Any Asian woman can probably empathize with being blessed and cursed with the hair we’re born with. We generally have a lot of thick, dark hair, and at some point, a lot of us have sported it long. On the other hand, our hair tends to be super straight and can appear rather flat.
Is any of this really a problem? It depends on who you ask. I never really thought about it because I was comfortable with how I looked when I was younger. But yes, the grass-is-greener thing can kick in. When I was a kid, I wanted to lighten my hair. It didn’t really matter at that point. I just thought the idea would be cool. The same went for volume.
I did wonder why my hair didn’t curl the same way or why it didn’t look like my friends’ hair when I did the same things to it. I also didn’t understand why my friends’ moms would tell me my hair was so nice. I didn’t quite grasp what made my hair “nice.” Hair is hair. You get what you get.
When Did I Start Caring About Hair Volume?
Enter ’90s hair product commercials. When I was old enough to understand the concept of hair volume, I still didn’t get why not having it was a legitimate problem. I mean, I was a kid being a kid.
It wasn’t until college that it slapped me in the face. I started going out and socializing more. I’d see pictures on Facebook where other girls’ hair would be done up, and I’d be in the pile of girls with my straight black hair. That’s when I started digging deeper.
It wasn’t necessarily a matter of what my friends’ hair had that mine didn’t. It was the fact that I’m not white, and products in the U.S. are generally geared toward the average woman. I don’t think the average woman in the U.S. is Filipino, 40, and has long, thick hair.
I was also trying to change up my hair, especially in middle and high school, because my mom didn’t want me having crazy haircuts or color. Styling my hair was something I could change. I saw my friends styling their hair and wanted to know how to get mine to look like that, but I also wanted to know why my hair wasn’t doing the same thing when I tried what they did.
Somewhere along the way, I started associating volume with hair looking styled and done up. I bought a few products that claimed to add volume, but I quickly realized it wasn’t as simple as putting something in my hair and hoping for the best. I needed to learn how to use a blow dryer with a concentrator and a round brush. That’s when hot tools became a thing in my life.
What Happened When I Finally Learned How to Create Volume?
My first thought after learning how to create volume was: this is a lot of effort, and I don’t want to do this all the time.
I eventually found a rhythm I liked with a round brush and some sort of root-lifting product. I started with mousse and fanned out from there. I’d primarily focus on the top of my head, concentrating the product around my roots and a little farther down. Then I’d create smaller sections than I normally would for just blow drying.
I mean, it’s pretty normal stuff. Just time-consuming. Once I figured it out, though, I got the appeal. It was fun having hair that looked like what I saw in Seventeen magazine. At that point in my life, when I cared a lot more about what my peers thought about me, the extra styling felt worth the effort.
I don’t necessarily think having a lot of hair made creating volume more difficult. Having thick hair did. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with root clipping. It seems like a more hands-free way to get that lift right at the root. I like that it’s pretty intuitive because it’s literally a clip, and it makes it easier to hit the roots with heat.
I’ve also realized there are a lot more tools available now than there were over a decade ago when I first started figuring this out.
Is Flat Hair Actually a Problem?
I don’t find flat hair problematic. I’m still not totally sure why people seek out so much volume for their hair. As someone with naturally flatter hair, I mostly just accepted it.
Once I figured out how to create volume, I liked the result. The steps to get there were just more work than I was interested in doing regularly. I also realize that just because I’m comfortable with how my hair looks naturally doesn’t mean everyone else is comfortable with theirs. My indifference probably stems from my own level of comfort with my appearance.
Having a lot of flat hair is also kind of a weird description to me. Most Filipinos I grew up around had straight, dark hair. If anything, it was the norm. With my Caucasian counterparts, I saw straight hair, curly hair, wavy hair, and everything in between.
I don’t think I would have called my hair flat if I hadn’t heard or seen that phrasing somewhere else.
I would have called my hair Asian.
Before, I didn’t care for how my hair looked naturally, but in more of a grass-is-greener kind of way. Now I just like having the option of volume. When I do add it, I’m basically trying to create the illusion of even more hair. Just big and a lot. I’m not entirely sure why, but it feels like a boost.
What Would Make Volume Worth the Effort for Me Now?
This blog has given me a renewed interest in doing things to my hair, which is probably why I’m thinking about volume again. It’s not that flat hair suddenly bothers me. I want to investigate solutions to perceived hair problems, especially for people with long, thick hair like mine. I’d genuinely like to find ways to give my hair a little pump that aren’t super time-consuming and annoying.
For something to become part of my regular routine, it would have to be significantly more convenient than what I’ve done in the past. I already know I can create volume. Now I want to figure out how much fucking around is actually necessary to get it.
The old way for me was watching the round brush do its thing, followed by a lot of backcombing. Backcombing my hair hurts my soul. I don’t like doing it, and I don’t like the concept of smoothing perfectly nice hair over a bunch of tangled hair underneath.
When I started seeing the tools that are available now, that’s when I began to wonder if maybe this has gotten easier for a girl like me. I’m also not looking for one specific amount of volume. I want to be able to create a range, from everyday volume all the way up to drag queen big.
Blonde Asian has made experimenting with all of this more justifiable and fun for me.
I Still Like My Flat Hair
After experimenting throughout my life with ways to add volume, I still like to embrace my straight, “flat” hair. I appreciate it because it’s incredibly low maintenance when it comes to styling. I can literally run a brush through my hair and walk out the door.
I can like my hair the way it is without feeling like adding volume is a fix. It’s just an option. If I found the perfect effortless volume solution tomorrow, I’d still need to know what it entailed before I committed to doing it every day. Effortless is relative.
I think younger me would probably just assume I eventually figured it out because I’m not 12 anymore. Having some money and more technical ability helps a lot. But I think the bigger difference is that now I know how to create volume and I don’t feel like I have to.
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