E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Dan Steinberg / AP
Cowlicks even strike vampires! "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart has one at the front of her hairline.
Alfalfa from the "Our Gang" TV serial had a famous one that stuck straight up. So did Dennis the Menace of comic strip fame. Supermodel Claudia Schiffer reportedly has two on her front hairline. "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart has one in front. And in a recent tweet, The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drumond, the blogger turned Food Network TV star wrote, "My cowlick is fired." Channeling her inner-Donald Trump, she perfectly captures how this wayward whorl of hair can drive people crazy.
Cowlicks seem to have a mind of their own and like to go against the flow.
The hair on your head needs to go in three directions -- some needs to go forward, some backwards, and some to the sides.
"In a perfect world, there would be a line so hair would know which way to go," says Dr. Orr Barak, a dermatologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. A cowlick is the body's answer to this, by having a centralized location on your scalp -- a crossing point for hair to grow and lie in different directions.
But an unruly cowlick often selects its own direction -- and pops straight up -- or chooses an angle at odds with your preferred style. That's when the frustration and annoyance sets in.
A cowlick's spiral pattern is likely caused because hair gets confused about whether it needs to go forward, backward, or to the side, and some hairs get caught in between creating that characteristic whorl, explains Barak. Cowlicks were supposedly named for the swirling pattern made on hair when a cow licked its calves.
Virtually everybody has a cowlick or two, with the most visible one found at the crown of the head and a second less obvious one, perhaps at the neck or on the front hairline by the part.
They form early in life -- in utero -- and once you have a cowlick, you're stuck with it unless you lose your hair. Both men and women are equally affected by them, although it doesn't seem that way since they are more noticeable in guys because they typically have shorter hair.
Longer styles often camouflages a cowlick because the weight of the hair covers it up. And it's more obvious in straighter hair compared to curly.
According to Barak, there are some interesting associations between cowlicks and their rotating patterns on your head. He says that noted geneticist Amar Klar has found a connection between handedness and the direction of hair whorls.
In people who are right handed, at least 90% of cowlicks have a clockwise rotation while about 10% go in a counterclockwise direction.
Klar's research has found that people who are not righties are more likely to have a counterclockwise cowlick. In one experiment, he found that 50% of folks who are lefties or ambidextrous have a counterclockwise whorl pattern, suggesting that hand preference and cowlick rotation may develop from a common genetic mechanism.
Interestingly, in a study published in 2004 on nearly 600 men, Klar found that roughly 30% of gay men had a counterclockwise rotation on their scalp hair whorl compared to just 9 percent seen in the population at large.
No matter how your cowlick swirls, most people would be happy to know how to tame it. Although Barak is a doctor and not a hair stylist, he recommends keeping your hair long or going with the grain of the cowlick. Of course, the right cut and styling products can also do the trick.
Readers, what seems to work for your cowlicks?
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
Bangs!!!!!!!!! this is why I have bangs still I have a cowlick right in front and the only way to make them go away are the bangs. I guess I will be stuck with them all of my life oh well !!!!!!!!! My life could be worse so hey....
I just cut off my trusty 'front hairline' cowlick. Its been my nemesis my whole life. Also there are several along the nape of my neck so I keep that area cut short. When I grow my hair long then it covers that area but I still have to keep it shaved otherwise it is out of control. Weird.
I've got a bad one on my hairline. Most of the hair on top is getting pretty thin, and I wish it would just fall completely out, but I'll bet that damn cowlick will be the last thing to go.
mega hold hair spray!
I typically just blow my hair out in the direction of my cowlick. I have quite a few so my hair kind of does its own thing. I wanted to cut my hair like Keira Knightley in Domino, but my trusty hairstylist refused - she knew my hair wouldn't work that way. I also wear my hair curly to hide it and let the curls go wild.
Get a life!! If all you have to worry about it a cowlick, count your blessings!!!!!
Get a life! If you have nothing better to do than thread crap, count your blessings!
my grandson has three of them right in a row on the crown of his head. funniest thing ever! When he was a baby his hair was so fine nobody noticed. Now its short and wirey so they really stick out like a sore thumb.
That's cute! My niece has two cowlicks side by side on her crown, each going in opposite directions, so when she was a baby she had the cutest little natural mohawk that stuck straight up! Now her hair is very long, and you would never know.
My daughter also has two going in the opposite direction... there's a reason your niece's hair is long... we can't do anything with it at all unless it's long and even then, it doesn't allow for a nice part at all.
My twin always had what we referred as "Jesus" hair. Fabulous dark thick curls with a kick butt cowlick at the hairline. Woman would kill for this head of hair. He hated it. Not to worry, now he's bald.
My son has the dennis the menace cowlick. It was worse when he was a baby. His hair just stood strait up. I works well with his spikey faux-hawk he has now at 13 though. Me, I have naturally curly hair. I also have one at the back of my head and one in the front toward the right side of my hair line. I part my hair at that point. When my hair is longer the one in the back isn't notice able. I do enjoy a good pixie cut too though. My hair naturally does that touseled spikey look. I had to learn to deal with my curls more than my cowlicks... they are truely my nemisis!
You accept it and learn to live with it, by finding hairstyles that accommodate the cowlick, as going against nature never works, unless you want to have hair that is as stiff as a board due to gel and hair spray...
I had a horrendous cow lick in my bangs - you should've seen my grade 5 class photo! So my Mom forced me to grow out my bangs after that photo!
I have two cowlicks right in front. The whorl is two different directions and end up looking like devil horns. They hold up my crown.
A flat iron and anti-humidity hairspray!
Kim, I understand completely! when my son was small, it looked like he had two horns sticking up because of the two cowlicks in front, especially after a haircut.
Really, this is the scientific explanation? "A cowlick's spiral pattern is likely caused because hair gets confused about whether it needs to go forward, backward, or to the side..." REALLY??? It's because my HAIR is CONFUSED??????
Bangs don't work for me-I end up with half plastered to my forehead-the other half standing up straight...don't get me started on parting my hair-what the f*&^ do you do with a part that starts in one spot and changes direction half way across your head??
Long hair not a good look for me, I wear it short and spiky which camouflages the cowlicks, of which I have two at the crown. I keep a good supply of gels and pastes to make the buggers behave.
I've often wondered if I could have mine fixed with hair transplant technology. Not transplanted, just have their aim adjusted.
Train your hair to do what you want. pick a style and stay with it. It may take a few months of hair spray, mouse, or hair goop, but it tends to work. Changing hair styles frequently when you have dominant cow licks and your back to square one.
If you can "train" your hair, you don't have a dominant cow lick. I've tried "training" my daughter's hair that has two VERY dominant cow licks spiraling in opposite directions since the day she was born and the cow licks still do what they want within 5 minutes. You just have to find the look that looks the least ridiculous and embrace it.
I find mine quite handy; the reception is fantastic. Signals from the mothership come in loud and clear!
I gave up named mine Becky and live with it... my grandkids think I am a hoot!!!!
"some needs"? What manner of English is this? Pathetic. Where is the Editor?
This is perfect English. The word "hair" is implied, but omitted, thus: "some (hair) needs to go forward, some backward," etc. What they need an editor for is the sentence that says: "Longer styles often camouflages a cowlick..."
Regardless of what my mother thought and what my wife of 37 years thinks - "SPIT DOES NOT WORK!!!!!!!"
Let me say it has to be genetic. My mom had 6 kids, we all have cowlicks. Now our children have cowlicks too. Seems like the cowlick is worst with the 1st child and gets better with each child. When I was little I cut it off, thinking I had gotten rid of it, yeah right. When I was a teenager and very curious of my hair, I wore a few bangs and I would tape the cowlick part down with tape and blow dry them. Worked every time.
Not in my household. My eldest has perfect hair with a perfect cow lick that lets her hair do anything. Her younger sister has two prominent cow licks spiraling in opposite directions that makes her hair stand straight up on end until her hair is at least 9-10 inches long.
I have three, one on the right side of the crown, one in front in the middle and one on the right side at the nape of my neck. If I don't blow dry the crown a certain way, it looks like a bald spot. If the humidity gets too bad, the hair in the back pulls up and it looks like the right side was cut shorter that the left side.
How do I deal with them? The one on the crown, I blow dry as flat as possible the when styling, do a "comb over" and spray it with extra hold hairspray. The one at the nape, I keep very short, and I blow dry my bangs as flat as possible.
I have no advice... only empathy... my daughter will have similar problems her whole life as well.