Hide Hair Breakage on Top of Your Head With These Styling Tricks!
Written by Charlene Latreuille
Updated on
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No one wants to suffer from hair breakage, let alone have it show up on top of your head for the world to see.
But you can’t always hide under a hat or feel edgy, insecure, and self-conscious about people staring at you like you’ve been served a hair volume death sentence!
I used to overcomplicate my hairstyles, trying to hide my thinning crown, but then I realized that the key is to rather draw attention away from it by adopting clever styling techniques that create what most hairstylists call:
The illusion of fullness.
So let me show you how to hide hair breakage on top of the head in the most stylish ways that will make every day a good hair day. And best of all, I am talking low-maintenance hairstyles that’ll get you ready in a pinch!
Scroll on …
Table of Contents
- 1. Cut Your Hair Short!
- 2. Pump Up the Volume
- 3. Add Highlights or Lowlights to Reduce Contrast
- 4. Zig-Zag Your Parting
- 5. Angle Your Parting
- 6. Create a Tousled Pompadour
- 7. Tease and Uplift Your Roots
- 8. Create a Messy Updo
- 9. Slick It Back
- 10. Accessorize
- 11. Invest in Some Headwear
- What Does Hair Breakage on The Top Look Like?
- Why Does Hair Break on The Crown?
- Common Signs of Hair Breakage on The Top
- Best Products for Hair Breakage on Top of the Head
- Conclusion
From artfully tousled pompadours to zig-zag lines that flatter your partings, we’ve curated the best hairstyles that will help you cover up hair breakage on the top layer.
1. Cut Your Hair Short!
Longer hair is heavier. It mutes the volume by weighing down your locks against the scalp. When you’re experiencing hair breakage, the lack of volume gives an overall appearance of thinning hair on the crown, even if you have flowing butt-length Rapunzel hair.
A shorter style haircut will ease the weight off, sniping the split ends to make your hair look even and tidy. When done correctly with clever layers and texture enhancements, it creates an illusion of thicker and fuller hair that makes your crown area look abundant.
Speak to your hairstylist and book that haircut ASAP. You’ll be surprised how much of a difference it makes in disguising those pesky broken hairs that were spoiling your hairstyles.
2. Pump Up the Volume
Don’t want to go short?
No problem. You can amplify your hair with a volumizing mousse or spray instead. These styling products will literally fill out your crown area when applied closer to the roots. A volumizer works by coating the hair strands, even the broken and frayed ones, to add stiffness, creating more grip to hold your hairstyle in place.
When used correctly, a volumizing spray will give you just the right amount of va-va-voom to make your hair look fuller on top without looking like you’ve caked on a ton of product.
You can also use a blow dryer closer to the roots in an upwards direction to create lift. But be careful with your heat setting. Keep it low, and don’t let the airflow concentrate on one area.
3. Add Highlights or Lowlights to Reduce Contrast
Consider this. You have dark hair and a light scalp.
Hair breaking on the crown will only make things worse by showing more of your scalp, revealing the stark contrast.
One clever trick to tone the contrast down is by adding highlights/lowlights. It works because the light color allows your hair to blend in with the color of your scalp, blurring the contrast completely to fake an illusion of fullness.
That’s genius!
Don’t thank me for this tip. I read this in Vogue Magazine from celebrity hairstylist Luke Hersheson.
“The minute you start adding texture or contrast with color, you start to see more depth, and that can give the illusion of thickness. Adding very subtle, different tones throughout will do the job well.” – says Luke Hersheson, a celebrity hairstylist.
I’ll keep this trick up my sleeve in case I need to cover up some hair breakage on top of my head in the near future. Never know when I might need it, considering I sometimes go overboard with my hairstyles.
4. Zig-Zag Your Parting
Bella Hadid is doing it, and so is Arianna Grande. So you’ll be forgiven for rewinding your style to the 90s and going all zig zag on your parting. Besides, Gen Z on TikTok has declared the straight parting dead anyway.
So why not add some Z to your parting?
It’s a double whammy of being on trend and hiding short frizzy hair on top of your head.
Here’s why the zig-zig parting works well as a hairstyle to hide hair breakage:
A straight line parting reveals more of your scalp. A zig-zag line will make the longer hairs cross over the broken shorter ones, tamping them down to disguise sparsity and minimize the effect of a frizzy halo on the crown.
Not only that, it works well to hide regrowth lines too.
5. Angle Your Parting
Wearing your hair parted at an angle is another easy way to conceal the sparse spots on your crown.
Any breakage, crown frizz, and baby new growths are immediately visible when your hair is parted in the middle. But when your hair is parted diagonally or at an angle, the breakage and bits of hair that would otherwise stick up, are shoved underneath the swath of longer hairs.
So next time you’re in a hurry, remember that angle parting is an easy way to blend the breakage in with the non-damaged hair.
6. Create a Tousled Pompadour
The pompadour is a classic hairstyle that has graced the heads of many fashion icons for centuries and shows no signs of going out of style soon.
With actress Kristen Stewart recently sporting a tousled pompadour and the style being all the rage on social media, it’s only a matter of time before everyone flocks to their stylist to get the look.
The pompadour is a very versatile hairstyle. It can be worn sleek and polished or tousled and messy. And the best part is that it helps to disguise hair breakage by giving the illusion of fullness on top of your head.
To create a tousled pompadour, start by applying a volumizing product to your damp hair. Then use a blow dryer and a round brush to lift the hair up and back. Once you’ve achieved the desired volume, finish off with a bit of texturizing spray for that tousled look.
There you have it!
A messy pompadour is an excellent way to hide short hairs that stick up on the crown.
It front loads your hairstyle, obscuring the crown area completely. Not so much from the back, but who cares? Unless you take selfies of the back of your head! 👀
7. Tease and Uplift Your Roots
Creating volume at the roots can distract from anything that makes your crown area look thin. Not only does it hide the breakage and uneven hairs sticking up, but it also adds height to your crown without making it obvious.
This technique is called teasing or backcombing.
To achieve this, lift your hair and hold it up. Then work the underside with a fine tooth comb to create lift by back-combing to push the underlayers towards your head gently. Keep working in small sections until you get the desired height and shape. Finish by layering the hair you held up over the sections you teased underneath.
To give those under layers a bit of grit and firm hold, try the Fave4 root lifting spray. It’s a super lightweight formula that will give your roots a bolt of energy, durable grit, and the power to keep hold of the heightened crown for longer.
Fave4 Hair Vertical Volume Root Lifting Spray Texture Spray
8. Create a Messy Updo
Gather your locks and put them up in a messy updo. It’s an excellent low-maintenance hairstyle that hides away the imperfections along your crown.
Just make sure to avoid hair accessories like bobby pins, tight hair ties, rubber bands, and clips. They create tension that will pull and snag the hair causing unnecessary breakage.
9. Slick It Back
If you have varying lengths on top that can’t be tamed, the laziest hair hack is to slick it all back with a gel. The wet look will sweep up broken hairs on the crown, flyaways, growing fringes … and everything in between to create a sleek and sophisticated look.
10. Accessorize
Hair breakage or new growths on top of the head tend to create difficulty in managing ‘in-between’ layers and tufts on hairs. If you’re not keen on cutting your hair or don’t have the time to style it every day, the next best thing is to simply cover up the area with an accessory.
We love the Grace Eleyae’s satin-lined headband for this. It slides in easily, doesn’t create friction on the hair, doesn’t pull or tug, and adds a pop of color to any look.
11. Invest in Some Headwear
From fedoras to beanies, there’s a style to suit every taste. A well-chosen hat or head scarf can be stylish and practical by protecting your hair from the elements while you wait for your crown hairs to grow out and blend in with the rest.
What Does Hair Breakage on The Top Look Like?
Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between hair breakage and little baby hairs on the crown.
So let me explain the difference …
Hair breakage usually appears short, like uneven tufts of hair that stick up or live as flyaways on the head. The texture of the broken hair strands usually differs from the rest of your hair and may feel straw-like or dry.
On the other hand, new growths are usually much softer with tapered ends, finer, and have the same texture as the hair around them. While the new growths will have similar lengths, it’s normal for them to be shorter than the surrounding hairs that have matured.
If unsure, the easiest way to tell is to examine the ends of the hairs in question. If the ends are frayed, look split with an abrupt end, and have a white dot at the end, then it’s likely hair breakage. If the ends are tapered and smooth, then it’s new growth.
“It can appear as split ends, the tip of the hair can be very thin compared to the root, or the ends may be frayed and not smooth. Baby hair is fine and uniform, all the way from root to tip.” Leo Izquierdo
Hairstylist and co-founder of IGK Hair Care - RealSimple
Common differences between baby hairs and hair breakage at the crown:
Baby new hair growths:
- They are nearly the same length
- Tapered end
- Easier to tame and will blend in with your hairstyle
Hair breakage:
- Look like split ends
- Blunt ends
- Varying lengths
- Look frizzy and dry
- Not easy to tame. They will always stick up
“You can tell that you are dealing with new growth because the hair will be the same length all throughout the head and hairline. When dealing with breakage, the hair is uneven and located more in one section, rather than evenly throughout the head.” Whitney Eaddy
Celebrity Hairstylist and Growth Guru - Cosmopolitan
Why Does Hair Break on The Crown?
Having a few hacks up your sleeve is awesome, but you cannot keep patching things up every time. Minor hair breakage can slowly get out of control if not diagnosed and treated early.
It’s essential to figure out the causes and take corrective actions to mitigate them early.
So here are the common reasons for hair breakage:
- Already damaged hair
- Over processed hair (Bleach, coloring, relaxing)
- Heat damage
- Dry hair – Not enough moisture in your hair care routine
- Excessive brushing
- Tight hairstyles that pull and create tension
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Menopausal hair
- Over exposure to the sun
- Split ends
Common Signs of Hair Breakage on The Top
Shorts Hairs With Varying Lengths That Stick Up
Short hairs sticking up and getting in the way of the longer hairs laying down is a common sign of hair breakage. A healthy hair strand, even if it’s shorter because of its growth cycle, has a soft tapered end that allows it to blend with the rest of the hairs. New growths (baby hairs) also appear more even and uniform in length.
A broken hair has a blunt end. Since breakage can happen for varying reasons and at different times, broken hairs at the top will often appear in varying lengths.
The Crown Frizz Effect
Broken hairs are more kinked and rough at the ends than baby hairs. As a result, they tend to stick up like static hair rather than blend in with the rest of the main body of hair, creating what is commonly known as the crown frizz effect (halo frizz).
Lack of Volume On The Crown
If not treated early, excessive breakage on the crown can make hair look thinner up top. The lack of uniform lengths, exacerbated by their inability to clump, reduces the scaffolding effect required to create height on the crown.
More Visible Parting
When you have extensive breakage, it’s evident when you look at the parting in your hair. You can see all of the little pieces that are broken off, and it looks like your hair is thinner. Your scalp might even be visible in some areas.
If your hair and scalp are almost the same color, blurring the contrast, you’ll be ok. But if your hair is dark and your skin color is light, the contrast can make it look like you’re experiencing hair loss.
Best Products for Hair Breakage on Top of the Head
While you cannot fix hair breakage, you can encourage healthy hair growth by boosting strength and elasticity – two critical factors that make the hair resilient against mechanical damage.
I like to think of my hair as spaghetti. When it’s dry, you can snap it easily into pieces. But when it’s cooked, you won’t be able to snap it. It will twist, bend, slide and take any shape.
Hair is similar. If you keep it dry, it doesn’t have the elasticity to twist and bend when brushing or styling. That’s why even the slightest of forces from a brush or styler cause it to snap.
You need to keep your hair like cooked spaghetti.
The easiest way to do that is to supply it with plenty of moisture.
Load Up On the Conditioners
Deep conditioners, masques, leave-ins, any product that can work hydration back into your strands … GLOB IT ON!
Start with a weekly deep conditioner. I highly recommend one that contains argan oil because argan is a “powerhouse of nutrients” clinically proven to nourish, strengthen, and heal over-processed hair. Argan oil is also packed with rich fatty acids that are intensely hydrating.
For daily styling, use leave-in conditioners to prevent your hair from drying out in the sun. A leave-in works as a lightweight overtime conditioner beyond the shower to infuse and lock in moisture for a prolonged period.
Arvazallia Argan Oil Deep Conditioner
Try a Protein Treatment
Just like spaghetti is made of drum wheat and water, the hair is made of protein and moisture as its core components. Therefore, keeping an optimal protein and moisture balance is essential to prevent the hair’s loss of elasticity and strength.
However, please note that too much protein can have the opposite effect of making your hair feel stiff, causing more breakage due to protein overload.
The best way to do it is to avoid DIY home recipes and pick a product already designed to restore proteins and realign the bonds.
You cannot go wrong with an Olaplex!
Olaplex No 3
Hot Oil Treatments
We all know that oil is beneficial and highly moisturizing for the hair. But did you know that heating the oil maximizes its effectiveness by 30-40%!
“When you apply the hot oil from scalp to the ends, the strands are able to absorb the oils and nutrients at least 30 to 40 percent more than they would with a normal, dry application without any heat.” Malaika Frazier
Celeb Hairstylist - Well+Good
MoroccanOil Treatment
Oils you can use:
- Argan oil
- Hemp seed oil
- Avocado oil
- Coconut oil
- Olive oil
- Almond oil
- Rosemary oil
Try an Anti-Breakage Shampoo
An anti-breakage shampoo does exactly what it says on the bottle. It uses fortifying ingredients such as keratin, biotin, and collagen to rebuild the hair fibers and prevent them from future breakage.
Anti-Breakage Shampoo
Try a Split Ends Serum
When you don’t have time for frequent salon visits to trim your ends, a split ends serum can hold the broken part with a glue-like shield around it to prevent the split from traveling further up the hair shaft. It also makes the ends look neat and tidy in between trims.
Virtue Split Ends Serum
Switch Your Towel
You may not realize this, but if you’re using a rough cotton towel to rub your wet hair after washing, it may be the leading cause of the breakage on your crown.
Try switching to a microfiber towel and blot your hair dry instead of rubbing it. A microfiber towel, unlike cotton, is made from extremely fine fibers that make the fabric gentle and friction-free. It also soaks up water faster than a regular towel.
Aquis Microfiber Towel
Conclusion
If you want to hide hair breakage on top of your head, dare to experiment with new styles and accessories. It may take some time to see those inches flow and clump again, but you don’t have to look like a pineapple in the meantime.
Remember, your hair is your most versatile asset.
You can shape, cut, color, accessorize, and work it in whichever way you want. It’s all about being creative with your styling and hair care routine.
About the Author
Charlene LatreuilleCharlene Latreuille has been blogging for over 10 years and has a background in digital marketing.
Specializing in women's hair health, she blends scientific insight with practical advice, crafting easy-to-follow guides.