As the title suggests, I (M) found the love of my life and popped the question and my partner (F) said yes! I'm so thrilled and we really are hitting the ground running with planning.

We are looking for photographers and I'm now starting to panic because I pull a lot and it is clear where I do. I have basically just the vague outline of eyebrows, no eyelashes at all and my 5:00 shadow has very strange spots of bare. I pull mostly at work and don't pull any other time. I tried rubber finger tips but it actually made it easier to pull.

I could use any suggestions, supplements or anything that would help even short term. Or if anyone has experience in photographing people with trich, I am open to stories and advice on what to ask photographers. Don't want to go the photoshop route if I can help it.

I've tried to stop pulling my hair for two years now and every time I decide to quit I just.. start again. It's getting more and more visible with time and I just don't know what to do. I'm worried about people doing my hair etc because I hate when people comment on my bald spot. I understand that I have an illness but I can't help but be mad at myself.

i haven’t pulled big chunks of my hair out in 2 years, i was doing so well but i’ve had a bit of a hard time and last few days i’ve ended up pulling. I now have a very large bald patch on my head, because of where it is it isn’t really concealable. I really just want to shave my hair, firstly i think having it short will make it harder for me to pull it out, i also think that by shaving it when it (hopefully) eventually grows back it will be more even. I’ve always had really long hair but i just am tired of this honestly, i’ve told my mother about it and it’s very upsetting for her but i think this is something i have to do. Does anyone have any experience with shaving their hair like this? Also seeing as it is winter it’s not like it would be weird for me to wear a hat for the next three months haha.

Hi everyone, I was wondering if eyelash clusters stick on bare eyes?? (by this I mean no eyelashes at all) At first I wanted to do eyelash extensions but I learnt that they can’t do them on no eyelashes which really sucks because I feel so ugly without them and sad cause they haven’t grown in years!

This is super weird but I’ve had trich for over 10 years and I always get this feeling of pain/pressure in my scalp and it goes away after I pull. Anyone else?

No idea the cause 😢

Just pulled a bunch of my eyelashes. There was one that felt SO good! I was satisfied, and then stopped. I still don’t understand. What is the end goal? What am I missing? I pull, then think (2 months til this grows back). So ashamed in the moment but still do it! Ugh

My partner has known for years that I have trich, but I asked him to let me have space around it. If he notices he just says, “do you want your beanie?” and grabs if for me and we leave it at that.

I’ve been having an extra bad relapse the last few weeks and this is the first time I’ve gone into the details with him of how I’m feeling. I told him tonight that during this recent relapse I’ve been having a physical sensation in my body where I feel I need to EXPLODE to release whatever is building up inside me. Each pull soothes that feeling for like 1 second.

So, he suggested that I m@sterbate…and sorry TMI but it totally worked! At least for tonight!

FYI I have generalized anxiety and used to have panic disorder. It’s a similar sensation to when I’m anxious, but not exactly the same. Specially, I don’t feel afraid like when I’m anxious or when I used to have panic attacks. I just feel like I need to break some plates or scream into a pillow or jump in a mosh pit.

42F, had severe trich since I was an early teen.

I just wanted to say that cannabis is the only thing that has ever helped me.

Anyone else?

I need advice. I have been pulling my hair out since I was 11 or 12 years old. I am now 27, and my trich has definitely gotten much worse overtime. My pulling intensifies when I’m stressed, anxious, or when I have to work on things that require full attention, like school work for example. I can’t complete any work without the urge to pull. My pulling can be distracting and even affects my ability to get anything done. By the time I notice, time has passed and I’m still behind on my work. I get frustrated and end up putting my work away, which leads to procrastination. I’ve tried NAC, fidget toys, ashwagandha, rhodiola, gloves, scarves, fake nails, you name it. I don’t know what else to do. I feel hopeless. I had to shave my head again for the 5th time because of the damage I’ve caused. I just want my hair back.

I’m 28 my whole life I have never had this until after I had my son. It’s just one area of my head that I gravitate to. It’s so hard to stop when I start. Any advice on helping distract me from doing it? It’s getting bad to where I have bald spots

I have never really talked about how and when it started. And i have never written anything here. These days i feel more then alone and i’m scared of how far i can go back on pulling. I started pulling when i was 6 years old when my mom and her dad had both cancer. My mon did survive on this one. I don’t remember a lot but i know it started then and it never stopped. I will be 28 in about a week, i do have a boyfriend that knows my condition and some friends but i feel alone. I feel like no one really understand or care about it. I am stressed out because i am not sure about my relationship these days. I started to go to the gym thinking it would help but for now it doesn’t help me. I am lost, scared, exhausted of pulling and my scalp hurts. Needed to talk about it but i don’t really have anyone to talk about it.

....things have been okay for me.. but recently I started pulling again and it's because of anxiety, stress, and just plain boredom. I'm endlessly searching for careers that will support my kiddo and I, but that has caused some stress as well. I am hydrating, taking my thyroid meds... but it just seems so hopeless. I always have my hair up in a skinny ponytail.. .idk I just venting at this point. I'm with you. it was good for a while and then it got bad again.

We can do this. One day at a time.

Has anyone here developed trich from some other BFRB or has gone from trich to other BFRBs? I used to be a nail biter and now I pull my hair. I've also been picking at my skin as an "alternative" to pulling my hair. It's still counterproductive but at least I don't pull my hair out. I am curious of y'all's thoughts. I do have this underlying fear that hte only way I'll stop pulling my hair is if I replace it with some other behavior.

Do you guys notice you start pulling when you start eating certain foods? I find when I eat gluten and things with alot of sugar, I have absolutely no control and my OCD starts getting wild and I can’t seem to keep my hands off my eyebrows/eyelashes and feel insanely irritated and just can’t shut my mind off.

Would anyone want to be accountability buddies? I’m so fed up 🫠😭

I have trouble unbiasly picturing what my hair must look like to other people. So I’m constantly wondering if I covered it up well or if it’s totally obvious and everyone around me has noticed and is slightlently judging me and my life is over.

But, since the average person does not know trich exists, what do they think when they see my (maybe) bad comb over and root spray on my hairless scalp? Do they think I have a sickness or do they know that I’m pulling out my own hair? And if they do know I’m pulling my hair, how does thay change what they think of me?

Specifically I worry that my boss will think I’m not mentally stable enough to keep growing in my job.

The feeling of running my fingers through the hair on the crown of my head where the hair is thinning is one of the most calming feelings ever to me. Sometimes I even part the thinning hair on my crown to “expose” the bald spot so that I can stimulate my scalp on my crown directly. I have even resorted to using a scalp massager (intended for the shower) to rub and play with the crown of my head to stimulate the area. I am playing with my hair at all times during the day and cannot stop myself.

Does anyone have any recommended scalp massagers with pointy ends that will help me stimulate the crown of my head? Would love one to keep at my desk at work.

Thanks!

so for like the last three years, I have started pulling my hair and it’s progressively started to get worse. and I don’t know what to do anymore because I really want to stop, but I don’t know how and the difference between my hair now and three years ago was really big and I just hate looking at myself in the mirror because of it but I don’t know how to stop. I honestly just need some kind of support because I don’t know how much more I can take.

I was in such a good streak, since October 12 I wasn't picking the hair in my scalp, that day I had a wedding invitation and I didn't wanted to look weird picking my hair while in the party so I made a lot of conscious efforts to not to pull of my hair even if i was anxious in the party because I even managed to win the bride's bouquet so that brought a lot attention to me and through the night nobody asked me out to dance or anything like that, and my friend ignored me a great portion of the night just because that ducking bouquet hahaha but whatever that's silly, I was really anxious but I didn't pull out any hair or damaged the tips of the hair, since then i challenged myself to resist and see how far I could go without pulling hairs.

The downfall begins in Halloween, I really like that holiday so I went out in costume to give out candy. But that same day in the morning I received an email informing me about the date of my defense for my master's final project, this type of events are already stressful but to make it worse two days later I got a flu from going out in Halloween and stayed in bed for a week without being able to do anything even my daily chores all because of how bad my symptoms were, and to add up to the mess I did my project with other three people and is a disaster to try to do something with them, so my anxiety levels are off the roof, I began to pick up my hair again while a was sick because I couldn't do anything, my group is a disaster and I'm tired of having to deal with that so everytime I sit in the computer to try to organize something I just procrastinate while scrolling social media while picking hair, so I'm not really enjoying that time off of studying.

Today I managed to put in order my ideas for the defense and write an draft of my part of the defense, so I'm proud of myself for that, but a pull out hairs while doing it and with anxious pauses of doom scrolling, maybe tomorrow i will do better. Still, I'm sad because my goal of challenging myself to not to pick out my hair is to allow my favorite spot of hair to pull to grow a little just to not be ashamed of me and be able to go to a hair salon to cut my hair, because I really need one after a year of separating the tips of my hair and damaging, it really needs a cut for a fresh start, I hope I will be able to recover my streak and manage this a lot better, because I know I can, I can do it!

(Sorry if it's hard to understand, English it's not my first language)

Hi! I’ve had long hair as a male my entire life. I’ve recently developed trich. The balding is starting to get noticeable, can someone help, please!?

Hi! I’m new to Reddit but I have always looked on threads in the community to help with my trich journey! I am thinking about writing two books, one an illustrated children’s book and the other a comprehensive guide to the disorder for parents or older readers. I was wondering if any of you would have found it helpful to see trichotillomania representation in children’s media to help spread awareness of the disorder?

I just wanted to come on here and share what happened at my eye appointment yesterday… I just want to know if it was wrong for me to get upset and feel uncomfortable. My eye doctor comes in to do my exam. I’ve had this eye doctor for years so I’m not sure why he hasn’t pointed it out before but yesterday he decided to point out my completely bald eyelashes on the top and bottom. Of course he is a physician so I told him the truth as to why I don’t have eyelashes expecting him to understand to a degree and move on. Instead he kept pushing. He asked me what the condition was called. I didn’t want to talk about it so I said I didn’t know. So since I didn’t know he went over to his computer and googled it in front of me. Then he proceeded to ask me why I pull. I didn’t answer him. He asked me how I do it? I told him tweezers because he went on rambling about the length I need to pull my eyelashes and stuff. He then proceeded to make jokes about it too. He said that all these women out here are obsessed with their long eyelashes but I don’t have to worry about that basically implying because I don’t have any. I tried to get out of the appointment as soon as possible. I went to my car and cried because I was just so embarrassed and hurt that someone could say those things, especially someone in the medical field. I’m also just angry at myself for not sticking up for myself when I needed to. I’m not coming on here to bash the doctor. I genuinely just do not know anyone else who has trichotillomania and I was just so hurt and embarrassed and I felt so alone. I wanted to come on here to a community who also has trich too. Thank you for listening ❤️

Hi everyone,

I think I honestly created a Reddit account just for this. Support from others going through the same thing. The pinned post is very helpful but a sense of community I think will help. Here is my story (TW- details of pulling, grief)

I’ve been pulling for I’m not really sure how long. I would say it probably started in 2021 and has gotten progressively worse over the last 3 years. I pull from my scalp, it started with baby hairs at the crown but has moved a bit. I didn’t notice it was an issue until my mom had pointed it out while living with her and she found more hair than usual by my bedside one day and asked if I had. Embarrassed, I denied it. This was in 2022 and I realized I had been doing more than just twiddling my fingers and hair. At the time I thought oh no it’s another bad habit like biting my nails (that I do when anxious too). The next wake up call was I had cut my hair in 2022 and gone to my regular hair stylist, and she visibly noticed my hair had become much less full. My natural hair had always been thick and wavy/curly. I became more self conscious after she noticed. Later that year i had also put my hair into braids only to see they were far less thick than I remember. As 2022 progressed, I experienced a lot of stress from an old job, and familial issues, ending the year with losing my father that November. I was 25 at the time, and since then the pulling only got worse as I navigated handling the unexpected loss of a parent and real grief for the first time. 2023 I thought I would be able to stop but the habit had been in place. This year I have made a couple attempts to stop and catch myself but sometimes it is so unconscious I don’t know until it hurts.

I have not spoken to anyone about this because I am embarrassed and ashamed. I think i could talk to a couple family members and friends, but at the moment I’d prefer anonymity I think.

To this day I have not gone to get my hair styled or cut because I’m embarrassed it will be obvious to the stylist. My hair health has declined, and not grown much. I only wear my hair up or in a hat for the most part. When I do style it or straighten it I’m constantly self conscious that people will notice my hair looks silly. I would love to stop and I’m thinking of purchasing fidget toys or something. Being around others helps for the most part but now I find myself pulling in classroom and while driving, watching tv. The times I don’t pull are -exercising -in the early morning first few hours after waking up -around close friends and

If you have any more tips or tricks or words of encouragement, I could really use it. I would love to start 2025 with a head start in beating Trich.

If you’ve read this all the way, thank you for your time to read my story. 💞

This strategy has helped me tons recently…

Trigger Awareness.

In habit breaking science, there’s five types of triggers:

• Emotions
• People
• Location
• Preceding Event
• Time of Day

Whenever I realize I’m pulling, I take a deep breath and go through this list in my head to figure out what’s causing this urge to pull.

Once it becomes apparent, I’ll do my best to make a change to defuse the trigger. For example, if I realize that scrolling reels caused the urge, then I’ll set my phone to airplane mode.

I’m curious which of the five categories above typically triggers your urge to pull?

Hey guys!

Does anyone know any trich friendly hair salons in the Bay Area, preferably south region? Thank you!

Nothing infuriates me more.

Like... I WOULDN'T BE TOUCHING MY HAIR IF I DIDN'T HAVE A PROBLEM! Ugh.

How do you handle this comment?

you know when regrowth sticks up at that infuriating angle off the top of the crown of your head? yeah, well my regrowth is maybe 4cm, and it sticks right up. nothing will hold it down!

i had basically come to accept it, but today i was talking to someone and she randomly started laughing. i asked her what was wrong and she just said 'those little hairs on top of your head look so funny!! did you cut your hair there or what?' i just laughed along and tried to make some excuse about 'i don't even know how it got there, i guess my hair just grows strangely'.

i can't stop replaying it in my head. why don't people just think before they speak?!