Is it possible to get thicker hair, naturally? Yes, and you don’t even need hair thickening products to make it work.

There are so many products promising to give you thick hair—shampoos, conditioners, ointments, laser treatments, red lights—you name it. Some of them probably work, some of them probably don’t, but these are like band-aids to the problem.

None of them will solve your hair problems forever because they don’t address the underlying issue. And that’s what we want, right? We want to thicken hair strands and increase hair density for glossier, hydrated, and fast-growing locks, and we want to maintain it forever.

I’m going to tell you what I did to solve this problem.

Please note, this can work for men and women but male pattern baldness is a separate issue with very different treatment options. I recommend seeing a specialist to address that particular concern.

Before

I used to spend 30 minutes in the shower detangling my hair with my fingers and a tangle teaser. For half an hour every wash day, and I’d pull clumps of hair out of my brush. I washed my hair every three or so days, and not because it was greasy, because it was so tangled that it looked awful. If I left it longer than that between washes, the detangling process could take 40 minutes.

It was exhausting and disheartening to see so much in my brush every time. I wanted long hair, but I couldn’t maintain it—the ends were like barbed wire, brittle and split, and I could only use really thick conditioners that were actually too heavy for my fine hair, but my hair wouldn’t detangle with anything lighter. The result was over-conditioned hair that was flat, but somehow very tangled after a few days.

How I fixed thin, brittle, tangled hair

I ate loads more protein.

When I say loads, I mean about 60g more protein in one day than I had been eating.

That’s literally it, that’s the big secret. Your hair is basically just protein, so it needs a source of protein to grow properly.

I upped my protein intake so much that my body initially had no idea what hit it. I went from about 30g of protein a day to more than 80g. It was a big change, my stomach felt weird, and I felt so full I didn’t know if I’d ever be hungry again.

That initial shock to the system lasted a week or two, but after that I felt great.

I started back at the gym after a break and, due to increased protein levels, I managed to avoid muscle pain. I slept better and I had more energy. It was about a month before I really noticed a difference in my hair.

For the first few weeks, I kept using thick protein-filled conditioners, because that’s what I assumed my hair would always need. But after a while, my hair started to reject them. I’d wash my hair and let it air dry, and it felt sticky and brittle. It was horrible, I didn’t understand what was going on.

Until one day. I was sick of trying all my different protein-infused masks, so I grabbed a small bottle of conditioner I once swiped from a hotel room and slathered it on.

My hair instantly detangled—the whole conditioning and detangling process took about five minutes. I let it air dry, like I normally would, and almost cried at the result. It was shiny, glossy, and it felt so thick and full. I realised I probably didn’t need the thick conditioning masks anymore. My hair suddenly had enough protein to grow properly and detangle itself, putting more on resulted in protein overload.

I went from losing piles of hair to hardly any at all, and my conditioning and detangling routine went from 30 minutes down to five. All it took was adding more protein to my diet.

After

I’m still figuring out the best ways to incorporate more protein into my diet—90g is a lot for someone who doesn’t eat meat. My hair isn’t as thick as it was when I was really going for the protein, but it hasn’t lost it either. I still spend less than ten minutes conditioning and detangling my hair. Sometimes I use protein masks, but rarely. Most of the time, I can get away with lighter and more generic products that don’t have strengthening or lengthening properties. If I’m really in a bind and I’m away from home, I can use hotel conditioner and my hair is easy to detangle and looks great.

I was also able to stop using leave in conditioners and curl creams altogether. My hair started curling great on its own.

How much protein should you eat?

I am not a doctor or a health care professional of any kind. Before you make health and lifestyle changes, you should always speak to a professional. This is what worked for me :)

The protein recommendation is 2g per 1kg of lean body mass.

To figure this out, weigh yourself first thing in the morning, before you eat anything. Determine your body weight percentage and reduce your weight by your body fat. There are a few ways to determine your body fat percentage—either use the charts below, or you can take your measurements and use a calculator like this one.

If you weigh 60kg and your body fat is 25 per cent, the equation would be: 60 x 0.25 = 15.

60 -15 = . Your lean body mass would be 45kg.

If you need 2g of protein per kg of lean body mass, the final equation would be: 45 x 2 = 90.

So, someone who weighs 60kg with 25 per cent body fat would need to eat about 90g of protein per day.

How to increase your protein intake

Protein intake is very individual and will depend on your specific circumstance. Vegans will probably find they have to eat a lot more food in general to meet the protein requirements, but it’s still very attainable no matter what your diet is.

Personally, I had no idea my protein levels were so low and I found it difficult to incorporate so much more into my diet. When I went to the supermarket, I found a lot of yogurts and cereals and fortified with protein. I also incorporated dehydrated vegetable proteins into meals and generally started paying more attention to the nutrition charts on food packaging.

It took about a month to see real results, but I was completely blown away once I realised it was working.