How do you treat a cowlick?

Answer 1

Any of the short pomp(pompadour) styles-crew cut, ivy league(long crew cut), flat top crew cut- should work with a cowlick that sticks up at the front hairline since these styles are designed to stick up at the front hairline. Most guys have to apply a control wax to keep the bangs up. Thick hair is ideal for a short pomp style. If you want longer hair, then a medium or longer pompadour would work though these styles are not exactly that common at the moment. A good example of a long pompadour is the style Elvis Presley wore in the 1950's before being inducted into the Army, at which point he was given a short pomp style, an ivy league(long crew cut.) Harry Connick Jr. is often seen wearing a long pompadour style. Michael Douglas has worn a medium or long pompadour style since at least the 1970's. With a much longer style, the cow lick would not be an issue because the weight of the hair and gravity would keep the hair down. A barber with a good aesthetic sense can usually design a short pomp style to fully suit most young guy's head shape, face and neck shape, frontal hairline and facial features. Try an Ivy League and then if you want to go shorter, go for progressively shorter crew cuts. Or if you want to, try a medium or longer pomp style. With a medium style that does not have the hair standing up, the cow lick could be chemically treated to lay in the desired direction(permed) but the treatment would have to be repeated fairly often because in two months, for hair that grows at the average rate, an inch of untreated hair would be sticking up in the cow lick area. If the hair is thick and parted to the side and cut to drape slightly across the forehead, a barber might be able to thin the hair at the cowlick to weaken it, it just depends on the size of the cowlick and the thickness of the rest of the hair at the front, because an area of hair that appears as if it is thinning, at the front is not desirable. The information below is with regard to short pomp styles.

Some barbers describe an ivy league as a crew cut just long enough to be parted and combed to the side, if so desired. An ivy league is usually worn with the hair brushed up off the forehead to form a short pomp front, and can also be worn with the short bangs brushed down on the forehead like a forward brush cut.

medium crew cut:

Edge: tapered or outlined

[crew cut above illustrates an outlined edge around the ear arches and an edge tapered to the skin at the nape of the neck. His crew cut is about 1.4" at the front hairline; 0.35" at the back of the crown; #1.5 blade around the ear arches and sideburns; #000 blade at the edge of hair growth at the nape of the neck.]

To know the approximate length of a hair in a photo of a particular style: measure the face length in the photo from the center of the front hairline to the tip of the chin; measure the hair in the photo; assume an average eight inch adult male face length; proportionally adjust the lengths of the face and hair in the photo by assuming the length of the face in the photo is eight inches.

A control wax like crew comb(jar variety) will keep the hair looking well groomed at crew cut and ivy league length. A butch comb also helps- the small, flat, plastic, oval, pocket brushes that one finger fits through and barbers sell for about a dollar. A boar's bristle military brush is available for a few dollars and is nice to have at home. Most barber supply stores and all sally beauty supply stores usually have these items.

Grooming any of the short pomp(pompadour) styles- crew cut, ivy league, flat top crew cut- is basically the same and takes about a minute or two.

1) Towel dry hair.

2) Barely dip fingertips in jar of wax.

3)Transfer wax to palms.

4) Smooth palms over hair.

5)Brush hair off forehead to form short pomp front.