Hair Pulling Suggestions? HELP!! !! !

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Ok so I've been trying for years to stop pulling my hair out, but nothing seems to work. Usually over the summer I can get myself to stop, but once school starts, so does the hair pulling. I'm pretty sure it's stress-induced, but also when I'm bored just doing homework or watching tv or something I'll absentmindedly feel around and pull a few out. It's all based on texture--my hair is really thick, so I'm always pulling out the wiry ones that I don't like the feel of. I feel like suck a freak always pulling my hair out, and I really want to stop!! ! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! !! !

I've already tried giving myself rewards for not pulling hair (doesn't work) and even punishment (whenever my sister sees me tugging on my hair, she smacks me ) still doesn't work! And I've tried rubbing an eraser or something but it's not the same at all, I need that wiry feeling and then the pull. Hate this nasty habit, wish I could just stop!! !! ! Oh and also if I'm not pulling my hair, I'm picking at my face. Why am I so fidgety?! !! !! ! Want to stop!! !! !!

Thanks so much for any help/suggestions!! !! !

It is perfectly normal to lose as many as 50 - 100 hairs per day. If hair pulling is soothing you I wouldn't fret about it.

Oh no my hair pulling is not normal. I've never counted or anything, but some days I'll be so stressed I'll pull one after another till there's hairs all over the place. I used to have this terrible bald spot. Luckily, it's grown in some from over the summer, and I have bouts of not pulling where I don't do it for a while and then suddenly start up again. So it's not bald anymore but still kinda thin. Gross, right?! !! Anyway if you have any suggestions for how to stop, that would be wonderful!! !

Thanks for trying to reassure me on this one...though unfortunately this is not your typical 50-100 per day.

You can try to redirect a stim. When you catch yourself doing that, try another soothing behaviour.

yeah, the only problem is what could I replace it with? As I've said, I tried rubbing an eraser but the texture was all wrong. And I guess I do replace it, in a way, by picking at my face. But I don't want that, either!! ! Any ideas for a replacement? What is stimming, by the way? Is that just like some quirky thing Aspies tend to do?

Thank you!! !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichotillomania

I have similar tendencies, though I pull my eyebrow hairs. You're right--stopping is difficult.

Oh same here, conundrum!! !! Sometimes when my stupid obsession wants to spice things up I pull at my eyebrows and eyelashes too. Have you had any successes with trying to stop? Any suggestions???

Thank you!! !

I had trich. Its a result of anxiety. I ended up doing some serious damage to my hair. Your hair is not going to remain nice if you keep doing it. There are a few suggestions, everthing from wearing something on your head (a hat a wig), to cutting it shorter, etc. You have to also deal with the causes, which is often anxiety based, and sometimes that alone is not an easy thing to tackle.

This is kinda drastic, but how do you feel about shaving it off so you have none to pull? Then while it's gone you can develop some other stim. Just a thought.

That does not work. This isn't a stim like rocking or twirling, but a OCD-type of body-focused repetative behavior like nail-biting, scab-picking or lip biting. When someone with one type of body-focused rep behavior tries to stop without addressing why they do it in the first place, they often just develop another one. It's like how overeaters who get gastric bypass surgery can end up sating their impulse to overeat by binge drinking.

This is an impulse disorder. The problem isn't the thing one is impulsive about--so removing the thing doesn't fix the problem. It's about how the brain lacks the ability to control these impulses when the person gets stressed. And unfortunately, there's no simple form of therapy for that, as of yet

I used to nail-bite horrendously, but I'm better about it now. Unfortuantely, in curbing nail biting, I developed a habit of hair-pulling, mainly my eyebrows, eyelashes and hair on my legs and arms. I can manage these when I'm not under certain types of stress, but if I am under those certain types of stress, like about money or my family, I can't stop. If I resist one, I just move on to the other one.

But it does helps somewhat to know what stress specifically triggers these behaviors. From there you just need to try to develop alternative coping techinques. I find exercse helps curb these impulses a lot. It's just sticking to an exercise regime when you have poor impluse control!

I use to do the exact same thing when I was a teenager.

The most you can do is try to move onto a different stim. I find it absolutely impossible not to have one, and even stopping it is hard. What else comforts you?

I'm trying to think, but I don't really know!

What's your current stim, hale_bopp? Less harmful than hair pulling, I hope.

I like to feel soft things I guess, I don't know, like fleece?...I can't really think of anything that I could feel though...I'm not sure!.

Yes, it's exactly the same for me!! ! If I try not to pull my hair, than I immediately start picking at my face or eyebrows or eyelashes. And yeah usually when I'm calm I don't need to pull so much, but when I'm stressed the temptation is terrible!! !! !

What kind of exercise(s) do you do? Maybe I should try that...

I've always had a soft things stim too. I pat cushions all the time. My other one is just as damaging as hair pulling and thats tearing off my fingernails when they get too long. I'm trying like anything to stop it like I don't have a choice but not to.

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This is strictly a suggestion.
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I know it may be expensive but I mean if you have a steady, decent income have you considered trying wigs? I myself have considered this on top of shaving what hair I do have as my hair pulling is a compulsive disorder and not just a stim, my logic being that knowing how expensive a wig could be I might be less inclined to pull the hair out of a wig than my own scalp. The shaving for me is strictly aesthetic as I have about half an inch of obviously bald scalp on either side of my natural part and several bald patches throughout my scalp wherein, to this point, my hair has not grown back.

I do the same thing, although I guess I haven't done it to the point where it gets noticeably thinner. I used to pull them out and examine the root end, the ones that had a thick end (not sure how to describe it) I felt good that they were removed. However I finally got past that (I think at that age I switched to picking on my knees). In my hair I mainly pull on my bangs. My hair is long so I usually have it braided which helps quite a bit, except at the end of the day when I have showered and it is drying, then I start running my hands through it looking for "loose hairs" especially on my bangs and picking at my skin. I have noticed that I do this a LOT when I have a visitor over and we are sitting talking in the evening, it seems to be the predominant time. Also I pick at my skin a lot more in the evening after I take a shower. The best remedy I have found for that is to get into pajamas (covering as much skin as possible) as soon as possible and limit time by the mirror (I actually prefer not to wear them but then I'm always picking). If my skin is accessible I am constantly running my hand (often without noticing it) feeling for small bumps and imperfections and picking at them to make it feel "smooth". Anyway.

In terms of the picking and plucking I have found a couple of things helpful. One is the aforementioned covering of skin/tying up of hair when possible. Another thing that I've found very helpful since I've started doing it is plucking instead of shaving the hair in my armpits. For years I discounted this as too painful, but done slowly after a shower it is not painful and imparts a similar satisfaction to pulling other hairs or picking skin imperfections. It also means not having to shave/nick the areas as it results in a generally smoother area and no stubble, though you have to do it regularly. Out of all the areas I've picked at and worried this is the only one that actually is useful and not detrimental. This isn't the sort of thing you can do when you have guests over, of course, so it doesn't prevent that issue and I still find myself "picking" then, but it helps.