Animal
Testing
What is trichotillomania?
Trichotillomania is a condition where a person feels compelled to pull their hair out.
They may pull out the hair on their head or in other places, such as their eyebrows or eyelashes.Trichotillomania is an impulse-control disorder (a psychological condition where you are unable to stop yourself carrying out a particular action).You will experience an intense urge to pull your hair out and growing tension until you do. After pulling out your hair, you will feel a sense of relief. Pulling out hair on the head leaves bald patches.Trichotillomania can cause negative feelings, such as guilt. You may also feel embarrassed or ashamed about pulling your hair out, and may try to deny it or cover it up. Sometimes, trichotillomania can make you feel unattractive and can lead to low self-esteem.
Trichotillomania
What causes trichotillomania?
It is not known what causes trichotillomania, but there are several theories.Some experts think hair pulling is a type of addiction. The more you pull your hair out, the more you want to keep doing it.Trichotillomania may be a reflection of a mental health problem. Psychological and behavioural theories suggest that hair pulling may be a way of relieving stress or anxiety.In some cases, trichotillomania may be a form of self-harm, where you deliberately injure yourself as a way of seeking temporary relief from emotional distress.
Treating trichotillomania
Little medical research has been conducted into different treatments for trichotillomania.The most effective treatment is therapy to change your hair-pulling behaviour, combined with a network of emotional support.Psychotherapy is a type of talking therapy that can be used to treat emotional problems and mental health conditions. It involves discussing emotional issues with a trained therapist.In particular, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy that may be recommended. It helps you manage your problems by changing how you think and act.CBT often involves behavioural therapy, also known as habit-reversal therapy, which aims to help you change the way you behave – for example, reducing your hair-pulling behaviour.
In terms of research, I thought it would be a great opportunity to have a look at some hair loss diseases and mental illnesses relating to hair pulling and hair loss. Considering my model will be demonstrating some hair loss to the scalp/ burn marks to replicate hair dye products, I thought it would be interesting to look into some reference pictures I could use for my final outcome.
Having a look into this condition ,which was new to me through my research work, gave me inspiration to my hair loss prosthetic I wanted to create. I wanted to see it from a humans prospective .
