Beauty: hair thickeners

I receive heaps of emails from men and women asking about treatments for thinning hair and, as someone with abundant but annoyingly thin hair myself, I have a vested interest in finding anything that makes things look a little less puny up top. My disappointing but unsurprising opinion is that nothing works to prevent or halt alopecia or natural male hair loss, despite whatever the packaging and advertising claim. Save your money.

More happily, I have found that some products (Swell and L’Oréal Fibrology, for instance) can work very well at thickening what’s still present, whether by temporarily bulking up individual strands with proteins or silicone, or by retaining each hair for longer in the natural shedding cycle (this is how eyelash growth serums work, too, and why pregnant women often say their hair feels so much thicker in the second and third trimesters).

But even then, one must take regular breaks to clear a flaky scalp or product buildup. So, when testing full potential, Bumble & bumble’s first foray into treatment products, my expectations were only tentatively optimistic.

This is a three-part, unisex system – shampoo, conditioner, treatment “booster” spray (a tester kit of all three costs £25) – that claims to increase hair retention and reduce hair loss caused by breakage (not baldness; they’re wisely making no such claims) by 46%, resulting in thicker-looking, fuller hair.

I began testing in July and have been using the system nonstop, occasionally skipping the conditioner. I also haven’t followed the instructions to the letter by using the booster spray twice daily (who has the time?), more like once. Almost four months later, my scalp is clear and without itch. This, I suspect, owes much to the Full Potential exfoliating shampoo (not like that – there are no grainy bits to pick out of your scalp, though the sensation is “bracing”), but also to the fact the products feel so light in texture.

Most importantly, my hair is noticeably fuller. I mean really, truly – it’s bigger. It’s much easier to style, too: there’s no flop, droop or fluff, and shapes hold better for longer. For the first time in memory, I’m not using it as a placeholder until something better comes along. Aside from price and a terrible taste when stray suds veer into my mouth, I can’t think of a single thing I’d change.