Pimple Hairs..

So I really enjoy plucking hair from around my belly button, my underarms, and eyebrows. It's pretty liberating. But when it comes to my scalp hair, there's only one reason why I pick it. I have read on another forum that someone does this same thing, but people just thought it was stupid and didn't make sense... but it does to me. And I really hope someone else on here will understand.

I have scalp acne. I have tried tons of different shampoos and tea tree oil solutions. I have a dermatologist, but haven't told him because i've read that some dermatologists just aren't really that helpful. Sometimes I'll use my prescribed topicals on my scalp, but it doesn't always work.

And of course being on my scalp, there are hairs coming out of the pimples. And what do I do? I yank them out. Some pimples are huge, so I yank every single hair out of it. Why? Because I am fascinated with the gel-like roots that come out. I like to stick the hairs on mirrors and walls, let the roots dry on the surface, and then yank them off the surface to see the imprint of the root.

Below are pictures of roots that I have pulled from my scalp - specifically from the pimples on my scalp. If i did not have these on my scalp, I would not be picking my scalp. They are so intense when they come out of pimples.

Please, does anyone understand where I am coming from? I am trying desperately to stop because i have so many bald spots...

Yes, I've done that. In fact, those white tipped roots are the reason that at one time I ended up with 98% of my hair pulled out. That was maybe 4-5 years ago. I quite my trich pulling about a year and a half ago. Now I pick my skin.

Anyways, back to the hair pulling... I'm not so sure that it's acne to be honest. I mean I know what you're saying about how much more intense pulling from a pimple or skin eruption can be- it's also more pleasing when you pull out the hair. But I've also pulled out many many many hairs with white tips, that were in no way coming from acne spots or pimples. Some of it is just the hair shaft, or maybe inflamed follicle.. I really don't know exactly.

I've had various fetishes related to the white tipped hairs as well:
Biting the gel bits off and eating them
Gathering a bunch together and sticking them to things (such as the mirror or a piece of paper)
Brushing them against my face to feel how "wet" they are... the wetter the better
Putting them close to magnets to see if they are magnetically charged
Sliding the gel bits off the hair shaft with my nails

I honestly think you'll do better with this if you don't think of it as a skin/acne problem. It is definitely better to think of it in terms of a pulling problem, because otherwise it can lead you to serious damage. I have a full head of hair right now, and it's very healthy, but I can still pull out many many hairs with the white tips.

One thing that could help... I'm a girl and it was soooo hard for me to do this, but I had to do it to save myself: was shave my head for a year. I would shave my head, so I couldn't pull, and then I would notice that my scalp would get inflamed in spots, and I'd want to pull SSSOOO bad from them, but just a week or two later the inflammation would go away, and I wouldn't have that urge to pull from that spot anymore. That helped me realize that I have to just wait out the "hot spots" (I call them hot spots, because they feel so hot to the touch) and if I could just wait out the hot spots, then it would go back to not annoying me. Also shaving helped me relieve the feeling of flaky skin (dandruff) that was causing me to itch so much and start pulling.

BTW, nice pic It brings back memories. That's quite a juicy one you got there!

Wow, shave off your hair? I commend you for that... I don't know if I have the guts. But I'm so glad to know you understand.

And I know what you mean that the roots can't be solely from the acne-like inflammations (I get pretty good root pulls from under arm and bikini line!). But I a nice gel root is guaranteed from a visible inflammation if you know what I mean! And i think it's great you call them hot spots. I was JUST thinking how heated the inflammation spots are like 20 minutes ago. It's now a bald spot for me... and to hopefully reduce the inflammation, I put some cold cream on it that I could barely feel the coolness of it!

I'm going to try to work on my patience and get these 'hot spots' to cool off... even though pulling hair out of it makes me *think* it's relieving pressure off the inflammation. Ha.

Thanks!

Yea, I hope you have better luck than I did. It was really so hard for me to resist. Really the only way I could overcome my problem was to shave my head. I hope to God you won't need to. It's hard, but it's soooo much worth it to resist. I don't even know how I managed it without hair. I had pulled it out so much for like 5 years, and it was getting worse and worse. I had to always wear a cap or a scarf. Plus I was in college, so you can imagine how hard that was. I actually shaved my head during the last year at college. Don't know how I managed.

But yea, I pulled from other spots too... pubic hair, armpit hair, leg hair, eyebrows, eyelashes. I got really bad plucking the eyebrows and eyelashes, and for a long time didn't have any of those either Crazy days, those were. I still pull the occasional hair now and then, but thank god somehow I found the will power to stop damaging myself so severely.

So yea, stick in there. Fight it. Just try to wait them out. Sometimes they are stubborn... can take more than a week, even two weeks, to cool off and subside... but it's ssoooo much more worth it to wait and not pull. Well, good luck!

Clampowder, I literally gasped when I read that you stick the white roots to mirrors, tables, etc. I do the same! I've never read of another person collecting the white-sheathed hairs like I do. Of course I wish I didn't, I wish they weren't so alluring, I wish I didn't feel a miniature rush of excitement after pulling some hairs and KNOWING even before looking that one of them has the white root.

Skyschizoid, I also like what you said about NOT thinking of my condition as dermatological (I've seen doctors, had a biospy which reported the scalp bumps as "belign ulcers"), and the pulling as being a method of dealing with a scalp problem (the bumps lose their tenderness and disappear once I've pulled all the hairs out!). You're right that the white roots are healthy and normal, and that I need to accept I have this unnatural impulse and seek treatment.

I just called my school's mental health office and got on the waitlist for a CBT psychologist.

It also inspires me that you say a bump undisturbed will disappear after a week or so. I've never given them the chance to disappear, but now I've got the motivation to try.

Thank you.

Hi there, it was great reading this stuff you had. I also have my pimples in my head/scalp. And from another forum I read, they say it was because of "DEMODEX MITE", (there is a definition in wikipedia, can't understand it myself, confusing it with lice, another parasite in the hair) but it was related with some itchiness in the scalp. I would suggest you should ask your dermatologist regarding this. Oh, I also experienced that addiction of pulling hairs,(though, mine is because of dead hairs), and playing with those white follicles.