Why do I obsessively touch my hair?
"We often play with our hair unconsciously. It can be when we are bored, deep in thought, nervous or stressed — hence the term 'tearing out your hair,'" says trichologist Anabel Kingsley of Philip Kingsley. “Hair pulling may be used as a coping mechanism, and as a way to initially alleviate feelings of anxiety.”
Playing with your hair can be a sign that you feel anxious or bored, which means it's important to deal with the cause rather than take it out on your hair. If you're feeling anxious, there are many calming techniques you could try. Talking to someone who will lend an ear, will help you process your feelings.
What is Compulsive Hair Touching? Compulsive touching is one of the lesser-known groups of symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Compulsive hair touching may be a ritual to help reduce stress or anxiety usually brought about by obsessive thoughts.
Your scalp is covered with nerve endings that make it super-sensitive to touch. Rubbing your scalp may help release tension. Massage may also trigger the release of feel-good hormones like dopamine and serotonin.
Over scrunching your hair and touching your hair too much actually causes frizz and breakage. When your fingers touch your hair too much, they can actually steal away essential oils, leading to dry and easily broken hair strands.
Trichotillomania (often abbreviated as TTM) is a mental health disorder where a person compulsively pulls out or breaks their own hair. This condition falls under the classification of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Trichotillomania (trik-o-til-o-MAY-nee-uh), also called hair-pulling disorder, is a mental disorder that involves recurrent, irresistible urges to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows or other areas of your body, despite trying to stop.
Trichotillomania. This condition is an impulse control disorder caused by anxiety or stress. Often called “hair-pulling disorder,” people with trichotillomania have the irresistible urge to pull out their own hair, eyelashes or eyebrows.
Stimming is self-stimulatory behaviour which is also known as stereotypic behaviour in layman's term. Even adults engage in stimming behaviour by biting nails, twirling hair, pacing around the room or tapping pen on the table. Sometimes the stimming behaviour can be quite annoying to people around.
Every time you fiddle with your hair, your locks rub against one another and get twisted and tangled. This repetitive yet minor damage can have repercussions on the hair fibre. Its natural protection becomes fissured and thus less effective. As a result, your hair is more damage-prone.
Is touching your hair healthy?
Too much touching results in a disruption of the moisture level in your hair. By touching the hair, you may remove the natural oils coating the hair strands. No matter how well you take care of your hair, research has shown that excessive manipulation of hair causes physical damage.
According to the experts, playing with your hair is usually just a nervous tic, self-soothing tactic, or a mindless habit. That said, sometimes this nervous tic might verge on a larger issue, depending on the extent to which you do it.
4. Over Grooming: Touching and pulling your chronically can certainly cause significant hair loss and combing through it while it is wet is also a bad idea as it might lead to weak and brittle hair. A build up of hair styling products, such as gel, wax, spray, can block the pores and hinder hair growth.
Scalp tenderness is a fairly common complaint, linked with several medical conditions that affect lots of people. Migraines, tension headaches, and autoimmune disorders like psoriasis can all cause the scalp to become inflamed, irritated, and painful.
A person who compulsively picks at their scalp may have a skin picking disorder. Treatment for a skin picking disorder often involves therapy and medication. If the scalp is damaged, a person may need to apply topical medications to help the wounds heal.
Rossi generally tells his patients they should wash their hair once or twice per week. But if you've had chemical treatments that can make your hair drier — such as bleach, perms or relaxers — you might want to wash it less than once weekly to avoid breaking or brittle hair or split ends, he said.
Hair matters in relation to our general sense of attractiveness; which is intrinsically connected to our confidence and self-esteem. Many associate confidence with feeling in control, and hair is one way that most of us can be in charge in terms of the vast number of ways in which we can alter it.
Trichotillomania is a body-focused repetitive behavior classified as an impulse control disorder (along the lines of pyromania, kleptomania, and pathologic gambling) which involves pulling out one's hair.
The Rapunzel syndrome is an unusual form of trichobezoar found in patients with a history of psychiatric disorders, trichotillomania (habit of hair pulling) and trichophagia (morbid habit of chewing the hair), consequently developing gastric bezoars. The principal symptoms are vomiting and epigastric pain.
- repetitive pulling of their hair, often without any awareness.
- a sense of relief after pulling out hair.
- inability to stop hair pulling, despite repeated attempts to stop.
- anxiety and stress related to hair pulling.
Is trichotillomania caused by trauma?
We can conclude that trauma may play a role in development of both trichotillomania and skin picking.
Trichophobia causes
Some researchers believe it may arise from: stress or anxiety. depression or other mental health conditions, such as trichotillomania. obsessive compulsive disorder.
Excessively concerned and visibly preoccupied with the imagined defect in personal appearance; Reacts excessively even when there is only a slight physical anomaly. Unnecessary engagement in practices to correct the perceived flaw or at least hide it, like checking the mirror, spending too much time in grooming, etc.
Telogen effluvium (stress-induced hair loss) usually causes diffuse thinning, a type of hair loss that affects your entire scalp. If you have telogen effluvium, your hair will normally look thinner and less dense than normal, especially under bright light.
Stimming refers to the natural behavior of self-stimulation. It may include nail biting, drumming your fingers on a surface, or full body movements like rocking or swaying.