Cowlick commiseration thread

[lynnala]

Can we talk? I mean really. I decided today that the cowlick on the back of my head is the Spawn of Satan. It definitely has a life of it's own, and delights in spreading my hair out flat in all directions so it looks like a huge baldspot. It also enjoys playing devilish tricks on me. I'll spend oodles of time combing my hair over it, plastering it down with water and aloe gel. I've even (horrors!) backcombed my hair over the spot to cover it. All will be fine and I will go about my day with confidence. Then, at some point, I get a sneaky suspicion that the little fiend has been back there messing around, and sure enough, I check in the mirror and it's parted again and looks like I've got a Grand Canyon cracking my hair open, displaying my pink scalp for all to see. Beelzebub, thy name is Cowlick! :demon:

[amaiaisabella]

I sympathise. I have one at the back of my head, and a day after washing, the hair starts lying weirdly, and one section of hair seems to stand out on its own. I can only avoid it if I keep my hair up from the time it is wet until I wash it next, but my hair is still pretty short, so I can only do so much with it :shrug:

[lynnala]

I've tried braiding the little devil when I go to bed to try an isolate it from the rest of the hair and give it some height in the morning. That didn't work. I think tonight I'll try making a pin curl right on the cowlick and see if that helps to defeat it.

[chrissy-b]

I have one on the back of my head, and one in the front. The one in the front is most annoying because it is hard to have bangs, except for the side swept variety. I still use hairspray on my bangs because of that little devil.

[RavennaNight]

Aaaaaack!:justy: the demonic cowlick! It rears its ugly head when I am taking pictures *of the back of my head* HOW DO WE REMEDY THE EVIL COWLICK! It needs an excorcism or something!

[6monkeys]

First off, that is a really funny post. I don't have any cowlick problems, but several of my boys have multiple cowlicks. One of them has one on each side of the crown of his head, and depending in the hair lenght, both sides stick up. He looks sort of like Opie (The Andie Griffith Show). One of my other boys has two sticking very close together sort of in the middle of the back of his head--he looks kind of like he has a bald spot and he is only 5 y/o. Another son has double very close together on the corner of his head, and one on the front of his hairline.

Anyway, no advice to offer, but it sure made me laugh.:D

[6monkeys]

btw, I think your hair is beautiful--very shiny!

[lynnala]

btw, I think your hair is beautiful--very shiny!Thank you. But I have to admit that I photoshopped the little demon off the crown of my head!!! I just couldn't look at him on my siggy day after day.........

[lynnala]

I have one on the back of my head, and one in the front. The one in the front is most annoying because it is hard to have bangs, except for the side swept variety. I still use hairspray on my bangs because of that little devil.I have that one too, on the front. I also have bangs. I part them right on the cowlick and it gives me a cute little curl. But there's no way they will hang straight and flat.

[lynnala]

Aaaaaack!:justy: the demonic cowlick! It rears its ugly head when I am taking pictures *of the back of my head* HOW DO WE REMEDY THE EVIL COWLICK! It needs an excorcism or something!Calling Max Von Sydow!

[skydancer7]

I have a cowlick in front juuust not quite centered... it looks like i tried to part it in the center and just couldn't figure it out.

Now I part it on either side and it's better...

But in the back, I have the same problem... if I go a day without wetting my hair down, that cowlick on the rear-right pops up, and it does look a little like a bald spot.

My comfort is I figure most people know it's just a cowlick... at least that's what I tell myself :D

[Arctic_Mama]

I HATE cowlicks, I totally empathize. I have heavy, thick hair and this sucker is so strong it can give me scalp cleavage, when even a pigtail part is partially shrouded. It is awful, and it makes my part look like the number seven because it zigzags off so strongly in the back. I always just hope people don't notice :mad:

[smilinjenn71]

Tooooo funny! I was just looking up cowlick's earlier today. Trying to figure out if I should fight the one I have to the left center of my forhead or just learn to love and embrace it.

I'm fortunate enough not to have some of the problems you gals have but I can definitely understand and sympathize. My main problem is while growing out this pixie, I have bangs that I'm growing as well. I can get my bangs to a pretty side swept style BUT I have to really fight that cowlick to get there. Then it doesn't want to stay all day. So today I just styled everything back away from my face. The day was so much more enjoyable..... from getting ready to the end of the day! I've about decided not to fight my cowlick and work with it for now. Ask me again next week though!:whistle:

[MandaMom2Three]

LOL don't have a cowlick that I can tell, but my daughter sure does! It's hard to get her hair to lay down and when it does, BIG bald spot :rolleyes: . Oh well, at 4 she doesn't care yet :D

[lynnala]

I have a cowlick in front juuust not quite centered... it looks like i tried to part it in the center and just couldn't figure it out.

Now I part it on either side and it's better...

But in the back, I have the same problem... if I go a day without wetting my hair down, that cowlick on the rear-right pops up, and it does look a little like a bald spot.

My comfort is I figure most people know it's just a cowlick... at least that's what I tell myself :DI'm not so lucky, I've had several people (always family, mind you) gleefully say "You've got a bald spot!" Thanks loving family for reinforcing my cowlick paranoia.:mad:

[skydancer7]

I'm not so lucky, I've had several people (always family, mind you) gleefully say "You've got a bald spot!" Thanks loving family for reinforcing my cowlick paranoia.:mad:

Oh no! well... so much for ignorance and bliss, huh? :p

[Islandgrrl]

Yeah, okay.

Here's the score:

Islandgrrl: 0
Cowlicks: 3,487,291 (and counting)

[lynnala]

See, see!! I knew it!!

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee20/legendhouse/devillick.jpg

[LutraLutra]

See, see!! I knew it!!

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee20/legendhouse/devillick.jpg
LOL. Cowlicks - aggrrh I feel your pain! I also have two at the back and some kind of crazy widows peak/cowlick thing going on with my fringe.

[vampodrama]

oh yeah, count me in!

I also have a cowlick on the middle of my crown (well not quite in the middle but slightly to the left) and combined with my hennaed hair + roots of doom that show up in a week + my extremely white skin = one massive scalp cleavage that looks very much like I'm balding. I've been so depressed over it I can't even begin to describe. also my skull is kinda bumpy there so I suspect it adds to the way my hair lies in all sorts of weird ways there... the shape of my skull is so that you could use my head as a beer table if I wasn't that tall (you know the joke, right? about the perfect woman being 1,5 meters tall and with a flat topped head so you could put your beer mug there?)

plus I have two cowlicks right at my nape, meaning my hair there grows upwards. even with my current 26 inches it's not enough to weigh it down so I have two bumps on my neck (the hair going upwards and then down) when my hair is loose.

[WaimeaWahine]

My hair has that "I'm going to part on this side whether you like it or not!" thing going on. I force it - cold frying, bobby pins, etc... to part on the opposite side. Don't get me started on the bald spot it leaves me to cover. That's another devil. lol

[venividibxtchy]

I have lost count of my cowlicks. The worst of mine are in the front, preventing me from having a nice set of bangs, or a part that lies properly.

I wish that I could have them chemically straightened a bit, so they lie better, but I can't reconcile all of the borderline toxicity and potential damage.

I might cut bangs, anyway, and just use a hot tool on them (curling iron, or flat iron)...they'll grow in fast enough that I could trim the most of any damage, anyhow.

[Tangles]

Yeah, this is why I can't have sideswept bangs or really any kind of bangs. I also think my scalp cleavage is partially due to my cowlick.

[Cantabile]

Cowlicks! I've unfortunately been plagued with two cowlicks that seem to spin in opposite directions on the back of my head. The hair there never seems to lie smoothly, and instead, oftentimes creates weird looking bald spots. So frustrating!:justy:

[avraea]

Oh yes, I too have the awful cowlick aka scalp cleavage towards the center left in the back of my crown area. It doesn't matter how thick and fluffy or flat and smooth my hair is on any given day, no matter what, my hair just wants to fall in a split there that reveals more of my scalp than I'd like. It drives me insane every single day. It doesn't matter how or where I comb my hair to try and change it, it always ends up like that anyway. Argh!

[HeavenlyTresses]

I am the regretful owner of the Double Demon Crown Cowlick who shows it's ugly heads on the left and right of my bangs. I used to be able to tame it with the blow-dryer but since I don't use it anymore they pop up whenever they like. Makes me think of Gossamer from Looney Toons. Gee, maybe if I grow my bangs out I could make a pretty heart :)

[Curlsgirl]

I have two in the front on each side. I have bangs and it does make it hard to get them to lay right sometimes even with a curling iron. I think they look great and then later on I will look in the mirror and there's that stupid little tuft of hair curling back the way I don't want it too, the one on the right is the worst one. Oh well. What are ya gonna do???

[lynnala]

Today I happened to look in the mirror in passing and noticed that the cowlick part of my bangs were sticking straight up in the air!

[lilmisspicky126]

I have amazing cowlicks on my temples and the very front of my hair, when I pull my hair back, the short little hairs that make up these cowlicks tend to stick together in groups that then stick out, occasionally giving me the appearance of little devil horns.

[jojo]

I have a slight one in the front which doesn't really bother me as I have no fringe now, when I did have a fringe it drove me mad.

Why on earth are they called cow licks I wonder?

[goodenough]

Stupid bang cowlick!! And my hairline at the nape grows straight up, too.

[frogette]

I sympathize. I have a monster cowlick in my crown, which parts my hair in the most ugly way and keeps reappearing whatever I try to tame it. It shows even when my hair is up, especially when it's a bit oily or hasn't been brushed in a while. I think I have another one in the front, but I never wear bangs so I don't really mind.

[lynnala]

I have a slight one in the front which doesn't really bother me as I have no fringe now, when I did have a fringe it drove me mad.

Why on earth are they called cow licks I wonder?Good question Ms. Jojo, I looked it up:

"A lock or tuft of hair growing in a different direction from the rest of the hair is called a cowlick. Most authorities, including the major dictionaries, agree that the reason for this expression is that the tuft looks as though a cow had licked it.

But why a cow? Why not a catlick or a doglick or a horselick? Cats, dogs, and horses like to lick, too. They lick themselves, their young, and even nearby humans.

The exact origin of the expression cowlick is buried in the linguistic past. However, there may be a hint in Norse mythology. Before the beginning of the world, the divine primeval cow Audumbla licked the cosmic salty ice blocks, and as she licked, a man's hair appeared; when she continued to lick, the man's head and finally the rest of his body were revealed. Thus the cow gave form to Buri, the ancestor of the gods. Notice that the first body part that the cow licked was the hair. This myth was recorded in the early 1200s (by Snorri Sturluson), but, of course, the story itself probably goes back much further in time, and it may have influenced, or reflected, the common linguistic imagery of other Europeans.

The word cowlick was in use in England (http://www.associatedcontent.com/theme/829/england.html) by at least 1598. In that year Richard Haydocke published his English translation of a 1584 painting (http://www.associatedcontent.com/theme/580/painting.html) tract by the Italian (http://www.associatedcontent.com/theme/530/italian.html) writer G.P. Lomazzo, which contains the following passage: "The lockes or plaine feakes of haire called cow-lickes, are made turning upwards." So the cowlick imagery was familiar in Italian (http://www.associatedcontent.com/theme/530/italian.html) as well. The passage is quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary, which defines cowlick as "a lock or curl of hair which looks as if it had been licked by a cow."

In British English slang, costermongers (people who sold food from barrows, 1500s to 1800s) used the word cowlick for a lock of hair that was greased, curled, brought forward from the ear, and plastered onto the cheek, as if licked into placed by the tongue of a cow. That sense of the word was recorded by at least the 1800s, but its street use may have started much earlier." :puppykisses: