Sexy hair: get more volume now

Try rats! Popular in theatre and TV, Hair Rats are forms that actually stay in your hair, providing lift. They come in two shapes, donut or cylindrical, and are made of foam or nylon mesh so they're soft and malleable. Rats are attached to the underside of hair with hairpins, after which hair is brushed up and over to obscure them. Okay, so it's like hiding an Easter egg in your hair - but it works!

Get a haircut with shorter layers: If your hair has a little wave or some curl, layers offer a ready-made lift. Nikki Flaming of the Beehive Salon likes layers just at the crown of the head. If they're cut very short, you'll get a punkish-pixie look; if they're cut in longer layers, you'll get more of a graduated, subtle lift.

Try Do Dads: Damien Miano, owner of Miano Viel Salon raved about these miniature hairpieces called Do Dads, which are, in fact, simple hair combs with hair extensions attached. You choose the colour to match your own, or a contrasting colour if you're feeling funky. To get the lift, you fasten it on just as you would a traditional hair comb by combing it in against the grain of your hair.

Go for carefully concealed pin curls: Vu Nguyen, stylist at Frederic Fekkai Salon and Spa, always keeps a few basic hairpins handy, which he recommends using to create lift on curly or coarse tresses with four or five tiny pin-curls buried under the top layers of hair, which are secured with pins. He then flips over the top sections of hair, concealing the pin curls, resulting in a lift.

Rubber band it: Nguyen came up with this idea when he ran out of hair pins, and it's become one of his trademarks ever since. He makes miniature bushels of hair by tying off small segments and securing with rubber bands, then flipping top sections of hair over the bushels.