Pulling out your hair? This might be the cause

Trichotillomania is a compulsion that can harm.

On a sunny Friday last month, 10 days into Australia’s coronavirus lockdown, Jayde Beaumont put her toddler daughter down for a nap, closed her bathroom door and started to shave her head.

It was a decision she had wrestled with for years, although it had little to do with how she looked. Beaumont, 27, has had trichotillomania — a condition that has caused her to pull out her hair compulsively — since she was 8. For almost two decades, she would fall into a daily trancelike state and systematically tug the hair from her head, strand by strand, a small pile forming next to her in minutes or even hours while she watched television or drove her car.

Anxiety and boredom have become common complaints in the coronavirus pandemic, triggering existing behaviors with potentially harmful effects. Beaumont said she picked up the razor after weeks of stress from frightening news headlines coupled with spare time from being cooped up inside. Although she had experimented with a range of treatments over the years, nothing had ever fully broken the cycle. Shaving her head had always felt like a last resort — until now.

“I just thought, ‘What have I got to lose?’ ” Beaumont said. “It is now or never. If I don’t have hair on my head, then I can try to train myself out of this.” She recorded the moment and posted it on Instagram.

“I was scared but also excited,” she said. “Maybe if I had no hair then there would be no more irresistible pulling urges. Maybe then the relapses and shame spirals would finally go away.”

What is trichotillomania?

A lot of unknowns surround trichotillomania. It’s hard to say (trik-o-till-o-MAY-nee-uh) and difficult to recognize or neatly define, despite having been classified as a disorder more than 30 years ago.

In recent years, experts have come to believe that it is caused by a combination of genetic, biological and behavioral factors. There is no one-size-fits-all diagnosis of either triggers or treat

ANDREA D’AQUINO/THE NEW YORK TIMES Anxiety and boredom have become common complaints in the coronavirus pandemic, triggering existing behaviors with potentially harmful effects.