If the hair follicles look as thick as they always have, it's just a cowlick. If there are fewer hair follicles in the area, it could be a sign of early balding. You can also track the growth of your cowlick—if it stays the same size, it's just a cowlick. If it grows, it may be a bald spot (Wolff, 2016).
The main difference between a cowlick and balding is that balding is hair loss, while a cowlick is simply the illusion of thinner hair. While cowlicks on their lonesome are not a sign of hair loss, they can be used to determine one of the early common signs of balding: thinning hair.
Cowlicks often form around the crown of the head or along the hairline, particularly centered in the middle of your forehead. They may form clockwise or counterclockwise, which some believe indicates left or right-handedness. Often these whorls result in utterly stubborn hair that refuses to play nice.
While the hair strands around a cowlick may appear thin, they aren't necessarily thinner than the rest of your hair.
While you can't permanently get rid of a cowlick as it's rooted in your hair growth (literally), you can temporarily hide it and learn how to style around it. Ahead, our styling tips, techniques, and products that can help you temporarily get rid of a cowlick.
The typical pattern of male baldness begins at the hairline. The hairline gradually moves backward (recedes) and forms an "M" shape. A circular area on the back of the head (vertex) often thins and expands in size over time.
They're normal and oftentimes genetic, and with no way to permanently get rid of cowlicks, they're also here to stay. But with the right products and styling techniques, you can blend hair that likes to do what it wants into the rest of your style or reshape it so it does whatever you want.
Usually, cowlicks are simply hereditary, caused by your genes. They can also happen after a serious head injury, surgery, or even if you've shaved your head. That's because this can affect the way your hair grows.
If your hairline is about the width of your finger above the top wrinkle, you probably have a mature hairline. If it's receding onto your scalp, it may mean balding. The shape is an M or a widow's peak. An M-shaped hairline removes the round curves of the young hairline and makes a more defined hairline.
Grow It Out (And Wash It Less in the Meantime)
Like an angsty teenager, when that stubborn hair grows up it learns to relax. So, in time, if you just grow your hair out, the cowlick will fix itself, since the weight of the hair will pull it all down.
A balding crown is easy to spot by a thinning or loss of hair at the crown, with hair growth at the sides remaining constant; perhaps accompanied by a receding hairline. Hair loss during aging is totally normal, but there is plenty you can do to tackle it.
Most bald spots, particularly those that develop around your hairline or the crown of your head, are caused by male pattern baldness (also known as androgenetic alopecia). Small, patchy bald spots can also develop due to a condition called alopecia areata, also known as “spot baldness.”
For some men, this type of hair loss occurs at the crown — the area that's right at the top of your head. If you're going bald on top, you might notice that your skin is visible through your hair when you look at the back of your head in the mirror.
Because the cowlick can cause the hair to stick straight up or in the complete opposite direction, it can create a partially exposed area of skin which may look similar to early balding or a receding hairline.
The term "cowlick" originates from the domestic bovine's habit of licking its young, which results in a swirling pattern in the hair.
Stage 1: There's little or no hair loss or hairline recession. Stage 2: There's slight hair loss near the skin between your ears and forehead (temples). Stage 3: You have deep hairline recession around your temples, and your hairline may have an “M” or “U” shape.
Yes. One of the main causes of bald spots is stress. The stress could be from a long illness, financial distress, divorce, childbirth, work problems, etc. In most cases, the hair will grow back once the stress subsides.
By the time you turn 30, you have a 25% chance of displaying some balding. By age 50, 50% of men have at least some noticeable hair loss. By age 60, about two-thirds are either bald or have a balding pattern. While hair loss is more common as you get older, it doesn't necessarily make it any easier to accept.
Sometimes, it starts in your late teens or early twenties. Usually, it appears later. By 50 years of age, more than half of white men have a visible sign of male pattern hair loss like noticeable thinning, a receding hairline, or balding.