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<ul class="summary-list"><li>At 8 years old I began pulling out my own hair, starting with my eyebrows. </li><li>By the time I met my now husband, I was wearing a wig to hide bald spots. </li></ul>When I met my husband, Chris, I was already a <keyword id="12216713" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="hair-loss" source="Orion">hair loss</keyword> veteran.At 8 years old, I began pulling out my eyebrows. I progressed to the head on my hair a few years later, creating mango-sized <a href="https://www.insider.com/hair-loss-in-women">bald spots</a>. My urge to pluck is a symptom of <a href="https://www.insider.com/living-with-trichotillomania-hide-bald-spots-with-hats-and-wigs-2022-3">trichotillomania</a>, a condition that involves <a href="https://www.insider.com/amy-schumer-struggles-with-hair-pulling-disorder-trichotillomania-2022-3">compulsively pulling out</a> or breaking your<a href="https://www.insider.com/celebrity-alopecia-hair-loss-postpartum-styling-stress-2022-3"> hair</a>. It's classified under <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9880-trichotillomania">obsessive-compulsive and related disorders</a> in <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm/about-dsm">The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders</a>. My plucking eventually became so severe that I wore wigs to conceal the damage. Sharing my hair loss with Chris was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. My hands shook as I told him my secret, one only a handful of people knew. I worried that once he found out I wore a wig, he wouldn't find me attractive, and part of me feared he would leave me.Instead, he looked me in the eye and listened. He held space for me when I showed him my bald spots. Most importantly, he asked how he could be supportive of me and my hair loss. It was the first time a partner had ever posed this question. While Chris is not the first partner I shared my hair loss with, he is by far the most supportive. <h2>He follows my lead on when and how to talk about my hair loss</h2>Trusting a partner enough to share something so personal doesn't happen overnight. I waited a month to tell Chris my secret.Although I'm sure he suspected something, he never forced the truth out of me.This gave me the time and space to mentally prepare for the conversation. Rather than catching me off guard, Chris took cues from me and was respectful of my boundaries.Even now, Chris always waits for me to bring up my hair loss; he resists pointing out new bald spots, aware of how that might increase my shame.<h2>He is conscientious about social situations where I might feel uncomfortable </h2>Certain activities create stress for those of us with hair loss. Chris once took me to a dance with his friends, where the women got their hair done. I ended up accompanying his friends to the salon but styling my wig at home.It was important for me to feel like I was part of this social experience, even if I couldn't get my own hair done by a stylist.Chris proactively asked questions about how to make the experience more comfortable, allowing me to feel safe and in control of the situation. He talked with his friends ahead of time, sparing me the embarrassment of having to explain it myself.<h2>He didn't make assumptions about my relationship with my hair loss</h2>Past partners made comments like "It's just hair!" or "Your hair loss doesn't matter to me," which I'm sure they meant as reassuring. But I felt those remarks minimized my experience.Having lived with <keyword id="13474822" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trichotillomania" source="Orion">trichotillomania</keyword> for over two decades, this is an important part of my identity, one I don't want to be dismissed.Some partners avoided talking about my hair loss altogether, leading me to believe they were ashamed of me.Instead of making assumptions, Chris asked questions to gain clarity on how my hair loss affected me. He centered communication about my hair loss on my individual needs and boundaries. We've been together now for six years. My trichotillomania remains a part of our everyday life, and he's still learning ways to be more supportive. I believe my hair loss has strengthened our relationship; it has challenged us to communicate better, treat each other with more compassion, and always listen to each other's needs.

I started pulling out my hair at age 8. Telling my husband I wore a wig to hide bald spots was terrifying, but I shouldn't have worried.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>I struggle with <keyword id="13474822" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trichotillomania" source="Orion">trichotillomania</keyword>, a disorder that has me pulling my own hair out. </li><li>I've tried to hide my bald spots with wigs and hats, but the shame caused by this condition is huge.</li></ul>When <keyword id="12136617" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="amy-schumer" source="Orion">Amy Schumer</keyword> shared her lifelong secret struggle with trichotillomania in <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/amy-schumer-hulu-show-big-secret-life-beth-1235114812/">a recent interview</a>, I nodded in solidarity. I, too, know the secretiveness and shame that come with this hair-pulling disorder.I started pulling the hairs out of my eyelashes and eyebrows when I was a child, strand by strand so I could look at each individually or touch the hair to my mouth — the more texture, the better. Rolling the hair through my fingers felt immensely stimulating, but nothing brought me more euphoria than the pull of the strand itself.Over time, my habits directed me to certain spots on my scalp where the sensation of the pull and the thickness of the hair felt just right. By high school, I was wearing hair clips over my growing bald spots and sitting in the back of the classroom to avoid attention to my behavior.<h2>I throw away the evidence but can't hide my bald spots</h2>Trichotillomania — also called "trich" — is a compulsive behavior disorder that affects <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/apr03/practice#:~:text=About%20five%20to%2010%20million,spots%20from%20pulling%20their%20hair.">up to 3.5%</a> of the population. A form of <a href="https://www.insider.com/what-is-pure-ocd">obsessive-compulsive behavior</a>, it resides in the same behavioral family as severe nail-biting and skin-picking. For some, the compulsion passes over time, but for many, it is a lifetime experience. There is no "cure," and there is little known about the compulsion other than its links to <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/trichotillomania/symptoms-causes/syc-20355188">anxiety, hormones, and genetic disposition</a>.Even as I write this, a nest of hair rests on the floor by my chair, ready to be swept up and thrown in the trash. Shame and self-loathing trickle into every pluck, pick, and pull, and while I cannot hide the bald patches on my scalp, I am diligent to throw away the evidence.<h2>Nothing has helped me stop</h2>I've tried everything to curb the behavior, from over-the-counter supplements to hypnotherapy to bracelets that buzz every time you start to pull. Nothing helped. My loved ones have tried to help by alerting me when I do it, as it's often an automatic response when I'm watching television or driving, but their callouts leave me feeling more ashamed than relieved.A therapist once told me it was a harmless habit, but I would beg to differ.I've been called out by strangers for pulling my hair in public. One time, on a bus in Spain, a woman shouted I was "crazy." I had a hairdresser call over all her coworkers to look at my scalp. I've spent years of my life in wigs or hats, hiding or deflecting from my noticeable bald spots.The shame that this mental disorder causes is more harmful than you might think.Now, as a parent, every time I see my young children play or tug at their hair, my heart stops and my stomach drops. Please, not them too. While this disorder may not be dangerous to those around them, it does cause immense internal harm that I never want for my children.But if my kids do carry the disposition for trich, as I do, I also want to speak openly about what this is to help end the stigma and shame that <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/apr03/practice#:~:text=About%20five%20to%2010%20million,milder%20form%20of%20the%20disorder.">5 to 10 million Americans</a> carry, so people like me, Schumer, and other celebrities who have spoken about it, such as <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2014/10/21/olivia-munn-shares-her-complex-behavioral-disorder/77336320/">Olivia Munn</a> and Colin Firth, do not have to carry trich as a shameful secret.Celeste Yvonne is a popular writer and personality who writes about all things <keyword id="11910745" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="parenting" source="Orion">parenting</keyword>. Celeste's writing resonates with mothers everywhere, and she speaks with a candor and honesty that is unusual in this world of filters. Find her at <a href="http://www.andwhatamom.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.andwhatamom.com</a>.

I can't stop pulling out my own hair. I've tried to hide my bald spots with hats and wigs, but nothing helps with my shame.

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="12136617" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="amy-schumer" source="Orion">Amy Schumer</keyword> has the hair-pulling disorder <keyword id="13474822" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trichotillomania" source="Orion">trichotillomania</keyword>, which she revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. </li><li>Schumer shared she once pulled out so much hair that she had to wear a wig. </li></ul>Amy Schumer said she's dealt with trichotillomania, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trichotillomania-hair-pulling-disorder-psychologist-eyebrows-eyelashes-head-2017-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a disorder that causes a compulsive need to pull out body hair</a>, for years. During an interview with <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/amy-schumer-hulu-show-big-secret-life-beth-1235114812/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Hollywood Reporter's Lacey Rose </a>published on Friday, the 40-year-old got candid about her childhood and her new Hulu TV series, <a href="https://www.hulu.com/series/life-beth-69c7edf5-5c51-4ef6-8506-9188f4ad96ed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Life &amp; Beth." </a>The series, which also stars Michael Cera and Michael Rapaport, explores the disorder through the portrayal of her character, Beth."I think everybody has a big secret and that's mine," Schumer told THR. "And I'm proud that my big secret only hurts me but it's been what I've carried so much shame about for so long." Schumer explained to THR that the disorder surfaced during a difficult period in her life. Around that time, she said her father declared bankruptcy and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Schumer's mother left her father for the married father of her best friend. Schumer told the outlet that she once pulled out so much hair that she had to wear a wig before returning to school and "everybody knew." "And it's not that I used to have this problem and now I don't," Schumer said, adding that trichotillomania is "still something that I struggle with."Schumer told THR that she worries that her 2-year-old son, may also be diagnosed with trichotillomania since it has a <a href="https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/7803/trichotillomania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">genetic component</a>, according to the National Institute of <keyword id="11894571" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health" source="Orion">Health</keyword> (NIH). "Every time he touches his head I'm having a heart attack," she told THR.She hopes that showing trichotillomania in the series could encourage both her and audiences to "alleviate shame." "I really don't want to have a big secret anymore," Schumer told THR. "And I thought putting it in there would be good for me to alleviate some of my shame and maybe, hopefully, help others alleviate some of theirs, too." Representatives for Schumer did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. <a href="https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/professional/trichotillomania-facts-and-treatment#:~:text=Trichotillomania%20is%20a%20heterogeneous%20disorder,of%20age%2C%20unlike%20most%20disorders.">The Anxiety &amp; Depression Association of America (ADAA)</a> reported that trichotillomania may start affecting some people at 22 months old, but there were no records of onsets in people over 60 as of March 2020. The report said that trichotillomania affects men and women equally pre-puberty, but women are five to 10 times more likely to be affected after puberty. Trichotillomania often begins during childhood or adolescence during times of stress, according to the ADAA. In February, it was announced that Schumer would <a href="https://www.insider.com/oscars-host-regina-hall-amy-schumer-wanda-sykes-2022-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">host the 94th Academy Awards alongside Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes on March 27. </a>It will be the first time three women have hosted the Oscars.Recently, Schumer said she got <a href="https://www.insider.com/amy-schumer-liposuction-tired-of-looking-at-myself-in-mirror-2022-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">liposuction because she was "tired of looking at myself in the mirror." </a>"Everybody on camera is doing this shit, I just wanted to be real about it," she told <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/amy-schumer-interview-life-and-beth-oscars-1235106625/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Hollywood Reporter.</a>

Amy Schumer reveals she has a hair-pulling disorder: 'It's still something that I struggle with'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The UK teen was taken to the hospital after fainting due to intense abdominal pain. </li><li>When she arrived, doctors discovered a <a href="https://casereports.bmj.com/content/14/2/e240100">19-inch hairball</a> stretching from the girl's stomach to her colon.</li><li>Doctors say the girl suffered from a condition that caused her to pull out her <keyword id="23927" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hair">hair</keyword> and ingest it. </li></ul>A 17-year-old girl had to undergo surgery after a hairball tore through her stomach.According to a <a href="https://casereports.bmj.com/content/14/2/e240100">case study published in BMJ Case Reports</a>, the girl who remained unnamed in the study had ingested her own hair due to a <keyword id="6354774" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mental-health">mental health</keyword> condition and caused what doctors call "<keyword id="909449" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Rapunzel-Syndrome">Rapunzel syndrome</keyword>," when a hairball (or, a "trichobezoar") formed in the stomach extends into the small intestine.Some trichobezoars can extend as far as the colon, snaking through the entire small intestine. When the teen arrived at the hospital in an undisclosed part of the UK, she told doctors she had been suffering from on and off abdominal pain for five months, which had intensified in the two weeks leading up to her collapsing and fainting.Scans revealed a 19-inch trichobezoar that had burst through the walls of her stomach.She told doctors she also had a three-year history of two mental <keyword id="6354750" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="health">health</keyword> conditions that likely caused the trichobezoar: <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/trichotillomania/symptoms-causes/syc-20355188">trichotillomania</a> and <a href="https://dermnetnz.org/topics/trichophagia/">trichophagia.</a><h2><keyword id="2410675" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Trichotillomania">Trichotillomania</keyword> can cause people with the disorder to pull out their own hair. Trichophagia causes them to ingest it. </h2><div type="image" title="A haircall" height="1800" width="1350" msid="81100455" hostid="261"></div>According to the Mayo Clinic, <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/trichotillomania/symptoms-causes/syc-20355188">trichotillomania</a> is a disorder in which a person pulls out their own hair. People with the disorder often have patchy bald spots on their scalp as a result of the constant plucking. While some people live with the condition and manage it, others face a compulsive urge to pluck that may be difficult to control. Usually, the condition can intensify when people go through periods of stress or <keyword id="15418" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="anxiety">anxiety</keyword>, leading to more plucking.People with the disorder may also struggle with eating their own hair, a <a href="https://dermnetnz.org/topics/trichophagia/">condition called trichophagia.</a> While bezoars are rare in humans, the combination of the two disorders left untreated can result in similar hairballs. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2605948/">A small study published in 2008</a> on the conditions found 25% of cases resulted in Rapunzel syndrome, or hairballs. Most who suffer from <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/trichotillomania/symptoms-causes/syc-20355188">trichotillomania</a> are young women. According to the report, doctors extracted the hairball with little trouble, and the patient was able to make a full recovery.

A teenager who ate her own hair was hospitalized after a 19-inch hairball tore through her stomach, causing her to faint

Do you constantly pluck hairs from your head or your face when stressed? You might have a disorder called trichotillomania. We spoke with Dena Rabinowitz, PhD, founder of <a href="http://www.cbpny.com/">Cognitive Behavioral Psychology of NY</a>, to find out what the disorder involves and how it's typically treated. Following is a transcript of the video.Dena Rabinowitz, PhD: Trichotillomania is compulsive hair pulling. Where people pull out their hair either from their head, their face, or anywhere on their body in response to either a habitual need to pull, a compulsive feeling, or anxiety.When people with trichotillomania pull their hair, they're often looking for different things. Some people look for the sensation. Some people like to see the hair. And some people actually will nibble off the end, the follicle.The most common places that people pick their hair from in trichotillomania is their head. But we also see a lot of eyebrows and eyelashes. We can see arm hair, leg hair, and sometimes even pubic hair.Most people aren't born with trichotillomania. It's something that can develop in childhood and adolescence, and it's usually in response to some sort of trigger of anxiety or stress.Trichotillomania isn't dangerous, but it has some social consequences in that the more you pull your hair, the more bald patches and absence of hair you have, which can lead to social ostracization or criticism.Treating trichotillomania involves a couple things. The first is we want to look at what is the pattern that people engage in this habit. Where do they pull the most? What causes it?We often try to give people stress management, anxiety management tools, so that they're less triggered to pull. And then we work on something called competing response and habit reversal. Which is a way of teaching people alternate behaviors that are more adaptive to help them relieve their stress instead of pulling their hair out.There a lot of body-focused behaviors that can be compulsive. What makes something often maladaptive or more normative is the percent of people who do it and the amount of interference it causes.So lots of people will bite their nails, pick at a scab, pick at their cuticles. It doesn't mean it's a problem. But when you do it at a frequency that it causes interference in your daily life and causes distress, either because you're causing damage to the nail beds or you're doing it so much that it causes social interference, then it really is a problem. And it's similar to trichotillomania in that way.

This psychological disorder makes people pull out their own hair

<a href="https://www.insider.com/best-moisturizer-ingredients" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><ul class="summary-list"><li>To grow your <keyword id="190594" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="eyelashes">eyelashes</keyword>, you can use a combination of home remedies and prescription medications. </li><li>Castor oil, bimatoprost, and removing eye makeup can help grow your <keyword id="36140" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="lashes">lashes</keyword>. </li><li>Lashes usually take two months to grow unless you have a condition like alopecia or skin cancer. </li></ul>If you want longer, fuller eyelashes, you can take steps to help them grow. "It is possible to significantly increase the length and thickness of your eyelashes," says <a href="https://www.yalemedicine.org/specialists/brett_king" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brett King</a>, MD, a dermatologist at Yale Medicine. Your eyelashes typically take around <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3036812/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">two months</a> to grow. However, <a href="https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/why-are-my-eyelashes-falling-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener">factors</a> like genetics, <keyword id="6354750" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="health">health</keyword> conditions, hygiene habits, and traumatic injuries can affect the growth of your eyelashes or cause you to lose your lashes. Here are some steps you can take to get longer, thicker eyelashes. <h1>Why won't my lashes grow?</h1>Eyelashes typically grow much slower than the hair on your scalp. "Generally speaking, otherwise healthy eyelashes grow about 0.15 millimeters per day and are typically about seven millimeters long (beyond the skin). So, doing the math, it takes one to two months to grow a normal-length eyelash from scratch," says King. By contrast, the hair on your head can grow as fast as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537278/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1.1 millimeters</a> per day. <h2>Conditions that can affect eyelash growth or cause your lashes to fall out:</h2><ul><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/eyelash-mistakes-better-eyelashes-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Poor hygiene habits</a>: Wearing expired makeup, sharing your makeup with others, sleeping with your makeup on, and neglecting to clean your makeup brushes are some of the habits that can irritate your eyes and affect your eyelashes.</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/how-to-know-if-hair-loss-is-serious-medical-problem-2019-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alopecia areata</a>: Often hereditary, this condition is an autoimmune disorder that occurs when the body attacks its own hair follicles, resulting in hair loss.</li><li><a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/trichotillomania/symptoms-causes/syc-20355188" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trichotillomania</a>: Also referred to as hair-pulling disorder, this condition is characterized by strong, recurrent urges to pull out one's own hair. </li><li><a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/blepharitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20370141" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Blepharitis</a>: This condition occurs when the oil glands at the base of the eyelashes get clogged, resulting in redness, swelling, and irregularities in eyelash growth.</li><li><a href="https://www.columbiaeye.org/eye-library/eyelid-cancer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Skin cancer</a>: The eyelid is easily damaged by exposure to the sun, making it one of the most common sites for skin cancer, which can result in the loss of eyelashes.</li><li><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9625246/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trauma</a>: A traumatic event like an injury or a burn can cause you to lose your eyelashes, or they may have to be trimmed off after the fact to prevent eye irritation. Using heated eyelash curlers, or ripping out false eyelashes could also <a href="https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/why-are-my-eyelashes-falling-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener">harm your eyelashes</a>.</li></ul>If you have lost all your eyelashes, King says the underlying reason behind the hair loss can play a role in whether or not your eyelashes grow back. For instance, in the case of alopecia areata, loss of eyelashes may last months or years, according to King. <h1>What helps your eyelashes grow?</h1>If you do seek medical or cosmetic treatment for your eyelashes, King says there are medications that can help increase the length and thickness of eyelashes. It may take a few months for your eyelashes to grow back completely.You should consult a specialist to determine what treatment options are available to you and what you can expect. There are also several <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/the-best-eyelash-serums-you-can-buy/articleshow/71713537.cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eyelash serums</a> available over the counter, that can help you get longer, thicker eyelashes as well as some natural home remedies you can try. <h2>What helps eyelashes grow:</h2><ul><li>Bimatoprost solution: Bimatoprost solution is an FDA-approved prescription medication that can help increase the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21899919/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">length, thickness, and darkness</a> of eyelashes. "It has to be applied to the margins of your eyelids, from where your eyelashes grow," says King. You can expect to see noticeable results after eight weeks of treatment and maximum effect after 16 weeks, according to him. Some brand names of this solution include Lumigan and Latisse. </li><li>Castor oil: <a href="https://www.insider.com/castor-oil-for-eyelashes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Castor oil</a> can help prevent loss of eyelashes by reducing your levels of prostaglandin D2 (PGD2), a type of fatty compound linked to hair loss. Castor oil also soothes inflammation caused by mascara and other eye makeup. Applying castor oil to your lashes can help condition the strands and thicken them. </li><li>A nutritious diet: The <a href="https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/why-are-my-eyelashes-falling-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Academy of Ophthalmology</a> recommends a nutritious diet with plenty of protein, iron, fruits, and vegetables to maintain healthy eyelash growth. <a href="https://www.insider.com/vitamins-for-hair-growth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vitamins A, B, D, and E</a> are important vitamins for hair growth.</li><li>Healthy hygiene habits: Your eyes are extremely sensitive to irritation and <a href="https://www.insider.com/eyelash-mistakes-better-eyelashes-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poor hygiene habits</a> can affect your eyelashes. Taking off all your makeup before you go to sleep, avoiding expired makeup, not sharing your makeup, and cleaning your makeup brushes and sponges regularly can help prevent inflammation. </li><li>Conservative use of eyelash products: Frequently applying mascara and false eyelashes, using eyelash curlers, or exposing your eyelashes to products and treatments that involve a lot of chemicals can <a href="https://www.insider.com/eyelash-mistakes-better-eyelashes-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">damage your eyelashes</a>. Instead, opt for a hydrating routine using castor oil or even petroleum jelly, for naturally healthier and fuller eyelashes.</li></ul><h1>Insider's takeaway</h1>If you want to enhance your lashes, or if you have a medical condition that is affecting eyelash growth, you should consult your healthcare provider for treatment options. In many cases, it is possible to improve eyelash length and thickness with prescription medication. There are also over the counter products containing peptides and hyaluronic acid that may help. You can also try home remedies like castor oil for healthier eyelashes. Practicing good hygiene habits and avoiding excessive use of mascara, false eyelashes, eyelash curlers, and other chemical products can help prevent damage to your eyelashes. There are also cosmetic treatments, like eyelash extensions and false eyelashes, that can help you recreate the look of eyelashes in case you have <a href="https://breastcancernow.org/information-support/facing-breast-cancer/going-through-treatment-breast-cancer/side-effects/side-effects-chemotherapy/breast-cancer-hair-loss/hair-loss-eyelashes-eyebrows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lost all your natural lashes</a>. You can also opt for these treatments to make your eyelashes appear longer and thicker.<h2>Related articles from <a href="https://www.insider.com/health-reference" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Health Reference</a>:</h2><ul><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/what-causes-dark-circles-under-eyes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">6 causes of dark under-eye circles, according to a dermatologist</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/the-best-anti-aging-ingredients" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The best anti-aging ingredients, according to dermatologists</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/best-facial-cleanser-ingredients" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The best facial cleanser ingredients for each skin type, according to dermatologists</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/what-does-vitamin-c-do-for-the-skin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">5 skincare benefits of vitamin C</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/best-moisturizer-ingredients" target="_blank" rel="noopener">These are the best, most effective ingredients you should look for in a moisturizer</a></li></ul>

5 tips to grow your eyelashes and how long it takes to see improvement

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The music video for "<keyword id="6728481" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="everytime">Everytime</keyword>" premiered in 2004, just as Spears' public image began crumbling.</li><li>The video showed the damaging effects of the paparazzi's abuse, but many ignored the message.</li><li>For me, "Everytime" was the first chilling sign of her public struggles to come.</li></ul><a href="https://www.insider.com/category/britney-spears">Britney Spears'</a> single "Everytime" doesn't come up often. Unlike her other dance-pop singles, the soft ballad isn't woven into the fabric of early-2000s nostalgia.But when I first heard the song's opening line, "Notice me," it twisted like a knife. Spears' plea was sung with a whispered urgency, contrasting the bright tone of her other hit songs.The first time I saw the ballad's accompanying 2004 music video, it felt like watching a cry for help. As a diehard 13-year-old fan, I felt something akin to fear as the video's narrative unfolded, showing Spears and a fictional boyfriend viciously fighting after they're hounded by paparazzi, leaving Spears seemingly suicidal in a bathtub. Even at that age, I recognized a version of myself in the young woman sinking beneath the water, unsure of whether she wants to be alive, willing to let silence drown out the noise in her head. "Everytime" came out in 2003 when it felt like everyone - particularly the sales-driven magazine <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">media</keyword> of the time - was waiting for Spears to crash and burn. Still, for Spears devotees like myself, I saw this song and music video for what it truly was - a prescient message outlining the damage being done to a young woman's life for the sake of <keyword id="4578" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="entertainment">entertainment</keyword>. Eighteen years and <a href="https://www.insider.com/britney-spears-appears-to-address-freebritney-movement-documentary-2021-2">one much-publicized documentary later</a>, public interest is once again swirling around Spears and her personal struggles. This time, more and more people have finally realized just how Spears' treatment was twisted and harmful.Now people can go back and watch the music video for "Everytime" and feel the crushing clarity that only hindsight provides. But I've spent the past 17 years thinking about the version of Spears I saw in that video, unable to comprehend why the world refused to listen. <h2>'Everytime' coincided with a new, darker phase in both Spears' career and in my life</h2><div type="image" title="Britney Spears" height="1944" width="2592" msid="81553964" hostid="261"></div>Spears' fourth studio album, "In the Zone," was released in November 2003 with the single, "Me Against the Music." Then came "Toxic," Spears' most universally beloved hit.It was the same year I miserably entered eighth grade. Like many middle schoolers, I spent most of my days unable to comfortably navigate cliques of mean girls and the derision of boys.I never felt like a "cool" kid, whatever that meant. My family moved around a lot when I was younger, so friends were a rarity until I was in middle school. The easiest way to fit in was to tap into whatever was popular, so I turned to <keyword id="24222" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="pop-music">pop music</keyword>. I clung to Spears, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and the Spice Girls - my lifelines in grade-school small talk.My parents had finally divorced by 2003 and, acting as a classic middle-child mediator, I was carrying on outwardly as perfectly fine. The only sign of my distress came when I developed trichotillomania, a hair-pulling compulsion, and slowly but determinedly removed all of my eyebrows from my face until I resembled an alien version of a pubescent middle schooler. Throughout it all, Britney had been my beacon of unattainable cool. I plastered my bedroom walls with torn-out pages from J-14 and Tiger Beat magazine, and wished every day I could be like her. I saw Spears' fame as an escape, as the dream alternative to my own small life. But soon enough things changed for both of us.<div type="image" title="Britney Spears running down a hallway Everytime music video" height="1422" width="1895" msid="81553969" hostid="261"></div>As I entered adolescence, Spears was shifting her image from soda-pop princess to sexy, "empowered" woman. Two of my best friends lost their virginity by the end of eighth grade - while I hadn't come close to a proper first kiss - and it felt as though Spears was giving me a road map to understanding sex, relationships, and the murky waters of womanhood. But the music video for "Everytime" showed me what was on the other side of the fame and power I once thought would be an ideal escape. I saw what happened when the world builds a young woman up, <a href="https://www.insider.com/britney-spears-worst-interviews-sexist-questions-comments-moments-videos">only to tear her down.</a>It also marked a new phase in Spears' career. Her personal life became a breeding ground for vitriol amplified by tabloid media. During the same year of the video's release, Spears married her childhood friend in Las Vegas only to be annulled 55 hours later. By the end of 2004, Spears was married to Kevin Federline.<div type="image" title="kevin federline britney spears" height="1771" width="2362" msid="81553972" hostid="261"></div>The pop star was hounded, harassed, and stalked by photographers who wanted unflattering angles. It didn't stop once Spears became a mother the next year. If anything, the media scrutiny increased with paparazzi desperate for "evidence" for the way Spears was failing as a new mother.Spears and Federline filed for divorced months before the now-infamous day in which the singer shaved her own head in view of dozens of paparazzi in 2007. Spears eventually lost custody of her two children and <a href="https://www.insider.com/inside-britney-spears-conservatorship-freebritney-movement-2020-12">was placed into a conservatorship.</a>Meanwhile, tabloids, which seemingly drove her to desperate measures (like whacking an SUV with an umbrella after begging to be left alone) then labeled her actions as "crazy." Privately, sources close to Spears believed she was suffering from postpartum depression, according to The New York Times and <a href="https://www.insider.com/inside-britney-spears-conservatorship-freebritney-movement-2020-12">the "Framing Britney Spears" documentary.</a><h2>Finding my own strength is tied to Spears' own perseverance over the past two decades</h2><div type="image" title="Britney Spear Everytime bathtub music video scene" height="1420" width="1893" msid="81553975" hostid="261"></div>When "Everytime" was released, the gnawing desire to escape the world was all too familiar to me, even at 13.I started high school that year and began dating and learning for myself what it meant to have your heart broken and affections abused. I spent too much time in a relationship with the kind of guy who might throw a vase across the room rather than understand my deepening depressive episodes.Fumbling through my teenage years was like getting my own crash course in the <a href="https://www.insider.com/framing-britney-spears-sexism-crossroads-2021-2">patriarchal garbage that was dumped on Spears</a>. My own story felt familiar to the one Spears projected in "Everytime," and I found comfort in knowing that I wasn't alone down there in the muck of it all. Now Spears has slowly resurfaced into the public's grace at the center of a new reckoning over how the world treats famous women. Punching down at superstars undergoing personal struggles isn't trendy anymore. After the Hulu documentary's premiere back in February, it seemed as if the whole world was suddenly on Team Britney. But all I could think about was "Everytime" and how the past 17 years have felt like rewatching a slow-motion train wreck Spears had already shown me. I have found a new strength on the other side of my adolescence now that I'm firmly in my 30s, and believe at least part of that is tethered to the quiet yet enduring strength Spears has managed to project over the past 20 years. It still pains me to know that not enough people were listening to her distress at the time when she likely needed it most, but there's some solace in the reckoning we're having now."Notice me," she pleaded in the song's opening line. Some of us did. The rest are finally catching up.

Britney Spears' single 'Everytime' tragically foreshadowed her life, and it's haunted me for 17 years

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image">Global Times</div></div>Doctors removed a 1-pound mass of hair from the stomach of a 12-year-old Chinese girl, <a href="http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/837199.shtml" target="_blank">Global Times reports</a>.
The doctors diagnosed the girl with <a href="http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001538.htm" target="_blank">pica</a>, a disorder where people - usually women and children - compulsively consume non-food items. Such behaviors are considered normal in children younger than three, but <a href="http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/articles/update-pica-prevalence-contributing-causes-and-treatment" target="_blank">one study</a> found it persists in about 10% of children older than 12.
The girl had apparently been losing weight and her long hair for months. CT scans revealed a foot-long mass, which took up most of her stomach. The screen cap to the right was the hairball from the girl, but here's a close-up picture of a similar one, which takes the shape of the stomach:
<div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soo/655507881">Sue Peacock / Flickr</a></div></div>People with pica eat ice, dirt, paper, and a variety of other things; when they consume hair - a compulsion related to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichotillomania" target="_blank">trichotillomania</a>, the hair-pulling disorder - it's called <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/j.1529-8019.2008.00165.x/asset/j.1529-8019.2008.00165.x.pdf?v=1&amp;t=hqfc98bo&amp;s=402bbefa06bebb9c69866b2541cc4657a6928974" target="_blank">trichophagia</a>. Its onset is often associated with "significant social stressors," according to <a href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=177321" target="_blank">The American Journal of Psychiatry</a>.
"I've seen her put hair in her mouth, but I thought she was just playing and didn't think much about it," the girl's mother <a href="http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/837199.shtml" target="_blank">told Global Times</a>.
For people with trichophagia, the formation of a hair ball in the stomach (called a <a href="http://www.medicalmuseum.mil/index.cfm?p=exhibits.hairball.index" target="_blank">trichobenzoar</a>) is a rare but serious risk that <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/j.1529-8019.2008.00165.x/asset/j.1529-8019.2008.00165.x.pdf?v=1&amp;t=hqfc98bo&amp;s=402bbefa06bebb9c69866b2541cc4657a6928974" target="_blank">can be fatal</a> if left undetected. It was <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3070054" target="_blank">first diagnosed in 1779</a>.
Hair cannot be digested, so as more is added to the stomach, a mass forms and grows larger. As <a href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=177321" target="_blank">a case study about "Emily," a 7-year-old girl</a> with the condition found, people with trichophagia also sometimes consume the hair of others. Doctors found she was eating hair from her mother's head as well as her own.
While the hairball itself can be life-threatening, once it's removed, <a href="http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleID=177321#R1622CIACCBFI" target="_blank">the authors of the case study note</a>, the real treatment begins.
The authors stressed that their goal would be to "empower Emily to use alternative and more adaptive tools for dealing with the stressors in her life - in essence, to learn to use her mind, rather than her stomach or her hair, as an instrument for coping."

You Searched For "Trichotillomania" and got 8 results

I started pulling out my hair at age 8. Telling my husband I wore a wig to hide bald spots was terrifying, but I shouldn't have worried.

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Sanjana Gupta,Debra Jaliman

Britney Spears' single 'Everytime' tragically foreshadowed her life, and it's haunted me for 17 years

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Doctors Remove Giant Hairball From A Girl's Stomach - And This Isn't The First Time

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You Searched For "Trichotillomania" and got 8 results

I started pulling out my hair at age 8. Telling my husband I wore a wig to hide bald spots was terrifying, but I shouldn't have worried.

Katie Bannon

I can't stop pulling out my own hair. I've tried to hide my bald spots with hats and wigs, but nothing helps with my shame.

Celeste Yvonne

Amy Schumer reveals she has a hair-pulling disorder: 'It's still something that I struggle with'

Lauren Edmonds

A teenager who ate her own hair was hospitalized after a 19-inch hairball tore through her stomach, causing her to faint

Canela López

This psychological disorder makes people pull out their own hair

Chris Snyder

5 tips to grow your eyelashes and how long it takes to see improvement

Sanjana Gupta,Debra Jaliman

Britney Spears' single 'Everytime' tragically foreshadowed her life, and it's haunted me for 17 years

Kim Renfro

Doctors Remove Giant Hairball From A Girl's Stomach -&#160;And This Isn't The First Time

Lauren F Friedman

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides

Doctors Remove Giant Hairball From A Girl's Stomach - And This Isn't The First Time