the disappearing cowlick

[marlb91]

i have a cowlick that appears and disappears at the back of my head! when it appears the back of my head feels quite sore and then most of the hair at my crown seems to grow in different/ random directions and makes me look like im balding. when its about it gets worse if i want to stretch my washes. and now i seem to be in a phase where its fine. my room is terrible bight florescent lighting that really makes it show so i hope in most lighting it isnt as bad! anyone else get this??

[rtree721]

I have a pretty defined cowlick at my crown and sometimes my scalp is sore there. I have to be careful how I part my hair, my part has to end in the middle of the cowlick or my hair will look very funky. As far as the soreness, I noticed that I have to be careful not to pull the hair from that area into anything even remotely tight. Recently, even when my hair was loose, my cowlick felt like it was sore. It is so weird! Do you find that styling your hair is difficult because of it?

[Miss Catrina]

It sounds like it's just the "follicle pain" some people get as a result of hair being put into an unnatural formation for too long. I don't know what else could cause it.

Getting the hair wet seems to stop it for me, so it makes sense that stretching washes would have a bad effect.

[vamq]

YES, I know exactly what you mean!

One day, hair is fine, but I put it up because I am in a hurry.
The next day I wake up, thinking 'Oh, my wave pattern looks nice today. Let's not put it up today!'. Only to find out that I have this humongous scalp cleavage on the back of my head, making me look like I'm balding. Utterly charming. But oh well. It makes me put up my hair a lot, which is good for protection, I think.

Sleeping with 2 french braids makes things worse. Doing that makes it look like I own a miniature version of the grand canyon on the back of my head. Stretching washings makes it worse as well. Greasy hair shows more scalp, so it makes sense somehow..
I did find out that hair length has something to do with it as well. With longer hair, the cowlick seems to disappear. When I was at almost tailbone, there was no visible cowlength whatsoever. Gives you another reason to grow out your hair, right?

The hair pain I have sometimes. Mostly accompanied by the demonic scalp cleavage indeed. Sometimes washing helps, sometimes it does not. Spraying the scalp with water and rubbing a few drops of tea trea oil on it seems to soothen it for me. Maybe that helps for you too?