Fine hair almost always gets a bad rap. We’re all familiar with its downsides — scalpy twists, fros that flop and susceptibility to breakage — but we don’t always discuss the benefits of having fine natural hair. Here are 7 unique advantages of fine natural hair. For the purposes of this article, fine hair refers to thin strand and low density hair.
1. Less Products
With fine hair, a dime-sized amount of product goes a very, very long way! Thicker haired naturals require more product to coat and seal their strands, plus they often require heavier products — like shea-based butters and creams — that tend to be more expensive. Many fine haired naturals can skip heavy butters and seal with lighter, cheaper products like coconut oil or aloe gel.
2. Easier and Faster Hair Straightening
While coarse strands and thick hair take more coaxing to loosen their curl pattern, fine hair tends to take to heat more easily and requires less of it to straighten out. On the flip side, you have to be careful not to burn fine strands. Keep your blowdryer at medium to low temperatures, and don’t keep the flat iron on for long!
3. Easier Bunning
Thick hair can look a bit bulky when pulled into a bun or a single braid and can put a strain on hair ties and bobby pins. Fine hair is easier to pull into one, and can look a bit more effortless
4. Hot Weather Friendly
There’s nothing hotter in the summer time than a mass of thick, heavy strands. The “scalpiness” of fine haired styles is actually a plus in the summer time, providing a way for heat to escape the body.
5. Shorter wash day
While thicker haired naturals have to divide their strands into several sections and cleanse and condition each one individually, fine haired naturals can get away with fewer section and, in some cases, not sectioning at all. Plus, fine haired section take less time to work through and air dry much faster.
6. Easier Detangling
When you have less strands to detangle, the process is much quicker. Plus, fine haired naturals can get away with finger detangling only, while many thicker haired naturals must also incorporate hair tools like Denman brushes and wide toothed combs.
7. Faster Styling
When there’s less hair to get through, styling tends to go faster. On fine hair a set of twists or box braids can take less than 2 hours, while thick hair styling often take 4 hours of more. Plus, thick hair can be a downside at the salon, with many stylists charging extra cash for clients with a lot of hair to get through.
Fine haired ladies, tell us, what are the benefits of your hair type?
I definitely misunderstood this article for a moment because usually people refer to hair that is the extreme opposite of thick as thin. They use “fine” to describe the actual hair strands. I have thick hair (a ton of volume) but the actual individual strands are fine, if that makes sense.
My hair is the same so i wonder what principles apply then??
Me too. My strands are fine, but I have a gazillion of them packed on my head!
Same thing here, I was very confused and wondering why I didn’t get those benefits. Fine/thin strands, but good gracious are there a ton of them on my head!
Co-sign and thank you because I was reading this and thinking: well dang, I guess I don’t have fine hair after all because most of these don’t apply to me, lol. Like you, I have thick hair but fine strands. When stretched or blown out, it can look huge, but twists or braids look like spider legs…
I think there is a bit of a confusion between density and the the actual size of the hair strand
This article is dealing with low density where when you braid or twist it looks scalpy etc…. People that have fine strands but lots of them wouldn’t experience what has been mentioned.
Ha ha, spider legs! That’s the term I’ve been looking for. I just foolishly started doing twists for the first time in a long time last night while watching tv. I did half my head, then looked in the mirror and was like “yup, they still look awful on me”. Oh spider legs, you get me every time!
I agree too. I have fine strands but my hair is dense and follows the patterns of so-called thick hair here. I think this article has strand size and density confused.
So does anyone have any advantages to fine dense hair? I find that I cannot escape split ends and mid shaft splits no matter how hard I try despite not using brushes and combs.
I agree i have fine hair strands, but alot of them, which gives the appearance of having thick hair. Alot of these advantages don’t apply to me and i think it also depends on how long your hair is. My hair is near APL and takes ages to do cos of the length, if my hair was shorter it would probably be more manageable and less time consuming and need less product. Very informative article though! Thanks!
Overall, it is a great article. I think there needs to be a clarification though between thickness of strand (fine, medium, coarse) and density/number of strands. I think this confuses a lot of people. You can actually have dense hair but have fine strands and vice versa.
I agree, this article swapped the two definitions (dense and fine). Having fine hair doesn’t mean I have less strands, just means that my strands are skinnier. If anything, the argument can be made that we have more hair on our heads(density) because our individual strands take up less space.
Never thought about it like that! Always focused on the down side. Thanks for the article.
My fine hair gives cute twist outs in a shorter time for setting.
Hello Diva,
I was really looking forward to reading this article because I have fine hair and I can’t seem to style it in any way but a braidout… I’ve been natural for four years now and I’m still having problems. I agree with a lot of the article, but the only thing I got that would help me was #1.. I think I might be using too much oil, and I should try gel. I HAVE NO VOLUME!!! Anywho, I love your hair.. Can you let me know how you do your twist out? I’ve tried it about four times and It ALWAYS comes out flat… As do the braid out, but I can tolerate that one more…
Hi Jacqueline –
Try using Eco Styling Olive Oil gel and make your two strand twist super small/skinny. This will take longer but it will be less scalpy and your hair will look fuller when you do your twistout. You can maintain the twist out by retwisting the untwisted twist (now say that fast 5 times!) into bigger chunks when it’s bedtime.
One fine head to anothe
Beautiful twist out.
Thanks for a better perspective.
yes and a very, very much needed one.
well , I’ll continue to imagine that my bun will turn into a big messy bun. And, when I do a braid out or wash n go, it’ll be a big afro. My hair will always appear shorter than some of my shorter haired thick haired ladies. Still I lurse my hair.
I have fine, dense natural hair and have tried every product under the sun and I still haven’t found a product or regimen that makes my hair happy. I always end up with super dry hair because the products are too light or greasy, crunchy hair because the products are too heavy. HELP! Not enjoying my fine natural hair right now.
I feel ya, same here.. If anyone can’t help!!!!
Try the Aubrey Organics line. They have a whole host of products that you can try out. If you e-mail their customer service dept. (on their website), they will send you free samples. The sample packets are small, so ask for multiple samples.
Also, grapeseed oil, coconut oil and shea butter work wonders on fine hair. Glycerine mixed with water in a spray bottle also works great on fine hair.
I have fine hair as well and the trick is not to use too much product. Just a little dab will do ya.
Good luck.
I returned to commercial conditioners I.e Herbal Essences Hello Hydration because the natural conditioners didn’t cut it. The only things I find adequate are creamy and/or water based I.e Oyins Hair Dew, Juices and Berries and Hairveda oil. My hair is also always thirsty and I’d love to hear from fine dense heads who have found what works for them with this hair type.
I have to agree Nicole I am currently experiencing the same. And just when I think I got my regime together it turns out not to be what I thought. Although my hair has grown to mid-back length it has been a constant struggle to not lose my strands. Im considering locking.
Ooh that just made me feel better about my fine hair! The scalpy twists can be annoying but actually like it now!
I agree with majority of the things said in this post except for the air drying aspect. I have fine hair and it still takes for ever to dry because my hair holds water in granted it may not take 24 hours but its definitely a 5 hour waiting period.
If your hair takes longer to dry you may have hair that has lower porosity. Check out articles on that topic.
While I often covet the thick strands of thicker-haired naturals, on wash day I am always grateful to be a fine-haired girl. I can easily shampoo, condition and style in less than an hour. I am always in awe when I hear about detangling sessions that last for 2 to 3 hours.
Number 5 definitely holds true for me, I don’t section at all to wash my hair.
I also have fine, dense hair. I’ve learned to love it. I appreciate the short dry times, and whatnot.
This almost made me feel good about my fine hair…but then I remembered the BREAKAGE part :(
Breakage with fine hair is very much controlled by the owner. Switch to better detangling methods that suit your hair (as breakage is often related to detangling). The idea of raking a comb through my hair is terrible, but with my fingers, so much easier, painless and effective.
I’ve always believed that fine hair is easier to bun, which is probably why I wear buns so much–low buns, high buns, you name it! I think it definitely helps to consider the advantages of fine hair. The images on the web that represent natural hair predominantly feature thick hair, and I know for a fact that in my first year of being natural, it was especially discouraging for me to discover that styles were going to look drastically different on my hair just because it is fine (and a bit thin). And the point about washing time–yes! My hair is approaching bra strap length and I never take more than 15 minutes to detangle and wash combined. It’s encouraging (and imperative) that all kinds of hair are appreciated, fine, thin, coarse, thick, whatever.
There’s a difference between fine hair and thin hair and this article just described thin hair. I have fine hair. Hundreds of thousands fine afro hairs with tight 4c coils that are dense, yet not coarse. No “scalpiness” happening here. At the end of the day, I wish people would stop trying to classify and stereotype hair. I love reading others’ hair stories, reading about various products, and seeing various hairstyles, but ultimately we all have different hair.
In the very last part of the article the author did say and I quote “For the purposes of this article, fine hair refers to thin strand and low density hair.” So she in fact mentioned she would only be dealing with fine hair with low density.
This is a great article, because as much as I love my hair. I am honestly disappointed that my hair does not foof or fluff like other naturals that have thicker hair that is the same length as mine. I have come to understand that my “volume” will come as a result of just having long hair and not because it is extra thick. I second some of the other comments, I have a lot of hair ( many strands), but it is pretty fine and I can’t get the “big hair” that I love without picking and using a hair dryer.
Finally, a natural hair article for my hair type. Yes. to all of the above. I use to try to use a lot of product but it would either weigh my hair down, give me an itchy scalp or break my hair off.
Itchy scalp is so annoying…
I love this article. I feel like no one ever wants to discuss fine hair. I used to be jealous of girls with thicker hair but now I love my fine curly hair!
Benefits
-my hair is never heavy no matter how long it gets.
-Products last longer because I use less of it.
-If I want to have my hair look thicker that can always be accomplished through certain styling techniques.
-I have a small head so I guess my fine hair compliments this feature.
-My hair only takes a hour get it bone straight.(which I don’t do anymore)
i have fine AND low density hair, and i STILL don’t have most of these benefits.
straightening my hair is a half day’s job at least (even when done by professionals). keeping it straight is quite a harrowing task, damn near impossible.
anyone who this this hair is hot weather friendly needs to come try it for a few days. i’ve barely worn my hair out this summer b/c it’s like putting my head in the freaking oven when i do.
my hair is kind of easy to bun now that i’m freaking mbl, that has more to do w/ length than density.
styling is NOT faster b/c i generally have to do smaller sections to get a fuller look ( i.e micro twists vs regular twists on thicker haired girls. if i do anything other than micro, it looks hella scalpy). other styles don’t even look good on me b/c i don’t have enough density to pull it off.
less products… LOL. tell that to my conditioner bottles.
i’ll admit that my wash day isn’t that long, but that’s only b/c i don’t baby my hair the way a lot of other naturals do.
i’m wondering if the author even has low density hair. you really shouldn’t right about things you don’t have.
with all this said, i actually LOVE my hair just the way it is. i certainly wouldn’t be upset if i woke up w/ super dense hair one day, but i’ve never really thought about low density hair as a bad thing. all it means is some styles just aren’t for me. meh.
Lol you just described my hair down to the science…
i have fine AND low density hair, and i STILL don’t have most of these benefits.
straightening my hair is a half day’s job at least (even when done by professionals). keeping it straight is quite a harrowing task, damn near impossible.
anyone who this this hair is hot weather friendly needs to come try it for a few days. i’ve barely worn my hair out this summer b/c it’s like putting my head in the freaking oven when i do.
my hair is kind of easy to bun now that i’m freaking mbl, that has more to do w/ length than density.
styling is NOT faster b/c i generally have to do smaller sections to get a fuller look ( i.e micro twists vs regular twists on thicker haired girls. if i do anything other than micro, it looks hella scalpy). other styles don’t even look good on me b/c i don’t have enough density to pull it off.
less products… LOL. tell that to my conditioner bottles.
i’ll admit that my wash day isn’t that long, but that’s only b/c i don’t baby my hair the way a lot of other naturals do.
i’m wondering if the author even has low density hair. you really shouldn’t right about things you don’t have.
with all this said, i actually LOVE my hair just the way it is. i certainly wouldn’t be upset if i woke up w/ super dense hair one day, but i’ve never really thought about low density hair as a bad thing. all it means is some styles just aren’t for me. meh, no biggy.