What's up, guys? Today, I wanna talk about something a lot of people go through, including me.
The topic is, Trichotillomania, or hair-pulling disorder or TTM for short.
I'm going to be explaining basically everything I know about the disorder so please bear with me and please be nice. All hate comments will be deleted. Thank you.

What is trichotillomania?

Trichotillomania is a type of BFRB; Body Focused Repetitive Behavior. It is a disorder that involves, irresistible urges to pull out body hair.
Hair can be pulled out of your scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows, legs, arms, and any part of your body with hair. It's mainly caused by stress or anxiety.

TTM is self-diagnosable. I found out myself. I would just be there and unconsciously start pulling out the hairs on my head. It got intense and I was like, this isn't right so I researched why I can't stop pulling out my hair. I read a lot of articles and watched YouTube videos on it. It's not the best thing to do and it's not easy to stop but there is always a solution so here are some tips on how to stop pulling out your hair.

Tips on how to stop pulling out your hair:

•Wearing headbands or headscarves. Covering up your hair helps a lot when battling TTM. You raise your hand, expecting hair but you are met with the scarf instead.

•Using castor oil or any other oil. Applying oil to your hair makes it thick and sticky. Since you wouldn't wanna touch any sticky hair, you'll put your hand down. Castor oil also helps with hair growth.

•Wearing fake acrylic nails. For example, when you want to pull and you have these nails on, they kind of poke you a bit making it difficult to pull so having these fake nails help too.

•Logging your pulling. Keeping track of the time, place, and why you pull out your hair helps. There are apps to help you keep track of yourself. I use an app called TrichStop.

This app has certain features that help keep track of your pulling.

I'm gonna explain how the features work.
The first one; New Entry. That's where you tap when you want to update your data or enter that you pulled your hair or you felt like pulling it.
Below is what you see in the New Entry feature.

The second one, View Entries, is where you go and see all the entries you've made.

The third one; Display Data, is where you go when you want to see your pulling pattern, where you pull hair from the most, and a lot more.

The fourth; Send report, is where you go when you want to send your data to someone, maybe your parents or your therapist or whoever is helping you battle TTM. It's sent in PDF form through email.

The fifth; Client Login, leads you to a website where you can join something like a support group.

The last feature; Settings, is where you go and set reminders or passwords. Note: if you set a password and you forget it, all your data will be lost.

So that's pretty much everything about the app.
If you share a mobile device with someone, and you're not comfortable having the app on the device, you can get a book in which you write out your pulling pattern.

*Awareness empowers YOU to choose healthier coping strategies and change your life.
Get the app if you have TTM, it helps.

•The next tip is, using Keen by HabitAware. Keen is a bracelet that uses custom gesture detection and awareness training to help people with TTM. In short, it studies the gesture you make when you're about to pull and vibrates when you try pulling out your hair. From what I've heard, it's quite expensive but effective.

Some other tips on how to stop pulling out your hair are;

•Doing something with your hands. Get busy.

•Move from where you are when you feel like pulling.

•Sleep. Take a nap. It draws your mind off pulling, most of the time.

•Don't go to the mirror when you have an urge.

•Don't go and find tools; tweezers to help you pull.

•Don't stay by yourself.

•Don't keep touching your hair.

•Stop the behavior you do after pulling. For example, biting off the white part of the hair (the follicle), chewing the hair, rolling it into a ball and playing with it, and others. When you stop such behaviors, it gives you little to no reason as to why you should pull out your hair, 'cause it will be like, why should I pull it? I won't do anything with it afterward.

That's all for the tips on how to stop pulling out your hair. It's not easy, but trying any of these tips will help.

Things not to say to a person with Trichotillomania.

•What's wrong with your hair or what happened to your hair, it was so pretty.
I think the last one hurts more. It's kinda harsh.

•Take off your hat or scarf. The moment you say this, you make the person start feeling more insecure because having TTM makes you feel like you can't control yourself so when you say this, the person feels like you're going to judge him or her after seeing what's underneath. This brings more insecurities.

•Oh, you started pulling out your hair again. This is plain rude. Like why would someone say this to anyone?

•Why don't you just stop? This is the most painful thing to say to anyone with any type of disorder. Don't you think they'd have stopped if it was easy? It's not easy so please don't say that to anyone.

That's all for things not to say to a person with TTM. Just be nice. Don't say rude things like; you look ugly, you pull out your hair? That's disgusting. That's gross. You look like a boy.
I've been shaving my hair all my life. Even before I had TTM and so if you have to shave your hair to prevent you from pulling, so be it. Don't let anyone's words get to you. You're beautiful with whatever type of hair you have. Take it from me.

The last thing I wanna talk about is;
How to tell your parents you have trichotillomania.

•Write them a letter. I wrote my dad a letter explaining how the disorder started, how I found out it's a disorder, and how I need help. I just placed it on his study table and left. I was very nervous. I was wondering if he'd read the letter and what he was thinking. If he's disappointed or angry? We had dinner and he still hadn't said anything about the letter so I mustered courage and asked him if he'd seen my letter. He was like, 'yeah, I've read it and I'm trying to learn more about the disorder. I'll let you know when I'm done then we can talk about it.' I just said okay and left. Later on, he called me and we talked about it and the measures we're going to take and in all, I felt happy. I felt very happy about opening-up. He was understanding and patient. I didn't feel alone. So whoever is battling TTM, please tell someone. Write them a letter or send them a message or if you want to, you can call them.

•If you're brave enough to go right in front of your parents and tell them, that's fine. Just try to be gentle when they react in a certain way you don't like. A lot of people have never heard about the disorder so you have to stay open-minded.

•You can also practice speaking about it in front of your mirror or somewhere with your sibling or friend. Whatever way you're comfortable with.

No way is the wrong way to tell your parents or someone you have trichotillomania.

Be kind.
Try to stop.
Have good thoughts, because our thoughts fuel our emotions which trigger our hands, leading us to pull.
Also, pray about it. That's the most important thing.

Thanks for reading this far. I hope I didn't write anything that triggered any type of emotion or something. If I did, then I apologize. I didn't mean to. If you have anything to say or ask, please leave a comment in the comment section. I'll check it out and reply if I have an answer to your question or if I have anything to add to your contribution. If you're not comfortable leaving the comment publicly, send us a direct message and we'll be glad to answer.
That's all I have for today. Stay safe.