Hair pulling isn’t something you choose, it’s something your body does in response to stress, overwhelm, and depletion. After years of living with trichotillomania myself and searching for answers that went deeper than “just stop,” I learned that behavior is often the last place to look. This approach focuses on understanding the internal patterns that can make urges stronger and harder to control, so you can work with your body instead of fighting it.
What Is HTMA?
HTMA (Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis) is a non-invasive test that looks at mineral patterns stored in the hair over time. Unlike blood tests that show a moment in time, HTMA can reveal longer-term trends related to stress, mineral depletion, and nervous system load.
In this work, HTMA is used as an educational tool — not a diagnosis — to help identify patterns that may be influencing regulation, anxiety, and impulse-driven behaviors like hair pulling.
Why HTMA Matters for Trichotillomania
Trichotillomania is often treated as a purely behavioral or psychological issue, but many people notice their urges worsen during periods of chronic stress, burnout, or nervous system overload.
Minerals play a key role in:
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Stress response
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Nervous system regulation
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Focus and impulse control
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Recovery from long-term depletion
When these systems are under strain, the body looks for relief — and for some, hair pulling becomes that outlet. HTMA helps bring clarity to why this pattern may be happening for you.
My Experience
I’ve lived with trichotillomania for most of my life. I know what it’s like to hide, to feel frustrated with yourself, and to wonder why stopping feels impossible, even when you want to more than anything.
Through my own healing journey, I discovered that understanding my body’s internal patterns changed everything. Learning about mineral balance, stress physiology, and nervous system support gave me a new lens. One rooted in compassion instead of control.
This work is personal, grounded, and led with empathy, because I’ve been where you are.
About
How It Works
Order Your HTMA Test
You’ll receive an at-home hair collection kit with clear, easy-to-follow instructions. No bloodwork. No appointments.
Send In Your Sample
Mail your hair sample directly to the lab using the provided materials.
Receive Your Lab Results
Your HTMA results are sent directly to you, giving you full transparency and access to your data.
A Clearer Understanding of Your Patterns
Instead of wondering why hair pulling keeps happening, you’ll see how mineral depletion, stress load, and nervous system patterns may be influencing your urges.
Data You Can Actually Understand
Your HTMA results are explained in simple, human language — not lab jargon — so you can feel informed, not overwhelmed.
A Calmer Starting Point
This isn’t about doing everything at once. It’s about taking the next step with intention, support, and self-trust.
Why This Matters?
Services We Provide
HTMA Test
Best if you want your results and plan to review them on your own
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At-home hair collection kit
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Lab analysis of mineral patterns
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Results sent directly to you
HTMA Test + Personalized Reading (Most Popular)
Best if you want clarity, context, and guidance
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At-home HTMA test kit
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Lab results delivered to you
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1:1 results review together
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Clear explanation of mineral and stress patterns
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Educational vitamin & mineral guidance
HTMA Extended Guidance Package
Best if you want guided ongoing support
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At-home HTMA test kit
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Lab results delivered to you
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1:1 results review together
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Clear explanation of mineral and stress patterns
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Education vitamin & mineral guidance
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6 months of ongoing support
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Support integrating insights into daily life
Rooted Regulation Framework
A Nervous-System-First Way to Support Hair Pulling
Hair pulling (trichotillomania) is rarely about willpower alone. For many people, it’s a sign that multiple internal systems are out of balance and the body is doing its best to cope. Our approach focuses on realigning the body’s internal systems so regulation can come from within, rather than relying on force or suppression. This work is educational and supportive, designed to help you better understand your patterns and create safer, more nourishing ways to meet your body’s needs.
Step 1: Support the Nervous System
Hair pulling often begins as a self-soothing response during stress, overwhelm, boredom, or transitions. When the nervous system is overstimulated or under-regulated, the body looks for sensory input to feel grounded.
Instead of asking you to “just stop,” we focus on:
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Understanding when your nervous system feels activated
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Identifying common triggers and patterns
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Introducing calming, grounding inputs and daily rituals
This step creates the foundation for change by helping the body feel safer and more regulated.
Step 2: Restore the Body’s Foundations
The nervous system depends on proper nourishment to function well. Minerals, blood sugar balance, sleep, and daily rhythms all play a role in how regulated — or dysregulated — the body feels.
When these foundations are depleted or imbalanced, the body often seeks external regulation.
We support this step by:
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Using Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis (HTMA) as an educational tool
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Exploring mineral patterns and long-term trends
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Offering guidance around nourishment, lifestyle, and daily support
This step is about understanding what the body may be missing — not forcing change or relying on quick fixes.
Step 3: Work With Hormones & Natural Rhythms
Many people notice hair pulling urges fluctuate with:
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Menstrual cycles
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Sleep disruption
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Stressful seasons of life
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Major transitions
Hormones and stress chemistry influence impulse control, focus, and nervous system sensitivity. When these rhythms are ignored, urges can feel unpredictable or out of control.
We focus on:
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Awareness rather than restriction
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Tracking patterns instead of fighting them
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Supporting gentler rhythms that change with the body
This step helps reduce shame by showing that urges are often cyclical and biological, not personal failures.
Step 4: Redirect Habits Through Ritual
Hair pulling often serves a purpose — providing sensory input, focus, or emotional release. Removing the behavior without replacing it can leave the nervous system searching for relief.
Instead, we introduce:
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Scalp care and sensory rituals
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Nourishing, intentional touch
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Tools that help redirect habitual movement safely
These rituals are not meant to “fix” anything. They’re designed to help meet the same need in a more supportive way.
Step 5: Build Emotional Safety & Ongoing Support
Many people with hair pulling learned early to cope quietly and independently. Healing is easier when support, education, and reassurance are available.
We emphasize:
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Gentle guidance and conversation
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Education over judgment
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Long-term support rather than one-time solutions
Feeling seen and supported allows the nervous system to soften — and survival patterns often lose their grip when safety increases.
Step 6: Maintain Momentum & Support Long-Term Alignment
(Because healing is something you live, not something you finish)
Change doesn’t happen in a straight line. Even when urges lessen, life continues to bring stress, transitions, and seasons that test regulation. This final step focuses on maintaining alignment, building confidence, and keeping spirits high — especially during moments when old patterns try to resurface.
Rather than aiming for perfection, this step helps you stay connected to what’s working.
Get to Know Me
I didn’t wake up one day and decide to pull my hair out.
It started quietly.
So quietly that I didn’t even realize it was happening.
I was a kid when my hands learned how to search before my brain learned how to notice. Pulling wasn’t a choice—it was comfort, regulation, grounding, escape. It showed up when I was bored, overwhelmed, anxious, tired, thinking too much, feeling too deeply… or feeling nothing at all.
For years, I thought the problem was willpower.
If I could just stop.
If I tried harder.
If I covered the mirrors.
If I wore hats.
If I distracted myself enough.
But the harder I fought my hands, the louder the urge became.
So I did what so many of us do—I learned how to hide. Extensions. Hairstyles. Avoiding bright lights. Avoiding eye contact. Avoiding myself. On the outside, I built businesses, brands, a life that looked full and successful. On the inside, I carried shame, frustration, and the constant feeling that my body was betraying me.
What changed everything wasn’t another trick to “stop pulling.”
It was realizing that my body wasn’t broken.
My nervous system was overwhelmed.
My minerals were depleted.
My hormones were out of rhythm.
My body had learned this pattern before I had language for it.
Pulling wasn’t the enemy—it was a signal.
Once I stopped asking “How do I force this to stop?”
and started asking “What is my body asking for?”
everything shifted.
I began rebuilding from the inside out.
I learned how stress burns through minerals faster than we can replace them.
How nighttime urges spike when the nervous system finally slows down.
How hands search automatically when the brain is overloaded.
How trauma, hormones, and depletion can live in the body long after the moment has passed.
Instead of fighting my hands, I gave them safer jobs.
Instead of punishing my body, I nourished it.
Instead of obsessing over hair growth, I focused on scalp safety, circulation, ritual, and consistency.
Instead of chasing perfection, I practiced gentleness.
Some days I still pull.
But I no longer spiral afterward.
Now I notice the cue sooner.
I intervene with compassion instead of shame.
I understand why the urge showed up—and what it needs instead.
Healing hasn’t been linear.
It’s been cyclical. Hormonal. Emotional. Physical. Spiritual.
But for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m working with my body instead of against it.
This journey became more than stopping a habit.
It became about rebuilding trust with myself.
About learning to regulate instead of numb.
About creating rituals that feel grounding instead of restrictive.
About growth that’s slow, intentional, and sustainable.
I’m not here because I “beat” trichotillomania.
I’m here because I learned to listen.
And every day I choose to keep growing—
with patience, with knowledge, and with compassion for the body that carried me this far.
Frequently Asked Questions
Begin Without Overthinking!
You’re Not Broken — And You Don’t Have to Do This Alone
If hair pulling has been part of your life for a long time, it’s understandable to feel frustrated, tired, or discouraged. Many people have spent years trying to “fix” themselves, only to feel like nothing sticks.
This work starts from a different place.
We don’t ask you to fight your body.
We help you understand it.
When the nervous system feels supported, the body has what it needs, and daily rituals feel safe to return to, change becomes something you grow into — not something you force.
You don’t need to do everything at once.
You don’t need to be perfect.
You just need a starting point that feels supportive.