Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

June 13, 2008 2:55 PM

What can I do to stop/discourage my habit of pulling out facial hair?

I am clean-shaven, but from the second the razor leaves my face in the morning, my hand starts wandering around the neck-chin-jaw-lip-unibrow area feeling for stubble. If I find any, I yank it. As the day wears on and the stubble grows, I spend ridiculous amounts of my waking hours pulling hairs. It happens basically any time I have idle hands. By the end of the day I have countless bits of 1cm-long microbeardage on my shirt. That's the least of my problems: it's caused folliculitis under the chin before, and probably light scarring.

Interestingly, if I let it grow for a few days into a pseudobeard, I stop pulling. But beards are greasy and hurt my skin.

The phenom is called trichotillomania, and it's been covered before on Ask MeFi. None of the prior questions fit my situation: I don't have a beard, so shaving it off isn't a solution. I don't pull head hair.

I'm convinced that this can be a breakable habit, related as it may be to OCD. What have other Mefis done to stop this? I'm not looking for moral support; the Internet is full of that.

posted by spamguy to health (13 comments total)

Cut your nails right back.
posted by fire&wings at 3:06 PM on June 13

hypnotherapy
posted by HotPatatta at 3:32 PM on June 13

Depends on how severe the compulsion is, but you can try finding something else to occupy your hands with, like a squishy ball or something similar. Every time you find yourself going for the face plucking, pick up the ball instead. You're almost certainly going to need something else to do with your hands to break the habit, but exactly what it is doesn't matter too much.
posted by Nelsormensch at 4:02 PM on June 13

Cut your nails right back.

Any further back and they'd be bloody stumps. I've found that cut nails tend to grip better on microhairs than uncut, ironically.

One other restriction I forgot to mention above: whatever I do to prevent pulling can't impede work and keyboard typing, so bondage is out. :) I'm going to keep trying at occupying idle hands with something, even though I've failed in the past; so much of my face touching occurs without me even thinking about it.
posted by spamguy at 5:12 PM on June 13

1. What about wearing shirts or sweaters which have a lot of lint on them? You could focus on picking that.

2. Shaving two or three times a day for a couple of months to break the habit of pulling on facial hair?

3. Buying an electric razor that allows you to keep a trim beard (think Don Johnson or George Michael).

4. Putting gel/moisture on your face over the course of the day making it too difficult to get a good grip on the stubble?

Good luck!
posted by fantasticninety at 5:12 PM on June 13

If you have the means, you might consider laser hair removal. Not only will your enticing stubbly bits be gone forever, you'd never have to shave again.
posted by brain cloud at 5:37 PM on June 13

Gloves or bandaids to make your grip less good, and distractions when you feel the desire to do it. It's how I broke thumb sucking, a lifetime habit of 19 years, in three days.
posted by Phalene at 5:38 PM on June 13

Wow, I serendipitously came across this thread while in the process of performing this exact ritual/habit. I've been doing this ever since I've had facial hair. I tend to do it most while browsing the web or watching TV -- when my hands have nothing to do.

As you said, my hand wanders in search of a hair "bump" to pluck. I don't pull any other hair on my body. I also spend ridiculous amounts of time doing this, and I frequently observe the phenomenon of shedding short hairs off my shirt. I also stopped plucking hairs when I had a beard, but I didn't like the look.

I've read up on the subject of trichotillomania, and the symptoms definitely match, but I have never come across discussion that was specific to facial hair until now.

For me, it's very relaxing/mind-clearing/meditative. Sometimes I can even go into a very light sort of "trance" while doing it. Every hair pulled provides what I can only guess is a tiny release of dopamine because there is a sort of "relief" reward. The closest way I can probably describe it to people who don't have this habit is that it's similar to taking your shoes off after a long day (for each hair plucked). Sometimes I'm also compelled to visually inspect the roots for some reason that I can't rationalize at all.

I compulsively cut my nails short. I probably have a half dozen pairs of fingernail clippers (one at work, one in the car, a few at home, etc). I've had to arm myself with tweezers or I wind up irritating my skin (and sometimes breaking it, resulting in sores) when trying to pull them with my short fingernails.

If I try to consciously stop, I'm good for a while (maybe ~5 mins?) but then I'll catch myself in the process of doing it again later without even noticing! If I shave, then it definitely helps turn back the tide for a few hours, but sometimes I'll start obessing over something else, like the dried skin on my lips.

Sometimes I worry that I'm going to get an early onset of arthritis if I keep this up.

I have relatives that say they do this too.
posted by joquarky at 7:37 PM on June 13

Maybe you could make a video of yourself yanking out your facial hair. Set up a camera where you do your sitting/yanking and try to forget that it's there. Then, when you have some good video. Watch it a few times. Having a picture of what you look like doing your gross habit might be enough of a shock to make you think before your fingers start doing their thing.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:42 PM on June 13

I wonder if you could use a facial depilatory cream instead of shaving? From what I've read, the hair doesn't grow back for a couple weeks. This might be long enough to break the plucking habit. Here's what a quick googling turned up: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=784103
posted by Lou Stuells at 10:10 PM on June 13

Put a mug on your desk. Every time you catch yourself plucking a hair, and I mean every single time, you put a dollar in the mug. At the end of the week, you donate the money. Depending how much motivation you need, you can donate to a cause you believe in, or a cause you hate. If you run out of dollars, you put in whatever lowest denomination you have in your wallet. Run out of money, and I guess at that point you'll need to make a run to the bank.

It's expensive the first day. Less so the second, and even less so the third.
posted by kingjoeshmoe at 10:33 PM on June 13

Trich's an impulse control disorder, as I understand it (IANAD), and as such, can be treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychiatric meds (SSRIs, neuroleptics, etc.), and the like. There are medical texts in Google Books on trich that will probably help you understand more about your hair-pulling and how to best seek appropriate care.

Also, you might look at Trichotillomania Treatment in Adults: A Guide for Clinicians, which runs down the major treatment options.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 11:38 PM on June 13

Cotton gloves. Really.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:49 PM on June 14