Trichotillomania

I run my fingers through my hair constantly as a nervous tic. I saw the same results with hair thinning. I gave myself a routine that I force myself to do if my compulsions are really strong. If I want to pluck my eyelashes or eyebrows, I put on mascara/do my eyebrows. For some reason, for me, the feeling of the makeup on my fingers when I go to pull immediately ruins any relief for me. I put hair oils or a hair mask on my hair and braid it out of the way/put it into a protective style so it’s out of sight.

I have trichotillomania too. But for some reason it spared my head hair and I only pull out my eyebrows and eyelashes. I've struggled with it for over a decade now. There were times when I would have absolutely no eyebrows nor eyelashes at all, and I still relapse sometimes. However, I noticed that putting either makeup (such as mascara and eyebrow pencil) or wax (such as beeswax or coconut wax) on them causes me to not pull them out because I don't like the feel of them on my fingers so I stop grabbing them. I also found that, if I notice myself doing it when I don't have any makeup nor wax on them, I'll start rubbing my eyes instead and sometimes that'll break me out of it, or I'll go force myself to stand in front of a mirror and seeing what I'm doing to myself will often snap me out of it. To help the hair grow, I recommend foods high in vitamin E, such as almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, pistachios, brussel sprouts, avocados, cranberries, and mangoes.