How to keep your hands away from your hair

Hello everyone! 

This entry includes tips on how to keep your hands away from your hair!

"How does this differ from the previous entry?"
Good question! Last time we talked about avoiding playing with your hair- this is the next step.

I completely understand the struggle of not playing with it- I know it is done subconsciously.  If you mange it, very well done to you! Willpower is a massive part of beating this; I am aware some people, like myself, have little to none of it. In my next entry, I will be talking about how to strengthen willpower- and setting a challenge for you! Get ready for it. 

Lets get back on track, keeping urges at bay and your hands away.  Please don't misunderstand me- I think that it's good for Trichsters to touch their hair every now and again, it can help with willpower and motivate you to keep going. every other day I like to feel my patches, and the spikiness of the new hairs. I find it soothing, perhaps that is because I'm odd, or the role of sensory modulation disorder in trich. (I'll get to that later)

Let's get honest with ourselves for a moment- It's impossible to  not touch your hair- it's a thing that's done daily. When I say "Keeping your hands away from your hair" I mean it in the sense of "With the intent to pull"

Like I mentioned in the Q&A entry, urges can be constant, and hard to deal with, However here are some tips to help.

Tip one: Keep yourself busy.
Do you have any hobbies? If not, you should consider getting one. Hobbies are one of the best ways to keep yourself (and your hands) busy. Just be sure not to pick something that is too overwhelming or, well, you know what will happen there.

Tip two: Retrain your hands.
If you pull on your head/face, you'll know the dull ache that comes with keeping your arm raised for so long. Let me give you a  hack here- Every time your hand goes up, instead on putting it where your hair is, rest it on the back of your neck, and give yourself a mini massage or back rub. I find that every time my hand goes up without me knowing it- it always goes to my neck.  If you are not pulling from the shoulders up, then I recommend keeping a medium/large coin in your pocket; playing with it will keep you occupied. For example, how high can you flip it? can you flick it between fingers? This works for everyone.

Tip three: Scratch.
In the event you find yourself playing with your hair, or on the brink of pulling it- immediately start scratching that area (not too hard.)  This will not only mean you have to let go of your hair, but also gives you some release to that of pulling it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome.

First of all, I'd like to welcome you to this blog; Thank you for coming, have a seat. Can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee? Juice? Make yourself comfortable! My name is Rachel, and, if you hadn't guessed already, I have Trichotillomania. I've had it for 10 years now! More than half my life in fact. I know you're not here for my life story, (Although, on occasion, I may be writing about it) You are here to learn how to beat this thing! Well, I have some news for you, maybe you should prepare yourself for this, sit down if you hadn't already- I'm still learning too! Yes, I am a little bit sarcastic, you've noticed this by now I'm sure. I'd like to make an apology for that here and now, for the rest of this blog. I'd also like to apologise for my lack of grammar, spelling skills, and very short- but helpful- entries. This blog is a way for me to vent about the struggles and the affects that trichotillomania can have on not only the Trichster,...
Read more

Serious talks and stupid rants.

As you can tell by the title, this post is more serious than the rest. It seems appropriate to put a 'trigger warning' at the start.  Over the years a lot of people have mistaken Trich for self harm, and as much as I understand why they would think that- its not the case for most. We find it comforting, pleasurable even.  However, some people with Trich do harm in other ways. As you can imagine, having no eyebrows, eyelashes, or massive patches of hair missing isn't such a confidence booster. You feel isolated, all alone. Every second of the day is spent either worrying about people seeing your patches, making new patches, crying about them, or fighting the need to pull. I am sitting here typing this now, because I've just had a breakdown. I was sitting, playing with my hair, on a 10 day pull free streak- the longest I've ever gone without pulling. When all of a sudden, I feel the urge, the need to pull. Stronger than it's ever been. My hands and arms start ...
Read more

Tips to stop playing with your hair.

Image
As much as I'd like to, I can't just stop pulling just like that, and decide I'm never going to start again, I'm not sure about you, though. If you want to cut down on your pulling you first have to cut down on playing with your hair, wherever it may be. The first step is actually recognising that you're doing it- all too often daydreaming, reading, or watching TV leads to your hand wandering to your hair- I myself admit that on reading over this, I found  myself doing just that- without even realising. If you know when you do it, or where even,  and recognise what you are doing, it's a good thing. Even if you pull after realising, that's okay. We are taking baby steps here. Over the years I've learnt a few methods to do this, and while some have been successful, others have not. It's whatever works for you. The method I use (When I'm alone) is wearing a few loud bracelets, every time my hand goes to my head, or face, the brac...
Read more