Excessive hair touching is a repetitive and addictive habit that can be extremely hard to stop and can lead to Trichotillomania - a hair pulling disorder. Many women who's hands are always buried in their hair, typically suffer from very dry ends, oily roots, hair loss and poor overall hair condition.
Over scrunching your hair and touching your hair too much actually causes frizz and breakage. When your fingers touch your hair too much, they can actually steal away essential oils, leading to dry and easily broken hair strands.
Over Grooming: Touching and pulling your chronically can certainly cause significant hair loss and combing through it while it is wet is also a bad idea as it might lead to weak and brittle hair.
There's some research to suggest that there's a link between this type of behavior and impatience, boredom, frustration, and dissatisfaction. Hair twirling can alleviate boredom and also help you wind down when you're feeling tired.
"We often play with our hair unconsciously. It can be when we are bored, deep in thought, nervous or stressed — hence the term 'tearing out your hair,'" says trichologist Anabel Kingsley of Philip Kingsley. “Hair pulling may be used as a coping mechanism, and as a way to initially alleviate feelings of anxiety.”
Trichotillomania, also known as trich, is when someone cannot resist the urge to pull out their hair. They may pull out the hair on their head or in other places, such as their eyebrows or eyelashes.
Stimming is self-stimulatory behaviour which is also known as stereotypic behaviour in layman's term. Even adults engage in stimming behaviour by biting nails, twirling hair, pacing around the room or tapping pen on the table.
Hand in hair syndrome is a disorder where people with all types of hair can't keep their hands out of their hair. They pull at their curls, brush their hair too much, touch their hair when its drying, twirl it around their fingers, and other acts of over-manipulation.
Trichotillomania (often abbreviated as TTM) is a mental health disorder where a person compulsively pulls out or breaks their own hair. This condition falls under the classification of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Trichotillomania. This condition is an impulse control disorder caused by anxiety or stress. Often called “hair-pulling disorder,” people with trichotillomania have the irresistible urge to pull out their own hair, eyelashes or eyebrows.
Can it help with hair growth? According to a small 2016 study , researchers concluded that regular scalp massages may lead to thicker hair. This study involved nine men who received a 4-minute scalp massage each day for 24 weeks. At the end of the study, it was found that the men had thicker hair than at the start.
Touching Your Hair Often
Just as touching your face too often can lead to acne, touching your hair too often can lead to added grease as well. That's because your hands are also covered in a natural oil to protect your skin. And every time you touch your hair your transferring that oil directly to your hair.
Friction alopecia is hair loss secondary to frequent rubbing of the hair, which leads to hair breakage at different levels and splitting at the ends [1, 2]. It is a non-scarring alopecia that can be caused by a self-inflicting tic disorder or a foreign object rubbing on the hairs.
"We mainly see it in children," Simone adds, "but adults are known to do this, too." According to trichologist Stephanie Sey, hair twirling is a fairly common habit. "Twirling can be done for a number of reasons, from simple boredom to relieving stress or anxiety," she says.
The Rapunzel syndrome is an unusual form of trichobezoar found in patients with a history of psychiatric disorders, trichotillomania (habit of hair pulling) and trichophagia (morbid habit of chewing the hair), consequently developing gastric bezoars. The principal symptoms are vomiting and epigastric pain.
Cafuné – the act of tenderly running fingers through someone's hair.
Humans are hard wired to crave the touch of other humans. The scalp has thousands of nerve points that connect to the amygdala which is that part of the brain that is our pleasure center. The touching of the hair is rapidly transferred to this pleasure center making you “feel good”.
Physical or emotional stress may cause one half to three quarters of scalp hair to shed. This kind of hair loss is called telogen effluvium. Hair tends to come out in handfuls when you shampoo, comb, or run your hands through your hair. You may not notice this for weeks to months after the episode of stress.
Self-stimulatory behavior, often called “stimming,” is when a child or adult repeats specific movements or sounds as a way to self-soothe or remain engaged in a situation, often referred to as “fidget to focus.” Many people assume that only individuals with autism engage in self-stimulatory behaviors.
Hair twirling falls into the category of self-soothing activities, like head banging, hair pulling, thumb sucking and rocking. Yes, some of these habits seem strange and may even look painful, but they're actually a way for some kids to release pent-up energy and tension.
Stimming does not necessarily mean a person has autism, ADHD, or another neurological difference. Yet frequent or extreme stimming such as head-banging more commonly occurs with neurological and developmental differences.