As a follow-up to my article ‘Traction Alopecia: The Hair Pulling Question‘ where I discuss the possible mental health issues that could be the cause of my hair destroying behaviours, this article will talk about my life with my hair destroying behaviours.
My Life With My Hair Destroying Behaviours
After almost two decades of abusing my hair and scalp (and hands), I’d had enough, and finally decided I needed to do something about it. My plan to tackle my automatic behaviour was to drag said behaviour into my conscious mind.
The automatic behaviour in question was how I would start slapping my scalp whenever I was alone, even if I was only alone for a few seconds. This behaviour would give me headaches and cause my fingers to swell.
Thus, whenever I was engaging in the behaviour, I’d think about what I was doing, how much it hurt, what was the point of doing it, and how I wanted to stop doing it.
Once I’d dragged my automated behaviour into my conscious mind, it became a lot easier to deal with. Reaching this point meant it was always going to die out as a behaviour. Now I could plan how to manage it. Which is what I did.
The Plan
I started by setting time limits for the behaviours, using a reduction plan for how long I would allow myself to engage in the behaviours. I believe I started with a 10-second limit, which then dropped down to 5 seconds, and then zero seconds. At zero seconds, when my hands lifted to start hitting my head, I’d pull my hands away instead of allowing them to engage in the behaviour.
It wasn’t long after making it to the zero-second stage that the behaviour died out: I’ve never engaged in the behaviour since. Nothing bad happened to me either because I stopped the behaviour. What I was left with were fingers that weren’t constantly swelling and a tonne of headaches (and often neck aches).
The other behaviours were a lot easier to deal with. My need to have really tight roots on my dreads just meant I had to stop myself from checking them and tightening them all the time. Which was easily done once I’d stopped hitting my head all the time. I was also able to stop pulling out my stray hairs with minimal effort. They were easy because they were completely competitive automated behaviours, like my head-slapping.
The Damage To My Hair
However, all those years of engaging in that behaviour had done a lot of damage to my hair and dreads. Granted, I was developing a pretty annoying widow’s peak by the time I realised how much damage I’d caused to my hair. But it was the combination of my various hair-destroying behaviours that had caused irreversible damage to my hair. But I wouldn’t realise how bad until I took a drastic step a couple of years after I stopped engaging in my hair-destroying behaviours.
That drastic step was cutting off all my dreads. A day I’d never recover from, leaving me with a destroyed sense of self and self-esteem.
I knew I’d caused a lot of damage to my hair with my behaviours, and I’d hoped the damage would have sorted itself out if I gave my hair time to recover. However, I couldn’t tell just how bad it was unless I got rid of my dreads, temporarily.
What you need to understand is how much my dreads meant to me. My life changed for the better (in some ways at least), and it allowed me to express myself in a way I’d been unable to before. I would bleach and/or dye them different colours, attach glow stick earrings to them, and even have duel pigtails. I had a lot of fun with them, but the most fun came with how I felt when I’d be dancing with my dreads flying all over the place: it was so freeing and euphoric.
I lived by the motto. Dreads are for life, not just for Christmas. I was fully prepared to die, if I got cancer, rather than doing chemo and risking my hair falling out. I also refused to do antidepressants that had hair loss as a side effect (not that antidepressants agreed with me anyway).
My Life Before My Hair Loss
My dreads brought me a lot of positive attention from everyone, including strangers, but especially girls. I became someone everyone knew, not because I was the only black person there (although I still was), but because of my awesome dreads.
The Attention I suddenly started getting from girls was especially significant because I’d never had it before. I was so used to watching all my white friends get all the attention that now that I was getting it for the first time in my life; I didn’t want to lose it. It left its mark on me. A mark I’m paying for now because now I feel like the ugly and unwanted person I used to be before I had my dreads.
So, the day I decided to cut off my dreads to see how extensive the damage was (with the plan of redoing my dreads), is a day I still haven’t recovered from: it’s been like five years. I’m completely ashamed of how I look now: I’m uglier without my dreads. I even avoided seeing anyone who knew me from when I had dreads.
This has further led to my isolation and increased my desire to stay at home, adding fuel to the fire of my anxiety disorders.
The Loss
I think the worst part about destroying my hair and having to lose my dreads was that I just don’t dance anymore. I used to love getting drunk and dancing my black ass around the dance floor, flinging my dreads around. Without my dreads, it’s just not the same feeling. I’m no longer in the moment connecting with the music. I’m unable to loosen up enough to enjoy myself for fear everyone is watching me.
I’ve lost something that, to me, was more important than my actual life. I’ve lost my freedom and a way to express myself, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
It may not sound like much to the people reading this, but my life has only gone downhill since cutting off my dreads. It’s left me in the longest continuous depressive state I’ve ever been in. On top of that, I also feel shame and embarrassment because of the sheer state of my hair now.
The problems I had with my dreads due to my need for perfection also didn’t end when I lost my dreads. Shaving my head has become a whole new nightmare to deal with.
But the worse part of it all is the anxiety I have about people seeing my fucked up hair. I rarely shave my head because I hate shaving in general, but when it comes to my head it’s just painful, bloody, and never-ending.
I can’t get a perfect shave because the decades of head-hitting have caused small indentations. This makes it impossible for me to skin-shave my head. Because I needed my head to be perfectly shaved, just like I needed my dreads to be perfect, I ended up covering myself in blood. This leaves my head so sore that I can’t actually shave it for several days afterwards while it recovers.
Thus, to avoid this trauma, I just don’t shave it at all. This is where my anxiety comes in. Now I’m constantly worried that my head covering will be pulled or knocked off for some reason, and everyone will see the disaster that is my hair.
I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever recover from this. It’s like I lost the most important part of me. The only part other people liked.
As always, leave your feedback about my post in the comments section below. Also, feel free to share your experiences of hair loss in the comments section below as well. If you want to stay up-to-date with my blog, then sign up for my newsletter below. Alternatively, get push notifications for new articles by clicking the red bell icon in the bottom right corner.
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Support
Trichotillomania (Hair Pulling Disorder) – NHS
Trichotillomania (Hair Pulling Disorder) – OCD UK
Trichotillomania – KidsHealth
Four Things to Not Say to a Person With Trichotillomania
Self-Harm – Young Minds
Self-Harm – Mind
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – Mind
Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) – Mind
Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) – BDD Foundation
Wow such an honest post. I worked with a girl who suffered from hair pulling, leaving a bald spot right at the front of her hair line. I encouraged her to seek help but she wouldn’t admit she had a problem. I guess the hardest part is acknowledging there is an issue, that was definitely the hardest part when I came to my anxiety.
Thank you for sharing xx
I hope she got help in the end before it did permanent damage to her hair
Thank you so much for sharing what I imagine is very personal. Its so important to learn and get to know more about these issues. My mother went through something similar, she would pull her hair and eye lashes out when her schizophrenia was at a low point. It was scary but the bravest thing she did was seek help. I’m so sorry to hear that it’s caused you to loose some self confidence, especially worrying about your head covering being pulled. I’m sending lots of love your way x
The fear of not being able to wear a covering if I got a job is also a huge issue. I just wish I could kill all the remaining hair follicles so there would be no problem left
Thank you for sharing with such honesty. Thank you so much.
Thanks for reading
I love that you were able to find a way to stop your head-hitting, but I am sorry to hear that the loss of your dreads has caused you to lose some of your self-esteem. I love my hair currently; it is as long as it has ever been, but I have cut it all off and gone bald before on multiple occasions in the past. I feel like a lost person without it at my back, so I hope your hair settles into its new role soon!
Thank you for sharing your story too. 🙂
I just need to find a safe and reliable way to live as a bold man, because my need for my head to be perfectly shaved leads to a blood bath for too often
Such an amazingly honest post. You’re always talking about issues that don’t get enough or any time in the spotlight. This was such an interesting and informative read
Thank you ?
I am so sorry that you lost your dreads. I used to pull and twist my hair when I was young and it did leave some damage. I’m glad I learned to stop the habit and was able to have my hair grow healthy and I do hair treatments now.
I’m glad you were able to stop your hair destroying behaviours before it was too late
Oh no :(( This hits close to home. I have a 1-year-old niece who does this. The rest of the family thinks there’s something wrong but her mom doesn’t acknowledge it. My niece pulls her own hair esp when she’s stressed, sleepy, crying, or having tantrums. She would even pull her stuff toy’s hair and picks up hair on the floor and eats it. Maybe this is a sign for autism or something deeper? Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Learned a lot from your story. Hope you’re doing better.
http://www.lifebeginsattwenty.com
I can’t really speculate on the behaviour of a one year old, it might be fairly common behaviour it might not be, it would be best to bring this up with the babies doctor