Feminism tells me that I shouldn't pay attention to my hair. Christianity tells me that spending time styling my hair is vain (and some branches would say, sinful).
And life experience tells me that days when put the time and effort into styling my hair, I don't want to pull it out as much.
Life is a conundrum and trichotillomania is annoying, but ultimately, it's something you can work with.
For a whole semester in graduate school, I got really in to (seemingly) elaborate hairstyles. I started using bobby pins and hairspray and all sorts of crazy tools. I checked out hairstyling videos on youtube and tutorials from The Beauty Department. It may sound like I spent a lot of time and effort on my hair, but putting it up takes me less time than leaving it down (and I don't have to wash it as often).
Ponytail holders slip and loosen, so I'm constantly trying to fix them, but with bobby pins, once my hair is up, it's up for good and I have no desire to touch it (probably for fear that moving one will set off a cascade and bring the whole thing down).
Now, I'm noticing that I want to let my hair dry more naturally, so I recently purchased some old-school plastic rollers. If I shower and set my hair before I write, then I have no desire to touch it while writing. And when I let it down, I won't touch it much (or if I do, it's to feel the softness of the curls, not to pull out the roughest hairs). I may still blow-dry it a bit, but even just putting it up in the rollers helps it to dry relatively fast. And then I get to write without having to wear a headband or worry about wandering hands.
And life experience tells me that days when put the time and effort into styling my hair, I don't want to pull it out as much.
Life is a conundrum and trichotillomania is annoying, but ultimately, it's something you can work with.
For a whole semester in graduate school, I got really in to (seemingly) elaborate hairstyles. I started using bobby pins and hairspray and all sorts of crazy tools. I checked out hairstyling videos on youtube and tutorials from The Beauty Department. It may sound like I spent a lot of time and effort on my hair, but putting it up takes me less time than leaving it down (and I don't have to wash it as often).
Ponytail holders slip and loosen, so I'm constantly trying to fix them, but with bobby pins, once my hair is up, it's up for good and I have no desire to touch it (probably for fear that moving one will set off a cascade and bring the whole thing down).
Now, I'm noticing that I want to let my hair dry more naturally, so I recently purchased some old-school plastic rollers. If I shower and set my hair before I write, then I have no desire to touch it while writing. And when I let it down, I won't touch it much (or if I do, it's to feel the softness of the curls, not to pull out the roughest hairs). I may still blow-dry it a bit, but even just putting it up in the rollers helps it to dry relatively fast. And then I get to write without having to wear a headband or worry about wandering hands.
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