What to call the area where the hair directions all change on the head?

What to call the area where the hair directions all change on the head? In Russian that term is макушка, and looking for the translation I find it to be top.

However, that is not a satisfactory answer, since some people have two areas on their head where the hair changes its direction. Also, sometimes these areas are not on the top of their head.

Solution 1:

I know this as a crown, and some people are described as having double crowns. Wikipedia however suggests the term hair whorl and also mentions the terms swirls, trichoglyphs, and cowlicks.

Solution 2:

Oddly enough, this phenomenon shows up in mathematics, specifically topology.

A very famous theorem is the 'Hairy Ball Theorem', stated here by Jarvis and Tanton:

It is impossible to comb all the hairs of a fuzzy ball so that: i) each hair lies tangent to the surface of the ball, and ii) the angles of the hairs vary continuously over the surface of the ball ... Any attempt to accomplish this feat must produce a cowlick [ My emphasis ].

The mathematical sounding terminology is 'singular point', but cowlick is the term commonly used for the non-technical sounding statement of the theorem.

Solution 3:

I've always heard barbers refer to it as the crown, not matter where on the head it may lie.

Solution 4:

I've heard reference to a parting.