Appeal for hair pullers to get in touch

hair pulling - a permanent sense of being caught between green & amber?

This post is to appeal for people who pull hair to get in touch and tell me their story.

I believe that hair pulling (trichotillomania) is a repetitive behaviour that indicates conflict (e.g. between 2 opposing impulses - a bit like the stop vs. go feeling when traffic lights suddenly change) or frustration (when you are motivated to do something but prevented in some way).  Conflict or frustration when prolonged in animals can lead to odd (sometimes body-directed) behaviours emerging and I think the same may be true in humans.

My aim is to try and create a collection of case studies on the situations and circumstances in which hair pulling behaviour arises to see if any patterns or common themes emerge. But I would expect some of the following:

1. Lack of control over the social/family environment, with inconsistency in familial interactions which may reflect the absence of a clear social structure.
2. Symbiotic relationships to parents/caregivers.  This may include hazy and unclear boundaries relating to personal space or property (territory).

3. Sense of being captive or imprisoned or restricted. This may include an inability to attach or communicate with a parent; a problem of bringing peers into the home environment; an inability to confide in others.  A feeling of being cut off from one's peer group or socially isolated and a prolonged state of loneliness may be felt.

4. An incestuous or an inverted parent-child relationship in which the child is in a constant state of high stress around its supposed caregivers.
5. Where alternative forms of self-comfort have been denied or thwarted e.g. children who eat for comfort may be placed on a diet and turn to hair pulling as an alternative coping strategy.

(Note: Where a child has been brought up within a conflict or high stress situation, brain wiring will be affected early on to the point that a child may not even be conscious of the cause of its distress because it cannot detach itself from being embedded within the situation.)

In all of the above, conflict and frustration are involved at some level.  For example, a child motivated to approach a caregiver may also experience the simultaneous need to withdraw if the carer is threatening or a source of stress. Hair pulling may emerge as a way of using a body directed action to compensate for an environment that fails to meet a person's needs.  The kinds of things I am interested in learning are:

a. age hair pulling started

b. recollection of when/where/situation it first happened

c. how you felt when the first hair was pulled

d. a description of the pulling sequence e.g. pluck hair, examine root, raise to lips etc.

e. why you feel you pull your hair e.g. conflict with a parent/ isolation/ a need for stimulation

f. what benefit you get from doing it

Any data from the information I receive will be used in such a way that you will not be identified from it.  To leave a public message simply click on the heading of this post (Appeal for hair pullers to get in touch) and you can leave a message in the box that will appear beneath this post. To send a private message that only I will see, you can email caughtintwominds@gmail.com .

So far this blog has been read by people all over the world (US, Russia, Europe, South America, South East Asia) so I can only assume there are a lot of people out there who have an interest in hair pulling and why it happens and who may have a story to tell. 

Thanks to everyone who checked out this site out in 2013 and hope you will carry on visiting in 2014 - Will.