Firstly, I became overwhelmed with this website. You know I suffer from trich myself, I am not a doctor and unfortunately have not stopped pulling 100%, though I get a lot of emails and try to help everyone. The emails are so important to me but I got overwhelmed by the amount and have not replied to any for months. I have also moved home (AGAIN!) and been through some stressful times which didn’t help things.

The same goes for the comments, I’m so sorry I haven’t replied but your comments are so important. It’s really important that we have a place to share thoughts, emotions and even ways of improving our pulling! So please don’t think I am ignoring you. Like I said, I was overwhelmed and as a result stopped checking the site

How Comments Work

The way comments have been working is that, if you’ve never commented here before, your comment wouldn’t show up until I manually “approved it”. I didn’t realize, but I had 100+ comments to approve from the last few months! I am so sorry your comments weren’t showing, and many people who were waiting for replies didn’t get them.

To prevent this from happening again in the future I am changing the settings so your comment will show immediately. If you include a link in your comment, though, I will still have to approve it and it won’t show up straight away. I’m sorry about this, but I also had thousands of spam comments to delete from the last few months which is why I have to keep this policy.

So now you should be able to instantly see your comment show up unless you include a link, and you should get those emails telling you when people have replied a lot more timely than you were.

Once again I’m so sorry! But after talking to my partner about this site and feeling overwhelmed, he’s encouraging me to set aside time for it in the evenings to get it going again. I really want to do this because this website is so important to me, so expect to see more regular posts here again

I was just checking in on the blog, and I noticed it got over 5,000 visitors in July. Wow, that’s so many people! I know a lot of people are looking for answers about trichotillomania and, though I don’t have all the answers, I am glad I can at least offer some reassurance.

I am also so thankful for those of you who come here and share your own stories and experiences, I feel we all help each other, and in that way it’s quite a unique kind of community!

I only wish I had more time to run this site. It’s one of my dreams that I’ll eventually have more time to do that, and to be a bit quicker at responding to comments!

Anyway, if you find people who are lost and need to find more about trichotillomania, point them here or to other trich blogs. It can only help spread the world and help us feel more comfortable just the way we are!

~Penny x

I wanted to take the time to mention that onTrich will be back and updated again regularly from now on. I let things slip, though I’ve still been receiving comments and emails all the time about the website. These comments are what make it all worthwhile, for me, so I want to get back into it and carry on connecting with more and more people around the world.

New Year’s Resolutions – Stop Pulling?

Have you set any new year’s resolutions related to trich? I know many of you have goals, which is great – as long as you remain positive about them and don’t let them get you down.

Personally, my goal is not to stop pulling. I feel that it’s just too big a goal.

Instead, my goal is to be aware of my pulling. Why? Because lately I’ve become apathetic. I just sit there, I know full well I’m pulling, and I pretty much have the willpower to stop, yet I do it anyway. I guess it’s just lazy, it’s a sign that I don’t care about myself, so I’m going to stop.

I’m going to try some more pull-free challenges. In 2009 I went pull-free for weeks at a time, but in 2010 I’m going to try a whole month for the first time!

I hope you’ll stick with me through my journey, and remember if you want to post anything here you can leave a comment, or send me an email and I can put it in a blog post for you. I always think it’s such a good idea to share with each other, so that’s what 2010 will be about.

Most recently, I have been connecting with more and more trichsters all the time through Twitter. If you want to connect with me on twitter, then please say hello at http://twitter.com/ontrich!

Even though the people I talk to come from a whole variety of backgrounds, I just feel that on some deep level we have a mutual understanding. There is no judgement there, it’s ok to tell eachother things about our trich that would be considered deep secrets should we be telling others – even our close friends in real life (for some of us, including me).

This is why I think it’s so important to reach out to the trichster community. If you pull out hair then the range of emotions you can feel is huge. I admit that I don’t always feel exactly the same as other trichsters that I’ve spoken to – we are all different – but I do understand and have similar feelings.

That really is why I love connecting with trichsters so much. It’s why writing this blog is so worthwhile for me, and why I am enjoying my new ontrich twitter account!

How do you feel when you talk to other trichsters?

A few of you have said you’re joining me – how is it going?

I have not been too frustrated. Of course it’s frustrating, but luckily I haven’t had high urges yet. One point I almost wanted to give up then I just thought – but I can stop myself from pulling right now, so I will stop myself.

Hope you are all good

*Download the file by clicking here.*

In the file I thanked people for helping. If I missed you out or you’d like to add something, just let me know in the comments.

Pull-Free Update

Today is day 3 in going pull-free. I’ve still had quite a few urges, more than I expected. But I guess it makes sense since my pulling was quite bad before I decided to go pull-free. So it’s been frustrating, but not too bad and I’m still pull-free. I hope that you are all doing well too!

QUICK NOTE: If you recently read a blog post by me about ’1 week pull-free’ that is an old post that was accidentaly re-posted again. I haven’t gone any time pull free for quite a while now.

I’ve set myself this challenge in the past, and succeeded. I know I can do it. You might ask why I just don’t go pull-free all the time if I’ve done it before. Well, as many trichsters will know, it just isn’t as simple as that. Not for me anyway.

For me, trich is very up and down. Meaning that for weeks I will barely pull, then some days my head just hurts and bothers me and I’ll keep pulling. The last two weeks or so I’ve been pulling and not caring.

I am so lucky to have thick hair that it doesn’t always show, but I do think it is showing on my crown. Not to mention that when I feel the area that I pull most from it just feels horrible and not right at all. I have lots of spiky little hairs growing through, but the ones that were slightly longer I keep pulling out – they are the dark, thick kinky hairs that I like to pull. So it’s unfortunately a cycle where new hairs never get the chance to grow.

So one week for me might be enough to break this recent cycle of not caring at all.

If I can go one week, I will of course try to extend it. But I am always proud if I can go for any time at all, even if I do start pulling again. It’s an achievement and it’s something positive against trichotillomania – so I hope all of you guys also feel proud too

Do You Want to Join Me?

A few people on Twitter have already said they will try to join me. How great! I have never had support like that when going pull-free, so hopefully by a few of us doing it together we’ll find it a little easier. But, no matter how long or short your pull-free period is, I hope you will always be proud

If you’ve gone pull-free before, or want to start today, please post below. I’ll also soon be posting your tips for not pulling that I collected here and through Twitter. Feel free to suggest any more

NOTE: If you are new to the site, please note the term for hair pulling is ‘trichotillomania’.

1) Don’t Say ‘Stop Pulling’ – Trichotillomania is compulsive in it’s nature. You can tell someone to stop, and they can really want to stop, but they just might not be able to. In the case of a child this can become even more difficult as they might not understand at all what they are doing. If they are very young then they probably won’t even notice any damage it’s doing.

Instead of telling the child off you can try talking to them about pulling hair and how they should try not to. But don’t threaten them with saying things like their hair will never grow back, or they’ll get in trouble. It just won’t help.

2) Visiting a Doctor – It is natural to want to get help from your doctor when it comes to a condition like this. If my child had trichotillomania then I would. And you should certainly get professional advice rather than simply relying on my opinion. However, just be prepared to explain trichotillomania as a condition. Some doctors won’t understand, and they’ll write it off as something completely unrelated (attention-seeking for example). Just keep trying and you should find someoneto help.

3) Gently Encourage Them to Stop – You can do small things to help them stop. For example, hold their hand when they start to fiddle with their hair or pull. Or you can get them some nice hats to wear, even some gloves. This might not cure the condition but it could help.

4) Wait – If your child is very young then it’s likely they’ll grow out of trichotillomania. A lot of young children do this all on their own. I’ve read about this happening, though I can’t tell you exactly why. Just know that if your child has bald patches and stops pulling then the hair will eventually grow back fine.

Remember, hair pulling in children isn’t dangerous unless they eat the hair.

5) Understand – The hardest thing for me, and it’s still hard to think about, was the fact that my parents didn’t understand. I can’t blame them, because they just don’t know what trichotillomania is. If you’re already reading this then I know you’re already trying to understand. Children hair pulling from around puberty may never stop. Don’t look at this as a weakness in your child. It’s just something they do, and if you understand you’ll make things a lot easier for them.

I probably haven’t covered everything here. Just email me and ask if you would like to know anything else! You can read a little more information by clicking here.

I hope that this comment will inspire you and make you smile as much as it made me smile:

I have dealt with it for about 7 years and i know its a part of me no matter what, and even if i hate trich i stand here still having it not caring about it. Trich doesnt own me, use me, or scare me like it use to.i may hide it from people because most people cant see past the superficial. and i think that if we all just forgot about who we want to look like and looked at ourselves flaws and all and see that this is the way we are, and if we were meant to look any other way, we would have by now, but we’re not! We are perfectly imprefect the way we are! accept that you have whatever color eyes you have, what your nails look like unpolished, and that your weight not be where you want it to be.. but no matter what, with out those things.. you wouldnt be you.

You can always email me and ask for my opinion at any time. You just have to fill in the contact form here, or you can even leave a comment. Remember, you don’t have to leave your real name so there is no need to worry about staying anonymous.

I’m not an expert, but I really try to help wherever I can.

If you have any tips or success stories then it is always great to here them, too

~Penny x