HELP PLEASE, is this what it's been all along?!!!!!

Hi guys! My hair has been noticabley thinning over the last 6 months. I've been going nuts thinking it's thryroid issues (i do have a controlled thyroid problem), i am a little iron deficient, and have been under stress when i noticed it thinning out significantly.

But i have this habit of "scraping" my scalp free of flakes or beads of dead skin (not to be gross, sorry), and i've always done it through college especially when studying, and i do it when i'm writing, or concentrating, driving, you name it. I don't sit and "pull", i scrape, and it causes strands to come out with a bulb on the end.

I never though it was trich because i don't pluck, i scrape, the more i scrape, the more flakes ther are to scrape. The more i try to stop, the more i want to, and if i do good for a couple days, it takes ONE itch to make me scratch, and then before i know it i'm scraping again.

Is this a form of trich!!??

Last but most important question, since i pick at my scalp instead of pluck hairs, is my hair LESS likely to grow back due to permanent damage????

please help!!

I have no answers for your questions. I simply try and share my little ways of attempting to help myself in hopes they might help someone else.

I did have one thought about something that might help you. I have stated before in my first post that itching scalp can send me into a trich frenzy (due to the way my problems began) and I have a little trick (no pun intended.) that I use. I don't know if you are a male or female but it should work either way (if a guy though I wouldn't do this in front of friends! haha). First off, I ALWAYS use the leading brand of dandruff shampoo and conditioner (you know the one that's named after two body parts). If I skip a washing, or use a different shampoo I get flakey and it's a downward spiral from there. Anyhow, if I get an itch of any kind that I feel will get me pulling (or in your case scraping) I comb a TON of conditioner into my hair, put on a towel or shove it under a ball cap and LEAVE IT ALONE. The conditioner is soothing to my scalp as well as good for my hair but, most importantly, it makes my hair too slick to grasp. While you don't have the grasping issue I think that perhaps the moisture on your scalp may keep you from getting anywhere with your scraping or cause you to lose interst if there are no hard flakey areas to focus on. I could be wrong about that though, I guess there is a chance that softening the scalp might enable you to dig deeper...it's up to you if you want to try it or not (obviously! haha) but if you do I would like to know if it worked for you.

Aside from that, and again I am no doctor, but interestingly enough it sounds like you may have combined two forms of ICD, skin picking and trich. I hope you kick both.


Good luck!
Bel

Keep your feet on the ground...and your hands busy!

Your hair should grow back providing that there is no scarring on your scalp from the scratching. But a word of warning - it will grow back very slowly. It took nearly five years for my new hairs to grow 10cm

An idea (similar to the one above): Try using product in your hair like gel or hairspray. That will make your hair and scalp too sticky to touch.

I just received a catalog from Amerimark and there are two products in there that I was thinking of trying myself.

NuGen Emu Oil shampoo & conditioner: Blocks DHT and helps clear up scalp conditions like eczema, psoriasis & seborrhea by delivering nutrients to the hair root. $9.99 each

RegSor Shampoo: Anti-psoriasis with natural extracts & oils for relief from itching, scaling & flaking scalp. $19.99

Again, I have not yet tried these products but thought I'd pass the info along. NuGen seems cheap enough to try. Good luck!

Emu-oil is something that my vet gave me when my horse got a very large gash on his leg. It's supposed to be great and the horse came out alright. Just my 2cents.