in early February I was ecstatic. I decided to try acrylic nails in hopes they would be a deterrant of the pulling. And they worked wonderfully at first. I wasn’t able to pull out a single hair for over 3 weeks! I’ve had the acrylic nails for over a month now, and my eyebrows are fully grown back! I haven’t been able to touch them at all. so, I finally have my eyebrows back. =) It is SO nice not to have to worry about drawing them in everyday, or if I’ve done it evenly, or if they’re starting to smudge off… no more!!
my hair, however, sadly went back to it’s normal state after it became too long for the fake nails to be of use. While my hair was very short, I wasn’t able to get a good grip on the strands, but now that it’s over 3 inches long, I can get enough of a grasp on the strands to pull them out again. Yes, it is still harder to do so, but it’s possible again. So, sadly this wasn’t a cure-all for my hair… but I would DEFINETELY recommend trying it. Both to men and women. Especially men, because I’m not sure what else a man could try, and I know how much harder it is to conceal spots when you have very short hair. The way I did this was to get my thumb and forefinger set up with much longer nails (twice as long as usual) so that I couldn’t grip them together. (A little out of the ordinary, and took getting used to, but SO very worth it.)
While I was getting them done, the lady asked if I played guitar. I do happen to play guitar, so I said yes, but apparently she’s seen lots of MEN get acrylic nails only on their thumb and fore fingers for the purpose of guitar playing! So, men… if you want to try this but feel awkward about it, simply say that you’re a guitar player! I really think that this could help you a lot. It worked incredbly well for me when my hair was very short. I was so happy. Not to mention, I have a nice full set of nails all the time now, instead of having NO nails from biting them. And my real nails are growing long underneath them, so whenever I decide to stop doing the acrylics, I’ll have a nice long set of my own nails again!
In the meantime, the spot I posted before has about tripled in size (well, it was all the way back in January that I posted the pics, so it could be a lot worse and usually would be by now, if not for the acrylic nails…) I have another large spot on the right side of my head… in it’s usual spot. I’ve been using black permanant hair dye on my scalp to cover up the glaring white skin. This has been working well 95% of the time (the only one who noticed was my significant other , but it’s really rather impossible to hide this stuff from him all the time…) and most people don’t even notice the bald spots or look at me long enough to realize there’s a big spot of black all over my scalp. and I mean… it’s really large now. I’ll post an updated photo soon.
A few days actually I pulled so long and so hard that my scalp was extremely sore for days =( I’ve been sitting in front of my l.e.d light hoping it will help to fix some of the awful damage I caused.
Later this month I am going back to chicago to see Rae from Hair Alchemy. I’m so excited!! we’re going to try a different type of hair extension this time, just regular synthetic hair as opposed to the wool strands I got before to keep my head warm (which worked very nicely, and were really cute too!) I’m going to get mostly black, with some pink mixed in. She also said it shouldn’t be too much of a problem to concel the large spots I have now, even though the big one is partially right in the middle of my crown. She’ll be able to thread the hair a certain way to cover it! I can’t wait! That’s going to happen in just 9 more days =)
I really hope I can try to control myself a bit before then, because I’ve really been loosing control again since I’ve been able to pull the hair strands again. I didn’t have this spot on the right side a week ago and it’s very big now =/
anyways, that’s it for now, but I leave you men and women with the following recommendations:
- try acrylic nails!!! they take some getting used to, but they WILL help as a deterrant!!
- use permanant black (or brown) dye on your scalp if you have dark hair, to conceal your bald spots. you will need to reapply it frequently but it really does a great job concealing your spots, you will feel so much better!!
xoxo,
Isis
Tags: sore, pulling in bed, l.e.d. light healing, pulling at desk, acrylic nails, tips, hair dye, nail biting, bald spots, hair extensions, ttm, hair alchemy, trichotillomania, pulling from scalp, pulling, trich by Isis
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