Last Updated on 6 June 2025 by Colette
If you’ve been following us for a while, you might remember that Amy has a history of hair pulling and skin picking.
When she was about five, she caused a significant bald patch on one side of her head and, having tried everything we could think of to break this compulsive habit, we took her to the GP who couldn’t really offer much help – I remember he asked me if she was suicidal and then told me that children’s mental health services were only available for older children.
Shortly after we took matters into our own hands, cropping her hair super short so that she couldn’t get her fingers in it to twist and pull it and eventually, she broke the habit and was able to grow her hair back – she has been super proud of her flowing locks every since and I guess we thought we’d cracked it, that she’d outgrown the problem.
Unfortunately, at the end of SATs week (you can draw your own conclusions there) I noticed a small section of damaged, broken hair at the front of her head where she had twisted and twirled her hair until it had broken off. She didn’t even know she had done it and I caught her a couple of times later than day twisting and pulling the front of her hair.
Three weeks later, despite wearing wide hair bands to try and create a physical barrier between her hair and her hands, and wearing long thick welly socks on her hands at night, she has a noticeable bald patch at the front of her hair which will take a long time to recover. (I have taken photos of this for the purposes of monitoring but understandably she’s not currently comfortable with me sharing those)
I’m absolutely gutted for her that we are back here. That right as she’s facing big changes with the move to high school in September, she’s now having to deal with something which is going to impact her appearance and we might well have to crop her hair again.
I have made plans for her to have a course of hypnosis but this can’t start for a few weeks. I don’t know if there is much point taking her to the GP (I’d love to know if you’ve had any success with this?)
For now we are using some Rehab oils to protect her hair and encourage growth, wide hair bands to try and create a physical barrier and hoping for the best. She desperately doesn’t want to have her hair cut before her Y6 Leaver’s Party but I honestly don’t know if we should hold out that long considering how much damage she has done in the last three weeks.
(I am sharing this with Amy’s permission as we’ve had lots of messages over the years about her hair and we agreed it was important to share this too)
You can read more about Amy’s history with harmful habits here:
Getting support for hair pulling
Cutting Amy’s her hair short – did it work?
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Hi Colette.
I found your blog this morning and I’m so glad you’ve shared what you and your daughter are going through. In fact I’m going to read some of it to my daughter, agec10, who told me last night that she wished she knew someone who was going through what she was. Please tell your daughter how brave j think she is and how my daughter prayed last night for someone who knew and then I found your blog. ❤️. My daughter has recently been diagnosed with trichotillomania as well. I never see her pulling it out though. She has thick hair and within the last 6months she’s lost so much! There are so many bald patches on the top of her head, but I never see her doing it. I read about your daughter doing it in her sleep and will try to keep my eye on that. I was thinking about getting her a sleeping cap. Have y’all tried that? I’m so sorry y’all are still dealing with it. We’ve recently gone to children’s therapy which she stared a few weeks ago. But I feel like this will be a LONG battle.
Thank you for being willing to share. Yall are not alone.
Prayers!
-Leslie
Thanks so much for your message Leslie – when I showed it to Amy her face lit up.
So yes at night she is wearing this cap: https://amzn.to/4lagQt9 which seems to stay on quite well as well as long thick wellie socks up to her arm pits which mean if the cap fall off, she will be prevented from twirling and pulling her hair in her sleep. She wears wide elastic headbands for school and she’s worn a cap all day today which she really liked – anything we can to create a physical barrier which might just stop her!
I’ve followed Amy’s story as my daughter is the same age and has has trichotillomania since she was a baby. She’s never stopped pulling but has phases when it’s not as bad as it has been. She’s also starting year 7 in Sept and seems to have been pulling a bit more which is probably related to moving schools. We’ve tried lots of things, she’s tried talking and drawing therapy but she didn’t want to talk to a stranger who really had no experience with trichotillomania and I’ve found any medical professionals we’ve spoken too haven’t even heard of the condition, so it can really feel like you are alone in all this. One thing that has helped my daughter a little is she’s now started to get into hair care, so she’s chosen some nice hair masks and clips and spends some time making her hair look nice. Also, while it’s been school holidays she’s been wearing fake nails which makes it harder to pull her hair in her sleep. It’s only a temporary fix but we will take it! It would be interesting to hear how the hypnosis goes as that’s something we have considered too.
It always helps Clara to know she’s not alone so I hope it helps Amy to know that there are other people out there her age who know what she’s going through and we wish you and Amy all the best.