Can You Actually Train a Cowlick Out? What 30 Years in Pasadena Taught Us

Almost every week at Bokaos, someone sits in our chair, points to the same spot on their head, and says some version of: this piece never lays right, this part keeps flipping, I have to blow-dry forever to get it to stay. They usually think it is a product problem or a styling problem. Most of the time, it is neither. It is the way the hair is actually growing out of the scalp, and no amount of mousse is going to override that.

Cowlicks, double crowns, and stubborn parts are structural. They are decided by the direction the follicles point, not by anything you are doing wrong at home. The good news is once you understand what is actually happening, the haircut, the dry, and the part placement all get easier. Here is what our stylists look at during a consultation when a client tells us their hair refuses to cooperate.

What a Cowlick Actually Is (And Why Yours Is Not Going Away)

A cowlick is a section of hair where the follicles grow in a circular or opposing direction to the hair around it. The most common spots we see at Bokaos are the front hairline (usually off-center), the nape, and the crown. Some clients have one. Some have three. They are set at birth and they do not move.

This is the part most clients have trouble accepting: you cannot train a cowlick out. You can work with it, you can cut around it, and you can dry it in a direction that lays flatter, but the follicle is going to keep pointing the way it points. When a stylist tells you they can "fix" your cowlick permanently with the right cut, that is not accurate. What a good cut does is build weight and length around the cowlick so it has somewhere to fall, instead of standing up on its own.

The cowlicks we see cause the most frustration in Pasadena are front hairline cowlicks on clients who want bangs or a side-swept fringe. If the cowlick pushes the hair up and to the right, and the client wants a left side part, we have a fight on our hands every morning. The honest conversation in that consultation is usually about working with the direction the hair already wants to go, not against it.

Double Crowns Are More Common Than Clients Realize

A single crown is the natural swirl at the back of the head where the hair grows out in a spiral pattern. A double crown is when there are two of those swirls, usually side by side or stacked, and they push the hair in two different directions. Roughly one in twenty clients has one, and many of them have never been told.

What a double crown does to a haircut is significant. If a stylist cuts the back too short without accounting for it, the hair stands straight up at one or both swirl points, and no product is going to flatten it. We see this most often on clients who came in for a pixie or a short layered cut elsewhere and left with what looks like a permanent flip in the back. The cut itself was not bad. The length was just shorter than the double crown could support.

During a consultation at Bokaos, one of the first things our stylists do on a short cut request is feel through the crown with their fingers and look at the natural swirl pattern wet and dry. If there is a double crown, we adjust the length we are willing to go to. On a fine-haired client with a double crown, we usually need at least three to four inches at the crown for the hair to lay. On thicker hair, sometimes more. This is not us being conservative, this is us protecting you from a cut you will hate in two weeks. This is part of the complete beauty experience we aim to provide at Bokaos, using purest products and precision cutting techniques to work with your hair's natural structure.

The Part That Refuses to Stay Is Usually Fighting the Growth Pattern

Clients often ask us to move their part. They have worn a center part for ten years and want a deep side part, or vice versa. Sometimes this works beautifully. Sometimes the hair fights it for the entire appointment and every morning after.

The reason is simple: hair has a memory, and more importantly, it has a growth direction at the scalp. If your roots have been parted in the same place for years, the hair near the scalp has set into that direction. Moving the part one inch over is usually fine. Moving it three inches over, or flipping a center part to a deep side, usually means the new part will not stay flat without daily blow-drying against the natural fall.

What we tell clients who want to change their part: give it a real four to six weeks of consistent training. Wet the roots, comb the hair in the new direction, and blow-dry the root area against the natural growth pattern with tension. Sleep on it, get it wet, redry it the same way. In our chairs, clients who stick with it for about a month and a half usually see the new part start to hold. Some never fully cooperate, and those are usually clients with a strong front cowlick fighting the part. In those cases, we sometimes recommend a precision cut with subtle face-framing layers that work with the cowlick direction instead of trying to override it.

How We Cut Around Hair That Won't Cooperate

The technical work happens in three places: weight distribution, length at the problem spot, and the dry direction we cut for.

Weight distribution matters because a cowlick or double crown needs hair around it to lay against. If you over-thin or over-layer right at the problem area, you remove the weight that was holding it down. This is why so many clients come to us after a layered cut and say their crown started standing up. The layers were placed too close to the swirl point.

Length at the problem spot is non-negotiable on some clients. If you have a double crown and you want a short cut, we are going to leave more length at the crown than at the sides, and the silhouette will reflect that. If you have a strong front cowlick and you want bangs, we are going to cut the bangs longer on the cowlick side so they have weight to fall, and we are going to point-cut the ends so they blend instead of sitting in a blunt line that exaggerates the lift.

Dry direction is the third piece, and the one most clients never get told about. We cut hair the way it is going to be dried. If your cowlick pushes your hair to the right and you blow-dry it to the right, we cut for that fall. If you blow-dry against the cowlick, we cut differently. This is one of the reasons we ask clients during consultation how they actually style their hair at home, not how they wish they styled it. This custom approach to cutting is what defines precision work at Bokaos.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a stylist permanently fix my cowlick? No. A cowlick is the direction your follicles grow out of the scalp, and that is set at birth. What a skilled cut can do is build weight and length around the cowlick so it lays flatter, but the follicle direction itself does not change with cutting, styling, or product.

Why does my crown stand up after a haircut? Usually because the hair was cut too short to lay flat over a single or double crown, or because layers were placed too close to the swirl point and removed the weight that was holding the area down. On the next cut, we recommend leaving more length at the crown and keeping layers further away from the swirl.

Is it true I can train my hair to part differently? Partially. You can train hair to lay in a new part with consistent wetting, combing, and blow-drying against the natural growth direction for four to six weeks. Parts that are only an inch or two off your natural fall usually train successfully. Dramatic part changes, especially when fighting a front cowlick, often do not stay without daily styling.

How do I know if I have a double crown? Wet your hair, comb it straight back, and look at the back of your head in a hand mirror. A single crown shows one swirl point. A double crown shows two swirl points, usually side by side or stacked. If you cannot tell, ask your stylist to check during your next consultation, it takes about ten seconds.

Should I tell my stylist about my cowlicks before the cut? Yes, and show them where each one is when the hair is wet. A stylist who knows about your cowlicks and double crowns before they pick up the shears can cut around them. A stylist who finds them halfway through the cut has fewer options to work with.

Book a Consultation

If you have spent years fighting a cowlick, a double crown, or a part that will not stay, the answer is usually a cut built around your actual growth pattern, not against it. Our stylists in Old Town Pasadena will look at where your hair grows, how you style it at home, and what silhouette will hold up between appointments. Visit Bokaos at 52 Hugus Alley in Old Town Pasadena to book a consultation, or check our areas we serve page if you are coming in from South Pasadena, San Marino, Altadena, or the surrounding San Gabriel Valley.