Trichotemnomania - hair cutting disorder

Hello everyone,

I am here in hopes to connect with others who suffer from Trichotemnomania, a chronic hair cutting disorder. My hopes is that together we can "come out of the closet" so to speak and reach others and find help! I use to be on another website and there are many of us out there but that group had problems and is no longer. There is much shame in this disorder and most of us live hiding our disorder. Mine cutting is driven by perfectionism and stress. There are several articles out there and the one that seems to describe it best (for me) likened it to perfectionism, stress and possibly body dysmorphic issues in some people. It has been placed in the OCD spectrum disorder category by some.

In the years I shared on the other support group never once did I read where anyone found help from the medical community. That is why I am here. We have to educate them so they can help us!

Later I will share all the emotions that go into an episode of "hair cutting" and the shame that results. It is debilitating and takes away from ones quality of life. It has taken years of joy from so many people and I am determined to find answers that will lead to getting the help we need.

Thanks,
Beatingit:

Welcome to PC beatingit!

You have found a community with supportive members who share common experiences and stories. I hope you find your time hear valuable. If you need any help getting around feel free to message a Community Liaison and we would be glad to help.

Best wishes!

hey I know how you feel! my hair is my pride and joy I love my long hair but as soon as I see a split ends its over. I will pull them apart and then feel my hair for a strand that feels different than the others and pull it out. it doesn't belong there. I trim my hair myself and yes it's about perfectionism. if a part of my hair won't straighten because it's dead, here come the scissors. then I freak out, my hair is ombre style and the bottom of it is what makes it look the coolest. but it's dead. now here goes the other side. oh crap I cut it at a different angle so now it's gotta match. UGH. same with my eyebrows. if I mess up one side I have to mess up the other side just so they'll match! sometimes I'll pull them out with my fingers and I've read that that is why mine look so messed up on the inner most side. hair on my feet? oh hell no that's gotta go. thank you for this thread now I must go get my tweezers!

i also suffered with trich for many years and agree it is extremely important that sufferers come forward to give this disorder the attention it needs. i would like to help in any way i can!

Hi. This is my first time on a forum. I decided to sign up because i deal with MANY of the issues discussed. I apologize for the lengthy post, but i wanted to share my story to help others who deal with Trichotemnomania. Reading others' stories have helped me not to feel so wierd and alone so i hope my story will do the same.
This is my second bout of Trichotemnomania I've had. The first time this disorder took hold of me was back in my early twenties. My first episode only lasted a year. I had beautiful long hair, but decided i wanted to try semi short hair. I got my hair cut by a professional, but when i got home i noticed it was uneven so i tried to fix it myself. I attempted to fix it several times over the next few months until my hair was ridiculously short and dorky looking. I finally became so frustrated with it i decided to take 1" clippers to it so it would be completely even and i wore a wig until it was finally a few inches long. Then i was able to grow my beautiful hair back!
But then about five years ago (seven years later) it happened again. Only this time it was much worse and had brought me to tears MANY times. Once again i wanted a shorter hair style and got it professionally cut. But again, when i got home i discovered it was very uneven. One side was more than an inch longer than the other! I know this because i measured my hair with a ruler to make sure it wasn't my imagination. From that point on my Trichotemnomania took control. I would spend hours in front of my three way mirror trying to get my hair perfect. There were times instead of sleeping, i would spend the entire night cutting my hair. Other times, i had plans to go out, but would end up missing my plans because I'd lose track of the time while i was trying to 'fix' my hair. My legs and feet would become store and swollen from standing for so long. My sink was always clogged from my hair. I developed a habit of pulling the back of my hair between my fingers to feel how uneven it was. My arms, fingers, and the back of my scalp would become store from the constant pulling/ checking for eveness. I never pulled my hair out because i was just always checking. There were also many times i would plead with myself in the mirror to stop cutting and telling myself i was absurd because no one else was going to notice my hair was uneven. But I'd still keep cutting! That was when i finally realized i had a REAL problem. I knew my actions weren't normal, so i decided to Google 'hair cutting obsession' and discovered there was an actual name for it! I felt so relieved to find i wasn't the only oddball dealing with this strange obsession! I made that discovery a couple years ago. Since then I've continued to struggle with the impulsive behavior. I got rid of all scissors, but i ended up using nail clippers, razors, buzz clippers, miniature sewing kit scissors, or anything i could find that would cut. I sometimes would even cut a little while i was at a traffic stoplight with nail clippers that were in my purse.Then i tried wearing hair wraps and a clip on ponytail and wigs so i wouldn't see my hair. My hair would finally start getting some length, so i would stop wearing the 'accessories' but then the impulse would take over again. I always felt so embarrassed of my hair and finally just told people straight up that it was an OCD i was struggling with. I felt being labeled with an OCD was better than being labeled as someone who was vain and constantly changing my 'hair' (like with wigs, ponytails, hair wraps, etc)
And so finally, about 8 months ago, i buzzed all my hair off again because i realized it was the only way i could get my hair even. I'm happy to say I've managed to not cut my hair (well, except for the hair on my neckline) since then. That's not too say i still don't struggle with the impulse. I still very much struggle, but each time I've been able to remind myself that my hair HAS to be even because i buzzed it and its just my imagination. I also tell myself that if i even cut it once it will take longer for my hair to grow. Itisnow almost long enough for a ponytail! Woohoo! I haven't had it this long in nearly six years! I still pull on the back of my hair to feel how even it is, but at least i don't follow through with cutting it. I know Once my hair is long enough, i won't have to deal with this obsession anymore. I've learned my lesson: even though short hair looks cute on me, it's not worth the dreadful obsession that comes with it.

Yup. Mine is focused on my eyebrows. I want to shave them off whenever I'm stressed, and I obsessively think about it. I usually don't do it, and have gone years now without doing it all the way, but sometimes I'll just nick the edges to get some relief. A few times, years ago, I shaved them the whole way off, to deal with stress. Looked terrible, so I've fought it ever since, but I think about it any time I'm stressed out.

Weird thing is, I never hear about anyone else wanting to specifically shave off their eyebrows. I don't pull at all, and as far as trimming/cutting goes, I did cut off my eyelashes once in high school, but that's it. It's all about shaving and all about eyebrows.

i had never put too much thought into my eyebrows being linked in with trich, but now that you've mentioned that crustypie, i did also shave my eyebrows as a teen and obsessed with them. fortunately for myself, the shaving was short lived, because very early on in that behavior, i accidentally shaved off most of one eyebrow, and as you mentioned, it looked terrible. i am really surprised (to put it mildly!! so glad you posted that!!) i hadn't connected that in with my hair cutting disorder until now.. because i did obsess with them all the way up until i began to heal from trichotemnomania! i messed with them with tweezers and did trim a couple here and there and they were always quite thin and short while i was within trich.. wow.. i am just really surprised that hadn't clicked with me at all until reading your post!

i personally haven't heard much about shaving of the eyebrows myself neither, but i am guessing based on my personal experience that it is connected very much! i think in my case, my eyebrows were very much a part of my focus, but when i began cutting my hair, my disorder basically exploded and became full blown. my eyebrows were very much a part of my obsessive behavior, but i have to assume that once i moved to my hair.. gosh, it felt like i was a kid in a candy store, for lack of a better description.

trichotemnomania for myself personally was based very much on perfectionism.. and i obviously was striving for some form of relief that i obtained beginning in my eyebrow obsession, that lead me to move on to another area when i assume the eyebrows weren't fulfilling that to my satisfaction anymore.. wow.. this is fascinating to me.. that may sound silly, but it really is very significant for myself personally!

good for you, for all of you, for posting about your obsessive behavior! this hair cutting/shaving disorder seems very rare, but i am beginning to see that there are MANY sufferers of it. little research seems to have been done on it, because it seems so rare, so it's basically a catch 22. the sufferers of the disorder remain in shame and hide it, because it is so unheard of that they think they are the only person that does this, therefore, it's not recognized as the serious disorder that it is, and studied further. (in my opinion).

Hey everyone. I have been dealing with depression for about 25 years, although I didn't really do anything about it until 15 years ago. I have had thought of suicide and ideation, but have never actively acted on these impulses. I started pulling out my eyelashes when I was a teen, but did not move onto my eyebrows until I was in my 20's. I have always played with my hair, twisting it and pressing the loop with my fingertips, often causing my fingertips to become achy. It feels like I've developed a sort of callous because of it. Recently I had taken to cutting my hair so that it would all be of a uniform length. In fact, it bothered me so much that I had my head shaved so I would stop cutting it. The hair has grown back, and I fight the urge to trim it. However, I have now taken to using a pair of scissors at work to "scrape" my hair. I don't derive any relief from doing this, although I am fascinated by the shampoo residue and split ends that land on my desk. I am currently taking Luvox for my depression and have gone through a number of stressful events within the last year (new job, death of mother, and was assaulted). I cannot take Prozac, as it causes my joints and muscles to become extremely achy. Is there anything else I can do (short of keeping my head shaved) to alleviate these symptoms? Thanks...

hi there. i've been on this forum a while but usually i spend more time in the depression area. however lately i've noticed my ocd behaviors getting worse again...ugh...so here i am. maybe it's fate but idk, i chopped off all my hair about a week ago. it was getting real long, which i was happy about, and one day i had a whim to cut it. i didn't feel like waiting for a haircut appointment and bringing my kids so took matters into my own hands. now it is chin length, doesn't fit into a ponytail and is choppy and uneven. for about three days i obsessed over the hair itself, trying to get it even, cutting short bangs. then i put the scissors and stuff high up on a shelf, though i can still get to it. now i've been obsessing over whether or not i should keep cutting it myself and keep it short or let it grow. i wish i could stop obsessing and just let it grow. like someone else said before, short hair may look cute but it's not worth the obsession over it that follows. i think it would be better for my state of mind to try to forget about it and let it grow. thanks for the sharing and the posts, it is nice to feel like i am not the only one to have ever done this.

I have it, but not too bad. When I am under extreme stress I will pick my scalp sometimes until it bleeds. I think it's a lesser form of SI for me.

Hello everyone,
I have fought trichotemnomania for years! Though I am sorry that there are others that suffer from it, it is comforting that I am not alone! This last bout was brought on by the stress of my mother dying, a divorce, and stress on my job. I had left my hair along for about 2 years, and it had grown to my mid back. I started to just trim it one day, and didn't stop until I had cut off several inches. I went to have it professionally trimmed and I felt that the stylist had left it uneven. So then I spent hours (hours!) each day for several days retrimming and retrimming my hair. My hair is very short now. To stop the cycle I had to throw all of my scissors away. I have made it 3 days now without this obsessive behavior. This cycle has happened probably 10 times in my life where I cut my hair to the point of not even wanting to leave the house it was so short. I know that people are aware, because I get comments like "did you get your hair cut again?" It is so embarrassing. And there have been times that I am late for work or appointments because I am so busy checking to see if my hair is even. I have tried therapy in the past and it has been somewhat effective. But then I get in stressful situations and the behavior starts again. Blessings to you all for sharing.

How did you manage to get yours under control?