stop pulling my hair

As I have not pulled to a significant degree for over a year. For anyone wondering, buy a counter licker and use it to tally your pulls. Reward yourself for low numbers. Then tally your avoided pulls. Reward yourself when you think you deserve it. Then forget all about it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TALLY-COUNTER-CLICKER-DIGITS-DOORMAN/dp/B002993NRC

I was hoping to knock this one off the list this month but I ended up pulling two hairs. On the other hand I noticed, I wasn’t pleased or satisfied and didn’t have any further repeats, despite growing my hair to a tantalising four inches long! I’m back on the crop now and waiting to see how the next grow-cycle goes.

I’ve relocated the clicker and it’s back in my pocket. I’d left it somewhere as I’m barely using it any more. I’m now going days/weeks at a stretch without even pulling it out for precursor behaviour.

I wonder if I could use it to combat other bad habits, like procrastination?

This month I let my hair overgrow and still only pulled 3 hairs, total. I’m still fiddling with my eyebrows and scratching a bit though, so I’ll keep using the clicker for that.

On the whole, I am astonished at how successful this technique (record and reward) has been. I wish I had discovered it years ago.

All hail the mighty clicker! It’s been about two weeks since my hair got long enough to pull, and in all that time I’ve only actually pulled three or four times. I’m still counting off between three and twenty clicks on the clicker every day, but that is overwhelmingly precursor actions – and I’m also now including scratching my head and pulling at my eyebrows, as my actions get less and less damaging (or, more accurately, I interrupt the action earlier and earlier). I even tap the clicker once in the morning when I pluck my eyebrows, just to get it started.

I was giving myself a treat if I did less than 20 in a day, but I can do that every day now – so I’m going to make my goal 10 or fewer as of Monday next week.

This is pleasing.

Except old, and, you know not a glamorous pop star ;)

For the first time I’m letting my hair grow through the danger point, rather than cutting it off when I start to pull. This is a bit of a trial as I’m so used to seeing my hair very very short. But hey, worth it if it helps to stop the pulling…

I set a weekday target of 20 or fewer pulls and a weekend target of 5 or fewer pulls – this turned out to be a bit ambitious (I was racking up more like 40) particularly as I’m also counting precursor actions (rolling, fiddling, gentle pulls, identifying “bad” hairs) at the moment. So instead of increasing the overall target, I divided it up – 10 in a working morning, ten in a working afternoon, 5 in a non-working evening, afternoon or morning.

The incentives turned out to be a good idea, too—I now watch the clicker with excitement rather than a sinking feeling, as each time I keep it to under 25 in a day (which is achievable) I get a treat.

Counting the precursor actions is also very helpful as this often means that instead of ending fiddling with a pulled hair, I end it with a clicked clicker.

My hair’s at the danger length now, so the perfect time. My aim it to keep under 20 recorded actions (pulling or precursor behaviour) for a weekday, or 5 at the weekend.

If I do I get a treat, nothing big but something indulgent. A reward. I got the idea from watching my sister training her son to behave with treats and sticker charts!

Hopefully this will get me to the point where I can start putting stars on days that are pull-free.

Instead of using the counter-clicker to record each hair pulled, I’m using it to record precursor behaviour (rolling, fiddling, pulling, scratching) whether or not I pull.

Encouragingly, I’m recording a similar number of incidents, despite the fact that only a fraction of them result in actual pulled hair. I’m fairly confident that I can reduce that further. The moment I realise I’m pulling is rolling back to an earlier stage where I can successfully stop myself before it happens.

Less healthily, I’m now playing with the counter-clicker, fiddling with it, putting it against my skin (it’s metal, and feels cold) and so on. Oh well. If a fiddly fetish object is the price for no pulling, that’s just fine.

I’m back on using positive feedback again, but this time with a different recording device. I’ve bought a clicker counter (press to record—doormen and people taking traffic surveys use them) and I’m recording each pulled hair with it.

I seem to be on around 30-40 a day at the moment, let’s see how it goes.

22 Oct – 39

I can’t remember the name, unfortunately, but the methodology is straightforward. Every time you pull, you record it—they suggest using a clicker, but I’m making marks on the back of business cards, one for each day, so I can track my pulling patterns.

If it’s working for you, you start off by seeing an increase in your pulling, and then it tails off, as the ritual of recording the pull begins to replace the pull itself.

I’ve been doing it since late April, and I think I’m pulling less—certainly from my head hair. Eyebrows and face scratching may take a little longer!

One thing I have noticed is that cropping, bleaching and dying my hair (I do this about every 5-6 weeks) is extremely helpful, and I typically don’t pull for a couple of weeks after I’ve done my hair.