What helps you not pull?

Hi Everyone!

I'd like to first say that my issue is eyebrows and lashes. I only pull, I don't eat them or do anything else other than I just enjoy feeling the thickness of the hair between my fingers. I am concentrating on growing my eyebrows! So here is my advice and strategies that are CURRENTLY working for me.

Today is Day 26 since I decided to pull! I now have a good bush growing up there! Lol and how I managed to get this far is:

1. I found inspiration and motivation.
A few weeks ago I spoke to an amazing middle-aged woman who is single but very happy and successful in her life, financially successful too!! And she inspired me to make changes in my life, to THINK AND BE POSITIVE, CREATE POSITIVE ENERGY FOR MYSELF and she taught me the value of being OPEN-MINDED! She has had her own personal struggles too.

2. Know your goal!
This is simple!! ALL OF US HERE WANT TO FEEL LESS SHAME AND MORE CONFIDENCE AND! We want to be viewed as being NORMAL! Ultimately, this leads us to our goal of GROWING BACK OUR HAIR (head, brows, lash, etc)

3. Know your reasons WHY and WRITE THEM DOWN
For example, MY reasons include:
- I want to look as beautiful as possible at my future wedding day!
- I want to free up my time and be able to do things on the go without wasting 1/2 hour or more on "getting ready" in the morning (I USED to draw on my brows, haven't needed to do that in the last two days)
- ***I DONT WANT MY FUTURE KIDS TO BE BULLIED BY OTHER KIDS because their MOM LOOKS FUNNY WITH FAKE OR NO EYEBROWS!
- and finally, I want to swim, do fun activities and snuggle with my boyfriend without WORRYING about SMUDGING my make up brows!

You MUST have a strong DESIRE AND REASONS to stop pulling. It can't be all about appearance, it must be about something bigger than yourself! Or at least a very strong motivator!!!

4. STRATEGIES TO STOP PULLING! AND SPEED UP HAIR GROWTH!
what has worked for my eyebrows???
I have a nightly ritual. After the day is done, I shower, cleanse my face with face wash and then I use 3 things!
- Vaseline!- Rub a rice-grain sized amount of it into each brow area until its mostly absorbed into the skin.
- Jameson Vitamin E Oil 100% pure oil - Rub just a teeny tiny amount into your brow area just like the Vaseline.
- Castor oil - again rub a teeny amount into your brows.

I have been doing this every night and then sleep with these soaked into your brow! Do not rinse it out! You can wash your face the next morning =) But Lay to sleep on your back so it doesn't rub off quickly. You can do this in the morning if you're staying home all day. But you must do it at night again because night time is when your body replenishes and repairs itself while you sleep!!

Putting these on your brows will also prevent you from plucking because of the oilyness.

If your problem is hair on your head, there are shampoos fortified with Vitamin E that could help speed growth. But pure vit E oil is much more potent and effective I'm assuming. I suggest reading other people's blogs and see what had worked for them.

To stop pulling your brows, keep yourself busy and active in public! We don't pull when other people are around so limit your time alone with yourself (I.e in the bedroom).

5. START KEEPING A JOURNAL
I have been writing in a plain old notebook from Walmart, not an actual diary. It doesn't have to be a fancy diary, for boys especially, just a plain book like you would use for school notes is good enough! Start writing out the answers to the questions 1-4 that I mentioned!

6. Share your problem and goal with someone you trust and who can give you positive encouragement and praise!!

In summary:
1. Write down your specific problem. And all you feel about it. (I.e. I have trich and I pull my lashes. It makes me feel good but sad because....)
2. Write down your GOAL!
(I.E I want to stop pulling my lashes and grow them. I will have a steady growth of hair and see growth) REMEMBER: Hair takes time to regrow!!! You won't see hairs overnight!!! It took me a few days to see some growth after starting my nightly ritual!!
3. Write down your REASONS WHY!!
WHEN THE WHY IS STRONG, THE HOW BECOMES EASY!!
4. FIND AN INSPIRATION!
Talk to someone who has successfully overcome trich. Listen to success stories. Find a role model!! Aspire to be happy and successful like they are!! Go seek inspiration from nature! THIS PART OF THE PROCESS IS CRUCIAL! Inspiration will give you the kick start and COURAGE to begin the healing process!
5. Keep a trusted friend informed. He or she should be someone who is compassionate and understanding and loves you! They can encourage you and make you feel supported! My support is my bf.
6. Keep a journal and write all these things down and write about your progress!!

REMEMBER! I am on Day 26, I have pulled less than 5 brows since but they're still growing steadily! Its OK to have setbacks as long as you keep stepping forward!! Yesterday I stepped out in public without drawing on my brows and it was great!!!
I hope this helps someone out there. You're definitely not alone!! =) Good luck and Cheers!!!

xoxo

you may not want to hear this, but having my head shaved really helps. i shave my head every two weeks and i haven't been pulling at all, it's great. before i shaved my head i had a short pixie cut and was pulling really bad. my bald spot is growing back now, thank goodness. if you haven't tried shaving your head yet, i'd give it a go. i get compliments every day on my "haircut", seriously!

Silly Putty! Sounds silly, but playing with it really works for me. Not that I always try, and I haven't been pulling for more than a couple days (before this it was scalp picking, which my DBT lady recommended silly putty for) and you can find it in the dollar store.
Also, if its too small to keep your hands very occupied, or you have large hands, try putting one or two things of putty together - its really easy to do, they are putty in your hands!
Yes, that was a cringe-worthy bad joke. But anyway.
Another fun thing is that if you put, say, red and blue silly putty together and focus on mixing it up, it turns purple!

I'm so glad this exists! I'm a skin-picker, but I pull hair on my legs sometimes too. I'm new here and it's hard for me to talk about it to others, even my own husband. I crochet, which really helps. If I don't have access to it, like in the car, I've found that rubbing my fingers lightly together will help. I look forward to seeing other suggestions!

Shower and browsing web about trich lol

*off topic - removed by mod*

It has pointed out to me I may have an issue with pulling my hair. I'm doing it without realizing. if I realize, it's as if I can't stop. weird.

putting my hair up in a ponytail, or generally taking it out of the way does help.
WASHING it helps. i have oily hair and when it's time i wash it my scalp becomes itchy, and I scratch. It is then that I notice it easily falls off. and I start pulling at it.

*I hope that by posting here, this bad habit will stop*

GLOVES!!!

I saw a great therapist who specializes in Trich. I learned that one of the reasons we get such strong urges is because our fingertips have become so sensitive to the feeling of hair, so merely touching our hair activates the part of our brain that wants to pull.

Wearing gloves keeps you from subconsciously touching your hair and activating this habit, and you pull MUCH less. I was really against wearing gloves - gave me goosebumps just thinking about it. But I tried it and you won't believe how amazing it works. It's called a habit-blocker.

I really recommend it.

I have been pulling for 30 years. I have had good seasons and bad. Most recently, very bad. Down to no lashes and very few brows. I started some supplements to lose weight but they have actually taken away my urge to pull and I have new growth. My theory is that because I had candida (yeast overgrowth), the sugars going wacky was causing these urges.

I joined this forum to share my discovery of what i found to "help me not pull" or neutralize my mania.
When ever i get that literally hellish urge and start to slip into the trich trance I immediately rinse my hair, scalp, & face w/ a special brand of freshly brewed Black tea. Upon finishing, I drink about 8 ounces of the same tea to help induce an alpha brain wave state to counter the trich trance as it is the only thing ive tried that can do just that. I can easily go into the trich state for days on end, even doing so in my sleep & dreaming of it in my sleep. There is no escape as it is truly hell and this is the only thing that reduces most of my urge if not all of it while giving me up to a day or two of trich-free life, as long as the tea has been drank and applied topically.

Because freshly brewed black tea has had such a success rate with me, I believe trich is caused by emf. It is overly abundant in our environment, or atleast in the modern world. This would make sense as nearly every household appliance generates emf let alone all the overly populated cellphone towers that poison w/ it. I say this because tea is an anti inflammatory that can absorb 90% of radiation in the human body aswell as detox in various ways while nourishing and rebuilding the body overall. The poly phenols in tea are capable of inhibiting cancer growth by upwards of 80% while rebuilding collagen and stimulating hair growth. There is a special and rare compound in tea called theanine, an amino acid that can induce alpha brain wave state as it puts your body in an alert yet relaxed mode - incredibly helpful to get out of the trance. It's truly an all encompassing health elixir that also helps my trich. I also find that the quality of tea is correlated w/ the quality of results for me personally.

I discovered my personal method partially by accident. I currently own a laptop and I spilled tea on the trackpad. I found it curious that when the tea was on my trackpad and even when i wiped it off, I could no longer use the pad. I had to clean it w/ alcohol to regain function. The same happens when my finger tips have dried tea on them. I believe the tea blocks/absorbs the electrical signals that allow for finger movement via the pad. I speculate that in this same way tea blocks the electrical signals that the hair/scalp are picking up on which in my belief, effectively forces me to pull my hair.

At times it feels as though my hair is full of static or is picking up on some kind of current that is generating the urge to pull. It explains why I can't ignore the hairs that seem "hotter" than the rest, because theyr'e charged more than others. I do not believe I pull for only some kind of emotional or topical germ reason, although I can't deny they can be triggers as many other things can be as well. I believe I'm pulling because my body is trying to remove the hair as it is absorbing some kind of foreign and most likely electrical energy. The energy would also explain why my ears ring, mind races, and emotions erupt which is something the yeast theory cannot explain for me personally. But i'd like to stress that eating (especially if well) & exercising do significantly aid in my ability to fight going into the trance like state, but they do not rid me of the urges like the tea does and in fact exercise plus the tea treatments seem to be more effective for me than just tea when done in conjunction.

I get anywhere from a few hours to a 48 hours of trich-free indulgence with this method and after the tea is dried on my head i can continue to drink more of the tea and it seems to prolong the benefit, so once applied topically the benefit can be kept through consumption alone. Simply put, the longer/more tea I leave in & consume the better. Also note that tea's ph is about 5 and so is human hair sebum so i find it to be safer to use than other options i've explored. I recommend Hyson Brand of Tea as from my research it has the lowest content of fluoride and environment pollutants. Please feel free to let me know if this aids anyone the same way it is currently aiding me. I consider myself a scientist at heart & through trial and error i've come up with something that is helping me & is readily available and I hope this post is also helpful to those who read it.