I haven’t beaten it, but I did, for 2 years stop TOTALLY. Then I picked it up again- it’s a nasty slippery little habit, easy to fall back into. Here’s what I did to stop the 1st time.

1. Kept my hands completely away from my face and head. Only touched my face to put on makeup or wash face.

2.Hands were not allowed on hair at all- brushed hair with as little touching of head as possible.

3. Stopped completely putting my hands to my head. I used to absentmindedly put my hand into my hair and search around. When I stopped putting my hands at my head the whole thing became much easier to do.- it was much easier to do this task then goaling myself to stop pulling.

4. When I started thinking about it- recognized that fact and changed the thought immediately.

Good luck!

Trichotillomania is very closely related to OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). In short, it’s a bad habit usually formed because of anxiety. One way to fight it is recognize the situations you do it in and why. For example, you mostly do it while watching T.V., and most likely reason is because you have nothing to do with your hands or your bored. Once you recognize the situation and reason, find your solution to that particular thing. So while you watch T.V. keep a fuzzy toy in your hand all the time! Encourage your hands to focus on something other than your hair and very slowly and as comfortably as you can ween yourself off the fuzzy toy slowly being careful not to go back to your head. For test taking and any other nervous situations, maybe a stress ball in one hand with the pen in the other. I’m fortunate enough not to have the particular habit of pulling my hair out but i do do many other things closely related and for similar reasons like bitting my nails to nothing.Similar thing that had the similar solution. Good luck to all.

I used to have a problem similar to this. I used to have these scab things on my scalp. To keep me from scratching or picking at them I put a rubber band on my wrist. Whenever I had to urge to do it I pulled the rubber band back and let it sting me. That got me to stock picking at my scalp until I got a prescription for this from a dermatologist to get rid of the scabs. Hope that helps.

there is a solution. i’ve been pulling my hair out ever since i was a baby. And ever since i entered high school my stress level has increased greatly. Therefore, so did me pulling my hair out. But as soon as i started playing basketball i kept myself pretty busy. Between 2 hour practices every night and 5 hours of homework i was constantly doing something. That was the only time i stopped pulling my hair out. Granted, when i got bored i started doing it again. If you’re not in therapy, a good way to not pull your hair out is jsut to stay busy! good luck