Photos Can Hurt

POSTED BY: mspennylane
This can also be found at Marmalade Skies, my personal blog.

Sorting through things in my room (still unpacking from finishing university in June!) I came across an old photo. It is one of those photos that gets taken on rides at a theme park. In this case I was on the long flume and the wind was blowing my hair back.

All I can see is half my hair really short basically standing on top of my head and the rest of it long like a normal 12 year old would have it. It just looks horrible. It is painful to see it in photos. I can remember, but seeing it like that is something different.

I have heard of many people using photos like this to stop themselves; they tell themselves they are never going to go back there. Maybe it helps, I certainly don’t want to look like that again. Though I never ever would. No, now I would be more ashamed and hide my hair in every way possible. For some reason, at the time that photograph was taken I didn’t seem to realise what I looked like.

I have been pulling a lot. Many short hairs. But I definitely don’t want to be go through that again.

Hair Regrowth: How long does hair take to grow back? Is it ever the same?

POSTED BY: mspennylane
Originally posted at Marmalade Skies

This is something I have been interested to learn for a while, for obvious reasons: if I am pulling out my hair will it be ruined forever? This seems to be a common question amongst trichsters, especially those who have pulled a large area and are worried it won’t grow back (at the moment I’m only looking at hair on the head as opposed to other places).

So, I started a Great Google Adventure in my attempt to find the answers (I did firstly look up ‘trichotillomania’ in my university library but there was nothing there – no surprises):

• I signed up to the forum at Trichotillomania Support Online which I also added to my list of links. This has a whole section on the forum about hair regrowth so could be very useful.
• I also thought this was useful, about general reasons for hair loss which include trich. It shows a picture of the cycle of hair growth too. When we pull a hair out with the root attached, we are pulling it out in the middle of the cycle which will then take longer to grow back.

Growth Cycle: From what I have read there are varying experiences with hair regrowth and trichotillomania. If you have been pull-free for a few weeks and your hair has not yet grown back then you do not need to worry. The growth cycle of the hair can take time to create a fresh one (perhaps even a few months), and when it does it will grow maybe a few inches in a year at most. When the hair does grow back, however, it may not be the same as it used to be. It will usually be fine, and kinky or wavy if you normally have straight hair. This is due to the damage of the follicle, which will take a while to repair itself.

Traction Alopecia: Whilst areas that stop growing are rare, it is common to experience thinning of the hair, otherwise known as ‘traction alopecia’ according to the page I mentioned above, which can also occur due to hair appliances such as curling irons. If the pulling is stopped quickly enough then the chances are that this will eventually rectify itself over time. However, there are cases when the damage is permanent. From what I have read, it seems the case that each individual experiences this in different ways. Some have been pulling for decades and experiences normal regrowth, while others’ hair is thinned after only a short period. According to the eMedicine entry for traction alopecia, ’sufficient levels of iron and protein in the diet may help promote normal hair growth’.

My Experience: As I have said before, I used to have a large bald patch when I was younger but now I don’t pull as much it is usually just a small amount of stubble on the top of my head around my crown. The patch grew back ok. It was curly for a while, but now it is completely blended in with the rest of the hair. I still feel, though, that my hair is not as nice as it could be. If I let it dry naturally it usually just goes frizzy, and I usually straighten it to make it shinier. I always wonder if I have just damaged my hair so much that it with either never be the same, or will take years of not pulling to rectify. Some of the forums I have read in the past have suggested that time is the only way for your hair to repair itself, and this may be a matter of years.

I’m afraid that I’m unable to provide any definitive answers, but have a read of the forum that I suggested to see individuals’ stories. For the moment I should be revising, which, as you might gather from my last post, I’m not doing very well at!