It's a bit late, but I wanted to update this tonight so I will make this entry shorter. Over the weekend I took skiing trip with some friends and family, and paid close attention to my pulling habits when I was in a different environment. I wasn't surprised that I pulled a lot less. This was probably because I was around friends most of the time. I didn't want to pull in front of them, nor did I feel the need to. When I'm not stressed, I generally don't pull. Sometimes when I pull I get confused because I'll say to myself that I'm really not stressed. I don't know why I'm pulling. But I think that when this happens I am more stressed than I think I am. I may be watching a movie, but I'm worried about what I have to do after the movie. So this explains why over my vacation I did end up pulling when the homework came out. At one point I reached up just to feel my eyebrows and was excited to find that they were definitely growing back. An hour later after reading in my English book they were gone. Hey, it's still progress. Tonight I did have an unusual, not so fun urge to pull just one hair from my eyebrow. Anyone with Trich understands the feeling that you just have to get that hair out. It's the most important thing in the world. I probably spent a half an hour trying to get this single hair out, which was of course, frustrating. This rarely happens though, so I'm hoping that writing about it might cause it to happen even less. Here's an updated graph from stoppulling.com. I'm still taking the NAC and I'm going to start trying to find some hand toys to distract myself from pulling soon. Thanks again for reading!

It's a little bit ironic that I am writing in a blog to stop pulling my hair out.This is because the time when I pull the most is when I'm doing homework - especially any homework that involves writing.The minute I stop typing my hand reaches straight to my eyebrows. I guess it's something to make myself feel like I'm being productive while I think. Maybe productive isn't the right word though.
My problem is that my pulling has become a habit more than an anxious behavior. I do it the most when I'm stressed, but a lot of the time that I am pulling it is just because I'm bored. I do it when I wake up, in between homework assignments, and while getting ready for school in the morning. I do it because it just feels good. On bad days it's like scratching an itch. You just have to do it or it will drive you crazy. On better days, not plucking is like resisting a full on back massage. You don't need to do it, but it's definitely hard to say no, especially when you're stressed.
I have managed to say no a couple times in the past few days. It's a triumph when my fingers reach my eyebrows and I manage to pull them away. Even though I currently still don't have eyebrows, I have been successful. They've grow back a little, and then in one episode they disappear. At least they are growing back. This gives me hope that I can let them grow for a little longer in the future, until I can just let them grow forever.
Stoppulling.com has been helping, although I'll admit I've been a little lazy about making sure to record everything. A lot of my statistics are just estimates. Nevertheless, here is the graph they've produced for me for days and amount of hairs pulled.



I'll keep posting updates of this. Hopefully soon the line will reach closer to 0!
I plan on starting to take the NAC today. It should take a couple weeks for me to notice any difference, but I'll be sure to keep you updated!

I'm a little embarrassed about how long it has taken me to write another post. Over the last two weeks I've given myself one excuse for not taking the time to write - and that is finals. During the last week of January I worked hours studying for three days of grueling finals, and to be honest, and I didn't think much about this blog. I didn't even think much about not pulling my hair out. Like I said earlier, what's more important, my physics grade or my hair?

But I could go on forever using this same excuse. Grades are more important than hair. Soon, it'll be my college grades that are more important, my internships, my jobs, or my personal life. Yes, all of these things are significantly more important than hair, but soon I'll have to fess up and actually face the hair problem if I don't want to go the rest of my life without eyebrows.

I also have to realize this blog is not meant just to share my positive experiences. Every time I have a success story to share, I'll share it. But the same goes with the not so successful stories. I'll start with this one. All last week I did think about writing a lot, but I really wanted at least something to say that was positive. I didn't want to this blog to turn into just a girl whining about her problems. I woke up a lot of mornings thinking that I would go the whole day without pulling any hairs, only to forget about that idea the minute an urge to pull came over me. I'll be honest - that's always a let down. But I won't let it stop me from blogging anymore.

I do have some good news. I signed up for stoppulling.com. On the first day, it simply asked me to record any urges I had to pull, and how many hairs I pulled. This seemed a little silly to me, because I can usually remember that kind of stuff. But the second day I got to record that I pulled less than five hairs the entire day. I think that was because I was thinking about what I would have to record later. It's never fun to record that you pulled out 50 hairs in less than five minutes. So there is my success. I'll start the rest of my methods soon!