Plural of cowlick; a tuft of hair that sticks up or grows in a different direction than surrounding hair, often on the head.
From cow + lick. The theory is that the hair looks like it was licked by a cow, or that cows' tongues licked hair this way. Folk etymology origin.
Cowlicks are created by competing hair growth directions at hair whorls—they're part of our natural hair architecture, and hair gels were literally invented because cowlicks bothered people so much!
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