How do you get volume in your hair? It’s something many of us will have googled at some point and yet, it still feels like one of the biggest enigmas in beauty. In fact, trichologists at Philip Kingsley cite limp, flat hair as one of the most common hair frustrations brought to their clinics.

Now, a strategic haircut can instantly add tons of volume around the top of your head – just look at TikTok’s popular one-minute mullet and wolf cut hairstyles that are currently trending. But if you’re not looking for a drastic hair makeover, your attention should lie in the products that you use.

One celebrity that is known for healthy, volumised hair is Jennifer Lopez – just look at how incredible it looked during her Super Bowl 2020 halftime show. Of course, we’ve already reported on how Lopez’s long-time hairstylist, Chris Appleton, protected this glossy hairdo from the intense humidity with a strategic blowdry.

But one other thing he says is important when styling anybody’s hair is the products he uses to prep. Previously, Appleton would mix a few different products to create volume. And now, to save you from trying to craft your own concoction, he has teamed up with Color Wow to take all of the benefits of these volumising products and put them into one bottle. Enter: Color Wow Xtra Large Bombshell Volumizer, £23.

Suitable for all hair types and textures – but especially those with fine, thin strands – this hair innovation uses polymers to thicken hair strands without drying them out and helps to create bounce and gloss. It also contains bamboo extract to coat each strand and lift it from the cuticle without leaving hair sticky.

There are lots of factors that may cause flat hair. It could be that your hair is very fine, your scalp produces excess sebum, or even that you’re applying conditioner on your roots. For me, my flat hair is a result of the length and thickness weighing my hair down at the roots. I’ve tried numerous mousses in an attempt to revive my hair but all I’ve ever managed to achieve is a crispy, stiff finish.

To use this, I washed my hair and wrapped it in a microfibre towel for around 10 minutes while I did my skincare. Then, when it was damp, I got to work.

The first thing that struck me about this product was the texture. I was expecting a thicker, mousse-like formula but, instead, it’s an airy foam. Now, foams usually get a bad rap for being drying but this formula has been created with zero alcohol and salt. Science, ey?

I watched a how-to video by Appleton, in which he instructed using “two to three pumps per quarter of the hair”. I split my hair into four sections and, worried about going overboard, used two pumps for each section, taking the foam along the hair from root to tip.

Of course, the one place we want the most amount of volume is in the roots, so Appleton recommends adding an extra pump of foam along the hairline (note to your future self: make sure you cleanse along your hairline properly later on, to avoid breakouts around this area). I also took a bit of the product along my parting, in the hopes it would give me some lift there, too.

Unlike most volumising products, Xtra Large doesn’t actually require any heat – just what somebody who has avoided hairstyling for the best part of the last 12 months wants to hear. Finishing off the product with heat will of course help to give the hair even more lift at the roots but as I was testing on a random Tuesday afternoon, I decided to see how it would fare with air drying.

When my hair was completely dry, I did a bit of a double take. I had more volume than I’ve ever been able to achieve with any other product and so much lift in the roots.

Even better, as somebody who likes to swish their hair about and refrains from sticking with just one parting in the day, I was pleased to see it didn’t leave my hair feeling heavy, gritty, sticky or stiff in the roots. The foam is so lightweight, it didn’t feel like I had anything in my hair.

Even though the only place I had to go was my local Tesco, I couldn’t help but swish my hair about, enjoying the volume, bounce and body it had from root to tip. This product is genius.

Main image: Color Wow