Can anybody give me some advice on how to stop plucking my leg hair although i do shave my legs i still have an urge to pluck the little tiny hairs that i miss and now my legs look so ugly and horrible that i have to wear trousers in the summer and because it is it leaving them scabby so if anyone has any advice on how to quit this addiction it will be very usefull i have tied hiding the tweezers so that i can’t pluck them i have tied thinking of something else apart from my legs but it does’nt seem to help me and i can’t avoid to get them waxed and i have tied veet hair removel cream but that still leaves little hairs so please can some one give me advice and contact me on my-chemical-romance-kirsty@hotmail.co.uk
You should contact an OCD specialist. There are also many support groups and discussions among others with this issue on various forums online. Run a Google search to find them.
start a new addiction! sounds crazy but i have been shaving with a new razor, its called the rolling razor, and im staright addicted. it’s really a strange thing i have never really particularly cared what razor i used because theyy all seemed the same to me. this one is like my new friend ha ha (for real) i feel like every time i shave with it i learn new moves and really bond with it more. it has changed my life. no more red bumps, irritation, nicks, or cuts, just smooth skin. you should really try it. check out the website! and let me know if you end up trying it
oh I am so relieved. I thought I was the only one. My legs are scarred and no shorts etc. Recently this condition has gotten worse due to stress which obviously is a factor. Plucking seems to calm me and frustrate me at the same time. I thought it was because I am just bored/lonely/stressed. I have been tweezing since I was about 15. (Am now 37) I am quite hairy and have been plucking in grown hair from shaving for a long while now. I tweeze eyebrows and chin hair without the obsession. Leg hair plucking can take a good hour or more if there is the time. Time to get therapy I think, now I know am not alone.
I would like to ask, has anyone actually looked at their eating habits and actually tried any of the nutritional advise regarding this disorder?
It seems that while everyone is receptive to, go to a doctor and get a prescription drug with side effects, no one seems to be receptive to what I have been saying about this. Am I misinformed here? Are people trying it, getting results and just not saying anything?
I would like to know if anyone would be willing to spend one month where he, or she makes a point of getting well hydrated, eating 20 to 40 grams of fiber every day, balancing their Essential Fatty Acid intake, normalizing their amino acid profile, reduce refined sugar intake, eliminating artificial sweeteners, artificial colors and just do one’s best to actually eat whole foods.
If you don’t eat something every 3 hours, don’t drink enough water, don’t get good fats in the proper ratio to your proteins, and don’t get 20 to 30 grams of fiber a day in your diet, then this alone could lead to problems with brain function, including upset of the sleep cycle, and OCD’s. Of course, I am not allowed to tell you that eating almonds, taking St. John’s Wart, Melatonin and 5-HTP, or some other source of Tryptophan can do better than zoloft. Oh, did I say that out loud? Um, ALLEGEDLY, yeah, that’s the ticket, ALLEGEDLY
Much of the information I have read suggests strongly (the lawyers make me speak like this) that low serotonin levels, dehydration and minimal, or unbalanced Essential Fatty Acid intake can be to blame for this type of behavior. How many of the obessive hair pluckers here are on low fat, or no fat diets? How many are using artificial sweeteners (sometimes you don’t even know they are in the food you eat, because you don’t know what they are called on the label. How many people here know what galactose is?)
Actually, this type of behavior is frequently a product of lack of Essential Fatty Acid intake. It effects the brain and can cause OCD’s. either get a coffe grinder and grind your own flax seeds (borage oil is actually better) and have an 1/8 to a 1/4 cup a day (either by itself, or mixed into your food) or get a product like Don Lemmon’s Perfect EFA Oil (from KHN - Know How Nutrition), or Udo’s Oil.
One should also make sure that one is getting at least a MINIMUM of 20 mgs of fiber every day. I like oatmeal and oat bran for this purpose, as one can get the full day’s amount in one sitting.
With all the no fat hysteria going on out there, many women are avoiding oils at all costs, and becoming unhealthy because of it. Many vitamins and minerals are fat soluble only, and without good fats in your diet, one simply can’t be healthy, because many nutrients won’t be properly processed in the body without them. Furthermore, the brain itself requires both essential fats and electrolyte sugars to work properly. Sooooo, if one were eating only artificial sweeteners, and only hydrogenated fats, or no fats at all, one would become VERY unhealthy indeed, and would also have hormonal problems on top of that. Don’t even get me started on the unhealthy metabolic consequences of artificial sweetener use. Why anyone would want to put insecticide in their food is beyond me! (next spring, when you have an ant problem, empty out a few packages of equal, and/or splenda in the place where you have the ant problem and see how well that works. You will be amazed.)
Maybe you should have shouted this in CAPITAL LETTERS. I am personally not a big proponent for running to doctors and taking pills for ills and such, but would much rather try natural ideas first. What a novel idea to eat real food and stay hydrated. Good job James for explaining that concept once again. You have done this so many times and it certainly will do no harm for anyone to try this.
I dug up some information from my file from a couple years ago from a CEU course on trichotillomania to refresh my memory.
Basically, if new research hasn’t revealed anything new, studies reveal that behavioral therapy is more superior than Prozac for short-term treatment of trichotillomania. There are study limitations related to self-reporting and most studies have not addressed LONG-TERM success.
Habit reversal is very hard to treat, but there are strategies. I hinted at a few in the above post.
A book that was recommended for therapists was:
Trichtillomania - Therapist Guide
They outline treatments that work for this offshoot of obsessive compulsive disorders. You could probably get it at Amazon.com ???
Dee
… cath30t
I know few people who are plucking hairs and they all have something in common ( besides plucking obsession)— THEY are ALL HARRY!
lets take a look at some facts. We all start plucking hairs because we want them to be gone! We want to be smooth…
–and later on u develop it into sort of addiction…
The most reasonable approach is to try to get rid of unwanted hairs;
-It might be cheaper to pay for professional LHR and/ or electrology treatments than to pay some specialist to treat ur addiction…
-by getting rid of unwanted hairs u automatically take care of ur plucking obsession ( there is nothing to pluck any more)
U will have much more time to do smarter things than picking on ur skin…
good luck!!! 
p.s. most certainly u are not alone in this!
OMG!! I thought I was the only person on earth who did this. I’ve heard of people pulling out their hair and such but never leg hair. I have been doing this since I was 13. That was 11 years ago. I need help. I haven’t been able to wear shorts or a bathing suit for 11 years. No taking my socks off ever! People must think I am strange but never seem to ask any questions. I’ve always been afraid to bring it up to my doctor because I don’t want them to think I am crazy. It all started when I was 13 a friend of mine would pluck her hair that she missed after she shaved. I started doing that. Well then I started getting ingrown hairs and the pain of pulling them out and plucking the hair felt good. It sounds so ridiculous, I don’t know why I do it! I’m sorry this is so long, really the questions I have is, should I show my doctor at my December appointment? and how do you get rid of the scars? Thank you!!
Show your doctor at your December appointment. Hopefully she/he is not the flippant type that console fat ladies with comments like, “Calories in, calories out! Exercise until you get tired. Bye.”. Hopefully,you won’t hear, “Just stop doing this. Throw away the tweezers. Bye.” Behavioral modification therapy works for both. The scars/hyperpigmentation won’t go away until the cause goes away. The scars will fade with time. Aloe vera gel would be something you could use. Licorice root extract would be helpful, but stopping or substituting something else for the tweezing is free and would be the best healer.
Dee
You should ask your doctor to refer you to an OCD specialist. There are entire hospital clinics devoted to this.
James, I am very interested in what you have to say about diet. I will go back and read all of your posts on this subject. I have been drinking more water and I have an odd fascination with kidney beans (especially the dark red kind). I know they have a lot of fiber, right? Hmmm…you may be on to something.
It also sounds like most of us on here started when we were in our early teens. I wonder what else we have in common…
I am still plucking as much as ever. I hate it but, I do it from my knees down and my bikini area. I really like the really dark, stiff hairs and the long ingrown ones. Ohhh…I wish this would stop. I’m going to take your advise James, and try some flax seed (if I can find it). Thanks!
Another break in postings, almost 2 months. I was hoping that when I got to the last page, it would have been a recent post so that I’d know if people were still using this forum. :p. I found this forum today and read all 12 pages of posts (with breaks in between to pluck my legs). I’ve been addicted to plucking for at least 6 years, and it seems with a new semester at school the stress is getting to me, as the behaviour has increased significantly in the last week. I guess I just wanted to join the club and get it off my chest.
This is a big club, so you are not alone!
Well it’s nice to see I’m not alone!
I recently got rid of my acne and was majorly in to picking when I had it. It seems I’ve now moved on to my legs, and it’s terrible. I can hardly put down the tweezers sometimes and I find a weird relief when I get the ingrown ones. I want to stop so badly because my once-nice legs are now covered in red marks and scabs.
ahahaha I was just starting to pluck my legs! I had tried shaving the lower part of my right leg to see if it would be comfortable when it grows back but it somewhat darkens so I never tried it again. Then lately I saw my mother plucking her armpits hahaha and tried to pluck my legs. I haven’t finished one leg but so far it has really been amazing. Its not that painful, i would consider a facial more painful than plucking! Also I haven’t encountered any ingrown hairs and haven’t scarred myself. I make sure to pluck in the direction the hair is growing. I also sometimes first use hot towel to relax and open the pores before plucking. It sores after but immediately disappears the same day! So i guess I’ll continue for the meantime.
Chirole, it sounds like you know what you’re doing, with the hot towel and all but, I’m curious if you are getting red marks, puffy places, or dark bruise spots. Hopefully you aren’t but I am curious.
Oh my god i am really glad i found this site! I thought i was the only one who did this. I pluck mainly my legs, but also my bikini areas and stomach and my boyfriend hides them and only gives them back to me to pluck my eyesbrows (but unfortunatly that is an obsession too and i sometimes scar there which is not so easy to cover up) and i found them today and i have dug a big hole in my leg trying to get the hair out and i didnt stop until i got it and it bled alot and i thought i would look on the internet to see about stopping ingrown hairs and i found this site. I have horrible scars all over my legs and everywhere that i pluck really and i feel disgusting.
Its interesting to see that everyones stories are all so similar… is this actually classified as a disorder as i read in earlier posts?
Does anyone know an effective way of hair removal because i’ve tried shaving, epilating, hair-removal cream and waxing but i don’t feel it works enough.
Well just thought i had to join and say its reassuring to know that others are in the same boat
If you have coarse, dark, dense hair on your lower legs, you really should consider getting laser hair reduction WITH A LASER THAT IS PROPER FOR YOUR SKIN COLOR. Anything left after your series of laser treatments can be knocked off with electrolysis rather quickly if you find an electrologist that is capable of doing the faster forms of thermolysis with good equipment.
This falls under OCD disorders, but we are all OCD with something or other and as long as it doesn’t interfer with your normal daily living habits of work, play and relationships, it’s okay. You just don’t want the scarring associated with this. It can be pretty significant.
Permanent hair reduction and permanent hair removal is the best insurance policy that you can buy. There’s nothing like having smooth skin on your legs. I know, because I have been hair-free for 35 years. (I started the removal process when I was very young!)
Dee
Yes, it is classified as a disorder, and psychiatrists would prescribe you drugs for treating mania disorders over it. However, there is other research that suggests that this type of Obsessive Cumpulsive Disorder can be eliminated via rebalancing of the brain chemistry through diet, supplementation, or other means that don’t include years sitting on the couch nor prescription drugs.
Please read up and do try the dietary and or the supplementation solutions that you find on this subject.
As for permanent hair removal, the Gold Standard is Electrolysis.
Yes, this is an OCD disorder as mentioned above.
We have a laser and electrolysis forums on this site which go over the best permanent hair removal depending on the area and type of hair you have. Check them out! For coarse hair, laser is going to be your godsend like it was for me. For fine hair, ONLY electrolysis will work.