Rituals often shared by people who pull their hair
Even after people learn that there is a name for pulling one's hair
out compulsively, they often feel they must be the only one in the world
to do many things they find so embarrassing that they cannot even bring
them up on the bulletin board. Very often we read a relatively new poster
saying, "I am so glad you brought that up--I thought I had something
even worse than trich." And then when we see that so many of us are
doing the same things with the hairs we pull, things which we could not
possibly all be doing by sheer coincidence, but things that no one else
could have taught us to do because we hadn't talked to anyone else about
them, that is when it really comes home to us that we share a truly physical
and definable disorder, that there is something instinctive happening in
us, that this is not craziness and not just a habit that we can blame on
lack of willpower. Hair does not mean only scalp hair but there
do seem to be some differences between rituals, if only because different
things go "wrong" with the shape of hairs on different parts
of the body.
So here is the list compiled mainly from reports on the bulletin board:
- Seek for the correct/bad hair - the coarse, kinky ones (everyone seems
to need to pull those)
- Look for the correct/bad hair - grey ones, or any hair that is "different"
- Look for the lash or brow with the black root clearly visible under
the skin
- Look for what you have come to know will have a black root even if
you can't see it (maybe there is a shape that you just know comes with
the black root)
- Promise to stop when exactly the right root or hair is found, but then
pull again
- Pull hair from other people, pets, dolls etc.
- Twist and twirl the hair
- Pull out the hair
- Discard the hair
- Keep the hair in an envelope
- Count the hairs, one reason being to make sure the 'correct' number
gets pulled out
- Promise to stop pulling when the right number has been pulled, but
then pull again
- Burn the hair
- Paste the hair to a mirror
- "Paint" with the root/smear it
- Let the root stick to a page, then pull it softly, see it "jump."
- Put the hair (with the root) on the upper lip/cheek to feel how cold
it is.
- Eat the hair
- Mince the hairs between your teeth.
- Eat/bite the root. Especially the white-sheathed, black-tipped or red-tipped,
crunchy ones
- Pull the hair between the teeth, to get the root off
- Feel the hair to feel the texture, thickness etc.
- Pull the hair between the fingernails to get rid of the "coarseness/curliness"
- Hold the hair up against a light or light background (paper) to see
the root and the black tip better.
- Let the eyelashes "stand" on your finger and feel how hard
and straight it is.
- Make a wish when an eyelash falls out /was pulled out. Then blow it
away - if it falls in a certain place, you may pull another one.
- Shaking hair to get rid of the "fleas" that make you head
itch.
- Letting the "flakes" fall on a page - picking out the ones
that stand out.
- Using tweezers, needles, etc. - to get to the ingrown hair, and work
it out.
- Pull out a hair - then press the "hole" to get hold of the
little black spot that sometimes stays behind.
- Look for split ends and pull it apart or cut it off
- Gather up all the pulled hair and look it over
Associated rituals:
- Picking - (skin, cuticles, nails, zits)
- Eating the zits/blackheads etc.
- Nose picking
- Picking fleas
- Biting of inside of cheek
- Biting lip
- Pulling out grass and pressing the inside out
- Compulsive hair cutting
- Cracking knuckles
- Scratching skin or head until blisters or sores occur
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