What helps you not pull?

Tying my hair up! or using hair clips to put away the parts that I pull! Also head bands help me!

somechick wrote:hi - i'm new here. this might sound crazy, but knitting has helped me not pull as much. i know knitting isn't for everyone - i just learned last year and noticed that when i am knitting my hands are occupied and i pull less. i joked that i thought i liked knitting so much because it appealed to my obsessive compulsiveness, but i think there is truth in it. i like the repetitiveness of it and that kind of compares to pulling - for me, anyway. of course, once i put the knitting down it's a whole different story, but it is a good way to keep me busy.

I could cry at that. Its so cute!

Ex puller here. I would say that during my biggest pulling phase I was mild to moderate. I used to pull along my parting and made it about an inch wide all along, and pulled a lot right at the end of my parting, so had a big bald spot on the back of my head.

one way you can stop is obvious, cut all your hair off. have it short so its too short to pull. if you have trouble with pulling your eyelashes and eyebrows i don't have much experience in it but i might recommend rubbing vaseline?

had my hair short for something like 4 years and forgot about the trich alogether. decided to grow it back and when i did, i got some all too familiar sensations on the "pulling" spots on my scalp, and some urges to pull.

the main thing that got me to stop was remembering how it was before. i didnt want to spiral down. so dont even pull that first hair! its easier not to pull the first hair than it is not to pull the seventeenth clump of hair if you get what i mean. once youve started its opened a door.

another thing, dont let it get too greasy. greasy hair goes into strings and feels a bit heavier so can make you tempted to pull. having clean dry hair helps some.

The thing that helped me most. Have a middle parting. having a side parting isn't really natural for your scalp and is what can cause this unusual sensation, hair being pulled in the wrong direction can be quite uncomfortable and might subconsciously make you want to pull it out altogether. one thing i think it may tie in with also is low self image. a side parting means a fringe over your face which means you may have poor confidence which may have some ties with your trichtillomania. i remember as soon as i gave myself the middle parting i began to panic that everyone would see my "ugly" face, but after a couple of days i got used to it and now i feel i'm better for it. can see the world more clearly.

I wear gloves at night (I hate fuzz in my eyes!!), I try to be around other people, I work on crafts such as sewing or making jewelry to keep my hands busy, I hold on to something such as a pillow when I'm watching TV or reading a book, and I had a rewards system set up for a while, in which if I didn't pull for a certain amount of time I'd get a 3DS. It worked, and now I have a 3DS.

I've been doing this since 2011 after a close friend recommended it to me. They do not have trich, but I've dealt with it since I was a child, so I was willing to give it a shot.

I have a weird neuroticism where when I paint my nails they need to be perfect -- no chips, indents, or blemishes on them. I use my nails to pull my hair, which would then cause some sort of indent in the nail polish. I keep my nails very short and I have quite the collection of different nail polish colors to change it up.

My nails have been painted almost every single day for the past four years, and my eyelashes and eyebrows have grown back after not having them since the age of seven (I'm 22 right now). So I guess I used a neuroticism that I have to keep myself from pulling. I also have to keep my nails really short or else I do it when I'm not paying attention.

Update on tips that help. Wear gloves religiously when driving at before sleep. Avoid sugars.take medication helps. Eat a good diet . Avoid dairy , things that will create a yeast ...get all the buildup extra sebum out of scalp bc that's what's causing the itch . Don't use stuff like hairspray, meditate. Visualize the way you want your hair to grow ,when it starts growing out through the ugly phase just cover it up with wigs ,seriously I did that for almost two years I got funny looks but ###$ people. I don't recommend shaving your head , I did it it just depressed me . I wouldn't go to a trich convention. I went once while in full recovery a decade ago and I felt guilty my hair was so thick and long. It was a triggering event ! Avoid negative people,workout, no alcohol...trim your hair , when it gets long braid it . Basically don't touch your scalp ! It's hard but y'all can do it ! I've recovered twice ,it sucks , I don't think it's ocd. ,more like self harm.just try to catch yourself before tracing out . Wearing gloves helps . You can get some with velcro from solumbra. The funny thing is once your hair grows out it will be thicker because the hair follicles have been traumatized. Just take it day by day ,you can do it

Thanks, Iøvedone this since puberty, pulling hairs from pubic area and face, as a coping mechanism, I'm just wondering, what could you do instead.. I've been quite alcoholic lately, but am still pulling hairs..

I must admit keeping my hair very short is the only way I have managed to stop pulling so far, although that can get expensive - as soon as there's something long enough to pull I yank at it.

I am going to try socks on my hands at night, but of course if my hair gets long enough then tying it in bunches at night also helps. It's the grabbing at the scalp and yanking down and out that gets me, so this helps, but can get rather sore in the morning as the bunches pinch your scalp.

It started in fourth grade. I clearly remember looking over at a kid - Fungo, we used to call him- pulling his eyelashes at his desk. I tried it soon after and liked it; it seemed to satisfy some sort of itch. I am now 53 years old and I have had trich for 42 years. I don’t want to be too long-winded or relive the worst parts of my struggle right here and now. Nevertheless, I do want you to know, fellow puller, that I have felt your pain. I have felt that grim realization of going too far, pulling too many eyelashes, sometimes in chunks. I have felt that horror of looking in the mirror at the damage I inflicted, that panic at knowing I could not fully hide the gaps in my eyelids. But right now I just want to share what hurt me and what helped me.

1) Keeping a journal- a Trich journal, I called it. Damned if I know why, but keeping a journal helped in a huge way. It really seemed to nearly eliminate my desire to pull. I did this during stressful months.
2) Scratching the topside of my eyelids. Makes perfect sense and works well to satisfy the itch. My mantra was Always Scratch, Never Pull. I made it a habit, and it worked. After a while the itch goes away.
3) Pulling nose hairs. Gross I know. But it still serves a decent substitute and I don’t think anyone is interested in looking up my nose for imperfections. Be careful as it can become infected. I use Neosporin with a q-tip after a good nose pull.

My eyelashes are perfect and have been for over five years. I still yank one or two annoying ones in the mirror. But I am now able to stop, to put away the tweezers and know that while I will never be totally cured, the nightmare of trich is over for me.

I've had trich for about 13 years now and have been seeing a therapist and for the first time it actually seems to help. Some big things she has me doing is:

1)Keep a journal of each hair you pull
-write the time of day, what you are doing, how many hairs at that time, and how you are feeling

2)Practice mindfulness every day for just a couple of minutes
-doing so helps you be more mindful in general, and when you're mindful of your hair pulling before/while it's happening you are more likely to think about what you're doing/the consequences and stop

3 )If you notice you pull when you're bored or under-stimulated:
- keep a stress ball near you
- try brushing your hair instead
- wear a headband or hat
- try playing with putty (sounds weird, but "thinking putty" is actually so fun to play with and helps reduce stress as well)
- do ten pushups or any exercise just to get moving/stimulate your body and release anxiety/tension

4)Talk about it. I avoided it for years because it made me uncomfortable but I realized that not talking about it and pushing it to the back burner made it worse. When I talk about it, see a therapist about it, have weekly goals like journaling/mindfulness/etc it helps me be more mindful about it, think about it more and why I want to stop/reduce the behavior. Also, posting in a forum was also a "homework" assignment for me. It feels so against my instinct to be typing about this now but I really feel it will help keep me motivated.

Hope these help! There are a lot of great ones on here already.