After spending a good fifteen minutes defining 'flow' to a friend at a Christmas party last month, I feel as though it is my responsibility to bring this knowledge to the general public.

At the risk of being utterly cliché and beginning an article with a definition, the noun definition of 'flow' is the action or fact of moving along in a steady, continuous stream. However, I’d like to add to the definition of flow and say it is a guy with a fantastic head of hair that looks relaxed but like it knows where to go.

Flow started out as either a hockey or lacrosse term that was used to describe a member of the team’s hair in how it, for lack of a better word, flows, when the player takes off their helmet. However, many people outside of the sports started using it for those lucky few who have hair that looks like that all the time.

Flow can take on many names. For example, my high school took to calling flow “lechuga” as in the Spanish word for lettuce. I have no idea why, but it made me start paying more attention to the concept and I began to consider what qualified someone to possess “la lechuga”.

I believe there are three characteristics to flow: length, volume and style. The length of a guy’s hair has to be long enough to cover half of his forehead and the top of his ears. It must have volume in the way that it is large enough to be separate from the guy’s head and that it doesn’t cling to their head, but instead flows around their head. Style is also important, and a lot of times, the style takes after the style that originated the word, whereas the guy’s hair looks like it has just come out from a helmet and the guy has merely run his hand through it.

As someone who considers hair to be one of the most important things in a guy’s overall attractiveness, flow was a life-changing concept. Some girls think that a guy having longer hair is a turn-off, but I disagree. A guy with longer hair has to put in effort in ways other guys with a buzz cut might just roll out of bed and go. It shows that they consider how they look before they walk out the door in the morning. That, in the age of impatience coupled with laziness, proves to be a very attractive characteristic.

Flow is something you either have or don’t. You’re either a laid-back guy with great hair or you’re not, and it’s not to say that flow is the end-all-be-all of great hair, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. So, guys, wait a little while before your next haircut, invest in some good conditioner, buy a comb and give flow a try.

**Also, if anyone is interested in signing a petition to bring back Harry's circa 2013 WWA hair, please let me know.