
A cowlick is a section of human
hair
Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals.
The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...
that stands straight up or lies at an angle at odds with the style in which the rest of an individual's hair is worn.
The most common site of a human cowlick is in the crown, but they can appear anywhere on the head. They also sometimes occur in the front and back of the head.
The term "cowlick" dates from the late 16th century, when physician
Richard Haydock used it in his translation of
Gian Paolo Lomazzo
Gian Paolo Lomazzo (26 April 1538 – 27 January 1592; his first name is sometimes also given as "Giovan" or "Giovanni") was an Italians, Italian artist and writer on art. Praised as a painter, Lomazzo wrote about artistic practice and art t ...
: "The lockes or plaine feakes of haire called cow-lickes, are made turning upwards."
Take Our Word For It Issue 76
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Management
For people who are very concerned about cowlick management, drastic measures may have to be used. Electrology
Electrology is the practice of electrical hair removal to permanently remove human hair from the body. Electrolysis is the actual process of removing hair using electricity.
In electrolysis, a qualified professional called an electrologist s ...
, waxing
Waxing is the process of hair removal from the root by using a covering of a sticky substance, such as wax, to adhere to body hair, and then removing this covering and pulling out the hair from the follicle. New hair will not grow back in the pr ...
, and even cosmetic surgery can be used to permanently alter the cowlick.
See also
* Ahoge
*Hair whorl
A hair whorl (also known as a crown, swirl, or trichoglyph) is a patch of hair growing in a circular direction around a visible center point. Hair whorls occur in most hairy animals on the body as well as on the head, and can be either clockwis ...
*Hairy ball theorem
The hairy ball theorem of algebraic topology (sometimes called the hedgehog theorem in Europe) states that there is no nonvanishing continuous function, continuous tangent vector field on even-dimensional n‑sphere, ''n''-spheres. For the ord ...
References
External links
*
{{Human hair
Hairdressing