After pulling their hair out, they feel a sense of relief. A person may sometimes pull their hair out in response to a stressful situation, or it may be done without really thinking about it.
Most people with trich pull out hair from their scalp, but some pull out hair from other areas, such as their:. Bald patches on the head may have an unusual shape and affect 1 side of the head more than the other. Trich may cause feelings of shame and low self-esteem. Those affected may try to keep their condition to themselves. For some people, hair pulling can be a type of addiction.
The more they pull their hair out, the more they want to keep doing it. You should also see your GP if you or your child has a habit of eating hair.
This can cause hairballs to form in the stomach, leading to serious illness. Your GP may examine areas where the hair is missing to check that nothing else is causing the hair to come out, such as a skin infection.
I have always been this way, but I feel that without trichotillomania, I might not understand how much a single moment of validation can mean to someone. Trichotillomania taught me that I am strong, sensitive, empathetic, creative, kind, and above all flawed — which is OK! It is so much more common than people think it is: That could mean that someone in your lecture pulls out their eyebrows, the guy in line at the DMV picks at his beard, or the waitress who brought your drinks pulls her eyelashes.
Somewhere between then and my first self-induced bald spot, I began pulling out my hair. I feel for a hair that stood out in texture normally, it's a hair that's thicker and coarse , and my logic in removing it is that it will make my hair smoother overall. Starting then, I began pulling my hair out unconsciously for four years before I learned what 'trichotillomania' was. My hair and exposed scalp became a war zone of probing questions and concerned looks from extended family and strangers.
I saw a doctor, dermatologist, and Chinese herbalist before I even realized what I did. She wrote about how she pulled her hair out at the root. She had trichotillomania.
From there, I scoured Google for anything that could stop the pulling. I kept this secret from so many for a long time. I attended a local group for those with BFRBs under the guise of studying with friends.
I watched people on YouTube talk about how they grew their hair in 30 days, or how they stopped pulling. I experienced trichotillomania for about 15 years at that point. I decided that dealing with my trichotillomania privately was doing me more harm than good, so I made a public Instagram page and promptly followed all my friends from it. I'll wear alternative hair toppers or wigs and my biological hair out depending on my mood. I feel good that I can be wholly honest and share all parts of myself.
From trich stemmed jealousy, self-hatred, anger, guilt, frustration, embarrassment, and humiliation. And as an insecure preteen with YouTube account, I simultaneously learned about how to be beautiful, and how that was something impossibly out of my reach. Especially at a stage of life as volatile as adolescence, the short hair I felt forced into drove me into a tomboyish nature.
I wanted to be 'one of the boys,' and repress all aspects of femininity that came anywhere near me. I rejected all things pink, girly, and shunned those who idolized such values. All because I knew in some way, my hair was messed up and there was no way to fix it. The cycle of guilt and failure that's reinforced is something that will take me years to overcome. But because I struggled with my sense of self and concept of beauty for so long, I feel like my 'hair-lationship' is finally stable.
By dismissing my hair at an early age, it forced me into a rabid witch hunt of positivity to find different parts of myself to appreciate. Whatever my hair looks like, I'm still myself at the core. I was sitting in class, bored, and I remembered my friend telling me that if you blew an eyelash, you could make a wish. So I pulled one out, and I didn't stop. I didn't know why I felt pleasure from pulling them out, but I did.
The kid in front of me saw me doing this and started to mock me, but it didn't stop me. I felt embarrassed that someone was making fun of me, but the urge to pull was too overwhelming.
She asked what happened to them, and I lied, saying that I didn't know — this lie was used for many years to answer that same question asked by my family, friends, and classmates because I was too ashamed to say that I did this to myself. I lied because I didn't even understand why I continued to pull out my eyelashes. Years later, when I was about 14 years old, I finally tried looking up hair pulling.
At that moment, I found out that I had a real disorder that many other people had as well. As a child and in my early teens, I hated my face, and I felt like I looked unnatural with no eyelashes. My relationship with my hair has changed completely now that I am finally comfortable with myself.
I know that although hair or lack of does not define me, it is still a part of me that I should love and accept no matter what. This is something I have accepted as a part of who I am. Recently in college, I started pulling out my eyebrows as well.
I used to hate myself for not appearing 'normal,' but now I think of myself as unique. I like to be able to talk about my disorder because it separates me from the rest of the world. It may not be something that people directly relate to, but many people have been able to relate it with something they are dealing with in their lives. My disorder has taught me to accept and love myself the way that I am, and that I don't have to stop pulling to be happy.
For many people with trichotillomania, it starts at a very young age, meaning that their parents will raise a child that pulls out their own hair. From my experience as a child with this disorder, people in my life made me feel ashamed of it by telling me to stop, or by telling me how beautiful I used to be when I had eyelashes. They said these things in hopes that it would make me want to stop, but the reality is that I couldn't make the urges go away. All I wanted them to do was accept me for it and understand that the urges were always present.
I wanted someone to just tell me that pulling was okay. You can follow Allure on Instagram and Twitter , or subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on all things beauty. Celebrity Fashion Video. Read More. Talk to us about your journey with trichotillomania: "I've had trichotillomania for a long, long time. What has trichotillomania taught you about yourself? This can make it difficult to get help. Having trichotillomania can affect how people feel about themselves.
Some are self-conscious about how hair pulling affects their appearance. They might feel less confident about making friends or dating. Others can feel powerless to control the urge to pull or blame themselves for not being able to stop. No one knows exactly why some people develop trichotillomania.
Stress may play a part. So might a person's genes. People who have other compulsive habits or OCD may be more likely to develop trichotillomania. Experts think the urge to pull hair happens because the brain's chemical signals called neurotransmitters don't work properly. This creates the irresistible urges that lead people to pull their hair. Pulling the hair gives the person a feeling of relief or satisfaction. The more the person gives in to the urge by pulling and has the brief feeling of relief afterwards, the stronger the habit becomes.
The longer this continues, the harder it is to resist the urge when it happens again. People with trichotillomania usually need help from medical and behavioral specialists in order to stop. With the right help, most people overcome their hair-pulling urges. When someone is able to stop pulling, hair usually grows back. Overcoming hair-pulling urges may involve a type of behavioral therapy called habit substitution, taking medicine, or a combination of therapy and medicine.
In therapy, people with trichotillomania learn about urges.
0コメント