No, a hair whorl is different from a cowlick. That’s what I thought it was too, after reading the wikipedia article, which was crap (in my humble opinion).
According to this paper from http://genetics.org (same as above) a person’s hair whorl is the pattern of growth on their scalp. Over 90% of the US population has only one whorl, and it starts in the middle of the scalp and emanates in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Most people’s is clockwise. According to the article, a small percentage of the population have two, and it is “rare” for a person to have more than two, and they don’t change throughout one’s lifetime or with brushing or combing of the hair.
It should also be noted that in the two studies I read, the researchers excluded participants with long hair, so maybe this question does not have an answer…