Controlling your Cowlicks

No one’s is immune to cowlicks. We’ve all got them. The whorl on the crown of your head? That’s a cowlick. Some people have them on their forehead or on the nape of their neck. Essentially, a cowlick is when a section of hair grows in a different direction from all the hair around it, and it can make styling a massive headache.

We've heard of people actually resorting to plastic surgery to change the growth pattern of their hair and get rid of their cowlicks. Though an effective strategy, we don’t think everyone should need to take to such extremes. Cowlicks may be annoying, but you can tame them on your own.

Cowlicks are generally controlled under two natural circumstances: long hair, or really short hair. When hair is long enough, it weighs itself down, preventing unruly hairs from sticking up or out and spoiling your ‘do. Short hair works in the opposite way: there’s not enough hair to be noticeable.

However, if the thought of taking scissors to you locks causes you to break out in a sweat or you don’t have time to grow it out, there are ways to work around them. Where possible, you can make cowlicks work FOR your hairstyle, and not against it. For example: cowlicks on the front hairline make it nearly impossible to have straight across fringe bangs, but sideswept bangs may cover the cowlick, and keep hair out of your face.

To “train” your cowlicks, aim a blow dryer directly onto the hair roots. Once you’ve got it where you want, pin the hair down until it cools. You can sleep on it that way too, for extra hold time. You can also straighten the cowlicked section forward, and then hold it down with an extra hold hairspray.

It may seem like a struggle initially, but with some persistence (and hair growth) you can tame your crazy cowlicks and choose the style that works for you.