trichotillomania

[prettygoodword]

trichotillomania (trik-uh-til-uh-MAY-nee-uh) - n., a compulsion to pull out one's own hair.


A medical (or at least psychiatric) condition. Usually not diagnosable until the hair loss is noticeable. Can be hair not on the scalp, which frankly creeps me out, but okay then. The condition was named by a French dermatologist named Hallopeau around 1900 from Greek roots thriks, hair + tillō, pull out/pluck + mania, madness.

---L.

Comments

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

The "creeps me out" statement was nothing more or less than a personal squick -- I was, in fact, specifically thinking of eyelashes when I wrote that, and the idea of plucking them gives me the shuddering heebies. I cannot explain why, any more than arachnophobes cannot explain why spiders cause that reflexive reaction. Hair on other parts of the body, or even the rest of the head, don't give me that reaction. I should have been clearer in my wording, for which my apology -- my squick makde me careflessly over-focus on that one thing. (And extreme sympathies that it's part of how the condition manifests in you.)

---L.