11 best volumising hair products for noticeable lift, body and bounce

This is what a next-generation hair mousse looks like. A non-aerosol, ultra-light foam that pumps up the volume with flexible long-lasting, weightless hold – all without any crunch or stickiness in sight.

Two pumps brushed through our mid-length hair, and blow-drying with a round brush gave strands the kind of enviable body and bounce normally only a salon can create.

It doesn’t dry out hair like some mousses, which we’re putting down to the hero-ingredient, hemisqualane, that’s found in all JVN products. It’s a powerhouse, lightweight version of squalane (you may know it from your day cream) that adds softness and strength to strands, as well as smoothing frizz.

Read our full JVN hair review

Sometimes, it’s the oldest tricks in the book that still work the best, and we have to say the most cost-effective way to create a bigger, bouncier mane still lies in a good old-fashioned hairspray.

More modern than old-school, Schwarzkopf’s value-for-money volumising hairspray achieves that fine balance of leaving hair flexible while creating hold, without stiffness or stickiness.

This hairspray isn’t just for setting styles in place – we’ve been using it to amp up the volume in multiple ways. For root lift, flip your hair upside down and spray into your roots, teasing downwards with your fingertips. For all-over body, shake your hair and spray sections in the same position.

The much-loved bond-building haircare brand has created this all-in-one styling mist, which helps produce a full-bodied effect. Ideal for all hair types, it’s particularly great for those with dry, damaged or coloured hair, as it’s infused with Olaplex’s patented hair-repairing ingredient.

Team this mist with your hairdryer, and you really need nothing else in your styling arsenal, as it’s also a heat-protection spray.

Spray onto clean, damp hair, and blow-dry until it’s 75 per cent dry. Then give it another layer before blow drying your hair in sections with a round bristle brush. This left us with the bouncy blow-dry of dreams, which felt beautifully smooth and silky to the touch.

Read our full Olaplex review

For targeted hair thinning and loss, Philip Kingsley offers many expert services and scientifically formulated products in its density range. If you only pick one product, make it this innovative hair-thickening spray. When testing, we found our locks looked instantly fuller, and much stronger and healthier over time, with less breakage and fallout.

If you’re into the science behind it, key ingredients include pea peptides, to smooth and plump strands; styling polymers that push hair apart, to create volume and smoothing; and moisturising and strengthening panthenol. For thinning hair, this is your new must-have.

Elevate your look (literally) with this root lift hair mousse. When using this product, we found it not only makes it much easier to create height but, crucially, makes sure our hair doesn’t fall flat throughout the day.

Designed to be used as part of your blow-dry, simply apply to towel-dried roots and use a round brush to lift strands away from the scalp in sections.

Of course, it’s enriched with hair-nourishing argan oil, like all the brand’s products, so it provides a natural source of heat protection. We also found it keeps strands silky smooth without any of the dreaded stickiness you can get from some other formulas.

It’s upgraded our ponytails, creating next-level crown height, and all with its delicious signature scent.

Turn to vegan haircare brand Amika for a dry finishing spray that packs a volume-boosting punch. It’s ideal for those looking to amplify their waves, coils or curls, as it enhances your natural hair pattern. That said, it also works brilliantly on straight hair, by encouraging a more lived-in, tousled style.

Simply spritz to areas where you want to add height or fullness, and use your fingers to encourage style. We also found it useful for adding grip to hair accessories, and adding hold to braids.

Key ingredients include rice starch, which encourages volume, as well as mineral zeolite, which helps keep frizz at bay. Plus, there’s an infusion of “superfruit” sea buckthorn, rich in fatty acids, antioxidants and vitamins, for healthier-looking locks.

You can always rely on John Frieda for effective, purse-friendly formulas, which are all readily available on the high street, including this volumising styling spray. It provides heat protection, tames frizz and flyaways and encourages volume to stay in place all day, with the help of a multi-styler or a round brush blow-dry.

Apply to clean, damp strands evenly from root to tip – combing through ensures it’s distributed evenly. For best results, we found the trick was to spray a second layer to nearly dry hair before finishing the blow-dry. You’ll be left with a natural-looking smooth and fuller style.

The best cleansing double acts don’t need to cost the earth, as this one proves. The star ingredient in both is arginine, known to strengthen the hair shaft and promote healthy hair growth. With ongoing use, we felt our strands were stronger, with less breakage and fallout in the shower.

Fine hair needs a shampoo that will provide a thorough cleanse, as any excess oils will only weigh down the hair, and this one goes the extra beauty mile with scalp-exfoliating salicylic acid.

The anti-frizz conditioner is equally effective. It’s a beautifully lightweight detangler with coconut oil in the formulation, leaving behind a lovely woody, floral fragrance.

Made for those concerned about thinning hair or density (no matter what your hair type), this lightweight duo provides a gentle cleanse and hydrating condition while infusing several key actives that support healthy hair growth, including a dose of caffeine and CoQ10. These are teamed with biotin (vitamin B7) to strengthen and nourish the hair follicle, as a deficiency can lead to thinning hair.

With Briogeo’s strict ingredient blocklist, you won’t find any sulphates, silicones or parabens in these products. What you will find is that it provides a good cleanse and a light condition that doesn’t weigh down the hair. You’ll also be treated to a luxurious experience with woody-vanilla notes filling the shower.

After just one use, our hair looked healthier and oozed gloss, and it started to feel stronger the more we used this product.

US celebrity hairstylist to the Kardashian-Jenner tribe, Jen Atkins has this volumising hair mist in her collection of minimalistic and chic-looking vegan products, made without sulphates and parabens.

Team it with your blow-dry for root-raising height, as well as giving your styler a helping hand by pumping up the volume and then holding it in place.

Taming frizz and boosting the shine of strands, too, this spray seems to do it all. We also couldn’t get enough of its North Bondi scent (one of Quai’s eau de perfums), a musky floral that made us feel like we were wearing perfume in our hair.

Although this spray is currently out of stock, you can sign up to be notified when it’s available again.

If the thought of adding a styling cream to your fine strands fills you with fear, you haven’t used one like this before, which is targeted to your hair type.

Its lightweight, silicone-free texture promotes thickness without weight, and is as simple to use as combing through clean, damp strands before blow-drying. A bonus is it also provides heat protection.

You’re left with a fuller-looking mane, thanks to peptides in the formulation, which plump the hair fibres, and a resin blend, which adds hold to keep body in place.

The benefits don’t stop there, either – we also found it left our stands oozing shine and smelling incredible, as it has Living Proof’s signature clean, citrus scent.