Trichotillomania... Do you know what it is?

[mercedes69]

Ok this is in response that we need to post some meaningful threads...whether it is meaningful or not you decide :lol:

Okay as Hair geeks I want to ask you some questions....

If a client came to you and said 'I have trichotillomania and I would like some advice on the best way to style my hair' would you know what trichotillomania is first and foremost...
and would you know how to respond?

Secondly....could you spot the signs of it and have you ever come across anyone with it....(tricho that is)

Now I am talking scalp hair here specifically...

I will tell you why I ask this later....:lol:

 

[Poshfloss]

Hi,
I am not a Hair Geek........so didn't have a clue!!!!
Good old Google.............wow I knew people did this, but it is so serious.
I have never met anyone with it.
Very interesting though.
Thanks for getting my brain into gear.
Lotsa luv x :hug: x

 

[leannehunter]

I'm also not a hair geek and the only reason I know what Trichotillomania is because a girl at my school did it when she was in high school and had the HARDEST time ever because at that age we didn't understand, but I've seen her recently and has the most amazing locks and alot happier and I'm glad you've brought this up as many people suffer from it xxx

 

[Kim Lawless]

I have first hand experience of this. It' compulsion for hair pulling or rubbing. Generally head, lashes or brows.

 

[liana kay]

yep , ive seen it

 

[minky]

Hi, I would have to see how much hair she had left to see if I could style it for her,
but... there is a mesh cap that can be placed over the natural hair with hair woven in it and spaceto allow the natural hair to grow and it helps to stop the pulling ,
I think the person in question may need counselling too ,
as its a form of OCD isnt it ? which I can fully understand because my friend had it also :hug:

 

[angel fingers]

i know someone who does their brows.
i believe some people not only pull the hair out ,but eat it as well.

 

[persianista]

Yep I know what it is and I've seen it (fairly severe case)
Wanna know why you asked now!

 

[natsel]

I know its about people pulling there hair out and eyebrows and lashes , Ive not come across it in my job, but I do know someone thats has it its got to a point she doesnt even know she is doing it , and right at the front of her hair especially the middle section is very very thin, I do agree with minky with the counselling the problem needs to be addressed phsyically and mentally to help over the long run.

 

[Lynne Baker]

I saw it many times during my stint on psych wards.
I assume from your user status that this is something you've experienced personally.
Not a hair geek, but I do have clients who have this, and unless they mention it I don't. I'm no longer in an appropriate role to do anything but listen.

 

[minky]

Hi, well I think in my experience if she revealed her scalp to me and asked me to look at it there would be no infection hopefully , just bald patches or bald all over with fine weaker hairs showing through (if she hasn't pulled them ones too)
but if there was infection she would need to see a trichologist or her GP

and I dont think its hairdressing she would be after if she was terribly bald

unless she was holding her false hair in her hand ,
or she wanted advice on styling her wig / mesh hair or false hair

or if she wanted some advice on how to cover up and style what she had left of her natural hair
is this a trick question ? have we all missed something here ?
come on spill ? :lol:

 

[mercedes69]

Thank you very much for you replies...some very interesting posts :hug:

Now sorry for not getting back sooner....

but it isn't a trick question no :lol:

The reason I brought it up is I DID have trichotillomania up until 4 months ago.
I say DID because I am being positive enough to use a definite word....it will always be in me lying dormant I suspect.

I had it for about 4 years ( I'm now 39 ) which is fairly unusual because most sufferers start earlier in life, usually in their childhood or their teens.

I was a scalp puller and it started off by fiddling with my hair, moving on to sucking the ends, to biting them off, to twisting it around my fingers, to pulling it out....and to eating it I have never admitted that before on here anyway. Eating the hair is trichophagia.
That was my cycle until I was pretty much totally bald....( I have photo's for anyone genuinely interested but they are shocking )
It is also related to nail biting, skin picking and chewing the insides of the mouth I have done all three....I'm a classic case!!!

It is classed as OCD but it is more of an impulse disorder.....
There is too much for me to go into here but there is lots of info on the net.... about 2% of the population have it in some form.

So thats the background....
but why I aimed this specifically at hair geeks is........

CASE 1While I still had my hair and I had pulled out the underneath of my hair (so the long hair still kind of covered up where I pulled so to speak...or so I thought! )
I decided it was time to get it cut short.
Now I have a friend who is a hairdresser and I plucked up the courage to tell her of my problem.
She knew quite a bit about trichotillomania as her friend has it. She was sympathetic and really put me at ease. She cut it the best she could and made a big effort to style it to cover up the worst patches.
She never tried to advise me on dealing with my tricho but she did suggest a weekly head massage.

CASE 2 While I was in the UK a few months after having my hair cut short I wanted some sort of colour done. My hair was pretty sparse by this time and about 1 inch long.
I went to my mum's hairdresser who she is friendly with.
I walked in and explained I had trichotillomania but wanted a colour done if possible to funk it up a little...

The reaction was ''what on earth is trichotillowhatsit???? and I can't colour 'that' there isn't enough hair.'' :cry:

So eventually my point....:zzz: lol...

Do you think as hairdressers you should at the very least know what trichotillomania is?
I'm not suggesting you should know how to treat it etc.... I just mean to have the 'people skills' to handle someone who has it? ( my mum's hairdresser just lacks people skills full stop :lol: )
Is it ever mentioned in any hair courses at college or anything?
It can often be mistaken for someone who has PCOS or alopecia....and often the person with tricho will perhaps put it down to something else so could you tell the difference?

I'm only interested and please do not for one moment think I am putting anyone in the hair profession down....:hug:

I know this is a long post so congratulations to anyone who has got this far lol...
if you want to know what I did to 'cure' myself then I will tell you...it involves a hairdresser :idea:

 

[Annie23]

well I will be honest and say I had never heard of the condition, but well done to you for beating it :hug:

anne xx

 

[angel fingers]

well i knew about it and i'm not a hairdresser.
i guess i wouldnt be able to tell what problem had caused the hairloss though.

i should think it ought to be covered in college.
i would expect a hair professional to have at least the same level of knowledge as i do.
and to be able to suggest a strategy for covering the sparse patches up.

well done to you for kicking the problem.:hug:

 

[Poshfloss]

Hi Hun,
I and I am sure others reading this thread would love to know how you managed to control this problem.
Please do a blog, I am sure it will make good reading.
I will follow this so where ever you put it I can read it.
Well done to you.
Lotsa luv x :hug: :hug: :hug: x

 

[Nail Perfection]

I'm not a hair geek but I do know about the condition.

My husband suffers from it. It tends to be at it's worst when he is stressed. It ususally results in bald patches on his eyebrows and side of his hair.

Having said that he has told me recently that he has got it under control and I haven't noticed him pulling for a while. I think he decided enough was enough and is using will power and positive thinking.

Would love to hear how you beat it though?

 

[minky]

Hi,well I glad you have enlightened us :hug: as I do think this needs to be adressed and be included within the haidressing framework,
(Habia please take note!)

for hairdressers to offer any help for thrichcollamania clients I agree that they have to be enlightened and educated about it .
Most of us know about alopecia and I suppose for some with thrichollamania it would be far easier for people to say they had alopecia so that they can have a coulour and cut ect.......

I think it would be a great educational advantage if hairdressers wanted to specialise in this area then they could choose to take it as optional units,
but I still think that basic hairdressing edcuation about this condition should be covered far better and in depth ,

most of us know there are all different types of thinning ,
and if there is no infection or anything then the only clue as to what causes the thinning lies with the client revealing the source

I woud say it cannot be distuinguished from alpoecia,
as I have seen both conditions myself first hand like Calla has,

My friends trichollamania was due simply to nerves , I asked her why she did it and she told me "she feels along the hair shaft then the temptaion comes to pull , after she pulled she then looked at and sucked the hair root bulb ,
she pulled her hair out from the crown at the back , so it was visible to everyone exept herself ,
but everyone thought it was alopecia except for her close friends and family :hug:

here is a link I was looking at a while back and Ithought it looked great I would have loved to specialise in this sort of thing it really is a pity that
they dont have anywhere to learn all of this in a college ,
I did wig making and postiche work but that was it!... now days I dont think they even offer wig making any more which is such a shame :cry:

have you heard of Lucinda Ellery she deals with all sorts of thinning and thrichollamania
I do hope this link works :hug:

Trichotillomania - Hair Pulling Facts, Symptoms and Solutions

 

[mercedes69]

Thanks very much everyone again :hug:

I don't know if I have beaten it...but lets just say I am in control of my trichotillomania rather than it being in control of me!!!!

Although I know as hair people you cannot know everything and obviously you cannot play psychologists/psychotherapists etc....

I just think if more hairdressers had knowledge of tricho like Minky says....then it would go some way to helping those of us who have it...( well scalp pullers anyway ).

I looked for many ways to be beat tricho....hypnotherapy, drugs, counselling etc...
but ultimately I knew what I was doing and why I was doing it...all I wanted to do was break the cycle and control the impulses....

One thing everyone with tricho probably has is low self esteem....lets face it, it is an extremely embarrassing problem. We are doing it to ourselves...why can't we just not do it????

I had no hair so I was wearing hats and scarves etc. Ok in winter...not so great in Summer.
I had hit rock bottom and all I wanted was hair. I would deal with the problem later....I wanted HAIR!!!

So after great searching I found two places that looked like they could help me.
I won't name them....ask me should you want to know but one has been mentioned :wink2:
One of the places was very flash and very expensive and had some bad reviews ( I found out later ). I contacted them and they sounded nice...but couldn't give me an appointment until I had at least two inches of hair.
Bearing in mind I had a sparse covering of about a quarter inch if that.
They said grow it and get back to them DUH!!!! If I could do that would I need them in the first place?

Second place....had a basic but very informative website.
Lots cheaper...I mean a lot! and I had a lovely email relationship with the owner of the salon. Showed her pictures....and provided I could keep the hair I had she could see me as soon as I could get flights to the UK.

I opted for the second option.
I had wefts of human hair 'stuck' to my hair/scalp.
For the top I had a plate? of hair that formed the fringe and top part of hair with a natural looking parting that showed the 'scalp' of the plate...( can't think of the proper name).
I have photo's but I had long, very thick, wavy natural looking hair and I had my self esteem back.

I could reach my scalp....but I didn't.
I felt good, I looked good and I didn't want to waste the £400 it had cost me.
I did fiddle with the 'wefts' and pulled out some of the hair ( the ones that felt different ), but because it wasn't coming from my scalp I got no feeling from it....therefore no satisfaction.
It did drive me bonkers for about 2 weeks...the itching drove me crazy...but it looked good so I put up with it.
After a couple of weeks a few rows of wefts came out ( I'd had extra put in to compensate for any loss of wefts ) and this felt better and lighter.
I'd been given a pot of weft adhesive to re-stick any loose ones.
This lasted for 7 weeks before I decided to remove the wefts. Ok it should have been done back in the UK at the salon....but I did it myself.
It was easy to do as they were pretty loose and I did it under a very hot shower. I perhaps lost a few of my own hairs but nothing noticeable...

What a relief!!!!!!
I had hair. It was like a close crop of very, very dark hair but there were no patches and it was thick.
I was so happy....to be free from the 'wig' and with hair.

From that day I haven't pulled one single hair...in fact I am obsessed with not pulling it if that makes sense.
It is now thick and full and about 3 inches long.

I was told due to me not having tricho for long I wouldn't have done any damage.

Minky~ I agree with everything you have said....
and there is a niche in the market to deal with this....
there are many reasons for hair loss....but I think I can say that trichotillomania is the most embarrassing reason as we do it to ourselves.
Most people who knew what I had thought I was crazy....even called a freak :cry:
Plus for me personally I found it worse because I looked like I'd had chemotherapy...and yet I was perfectly well...
The amount of people who would ask my hubby if I was okay....

So thats a little bit of my story....
but it was a special hairdresser who helped me...someone who realised there was a need to help people with trichotillomania...and who understood the need to help them get a little bit of their self esteem back...

Thanks Minky for the link..xxx

 

[helpimlost]

Hiya,

I know what it is as I did trichology at college years back, I would also assume it could be covered in a specialised treatments class.

Well done in curing yourself you deserve a pat on the back and als ofor now being able to talk about it.

I once met a lady with the condition which I cut her hair rather short and she grew it all back i als ogave her shamppo and other stuff to use and was a success.

As for colouring only if the scalp wasnt broken and id probably only suggest maybe a semi or quasi.

 

[mercedes69]

i actually work for a company similar to LE called HAIR SOLVES, so i deal with trichotillomania clients all the time. Although its a fascinating condition, its no different that someone who bites there nails when you study the behaviour patterns. Hairdressers can only give you a temporary solution to trichotillomaina, to disguise and to treat the superficial elements. The honest truth, trichotilomania victims need to learn more about their behaviour patterns from a psychologist.

From someone who bites their nails aswell.....believe me trichotillomania is very different.

Admittedly nail biting does have the same behavioral pattern....and it is linked to people who also have tricho....
but as someone who has bitten their nails for about 27 years....it has never left me feeling so lacking in self esteem...it has never made me want to take my own life....
Trichotillomania did!!!!!

I'm not sure a psychologist would have helped either!!!
Behaviour therapy might have helped.....but having read a lot about it and visited lots of forums...it doesn't seem to work in a lot of cases.
The onus is on trying to change your behaviour patterns....
when you feel the urge to pull squeeze a ball....brush your teeth....take a walk....etc

I still think a lot of the time tricho sufferers lack self esteem ( not confidence, I am confident ) and by getting our self esteem back it goes a long way in helping us deal with the condition.

Plus it also helps if more people were aware of the condition....and I still think training hairdressers to spot the signs of tricho or even just know about it if someone said they had trichotillomania.. would go a long way to helping those of us with it.....not to 'cure' us....but just to understand and be aware of it.