The 9 struggles only women with fine hair will understand.

I was 14 when I had the biggest epiphany of my short life.

I had waltzed into a hairdressing salon and smugly apologised for my oh-so-thick hair. “It may take a while for you to get through,” I explained helpfully.

My hairdresser looked at my hair intently, squinting his eyes slightly.

“I’m sorry but… you don’t have thick hair,” he replied.

This news was extremely distressing to me (I was 14, so it’s all relative).

My hairdresser could see my despair. He gently explained that although I did have quite a bit of it, my hair was fine and wispy. This means that instead of being luscious and full-bodied, it is frizzy and boofy, but still breaks easily.

Just as an FYI, you should know that this is an advertorial for L’Oreal.

Thankfully, I discovered that having fine hair immediately meant I was part of the very exclusive “fine-haired people” club.

I found others who understood what it was like to go through life with a pinky-finger sized ponytail and knew the pain of having to wrap a hair tie round your hair 16 times in order for it not to fall out.

These things are of course the least of my worries. Here are some of the other struggles everyone in the fine-haired people club will understand.

1. You spend hours curling your hair for the resulting hairstyle to last a total of seven minutes.

Unless you douse it in three cans of hair spray, those curls you just spent an hour doing are coming right out, my friend.

2. Your braids look like rat-tails.

After scrolling through Pinterest you inevitably think it would be a wonderful idea to try those wrap-around-zig-zag-loop-de-loop braids.

Until you finish and you remember that braids look terrible on you because they are so thin that they might as well not exist at all.

3. Scalp sunburn is a real problem.

“No no, I don’t have dandruff. I just got a bit of sun yesterday and am paying the consequences of peeling skin on my scalp today. Please stop staring.”

4. If you use the wrong shampoo/conditioner, your hair will be so greasy it will look as if you didn’t shower at all.

Unless you are using a shampoo or conditioner designed for fine hair like L’Oreal Paris Elvive Fibralogy, it will most likely hang heavy and limp next to your face, leaving you questioning whether you did in fact have that shower and wash your hair at all.

5. Your hair takes a long time to grow. A loooong time.

You better hope your hairdresser gets that cut right the first time, otherwise you are going to be stuck with that hairstyle for the next 12 years… or so.

Related: “This is the picture I gave to my hairdresser. And then…”

6. Your hair can still frizz as if it has all the body and volume in the world.

Well, that’s unfair. Unless you dry it in a very specific way, you risk it looking like it is trying to seek freedom by escaping from your scalp.

7. People will always point out it’s thin.

What? This is completely new information to me!

8. You briefly consider extensions, before remembering you don’t have the hair coverage to hide them.

You’re waiting for the day when visible hair extensions are “so in”.

Related: The 17 most tragic hair trends ever – and the rest of the week’s hair news.

9. You find yourself gazing in wonder at your thick-haired friend’s updo.

“How does she even DO that?”

Fine-haired friends, this list may leave you feeling disheartened, I know.

Lucky for you (and very lucky for me), there is help. Hair-thickening products like the L’Oreal Paris Elvive Fibralogy thickening Haircare offer a shampoo, conditioner and serum that can help your fine-hair issues.

It helps to expand and thicken your hair, tricking it into believing it was born luscious and full-bodied.

In case you need more proof, the serum was voted Product of the Year by Australians in a recent Nielsen poll of over 15,000 people. So yeah, it’s pretty good.

Give it a go, see how it works for you and your fine-lookin’ hair. And the good news? You can join the Fibralogy circle to receive an exclusive discount on the products here: www.ThickerHair.com.au

And be sure to report your findings back to me at our next “fine-haired people” club meeting, fellow members.

Now, over to the clever people at L’Oreal to explain their amazing products…

What fine-hair problems would you add to this list? 

Last year was very successful for Elvive Fibralogy, the Fibralogy Serum Treatment collected a 2015 Product of the Year award (Hair care Category, Survey of 15,050 people by Nielsen), and the Fibralogy range was the most successful* new launch in the last year. We wanted to share this success with Australia, so decided to feature some of our Australian consumers in our latest campaign. The women tell their Fibralogy stories about how it has made their hair thicker and given them more confidence. To join the Fibralogy Circle and see their stories, visit www.ThickerHair.com.au – we’re also offering you an exclusive discount to try the products yourself!

*SOURCE: IRI-Aztec MarketEdge Grocery, Value sales where AU Grocery Scan is the sum of AU Woolworths Scan and AU Coles Group scan, comparing all SKUs** that have sales in the last 104 weeks to week ending 22/02/15 and not prior, and where SKUs are 500ml or less only.