did you chew or twirl your hair when you were a child?

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Miserably, I still twirl my hair really badly, so badly infact, I have bee known to pull it out

I'm doing it now, well untill I started typing. Really its not so much the twirling, but I like getting the bristly ends, just like the feel of it on my skin.

People used to think it was a tick that I did without thinking. I am fully aware and make a consious choice to do it.

even though it is now long enough to chew, I dont like hair in my mouth period.

I never liked the texture of my hair in my mouth, but I used to stroke the hair on my forehead incessantly - that's where it was the softest, because of oils. My father screamed at me, said people would think I ret*d, and demanded that I stopped.

I started again when I got older, but after a while my hair got so oily I couldn't stand it, so I stopped on my own.

Me too, i have always been fond of getting the bristles under my nails and applying light pressure, aiming to get them taut like a bow (very tricky).

The twirling is a good accompaniment to obsessive hand-washing, because the hair oil assists in re-moisturising the finger tips.

Yes, and I like smelling my hair too. If I were a guy, I would grow long hair and a moustache and possibly a beard and play with them too.

Mmmm, I know that one well.

I had trichotylomania (BIG WORD!) until I was about 4 or 5. That is, I'd pull my hair out and eat it. Bald as a little eagle, much to my parents' despair. I don't do that anymore, though I do run my fingers through it or pick at my scalp.

I also tend to run my fingers along my skin constantly and pick at any spots on my arms/chest/face. And constantly jiggle or tap my foot/arm/hips/whatever.

Never really thought of them as stims though, but I guess they are!!

my hair is to curly i hate it i cant brush it it turns into a frizz ball. I can brush it only when its wet

My body awareness was so bad as a kid that unless I was looking in the mirror, I was oblivious to the hair on my head. I also always had it short as a kid. My hair's wavy/curly and it was too much for my mom to deal with it long, since I was too oblivious ot take care of it herself. Plus, I wante dot llok more like a boy - not so much because I wanted ot be aboy but rather, I didn't want to be a girly girl.

Now I grow it longer, but I hate it in my face and mouth. I'm like LeKiwi - I'm more compulsive about tactile contact with my scalp, so I off scratch and rub my fingertip on my scalp, even if I'm not itchy. Thatw as one of things I looooved about having short hair - it was easier to get to my scalp. Sometimes I fidget with it, mainly because I am still not used to having longer hair and sometimes I'm just annoyed with it.

I haaaaaaate having my hair touch my face, so always have it pulled back... but on the other hand, I twirl/fiddle with it nonstop, so always retying it back because I pull half it out to twirl around...

and I chewed my hair a lot as a kid... I sometimes catch myself doing it still... my parents used tot ry to force me to stop, and almost became a joke in our house (My mom's an artist, and she made a ceramic mask of me, with my hair in my mouth >_<, its hanging up somehwere, despite my threats to smash it >.>)

So yup!! !! But most of all is scratching my scalp through my hair I guess... somehow I have all these cuts/scabs and stuff on my head from doing that so much (like you find a bump, thne play with it until it bleeds and stuff-- I'll have a single cut last weeks because I over mess it, think ones there for like a month or two now)

I twirled my hair sometimes, but it was a very normal, short short short term habit.

I suggest new DSM criteria: Hair chewing/twisting.

It's my favorite stim and I do it for at least an hour every day. I've been doing it since birth, too (on other people's hair when I had none).

I have a lot of methods of hair-playing. Sometimes, I put my hair underneath my pinkie fingernail (it's sort of a numbing pain, like stepping on your foot when your head hurts) when I'm really stressed out and I've done it so much that the nail bed is deformed.

I think that the hair-under-nail thing reminds me that I'm stressed, because sometimes I don't notice I'm worked up unless my nail hurts really badly.

It feels soooo good, though.

I wasn't one for playing with or eating my hair. I'm more inclined to scratch my scalp, sometimes until it bleeds.

Hair-brained topic. Very interesting.

I can answer: both!

Jewelie and lekiwi had interesting posts. I have read all of the comments. I never met anyone who did these things. I am amazed at the similarities I share with all these persons.

Not only did I do it as a child, I still do it now. In my baby picture at the hospital I'm twirling my hair. It drives my parents crazy but I've come to accept it.

I do that, too! I'm always scratching at my scalp, often until it bleeds, just because I can't seem to stop.