May 18 2005, 8:45 am PT | Posted in: Diseases + Hair Loss Causes
I have been picking my hair for years. I would like to think that I stopped, but I know that I keep picking at it. I now have a series of bald areas where the picking has taken out some hair. Is this permanent? Will it come back if I stop picking at it? Can it be transplanted if it does not grow back?
The medical condition is called trichotillomania. Children or adults sometimes twist or pull their hair, brows, or lashes until they come out. This hair pulling is sometimes a coping response to unpleasant stress and occasionally is a sign of a serious problem of an obsessive disorder. If the picking stops early enough, then the traction alopecia that results will reverse. However, this is not what usually happens as most of the people with this disorder continue to pick on the hair until it eventually becomes lost permanently. The best way to determine permanence is to look at the area with a high-powered microscope. Active areas of trichotillomania show blunted, short hairs which are signs of recent regrowth of plucked hair. When these short hairs do not show up under microscopic examination, the traction alopecia is probably permanent.
Yes, hair transplants can put the hair back in the area of alopecia produced by trichotillomania, but the problem with doing it is that the person will just pluck out the same hair again and again and produce the bald spot. What is the point of transplanting the area of alopecia only to have it returned? The key is to address the trichotillomania from a medical/psychiatric medication or therapy approach and solve the underlying problem. Once the patient knows that the cause of the trichotillomania has been fully addressed, then the reward can be a hair transplant to put their hair back.
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In reference to Trichotillomania; I am quite disappointed with your answer to the question. I have had Trichotillomania for 24 years. I have tried therapy and medication. Nothing seems to work. I realize through that therapy what my triggers are. But what I still can not seem to do is stop the compulsion. I believe that if I had a transplant or whatever you do to put hair back on your head, I would not pull. I think that if I had something to see (a full head of hair) I would be less apt to carry out the obsession. There is no cure for OCD, just medication and behavior modifications. So, telling someone to get to the root (no pun intended) of their problem and then to reward themselves is quite cold. Please read about this disorder some more and please, your a physician, learn to spell Trichotillomania. Thanks for reading my comment.
Dear sir
I am suffering from trichotelomania from last 5 years. First I was unknown about such a desease.I came to know about this from your website.
I frequently pluck out my hairs and cannot stop myself. The hairs again grow after few days.
I am really get tired of this bad habit and get frustated. Kindly convey me the solution of this.
Thanking you
Vinu
I have had trich for the last 5 years. I have just turned 19 this past week. I have stopped trich completely for a week a few months back, and then started back up. Slowly I have done it less and less. At one point in time I had practically no hair on the left side of my scalp.
Now I have no bald spots, but a few prickly areas of new hair. I do believe some of my hair will never return, for before trich I had thick hair. And now, when I fix it, it doesn’t seem as thick. Although I am lucky in the fact that I went from thick hair to less thick hair, and not thin hair to even thinner.
I don’t think there is any “fix” to this OCD. It’s a disorder, not a disease. There’s no bacteria or virus, it’s a mental issue. And yes, seeing a psycologist would probably help most, but it’s not any type of “cure”. I think the indivdual has to be realy to stop. But as Dr. Phil said “you can’t quit habits, you replace them”.
So I suggest getting some sort of stress ball, silly putty, play dough, or even “worry beads” to “finger” and keep your hands busy. Then, once you stop messing with your hair, and start messing with an obect of your choice, you can wean yourself off it. That is how I stopped for that week. But where I failed is that I “rewarded” myself with pulling out more. Very idiodic, I know.
I wish luck to all who suffer from this embarassing, little known disorder. Hopefully we can all have a proud full head of hair again before we die. Enjoy our full bodied head of hair once again.
P.S.- Laura, while you were busy criticizing the docotr’s spelling, you should’ve spell checked your own message instead. You said “your a physician” and it should have been “you’re”. So, it wasn’t necessarily a mis-spelling, but you used the wrong word.
I’m scared to death of this disorder. i’ve had problems w/ this for many years now, on top of anorexia which causedme to loose most of my hair 2 yrs ago. i’ve even been to several inpatient clinics for the eating disorder but have never managed to kick this issue. i thik mainly b/c i was too embarrassed to talk about it even in therapy. just wanted to thank all of you brave enough to speak up. maybe if i could get a little of that confidence i could work on this better. if anyonoe on this site has any advice, i’d be receptive to any tips-privately- rona20331@yahoo.com. best of luck to all of you & much respect.
–tx lil’ steph–
my name is samantha. i am 22 years old and an african american.I knew what this disesase was but my girlfriend is just now findin out about it. we have been together for 4 months and she always looked at me weird wen i started pulling my hair out in from of her i used to do it behind closed doors as you may say… and then i was really stressed and then i just went at it… she thinks im crazy i said im not crazy just have a problem and shes says that if i lose my hair that she will leave me… please help me i dont want to lose her.. i have had this problem since i was a kid and i will pull for several months then stop for several months then start again… wen i stop how can i stay stopped
I am 24 years old and i’ve had trich for as long as I can remember (since about 5th grade). I tried everything to get the urges to pull go away. nothing helped. But now I have a one year old son who gets into everything, always causing trouble and I can now say that I have not pulled in over 2 months. My son has kept me so busy that I do not have time to pull during the day, and after he goes to sleep at night, I am either too tierd or have too much house work to do, so I can not pull. I am not really sure if I am “cured” but my best advice to everyone with Trich is to keep yourself busy, constantly! draw, color, go for walks, play comptuer games, anything that will keep your hands busy and off of your hair! Good luck
Hi, i HAD suffered from trich for 18 years but for the the last 16 months ive never pulled out another hair. I guess coz i transfered to a new country, left my bastard of a husband and left a mountain of stressful things behind. I don’t know why but i just stopped, i was even surprised that when i try to pluck out even 1 hair now, it hurts- it’s not satisfying anymore like before.
But i have a bald area on my top hair until almost the front area, there is some hair growth but the hair if finer than my normal hair ( i have thick hair strands). I would like to know if it’s really possible to have a hair transplant? Would it really make my hair look naormal again?
I have pulled my hair since i was in the 5th grade.. It gets very frustrating and it is very embarrassing…. I cant afford to go to a doctor and get medicine could you please tell me if there is anything i can do myself to help me get my life back… All I want is a full head of hair thank you
i’m only twelve, i’m turning thirteen very soon though, and i’ve had trich since i can remember, i was about seven, but, we’ve never had a name for it until a year ago, i used to see a physcologist for about four years, but in the end, for some unknown reason i lied to her about it, i couldnt bring myself to talk to her, and i dont think i ever will be able to, ive never been the kinda person to talk about anything to do with my self, you talk about stress and things, but i used to blame it on that, but its nothing to do with that really, its just plain addiction. i dont want to be thirteen and practically bald, no-one’s helping, and i dont see how anyone can help, and it kinda makes me feel bad and stuff about it, and, i dont know, it just, completely controls my life and things, i want a full head of hair, like every other 12 year old girl. because i’m young, its taking agess for me to be given any medical help, i dont know if i’m going to get it in the end, and psychiatric/therpy doesnt seem to help me, i dont know the ‘underlying problems’ to my problem, and no-one else can tell me them either, i dont think there is a way to cure trich, its just going to be stuck with me for ever, its neither a disease nor a disorder, its both.