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It’s not like I’ve ever had thick hair. Back in the 80s, when the other high school girls had lion’s manes of curls and bangs that reached for the heavens, I was lucky if I could fake the Meg Ryan tousled short hair look. Now that I’ve hit my menopausal years I have to accept that I really, truly, will never look like vintage Stevie Nicks. Neither long hair nor thick hair will come to me naturally. In fact, like 40 percent of women by age 40, I am more likely to experience hair loss.
What has changed since high school are the products that are available. No more stiff, scrunchy mousse-with-a-chemical-smell needed! In fact, thanks to the best shampoos for menopausal hair, I can look like I have a fuller head of hair without much styling, which is a real boon because thin hair plus heavy products that dry it out were never a good mix.
I rotate shampoo because I always assume I can find something just slightly better. But this is as good a time as any to stop, take stock of hair-thickening shampoos that really work, and sing their praises. For one thing, unlike some other menopausal beauty products, many of these thin-hair shampoos are probably also good for younger women (or even for some high school girl out there like I was, someone who is now trying to look like Dua Lipa.)
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Pura D’Or Anti-Thinning Biotin Shampoo
Image Credit: Amazon Last summer a colleague wrote an ode to this shampoo that users swear slows the thinning of their hormone-deprived tresses. They say it makes their existing hair thicker, too. Biotin is the main ingredient that works some magic. And the shampoo now has nearly 17K five-star reviews on Amazon, so I can’t argue with its success.
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Vegamour Gro Revitalizing Shampoo and Conditioner Kit
Image Credit: Vegamour Over-50 glamourpuss Nicole Kidman uses this shampoo on her amazing hair. (Though let’s be honest, plenty of her iconic looks are wigs — hello, Kidman in The Undoing.) I like that the shampoo and conditioner in this kit use a vegan keratin to help hair, and it’s color-safe for those of us who are not natural blondes or redheads. Bonus: If you subscribe and get the products once a month, you save per purchase.
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Better Not Younger Wake Up Call
Image Credit: Better Not Younger This entire brand is about aging hair, so anything they sell is going to help out us perimenopausal and menopausal ladies. But since this article is focusing on the best shampoo for thinning hair due to menopause, I’m focusing on Wake Up Call, which is designed to volumize and strengthen. Enthusiastic reviewers talk about how it leaves hair soft and frizz-free while it thickens. Even better: Many fans say you only need to use a small amount — just a single pump each time you wash your hair — so your purchase will last.
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V05 Extra Body Volumizing Shampoo
Image Credit: V05 My bargain-hunting, inflation-weary friends, there is something for you as well. It’s been around since the 1960s and still works. Funny enough, it was my millennial niece and not my boomer mother who tipped me off to this drugstore staple, because it’s free of parabens. (I’m sure the inventor didn’t think about that so much, but he was unknowingly ahead of his time!) Collagen and a collection of five vitamins and oils — that’s the “Power of Five” that inspired the name V05 — make your hair fuller and more shiny, too.
V05 Extra Body Volumizing Shampoo $13.92 -
Keranique Color Boost Anti-Hair Loss Shampoo and Conditioner Kit
Image Credit: Keranique Okay, back to all of us who color our hair to keep it looking decent and to try and thicken it a bit. Pricey color treatments last longer if you use sulfate-free shampoo that won’t strip color out. This set of shampoo and conditioner also promises to leave hair “more buoyant,” which I appreciate. The reviews note that it’s really good for hair that’s both thinning but still oily, a tricky combo that deserves special treatment.
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Rodan + Fields Volume+ Shampoo
Image Credit: Rodan + Fieldso Are you a styling-product lover who can’t give up dry shampoo, hair spray, volumizing spray, and all the rest? This particular shampoo promises to clean your scalp (the brand was founded by dermatologists) and thicken your hair, all the while protecting color. Buy it alone or in a set with the conditioner and Densifying Treatment.
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Virtue — Flourish Shampoo for Thinning Hair
Image Credit: Virtue If you’re losing hair as you lose your hormones — and it’s not postpartum hair loss, which is almost cute in retrospect — this brand is entirely about solving for age-related thinning tresses. And they’re serious about it. Their Hair Growth kit uses a medication, Minoxidil, commonly found in male-pattern-baldness products. Female-patterned baldness (a widening part, a retreating hairline) is also a thing. Fight back!
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Meaningful Beauty 3-Piece Age-Proof Treatment Kit
Image Credit: Meaningful Beauty Oh Cindy Crawford, how we still want to look like you! But apparently even supermodels worry about thinning hair, because in 2021 Crawford founded this brand and told the media, “Women expect their face to age but no one tells us that our hair will age.” This kit is actually shampoo-less (check the next slide for the shampoo!) and concentrates on restoring the moisture we routinely deplete by drying hair at home and out in the sun. It includes conditioner, scalp treatment, and protective spray.
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Meaningful Beauty Strengthening Shampoo
Image Credit: Meaningful Beauty Formulated with keratin, Arginine, antioxidants, and alpha-hydroxy acids to make hair strong and better able to hold up to “environmental aggressors,” which I’m going to take to mean the California sun and surf, the Meaningful Beauty Strengthening Shampoo is another way to channel your inner super model.
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Rene Furterer Paris Triphasic Strengthening Shampoo
Image Credit: Rene Furterer Paris That’s a long name, I know, from this iconic brand born in France back in the 1950s. We’re fans of the shampoo and conditioner but if you’re going to try just one, go for this shampoo, formulated for women or men with thinning hair. I like that you can buy the trial-size if you just want to test it, or a midsize, or a fullsize bottle with a pump if you love it as much as the website’s reviewers do.
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OGX Thick & Full + Biotin & Collagen Volumizing Shampoo
Image Credit: OGX My cousin inherited thick, dark hair from her Turkish dad but even she worries about how it’s thinning over time. (I inherited my Finnish father’s thin hair, so I only have so much sympathy.) When my cousin heard I was writing this, she sent a picture of her go-to drugstore brand, which is paraben- and sulfate-free, and has both biotin and collagen for volume. Order it via Amazon (where it has more than 5K five-star reviews) and it will arrive at your door.
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