Picked up an awful habit. Tips to break it?

**Complexity** · February 25th, 2016, 02:30 PM

I spend a lot of time sitting at my desk, and over the last year or so I picked up an awful habit (likely stress related):

Hair chewing.

A lot of the time I don't even realize that I'm doing it (though I'm trying to be more conscious of it). I know it's going to end up ruining any of the 'good' I'm doing with my hair (that I neglected for too many years) and so I'm looking for solutions.

There's the obvious 'wear it up' answer, but I'm not very good at braiding (and worry that I might be doing more harm than good with it) and although I've pretty much mastered the cinnabun, I only have claw clips to hold it in place (and again, I worry they do more harm than good). Right now, buying anything new isn't an option.

Any help you kind folks could offer is greatly appreciated!

I can definitely see myself spending multiple hours here.

**lithostoic** · February 25th, 2016, 02:40 PM

Put a leave in on your hair. Once you taste it you'll likely be jolted and realize what you've done.

**Nique1202** · February 25th, 2016, 02:41 PM

Braiding does more good than harm unless you get a lot of tangles taking it out. Similarly, claw clips still protect most of your hair without causing huge amounts of damage to what they touch, especially if you take a nail file and smooth out any sharp edges you can reach with it. Any one style might cause you a few splits or problems if you wear them daily for a few years but you've already got two things you can do right now, plus maybe a peacock twist if your claw clips are big enough and your hair's not too long.

Also you should look into the disc bun, which can be held with just a pencil or pen or shortened chopstick for now. If your hair is long enough you might be able to do either a lazy wrap or a nautilus bun, either is worth a try, and they also only need one improvised stick to secure. (Lots of folks have trouble with one or the other, or both if you don't have enough length, so don't be too discouraged if you can't get them to work just yet.)

**Arctic** · February 25th, 2016, 02:44 PM

Be careful it won't develop into the sister disorder of trichotillomania, called trichophagia (compulsive hair eating).

In general you probably will find good, down to earth advice and "tools" how you could proceed if you look for trichotillomania related sites/articles. We even have some good threads and posts here. This would also help you to understand the whole "bad habit" better.

**lapushka** · February 25th, 2016, 03:01 PM

Maybe try the LWB (lazy wrap bun), lots of tutorials on YT for this one!
It should be doable at your length, even with iii hair (I wore it at this stage).

**Complexity** · February 25th, 2016, 03:10 PM

I never thought of the leave in... That's a good one!

I do get a few tangles when it comes to braiding, but I'm not sure if it's the braiding itself or just that I'm not very good at doing it. I do leave it in a loose braid to sleep though (the longest layers are hip length and I find that I have less tangles in the morning that way).

I have no idea what any of those other buns you mentioned are at the moment. Looks like tonight will be a night chalked full of research!

**Sarahlabyrinth** · February 25th, 2016, 03:25 PM

Learn a nice way to put it up so you can't get it in your mouth. A nice protective style.

**AJNinami** · February 25th, 2016, 03:58 PM

Find your favorite color of pencil -> BAM hairstick! (make sure to blunt the end and cover any rough parts with nail polish though) There are a ton of different styles out there to choose from. If you do a youtube search you can find most of the buns mentioned here. Youtube also does well for braiding tutorials. My scalp is still getting used to having hair be put up, but my scalp has always been sensitive. Braiding is much nicer to my scalp so I do that more often.

I actually used to nonstop suck on the ends of my hair when I was younger. I've found out that when I'm stressed or feeling nervous or unconfident, I start to put things (especially loose hair!) back into my mouth, e.x. pencils, fingers, food, water (I've been known to drink well over a gallon of water), hair, anything. There might be some kind of trigger causing you to do it.