OCD Action

davey295
Member

Hi..I have just signed up to this site and thought I'd post a comment about me.
For the last few years I have cut my own hair with electric clippers..the bit of this process that takes time, sometimes hours, is the trimming of my neckline. I have to get it exactly how I want it or I freak out. This may not sound unusual to some but to me it is very time consuming and if it isn't done exact I feel people are looking at me and thinking I have wonky hair. When it is done exactly to my liking I feel really good..but some days where it isnt so good I am irritable all day. Has anybody else heard of this aspect of OCD?
Thanks for any help!

Wed Jun 23 2010 12:23:16 #
Truddles
Member

Hi davey295,

Welcome to the forum.

To be frank I'd rather go to the dentist than to a hairdresser I know exactly what I want when I go to the hairdresser but rarely come out with it done exactly to my liking. I can empathise when you say

if it isn't done exact I feel people are looking at me and thinking I have wonky hair.

At the moment my hair to me looks awful as it's all choppy and not in nice neat layers. I feel if everyone is looking at me and judging me. Though the non OCD side of me says 'Who's that interested in your hair, no one will notice.' But the OCD side generally wins the day.

We're a friendly bunch on the forum and try to help and support each other. I hope that you'll find that it helps.

Trudy

Wed Jun 23 2010 14:19:38 #
Spike
Member

Hi davey295,

I know exactly what you mean ! If my hair isn't "right" and I have to leave the house then I am in a really bad mood and especially irritable, and just want to tell everyone to leave me alone and go away (although much less polite). I suppose it's partly the perfectionist part of my ocd and partly the "till it feels right" judgement. Ends up being so time consuming.

Spike

Wed Jun 23 2010 16:39:56 #
davey295
Member

Hi there and thanks for the replies!
I try to leave it a bit longer in between cutting my hair..I decided a few weeks ago to do that..and I do it about every five days now. But I can only leave it that amount of time if I check it daily and 'tidy up' my hairline..this is what can take time and makes me irritable. I also sometimes carry two shaving mirrors with me in my pocket so I can check my hair in toilet cubicles when I am out..again this is frustrating as if I look in a certain place and it doesnt look 100% to my liking I have to return to that place again another time to check it again...I havent told anybody that aspect of it before as they would think me nuts..but I feel I can say it here!
Thanks for listening:-)

Thu Jun 24 2010 13:55:03 #
thelazypick
Member

i am not sure if this isn't off-topic but,

i ocd about hair too.

because my hair is naturally wavy, it gets really messy sometimes. and when it gets messy, i would think of going to the hairdresser's to tidy it up. but i have this belief that if i was to go to the hairdresser's on a certain day which i feel isn't right, my hair would turn into a disaster, like get messier or something.

so more than often, i end up having really untidy hair and i get really frustrated because i know i can solve that by going to the hairdresser's but my ocd's getting in the way. frustrating, really.

Fri Jun 25 2010 1:53:41 #
Charles Greenwood
Blocked

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Tue Jul 20 2010 1:24:24 #
justineb
Member

Hello. I am new today to this forum although have suffered with OCD for 25 years. It affects my hair mainly. My hair has to be symmetrical and I spend hours upon hours cutting a millimetre off one side and a millimetre off the other and then about 10 seconds later it all starts again and can go on for months endlessly. If my hair doesn't "feel" right then i cannot function at all. I've tried everything, extensions but then measured the extensions! i shaved it all off (and i'm a woman so that wasn't easy but I really thought it would work) it didn't. i've plucked it out too to get it right. I too would rather go anywhere than the hairdressers. Now the annoying thing is that my hair has to be just slightly longer on one side than the other, but the amount it has to be longer is where the ocd comes in again. it always finds a way in. I hate it that people think i am vain when it is so not that at all. Anyway just thought I'd share this with you all. x

Sat Sep 3 2011 21:04:09 #
blueboy
Member

i have a problem letting anyone cut my hair, basicaly i am also socialy phobic and i wait until my hair is so big... and i have thick floppy hair

Sun Sep 4 2011 2:33:27 #
sweetie
Member

Hi,

I have OCD with needing my hair to be even and symmetrical and have been cutting my hair obsessively for 30 yesrs. Starting as a teenager I was feeling very unhappy with myself and life in general and at home and I began trimming my fringe and it progressed to the rest of the hair. It got worse as I got older. It has been pretty relentless for the last almost 10 years now. At worst I have been up all night cutting, feeling like I'm in a trance, trapped in the bathroom and then realising then how late it is eventually manage to drag myself out of the bathroom to go to bed and get some rest before starting work. I was up until 5 am once doing it. I've spent all day doing it too and even in the middle of cooking dinner been dashing in and out of the bathroom which is downstairs next to the kitchen.

I've used bic hand razors when I can't find scissors and cut my fingers so desperate to cut my hair. I've also shaved the whole lot off like you Justine, which is as you say really hard when you are a woman. I wore wigs for a long time, but started cutting up the wigs.

I'm trying hard not to cut and beat this but it has been hard. I have cut it very close to the scalp unintentionally as I've been cut it so much and so often that there hasn't been much left. It makes me extremely distressed after a while of cutting it and is certainly no laughing matter which is the respone I got talking to someone I confided in on a helpline.

It's taken up so much of my life. It's been a nightmare.

I don't think this is as unusual as it sounds. I think many people might be too embarassed and ashamed to talk about it.

I found an American forum where there is like a little community of people all with this same problem and it helped me not to feel so freaky to find it and also it helps to encourage one another.

Thanks all for sharing this. I feel great empathy for others who have been going through this and it is nice not to feel so alone.

Tue Mar 6 2012 22:18:06 #