Some of us see the hairs we lose. We notice them on our clothes, in our brushes, on our pillows, or on our bathroom floors. Others aren’t sure what happened. It’s a mystery that leaves us wondering if we’ve used the right products through the years, if we’ve made a mistake with a certain styling routine or color processing, or if we have some sort of medical problem.
October is very widely recognized as Breast Cancer Awareness month, but many of the people I meet are unaware that this first week of October also marks Trichotillomania Awareness Week. Unlike Breast Cancer many people do not know what Tricotillomania is or that it affects 1 out of 50 people.
A woman’s hair is important to her. It is the frame that brings together all of the elements of her face. Hair has a language all its own. It tells the world whether you’re casual or businesslike, playful or serious. So looking down at her brush, and, for the first time, noticing strands of hair can send a woman into a panic. Immediately, she might wonder, “Am I experiencing hair loss, or merely losing a few strands?
There’s no exact timeline as to how long a hair system will last. It varies on the way you wear and take care of your hair. A hair system will need to be replaced as the hair begins to come lose or thin in the hair system. While a few shedding hairs left on the base of a hair system is expected from the original hand tying process, there are five actions that can cause excessive hair loss, after the delivery of your system, and greatly decrease the life of your hair system.
I had the opportunity to write an article for Help Me 2 Stop, an organization working to bridge the gap between Trichotillomania suffers and salon professionals, and I want to share this article with my blog followers because I feel like every woman experiencing hair loss may have these same questions.
There are many special holidays and events that can be a time when many women experiencing hair loss want to hide away and not celebrate with that special someone. You ask yourself, “will he notice that I’m wearing a hairpiece,” “what will he feel when they touch my wig,” “what will his reaction be if I tell them I’m wearing a wig?”
These are all questions we contemplate each day we walk out of our homes and into a world where others never think of these things. But there are things you can do to build confidence in yourself and confidence in your true beauty.
Did you ever have a secret that you kept to yourself? A secret so private that if anyone found out you would be horrified? For many, the answer is yes.
Trichotillomania or compulsive hair pulling can be one of those secrets. My friend, Amy Burzinski, works with individuals suffering from Trichotillomania and she gave us some insight into the disorder.
Trichotillomania (TTM or “Trich”) is a disorder that causes people to pull out the hair from their scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows, or any other parts of the body, resulting in noticeable bald patches. Trichotillomania is a type of body focused repetitive behavior or BFRB for short. People who have trich will describe a strong “urge” to pull. The urge can be so strong that it can almost feel like an attack- unrelenting and demanding attention before anything else can be done.
“I feel like a completely different person. I can’t remember the last time I felt this confident. I feel like this is how I am supposed to look. They helped me look the way I am meant to look.” -Bethany
A fabulous head of hair, a beautiful smile and confidence – that’s what you see when Bethany walks into a room. But it wasn’t always so. In fact, since she was five, Bethany has suffered from Trichotillomania – also known as hair pulling. Not just harmless hair pulling – hair pulling that results in hair loss. For Bethany that hair loss led to drastic action when she was in high school. She was so desperate to get rid of “her problem” that at one point she shaved her head; reasoning that if she didn’t have any hair, she couldn’t pull it out. Thankfully, Bethany was able to correct her situation with a hair replacement system.
Consultation:
We helped prepare Bethany for her hair system by carefully reviewing each step of the process – outlining options for color and style and ensuring that lifestyle and preferences were a major part of the final outcome.
