I have a friend who has this piece of hair on one side of her face that refuses to lay flat at the root. Mere hours after a professional blowout and being hair-sprayed into (seeming) submission, the section of hair slowly bends back in rebellion.
She has a cowlick, which is caused by the hair growing in a spiral pattern at the root (so there's no permanent fix). Of course, the best way to hide a cowlick is to point it out to your stylist and get the right cut to deal with it. But to find out the five most effective no-scissors-involved solutions I've found, .
From easiest to most difficult:
- Change your part. When hair is wet, brush the front section forward and part a few inches closer to your ear on the side of the cowlick. Apply a styling cream with a slight hold. New parts always take some getting used to, so give it a few days.
- Wear your hair curly. This may seem like a "no duh" thing, but using a smaller size curling iron to make the non-cowlick side have a little bend to it is an easy fix. Just make sure you don't go too overboard and end up looking like Farrah Fawcett back in the day.
- Blow dry. Take the smallest round brush you can find to damp hair and blow dry, pulling hair straight up. Use a cool setting if you need to get close to your face — it's better for your hair anyway [1]. Alternate which direction you are pulling hair and which side the blow dryer is on.
- Flat iron. Again, exercise extreme caution when trying this and don't use the highest setting. Depending how close to the root your cowlick is, you may be able to use a narrow, small-sized flat iron [2] to flatten. Keep it far away from your face!
- Relax. No, that's not a cop-out, "cowlicks aren't a big deal" answer. My friend and I actually tried having a stylist put a little relaxer on that small section of hair. It didn't work, but also didn't damage her hair. I wouldn't recommend trying this at home, though, unless you are experienced with relaxing or perming kits — they're tricky!
Source [3]