I hesitate to put this picture up, but I feel like I need to mark this day. While I was getting a haircut today, my stylist pulled out a mirror and handed it to me. "Here," he said, and pointed to my ear. "You see the hole there?" He was just trying to tell me that I should let him cut my hair shorter to even it out better, but what he was pointing at was an area where my hair has thinned because of my
trichotillomania. I've been denying to myself that I am causing visible damage, although I knew, just from putting my hair into pigtails and feeling how uneven the sides were, that there's a problem.
Don't worry. I'm not grotesque. My hair is so thick that the casual viewer probably can't see it (and in any case, it's not in this picture). And, it looks especially good right after it gets cut—Javier does a fabulous job. Still, this is a problem, and I need to figure out how to get over it.