcombing?
As the name implies, backcombing means you literally comb your hair backwards. Instead of moving the comb from root to tip, you reverse the direction and comb your hair from tip to root. This kind of combing is also known as “teasing.” It’s an old stylist trick to give your hair more volume.
The good news – it works
Does it really work? You bet! Why? Because you’re combing your hair against the grain, so to speak. Look at your hair under a
microscope, or, if you don’t have a microscope handy, you can look at the picture at the right. The hair is covered by small scales, known as cuticles, that make a hair shaft look a little like the bark on a palm tree. As the hair grows, the cuticles form in such a way that the leading edge is facing toward the end of your hair shaft.
When you back comb, you’re scraping the edge of the cuticle in the opposition direction. This action causes lifts the cuticle up and makes it stand away from the hair shaft. The more cuticles you lift up, the more volume your hair will have because each little piece of cuticle will push away the hair shaft laying next to it. You can create tons of volume by combing this way.
The bad news – it’s damaging
The bad news is that back combing is very bad for your hair. When you lift up those little pieces of cuticle, they
never return to their nice flat arrangement, no matter what you do to your hair. Instead, they become increasingly loose and eventually break off. Once you remove enough layers of cuticles, your hair shaft will be damaged and you’ll create a split end. If it helps you to visualize it, think of cuticles like the shingles on the roof of a house. When they lay nice and flat they form a protective barrier on the roof that keeps the rain out of your bedroom. But when the shingles become loose, they break off and the next thing you know, the roof leaks and you’ve got a water stained carpet. That’s how cuticles work on your hair. Except for the part about staining your carpet.
Is there any safe way to boost volume?
Are there any good products that will allow you to boost volume without requiring you to scrape off your cuticle layer by layer? Sure, you can use a styling product to give the hair fibers some stiffness. Mousses and root boost stylers can coat your hair, providing some interaction that makes the fibers lift up and stand apart to it temporarily creates volume. Of course, this kind of volume disappears once you wash the product out of your hair. But does ANYTHING really last in this crazy modern world we live in? Here are few products you might try:
5 Popular Volume Boosters
Tresemme Volume Big Boost Root Lift Spray
Redken Full Frame Volumizing Mousse
What’s your favorite tip or trick for adding volume to your hair? Leave a comment and share your secrets with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
I remember while in my high school’s colorguard, we’d have to first curl our hair then tease it to create this Tim Burton-esque crazy witch looking hair.
I hated hated teasing my hair, and I practically refused to do it. Back then my hair was still a chemical-virgin, and I balked at doing anything that was remotely damaging to my hair.
I still don’t like teasing my hair. It just feels yucky.
As a professional stylist, I can tell you that any product will work better if your hair is towel dry before adding the product. Also, don’t blow dry sopping wet hair. It takes longer to dry and provides more opportunity for heat and mechanical damage. Your hair should be 1/2 of the way dry (or more) before you turn on the blow dryer. For a smooth style, a big round brush is a great way to add volume – dry one section of hair at a time and pull up from the roots as you’re drying to give lift to the root area. If you’re going for a wavy style, flip your head over and using your hand and a diffuser gently rub your hair at the roots in small circular motions to add lift. Good luck!
Susan G said, “dry one section of hair at a time and pull up from the roots as you’re drying to give lift to the root area.”
I tried that only once, because it turned into a panic situation. The hair got all tangled in the brush and it took me forever to (gently) untangle it. Obviously I didn’t do it right, but now I’m too scared to try again.
I’m glad Catwalk Root Boost made the list. I don’t know how I ever lived without it!
Kitsy, sorry you had a bad experience. It definitely takes some practice, but it might help if you use a clip to keep the rest of your hair out of the way while you work on one section. Hope you give it another try!
i love 2 backcomb my hair high everyday…i look way bad when i dont…and i know many ppl who do to..so does doing it 2 much going to make me bald..i love my hair and im worried
Yes it does it rips out your hair and permanently damages it, it may grow back but teases your hair rips out alot especially when you want to brush it out! I loveeeee to tease my hair but it never stays and i HATE ripping my hair our so Im going to use moose or something? My question is does it hav the same volume affect as teasing it or (backcombing)
ive been backcombing my hair for the last year and love doing it as its the only thing that makes my hair realy volumised, texturised and big etc. recently my hair has started falling out so badly, and ive only just realised its the backcombing. im so self consious of having thin hair im literally hair obsessed. im so upset
i want my hair back. at least i know whats making it fall out now. never doing that again. thanks x
I dont think there is any thing on the market that even comes close to making hair as big as backcombing does. There are products that are good for voloume but for best BIG HAIR results its probley better off to use both. Just make sure you give your hair a good treatment once a wekk
)
Whoa. I’m fourteen and I’ve been backcombing my hair everyday for at least a year now. The knots stay in forever! Unless I brush it out which hurts and tears out ALOT of my hair. : ( I have so so many split ends! I should cut it but I haven’t. I hot iron my hair alot less because I thought it was the heat damageing my hair but I guess it’s from teasing “backcombing” my hair? :O
My mother always bent over and hung her head upside down while blow-drying to poof up her perm. I do this to my striaght-wavy hair and it really works for me. It starts out huge and tames after a few hours.
I have been backcombing/teasing my hair for about two years now, i had recently stopped because i heard that it was bad for your hair. i’ve noticed that my hair was falling out, and it just makes me sad. i have very thin fine hair, and i wear exstensions to make my hair look better, which it does. but i want my hair to look volumized. i am afraid to use moose because i used it once, and it made my hair hard and sticky, it even make it look greesy. so i stopped. i just wan to do somthing nice for my hair rather than teasing it.
but my hair is also black. i am thinking about stripping it and dying it back to my original color so it can grow out to be healthy again. is this a good idea?
I mean its kinda hard to grow out your hair when you have naturally dirty blonde hair underneath the black.
i just want to look pretty again
so please help me
i am getting frustrated
and i don’t think i can wait to grow out my hair, but should this be the only solution
???
actors die their hair all the time
can i strip it just this once
and never die my hair again?
i have been dying it black and teasing it for the last two years
i have stopped the dying and the teasing
now i need a new solution
and a new hair-do
A stylist once teased my hair, and it completely destroyed my hair. I never went back to that stylist…
Okay .
So I don’t tease my hair at all anymore .. I believe I teased it like 5 times over the past 5 months , then , I stopped . I found a new method of volume , of course it’s not near as good as teasing but the results are still really good . I take Got2be hair glue (yes , GLUE !) and put some on my finger tips . I then go to the last layer of my hair and run my fingers upwards while my head is turned onto the side for extra volume .I hairspray it after , my head still being turned on it’s side and let the hairspray dry a bit ..
I shower every night , and wash my hair every two nights . I don’t brush out the glue or hairspray , I let the conditioner take care of that . ^ ^
I have really curly thick hair and I love it! But I need more volume at the top so i started to tease it and I was looking at here and decided it’s good I only tease my hair once a year. SO I use got2bglued and it works almost as good as teasing it, just add twice amount the normal and you have the same height and everything as teasing.
As far as mechanical damage to the hair, backcombing rates right up there with flat irons. Backcombing does weaken the cuticle of the hair, causing breakage, and most women believe their hair is falling out. If you have longer hair, it’s going to appear much worse. And while there are many good hair products out there to give that extra oomph, nothing gives big hair like teasing. Maybe a Bumpit is close. I think backcombing is OK every so often on those days you need a little Va-Va-Voom. Sometimes it’s the only way to conquer a Bad Hair Day.
A great new product to try is called backcomb in a bottle by big a sexy or the powder which leaves no residue on your hair..I tease my hair because I have fine thin hair and it looks fab on me! But I do have split ends that have to be maintained every six weeks. What works for me is a good expensive shampoo and some spray on conditioner.
I think it’s not good for your hair. It’s better to do some natural treatment, no chemical.
So I’ve learned that if you tease your hair you shouldn’t brush it out the same night. sleep on it and brush it the next day because when you sleep on it, it untangles your hair but leaves the oomph . So when you brusy it doesn’t yank at your hair and it leaves volume for tommorow so you wont have bed hair if you’re in a rush!
i have backcombed my hair several times and after its always thinner for a while.i have VERY thick hair so it has natural volume but what i do is i wash my hair and let it dry till its damp. then i use a brush that has the bristles very close together. then i flip my head upside down and brush my whole head upside down its usually has crazy volume after.
hope that helps =)
use some sort of volumizing powder. I use big sexy hair powder play. It works great but any brand of powder will do. It isnt damaging and really easy to use!
This how you can safely untease your hair! :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey5Mvgao9ec
Backcombing may not be good for your hair but there are less damaging ways to go about it if you do want to…a) don’t use a comb, use a brush, b) don’t be too rough with it, c) don’t hairspray it too close to the backcombing (i’ve seen people quite literally attempt to freeze the knot into place with product)