So the counterclockwise whorl is more common among gay men. Since reading about the hair whorl study, I’ve been checking out the tops of men’s heads to see which way their whorl turns.

(Learn more about How to Stop a Receding Hairline.) Most people have one cowlick, or hair whorl, that’s located around the midline of their scalp and close to the crown.

The new study explores the phenomenon of hair whorls — circular patterns of hair dictated by hair follicle positioning — in more than 4,000 Chinese people.

Scientists found four associated genetic variants that are likely candidates for influencing hair whorl direction.

Hair whorls are an easily observed human trait. Scalp hair whorl pattern is typically defined by either a single or double whorl and the direction of the whorl direction (clockwise ...

Demonstration of spinning yarn using two different spindles: top whorl and Turkish style drop spindles.

A “hair whorl” – which occurs in both hairy animals such as horses on their body and head and humans on their heads – is a patch of hair growing in a circular pattern around a visible ...

A new study demonstrates that you can blame your relatives for bad hair days. Investigators in Shanghai found that genetic variants influence hair follicle movement.

The first gene mapping study on human scalp hair whorls not only shows that hair whorl direction has a genetic basis, but also that it is affected by multiple genes. Four associated genetic ...

Is there a connection between the direction of a hair whorl on your head and your sexual orientation? Is homosexuality somehow correlated with left-handedness? Is left-handedness thereby an ...