Forget a cure! What can I do RIGHT NOW to cover up the damage!!??

Serious suggestion: Take a deep breath and consider the possibility that it isn't as bad as you think because hardly anyone will look at you as critically as you look at yourself. If it is just as bad as you think then remember that you might just have to accept that for the month or months that it will take to see regrowth. Come to the board and talk it out. And remember to keep breathing for the next few months. Also, consider telling people around you that you have a medical problem and they are just going to have to put up with your looks for a while.

Now for some more concrete ideas:

Scalp.

• Check out Cheryn Salazar's website. There you can find wigs, hats, turbans and other headwear, some fitted with real-looking bangs that you can match to your own hair color."
• hair extensions
• hair pieces
• If you think one-half inch or less of hair will be too short for you to keep pulling (after you throw away your tweezers!) then consider cutting your hair ultra-short. You can do this yourself with twenty to fifty dollar clippers (it takes no hair-styling talent ... I know because I did it). If you have very thin spots or small bald spots (and if your scalp happens to be white) then Clairol's Maxi Blonde or Born Blonde, or Loreal's Super Blonde will bleach your hair to a bright gold or white, which very effectively masks bald spots. [Note added after a few trichsters gave me feedback on this advice: if we brunettes don't leave the lightener in long enough we will end up with orange hair!] This might need to be repeated every week for ten weeks, at which time your hair will probably be filled in and your scalp will probably thank you to leave it alone, but it works. I did it and people who stared right at my last 3 inch by 1/2 inch bald strip didn't see anything wrong. The blonde even makes missing brows and lashes less conspicuous. For an example see my webpage.

• Here's some new, detailed advice, from Lara, an expert on becoming a blonde!

Here's my shopping list for going blonde:

1) 32 fl oz bottle of 20 volume Clear Liquid Developer by Wella.

2) Wellite Cream Bleach by Wella. (2 applications per box)

3) Wella Color Charm extra mild toner, in any shade you perfer. The store clerk will most likely have a color wheel for you to chose from.

4) Applicator bottle

5) Application brush (looks sort of like a paint brush), only needed for regrowth applications.

6) A good protein pack conditioner.

All of these products can be found at a Sally Beauty Supply Store.

My natural hair color is a medium brown (at least I think it was), with a bit of red in it. Any red tone in your hair makes using the store bought products very difficult.

Couple of tips:

a) If your hair has a lot of red in it, try using a "Drabber", Loreal makes two good ones. It's a color boost that you add to the bleach mixture before application, and it really helps get the red out so you don't have to leave the bleach on for so long.

b) If the beauty supply store you go to offers a product called "Lamaur 30 Minute Bleach" to the public, buy it! It's the best product I've ever used, quick and no brassy, red tones! Four applications per box. Usually you need to be a professional hair stylist to buy it, but I have been lucky a couple of times.

c) I do use the toner to give my hair a bit of a color, rather than having the plain bleach look. They have every shade of blonde, but it does fade after a month or so. Because I do have a lot of red tone in my natural color (but not enought that I need a drabber), I find that the only way I can acheive the very light blonde color I like, I have to bleach out my own color and then use the toner to put color back in. My favorite is Noble Blonde #T11-A

d) Bleach one day. Toner the next. Give your hair a rest inbetween (don't even use a hair dryer). I have found that I do not need to leave the toner in for the entire length of time they reccomend (I actually left it on too long once and it turned my hair blue, which was the base color of the toner...what a nightmare that was!)

e) After you use the toner, apply the protein pac.

Viola! Welcome to the wonderful world of blonde!

A few more tips and/or warnings (sent the next day ... I, Steph, will edit this soon-ish to preserve the dramatic effect of Lara's big finish. ;-):

1) To accelerate lightning, wrap your head with saran wrap. Keeps the bleach mixture from drying out and contains the heat, which is the accelerator.

2) If you have any sores, wounds (however you want to phrase it) do not use the products until they are healed completely!

3) For first timers, you may experience some burning or itching. It's normal and do not be too concerned about it. If it seems excessive though, be smart and shampoo your hair immediately.

4) Follow the directions on the package VERY CAREFULLY! (My little disclaimer)

Go back to the questions

Eyelashes.

• Sunglasses
• Eyeliner can be applied in such a way that it is very difficult for a person sitting across the table from you to see that any eyelashes are missing. If it is noticed it could even be considered a fashion statement such as when Asian Indians use kohl to draw thicker lines than many westerners tend to draw with their eyeliner.
• One poster writes:

I wear Ardell Demure eyelashes. They look so real that I can just put them on and put on some mascara and woolah - I've got that no make-up look. I envy women who go without makeup just because I can't. Anyway this is how I put them on (and most of the time I do not have anything to stick them to either)

1. Put some glue on them
2. Put them on where your lashes should be.
3. Put some extra glue in the corners and kinda underneath
4. Let dry for about 5 minutes.
5. Take an eyelash curler and curl as close to the base as you can.
6. Kinda glue your own little nubbers to the fake ones if they're sorta long.
7. Put on some mascara.

It might take a few tries, but practice makes perfect.It has taken me several years to perfect this process, but it was worth it. I used to feel like they were gonna come loose at either end, but I now know how to make them secure enough where they never come off until I take them off. When I take them off none of my own lashes come out with them, and my lashes grow back very nice while I'm wearing them. Also, it doesn't give me license to go on a pulling frenzy - but I can still pull while they are on :(

[...] I have a hard time finding these particular lashes, but a beauty supply keeps them in stock for me. [...] They are dirt cheap ($3 a pair), and I usually go through anywhere from 2-4 sets a month, sometimes more if I fall asleep on my face and they crunch up so they are unstraightenable.

• One poster said that she felt her urges subside after she trimmed her lashes to a uniform length, along the lines of the hint discussed below in the eyebrow section. When all the lashes were short, the short stubbly ones she had been troubled with didn't bother her as much.
• Also, Cheryn's website is a resource for lashes and lash advice.

Go back to the questions

Eyebrows.

• Eyebrow pencil of course. As usual you can check out Cheryn's site for cosmetics which have been found to help trichsters get over their special concerns.
• One alternative to eyebrow pencil is eyelash pencil. Almay Easy Eyes Self-Sharpening Eye Pencil goes on sort of thick but the self-sharpened feature makes it easy to put it where you want it and the thickness can be feathered away with Q-tips. Other brands and types of cosmetics were mentioned on the board in early April, 1998 (or late March). One might be a gel to make the brows look fuller. I'm running out of time so I can't look it up right now, but I will in a future revision of this page.
• Reasons it is good to put on eyebrow make-up even if you aren't into cosmetics:
1. Part of some of our problems is an obsession with unevenness. That is very bad for a person who has just pulled out a few eyebrows or whose eyebrows are starting to grow in and so are of course uneven. The eyebrow pencil evens out the gaps. Of course you can still see flaws if you look hard, but with them filled in it helps mirrors not drag you in quite as fast.
2. When we've gone a long time without brows they seem very conspicous when they come back, so if you always have a little color up there it won't seem as unusual when it comes back
3. Most people aren't as observant as you fear. Most people won't ever notice that you don't have eyebrows or have thin eyebrows unless you tell them. The smudge of color up there makes it even less likely for them to ever notice anything is unusual on your face. If they do notice, they'll tend to think that you just have a old-fashioned beauty habit. And the few people remaining who do notice and are critical, well, how much does their opinion on this particular subject really matter?
• Have eyebrows tattooed on permanently.
• More expensive than tattoos and less permanent, but less likely to undergo unwanted change in coloring, is ... I can't recall ... I'll have to look it up ... something about color microimplants ... something which needs to be repeated every so often ... every few years?
• A method recently suggested on the board, and tried by three people (two brow pullers and one lash puller) with some success:

If you feel your pulling or tugging getting out of control, a way to save the roots and leave enough brow to help the brow pencil look inconspicuous is to trim the brows to a shorter length. As a brow puller I found that the long brows coming in were very strange to see and I wanted to pull them even more. Also, hairs of different lengths are prime pulling candidates, and anything where the amount of hair looks too thick or too sparse. Trimming things to a uniform length makes the brows less likely to attract your attention.

And since they were trimmed and not pulled out from the root, they grow back to "normal" lengths in a matter of days rather than weeks, so the consequences of uncontrollable urges are thus minimized.

One reservation mentioned about trying this method is that it might make a person look "weird." Such a concern is ironic. When brows are pulled the results are visible for months. On the other hand, when brows are merely trimmed, the effects are more easily reversed.

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