Does This Work? Hair Volumizer

Our managing editor, Yuliana Gomez, has had a lifelong battle with her fine hair. This week, she road tested several volumizing products. Here’s her experience:

The Products: Volume-enhancing creams, mousses and sprays
 
The Claims: All the formulas promise to plump up strands and add major lift to hair.

My Results: I applied all of these products after washing and towel drying my hair, and immediately before blow drying it.

Alterna Bamboo Volume Plumping Strand Expand ($22, ulta.com) is an Eco-Certified cream that must be applied before drying. I had to apply a lot of product in order to get completely through my hair, which in turn weighed it down. Overall, it really didn’t give me as much volume as promised.

I did find that Uplifting Root Blast ($24, ulta.com), also by Alterna Bamboo Volume, worked wonders in giving a bit of lift to my hair in the middle of the day. I just sprayed on while tilting my head forward, to get at the base.

The mousses (Rene Furterer Volumea Volumizing Foam, $23, drugstore.com and Body by Blow Blow Pro No Crunch Body Builder, $18, amazon.com) gave me amazing, fluffy hair. Both also had side benefits: Blow Pro provided UV heat damage protection, while Rene Furterer prevented crazy static, which is so common on straight hair like mine.    

But my hands-down favorite was Oribe Maximista Thickening Spray ($26, bluemercury.com). I love the simplicity of just spraying, and not having to deal with gooey, drippy creams in the morning. And the volume lasted—my hair looked the same at 8 a.m. when I walked out of my house as it did at 6 p.m. when I was leaving work. Bonus points: The formula smells fantastic.

Overall Score: The Oribe Maximista Thickening Spray gets 4.5 out of 5 stars.