Trichotillomania
Is the repeated pulling, plucking and breaking of hair with fingers. Trichotillomania is an obsessive-compulsive disorder and is normally caused by trigger factors such as emotional or physical stress. Emotional stress plays the biggest part in this.
Strategy
We discussed different strategies to try to prevent you from touching your hair, such as;
- Using rich hand cream that coats your fingers so that this, in turn, makes your hair feel smoother. You informed me that it is the roughness of the hair which creates this desire to break the hair off.
- Using rich conditioners which coat the hair making the cuticle (outer protective layer) feel smooth to the touch.
- Dressing aids such as gels, mousses, waxes, hair sprays and leave in conditioners as these are also good for coating the outer cuticles.
- Wearing your hair up and using dressing aids so that you cannot get your fingers into the area to break hair off.
- Change the seat that you sit in whilst watching television or relaxing as it appears that it is always your left hand that goes up to the left and rear of your scalp.
- To agree a trigger word for when somebody sees you touching the area but not to make a big issue of this.
- If you break hair off, then you could put it into a bag at the end of each instance. Over time, you can look back at this and see how much you have broken off, as a way of hopefully monitoring and reinforcing a reduction. However, do not count the individual hairs as this in itself can be another compulsive behaviour which you do not want to set off.
- An alternative to keeping broken hairs is taking photographs of your hair to monitor any deterioration or improvement. In either case, you could agree a treat for yourself if you have not broken any hairs off in set period.
- Relaxation is the best treatment, such as walking, swimming, cycling, dancing or such like - all these take your mind off what you’re worrying about. The golden rule to follow is that whatever that you are doing , if you start thinking about your hair, then that is a good time to stop and try something different. For example, when you are watching the TV and find that your hand is going up into your hair this means that you are not focusing on the TV and your thoughts are drifting off Get up and do something different e.g. make a cup of tea.
- Scalp massage is good but should only be done infrequently.
Recommended products
Menthol shampoo
Special conditioner
Nanogen Follicle Defence Active Treatment Mask
Nanogen Scalp Hydrator Spray.
These are available on our website, the first two under ‘Trichological Products’ and the latter two under ‘Hair Loss’ – ‘Nanogen’ – ‘Treatments’.
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