In your case, I would think that the combination of prescription drugs, and anesthesia have left you way low on B vitamins, and your doctor would not even know about this. When your stomach is bombarded with pain meds, anti-biotics and enzyme suppressants, you can’t make B vitamins in the usual way, which happens in the stomach and intestines. Without restoring your intestinal flora, you will be low on every single B vitamin. In the short term, you need to take some powerful B complex frequently, in addition to getting some stomach enzymes like acidophilus.
I’m about to cry.
I’ve had that same obsession for a year and I’m so embarrassed of my legs. Just like you, I actually enjoy doing it and I have also tried to hide the tweezers. Even when I don’t have any tweezers on hand, I use my nails to dig them out of my skin. I am so happy that I have found someone like me and now I know that this is called trichotillomania. I’m too embarrassed to mention this to my parents so I can’t get any help. My back is also killing me because I’m always bending over to get to my legs.
Thank you so much. I appreciate you posting this.
I am so beyond relieved to see this. I, too, have been obsessively plucking for so long. It started with my eyebrows when I was 14 and for about a year, it has been my legs. I am so sad when I look at my legs.
I also chew on the inside of my cheek-been doing that since I was 15 and now I have a wrinkle that looks like a smoker’s wrinkle.
My main concern is how I can stop plucking my legs. I need help.
Hello all…well like many I just want to start off by letting you all know how happy I am to see that I am not alone. I’m not happy that you all have the same problem as I do, but at least I’m not alone.
I am a male about to be in my mid-thirties and I have been plucking my leg hair (between my knee and the ankle) out with tweezers for about eight years but seriously plucking for the last three. And by serious I mean an almost daily event which results in sometimes close to hundreds of plucks. I used to just do a few with my fingernails, but now I use a pair of tweezers. I am obsessed with hairs that haven’t breached the surface of the skin yet and especially the little black ring that they make. If I can get a root-ball to come out then I get excited. For me if I start to think about the little hairs that need to be picked then I start obsessing, so much so that I cannot think of anything else. I have even taken along a pair of tweezers to work with me just in case I start thinking about picking. Once I do start I actually do not get a “high” as some people describe, but rather a relaxing feeling overtakes my body & mind. And in most cases I do not stop picking until I cannot find anymore “young hairs” to pull out.
I have a problem and it makes me sad because I feel powerless. My GF knows what I’m doing now because there was no way that my excuses for all of the red marks and scabs could continue. I’ll go into the bathroom and sit on the toilet seat and spend over an hour in there just plucking (or picking as I call it).
I recently had some surgery and I noticed after returning home that while under the influence of opiate pain killers, the urge to pick was at an all-time high for me. Is there any “tricks” that anyone here knows about who was able to stop w/out the use of drugs?
Wow I just want to say thanks to anyone who read this. It’s so nice to know that I am not alone and better yet I no longer feel like a freak for doing what I’m doing to myself. Sometimes when I run into a “fighter” (which is what I call a hair that just doesn’t want to come out or a hair that breaks in half and the attached half of hair snaps back under the surface of the skin) I will use the sharp corner of the tweezers to “dig” it out creating a hole in my skin and lots of blood. 
So I worry about infections a lot.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
5FF
Hi 5-For-Fighting,
I am not an expert on dependency problems, but I understand that sometimes work well shock treatments. I guess you will not be easy to understand because I translate literally from my native language.
What I mean is something like what happens to Mr. Scrooge in Dickens’ story "Chistmas carol. Mr. Scrooge had the opportunity to see their future and that made him change.
I have selected some pictures for you to see the aftermath that leaves your addiction:
In the first leg of a girl who had been subjected to the uprooting of his hair for some years. Fortunately she decided to quit their habit and took a drastic decision but very effective: The electrolysis. Unfortunately, previous scars were irreversible and could no longer do anything for them. The treatment ended its two problems, hairs and the imperative to pursue it.
In the second case, it is also a woman and her bikini line. Years before the electrolysis, plucking the hair with tweezers. Prevent serious sequelae appreciate a beautiful velvety skin.
Josefa
The Pfeiffer Research Institute in Ohio and Biobalance Australia have some success in the treatment of OCD’s. They work with vitamins and minerals to rebalance the body’s biochemistry, after comprehensive testing to find the causes. I once treated a clients’ face to perfection, and a few years later while bedridden, she began tweezing the vellus hairs , causing a new facial hair problem. Co incidentally, she was a compulsive house cleaner, as was her Mum. She vacoumed her room everytime she brushed her hair.
Thanks Christine. It seems that when I say that OCD’s have a connection to food, nutrition, and biochemistry, everyone rolls their eyes.
Well, I go for my last treatment of laser on Tuesday. I have noticed less hair growth but I still get a lot more than I expected. Maybe it’s b/c I’m still plucking but I always try to cut that way back one week before treatment. I am somewhat happy with the results but I think I will have to do more treatments in the future. I did a package with 8 sessions for $800. I can’t afford anymore right now but maybe later down the road. I wish I had taken a close up before picture but here is a close up of what they look like now.
I can’t seam to stay away from the sides of my knees!
I guess I have another view of this. I pluck my pubic hairs out now instead of waxing, and don’t mind it a bit. Tend Skin takes care of any skin issues, and I’m hair free and have something to pass some TV time with. It isn’t always something related to OCD (which is a term people use quite lightly for anything they do a lot of – it has to be causing a real problem and relieving anxieties for it to really be that particular disorder). I don’t have any anxiety when I do it, or if I don’t do it, I just like being hairless and that’s a great way to get it done. I use an epilator on my legs since it’s a bigger area and harder to see.
I’m not minimizing the pain people are going through if they actually do have trichotillomania or OCD with plucking, but I wanted to put it out there that you can be “obsessed” with plucking and it can still be fine, not cause scarring and not be related to anxieties in any way. It can just be fun!
I am so happy to know that I am not the only one with this problem. I started plucking the hairs out of my legs when I was probably 12 or 13. not very long after I started plucking my pubic hairs. there was a short period of time where I plucked my eyebrows, but after realizing the fact that I had extremely downsized the size of my eyebrows… I’ve learned to just let them be…except for the hairs that really DO need to go.
I’ve noticed that back when I was younger, when I first started plucking hairs, it kind of hurt. Now… there is hardly any pain that comes with it. … unless I really have to dig out an ingrown hair or something… but even then, doesn’t really hurt.
now, I am going to be 19 in july, and I am still plucking my leg and pubic hairs. I try to only pluck my leg hairs, because luckily there isn’t much evidence afterwards. (i.e., no red bumps, etc.) but my pubic region… not so lucky. so I really try to avoid that area, but it isn’t always that easy.
in general, I think that plucking my hair out is fun. i could easily sit for an hour and just pluck my leg hairs away… but I’ve also realized that whenever I am stressed/upset about something, it makes me want to do it even more and for much longer.
on another site someone had said that they would look at the hairs on their boyfriend, friend, whoever… and want to pluck theirs. I’ve felt the same. reading replies from others made me feel like I was reading a story about myself. today is the first day I have ever looked up “hair plucking obsession”, and I’m really glad I did.
I just logged in to ask some of you that have been doing this for a while: Do the scars ever fade??
I started plucking my legs around a month and half ago, it was due to some annoying ingrowns but then couldn’t stop… anyway a few of the tweezer wounds healed a month ago and now they are still reddish after a month… Will they eventually fade?
I don’t want to pay for laser scar removal, mainly because I inflicted these scars, it wasn’t like I had an injury, but I CAUSED THEM and this annoys me the most…
SO anyway, do they fade in like three months or so?
It’s been a whole month and they haven’t faded so I am wondering…
Well I found this forum last night after doing a search on obsessive leg plucking. I am 47 and have been doing this since I was 18!!! On and off for decades. When I lived where it was very hot, i’d stop. I live by the ocean so the salt water really helped clear up the wounds. Right now I live in a cooler climate and never wear shorts. My right leg is what I focus on now. My left leg is healed but has some scarring.
I wish I could stop, but I cannot. It drives me nuts if I know there is something to pluck, usually ingrown hairs and bumps that I “dig” out. I am so ashamed and hate myself over this.
I did it again last night. I had not plucked or dug for a couple of weeks and could not stop myself. It’s like not wanting to eat, you binge and then you hate yourself.
Today, I have vowed to go “cold-turkey”. i am going to start shaving every day, and buy some tea tree oil to use each night.
This has just been going on TOO LONG!
Plucking, waxing, sugaring all do the same thing as this device. Nothing special. No spamming fenixos!
The User Known as “Fenixos” bought a one way ticket to our “Banned In The USA Chorus” and all posts by that poster have been deleted.
Let that be a lesson to evil doers.
I really regret plucking my legs. I used to shave but then it left me with brown dots all over. That was mainly the reason why I tried out plucking. I thought it would just be like waxing without the cost. Man, I was wrong.
I should’ve known that plucking will murder my legs just like what it did to my bikini line. Luckily I quit plucking my pubic region and that area is fine now. Anyway, I tried it on my legs and the first few times, it was great - regrowth took longer than with shaving. But once the ingrowns came, it was downhill from there. I dug them out with the sharp end of a pimple extractor (i don’t know if you guys are familiar with that thing) or with tweezers.
Just two days ago I picked on my right leg so bad that the pores bled. Now I have scabs on the pores. Looking at my legs just makes me quit picking right away. I am really throwing away all my “devices” even if that would mean hairy legs for a while. Right now, I exfoliate during every bath and even bought a soap that has salicylic acid in it (it’s ridiculously expensive but I don’t care). That has made the skin incredibly smooth but the wounds still remain of course. I am just concerned about ingrowns forming again. Is there any sure fire way to stop ingrowns?
I hope my legs do get better soon
You should make sure to get lots of vitamin C and Zinc to help heal your skin right now. Later, you can do electrolysis on your legs to clear them once and for all. If you get a machine that does galvanic, you may even be able to partner up with a friend and clear them at home, as legs are one of the few places one can work at home without much worry about bad results. I caution you that you want to get a used pro machine, as the cheap mail order stuff doesn’t cut it, and the overpriced home use stuff represents money that is better spent on a pro unit.
I came across this thread last night and it really made me sad. I know I had a problem, but it’s terrible just how many people have this problem.
I’m 20 now. I have ADHD and the earliest habit I started was the hair twirling. I twirled my hair since i had enough to do it. Then I started plucking either my bikini area or armpits first. Ive done those for years but never been too terribly bad about it. My bikini area has always gotten bad ingrowns no matter what i do my entire life so i never noticed a difference. But I had beautiful legs, I remember they were the softest smoothest legs ever (literally people would touch them and comment on it). I have no idea how the tweezing started on my legs but i’ve been doing it compuslively for months now. I don’t want to end up doing it till i’m 45. It seriously depresses me everytime I think of all the damage i’ve done to my beautiful legs, now they are just bumpy, splotchy, scabby and destroyed. I never had the “black dots” before I started tweezing either, now even if i stop to let an area heal, the black dots are what starts me up again because i have to get the black out.
Yesterday I read you guyss posts and threw my tweezers away, down the trash chute. I’ve been wearing tights all day, I dont want to take them off. I’m hoping my legs will heal and look normal again one day.
I ordered Tend Skin last night too. I’m hoping this will help with the shaving in the future.
I really don’t know what to do about it. The Adderall I take makes it SOO much worse. I can’t wear tights forever. I know I’ll buy tweezers eventually. I want my beautiful legs back.
The areas you tweeze, may be helped with some laser treatments, then there would be nothing to tweeze. If you are a good candidate, pale skin with deep, dense, dark, coarse hair, then think of that idea. Push for a positive solution so your legs can have a chance to heal. Electrolysis is another option. Have you seen a physician or a therapist yet so your obsessive -compulsive behavior can be treated?
No I have never seen anyone for it because I didn’t think it was that bad (and i dont know how they could help me). Or I thought it was something I wouldn’t be doing for an extensive period of time. If I dont touch me legs at all and just shave i’m fine. But once I start, I cannot stop. It has gotten so bad that I’ll tweeze for an hour or more, then immediatly go to the shower, run my legs under super hot water to open the pores, scrub with exfoliants, then ice my legs to close the pores to dry to hide/ fix the damage i’ve done. I don’t know if this actually helps or just irritates my legs more.
But as far as laser treatments go, i’m probably not a good candidate. I have pale skin, but blonde hair (it has gotten darker since i’ve started plucking, but not alot), relatively thin. Waxing is even difficult for me.
I’m worried my legs won’t ever look like they used to again. And I would really like to know how to get rid of the black dots.
This is an OCD. Look up an OCD specialist in your area and go see them. You can develop a treatment plan.
I’m not understanding how you have black dots from hairs that are blond… can you explain?