Winter 2015
BeauTrichful
速
FREE SALON
Sufferers Living In South America
POSTERS
Argentina
BEAUTRICHFUL FOUNDER’S MESSAGE Winter 2015
Founder, Charlene Blacer
¡Hola! desde Argentina!
The faces of Trichotillomania is found all over the world and 1 Argentinian woman reaches out. Her name is Cintia Rosas. She is the Tricotilomanía - Argentina Facebook Admin and interviews Founder Charlene Blacer of the United States. Name and surname: Charlene Blacer Age: 43 Profession / Occupation: Cosmetologist, Founder of HelpMe2Stop Nationality: Filipino-American 1. Do you have TMD? No. I learned about TMD after helping grow my clients’ own hair back and breaking their pulling habit. I specialized in hair loss solutions and there are help for hair loss sufferers from Chemotherapy and Alopecia but none for Tricho. Because I have helped so many clients become pull-free without drugs and because there are no help for them, I decided to start a non-profit that will raise money for hairpieces and train salons who will administer these hairpieces so that sufferers can look and feel beautiful. We can hide our flaws such as our fat stomach, but hair is impossible to, thus, I founded HelpMe2Stop and our motto is “Stop Pulling Hair Out Waiting For A Tricho Cure!” 2. How did the idea of making a magazine? Being in the beauty business, I just felt there needed to be a magazine that showcases the lives of these BeauTrichful people. They are as beautiful as any cover girl in the magazines. And I want to emphasize that. 3. What is the theme of the magazine? (What gives? At what points?) In addition to allowing these women share their stories, BeauTrichful magazine offers tips and advice geared to this community. 4. What is your work in the magazine? I wear many hats. I do it all, from layouts, graphics asking for stories, etc after requesting their stories and photos. I wish to have more volunteers. I feel that with more volunteers, BeauTrichful magazine can be the next Marie Claire! 5. How circulates "Beautrichfull"? (sold in paper? Offered only in digital format? You have the scope or arrival information to readers?) The magazine is offered through Issuu and Peecho. Our website is BeauTrichful.com 6. What action is accomplished through the magazine that are important for you and for people with TTM? I hope to show the world that Trichotillomania sufferers are normal, beautiful, smart and overall caring people. 7. You have a short or long term project about their work in the journal? The magazine runs every season and is published 4 times per year.
CREDIT: nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/creativeage/launchpad_201405/index.php?startid=23#/44
BEAUTRICHFUL COVERGIRL Winter 2015
My name is “Cynthia” aka Cintia Rosas, I have 30 years, I am from Argentina, I am Professor of History, and in December I receive a primary school teacher. I am single, I have two sisters and a mother (my father died 7 years ago) I support a lot in my family and my friends (my friends are the same lifetime) Here is my story. I think maybe you are missing some things, but we can fix it later. I started at 15 years and for 11 consecutive years, pulled my bangs. As I always say, shooting was a ritual for me. Selected the hair by feel and chose the thickest. I never felt pain, but also pleasure. My feeling was "I have something to get me off." That "something" was generally anxiety, worries, tasks estresaban me. Of course, the time of the study was the worst. I remember getting up early to study all morning and noon arrived, looked at both sides of the chair where she was sitting and the floor was covered with hair. I never realized what I was doing until I saw the disaster that swept after much guilt. And the worst thing was that anxiety was not pulling, it was only a temporary relief. My hairstyles were changing and always had a trick to hide the bald areas. Even today, I talk to people who know me from the time and tell me they never noticed the missing hair on my forehead. Go to the salon was another problem; invent some story to justify the lack of hair made me feel worse. For ten years I did not know that this was a disease, thought I was the only one who did. Until I found out from a friend; and I know it was a relief for me. That was in 2008 and the following year (in December 2009) I left the cord. I just said "enough"; I could quit at will. Although a later, more precisely in 2011, I started doing therapy and found that the time I stopped shooting coincided with the fact
that some personal problems began to be advice and support of Lic. P. Quesada, solved in the same period. whom I will always be grateful. Moreover, some painful to me, treated in therapy, I generated a lot of anxiety issues, so in late 2011, back to pull my hair. The psychologist told me that this might be a passenger and it was. It only lasted a couple of months and left again. At that time my concern was that I began to search for information online. That's how I found a yahoo group
I think to myself I wish I had when I was 16 or 17, to discuss this with someone who
Cynthia is in the middle along with two friends. that coordinates the Lic. Pérez Quesada and it was very helpful. Not just for the information, but because I found other people to talk to and understand me. Licensee is also very helpful and always answered my questions very honestly and frankly. I began to realize that there were no studies or research, or specialist that people in my country, and even throughout Latin America; hence there is no treatment and the disorder is completely unknown. I felt that at least from the point of view of a person who had TMD for over 10 years, had to do something. In addition to reading a lot about the disease and combined with what I learned about myself in therapy was that I decided to make a blog and Facebook page, with the
understands me. Well, I will not regret not having had the opportunity;¡On the contrary! I can use what I know and what I lived to help others to feel accompanied, heard and supported. Right now, I'm having another relapse. But my thoughts are different. I learned a lot about this disease and especially I learned to "amigarme" with her. Understanding that is something that I lived and leave me a lesson. I know I am much more than my TTM and be worth much regardless of pulling my hair. -Cintia Rosas Admin for Facebook.com/pages/ Tricotilomanía-Argentina
BEAUTRICHFUL STORY Winter 2015
I am 58 years old, I am married, I am an Educational Psychologist working with adolescents with special educational needs and behavioral problems, in the South East of Spain. I have a wonderful family, my wife, a daughter and two sons: 31, 29 and 27 years old respectively. I have had the problem, approximately 50 years. I describe it as an urgency to pull hair along with a feeling of anxiety. In moments of stress or tension I usually pull hair as a form of overcoming this anxiety with the comfort and the relief that it brings. There has been a continuous and repeated failure in resisting this impulse, leading to remarkable losses of hair with much baldness, distributed around the head. I have not had any medical illness that could have related to this. I have always had beautiful hair.
The problem already lasting 50 years has caused me general uneasiness that could not be tolerated any longer.
I pulled it out when I was with my friends, my children, my wife, my family and I could not continue this way. The problem began, approximately during the years age 3. It was two years after having the problem when my family began to give it an attention that was normal in principle, but after a while it was disproportionate. It increased during childhood. The whole family came to see the bald patches, where they were and how big. My mother, when not knowing what else to do, tried all types of devices. When I was about 8-12 years old, I went many times to school with my fingers covered with sticking-plaster, so that I could not pull. But I had a trick. I had my fingers of the left hand covered because with the right I had to write so I was determined to continue, I left the pen that I had in the right hand, and I pulled with my right hand. Little by little the measures to solve the problem were varied to see which of them were more original, such as the traditional cap or putting on black make up on the bald patches to hide them. Sooner or later the most frustrating measure was arrived at, which would make my friends, family, neighborhood,
and town all jeer. The suffering was terrible and it was when I went to the hairdresser's and he cut my hair off all over the whole head, and to see the face of the barber's satisfaction. I imagined him with the same hair cut. When I left the hairdresser I didn't know where to hide, mainly when seeing barber's wide smile when he extended his apron so that the hair fell to the floor, because on my head there was no longer any. I was at home the whole afternoon or all day, without leaving because I was embarrassed. The nicknames were most varied: “the –calvi-, the bald one, the three hair…”, I don’t remember, but I am sure that I could have filled enough pages. Nobody knew (in Spain) in that time (1960-1970) that besides the barber, the caps, the colouring of the bald patches or the adhesive bandage, that there existed strategies to change behavior. My mother said to me that I had to go out and I hadn’t to stay at home all the time. In time I married, I had children but the problem didn't diminish. When I reached my thirties, I intended to look for professional help and I found a good psychologist. The psychologist's work was according to the pattern of the humanist psychology. He helped me to solve the problem. There was an important remission (ten years) and I thought that I had eliminated the problem forever. But no, it returned again, when my mother had Alzheimer’s. My mother suffered a post traumatic stress after my father died (he had an accident when he was working, in 1956); at that time I was six months old. I was separated from my mother for a brief time and looked after by another woman.
At the moment I am overcoming it and it is now that I have had to face the problem myself. I haven’t had problems of health neither have I taken drugs. I haven’t taken any type of medication to solve the problem. The treatment based on Transactional Analysis hasn’t been completely positive. I was free of the problem for ten years but I haven’t eliminated it completely. The relapse took place because of a situation of stress. At the moment I am free from the problem, due to the application of self-treatment based on the pattern of cognitive-behavior and I hope to continue this way. It is published in Spanish: http://www.psicologiacientifica.com/ tricotilomania-tratamiento-conductual/ http://www.monografias.com/ trabajos5/trico/trico.shtml Since 2006 I run a emailing list and a website about trich in Spanish that its help a lot of people from South America and Spain. www.tricotilomania.org.
I would like to keep in touch with people with trich to share experiences, successes I grew up as an only son with my maternal grandparents who were like my and failures, I have been pulling out my hair many years. own mother; they loved me, together with my father's family. I had very good José Manuel Pérez Quesada (Spain) social support. Psychologist After finishing some courses of Info@tricotilomania.org Transactional Analysis, I decided to go to the University. I had got a degree in www.tricotilomania.org psychology. info@tricotilomania.org I had to look after my mother and to take http://es.groups.yahoo.com/group/ care of her. She had Alzheimer’s. tricotilomaniaorg/ After few years the problem occurred again and I began to pull out my hair. My mother died after ten years.
BEAUTRICHFUL TIPS Winter 2015
ATTRACTING SUFFERERS
PACIFIC Hair Extensions & Hair Loss Solutions Salon
How To Attract Trichotillomania Clients to come inside your salon By Charlene Blacer
Going to a salon is frightening for
strongly recommended for salons
anyone who sees the hashtag will be
many sufferers. Many have never set
located near college campuses and
curious. It will turn on their fighting
foot in a salon. HelpMe2Stop
high schools. Decals and posters
instinct versus feeling sorry. Many
encourages salons to put up a
proudly representing the hashtag
will feel the urge to help. Because it
window decal year round, like
#StopPullingHairOutWaitingForACure
is in our human nature to win
Vancouver based Trich-Friendly
are free and easy to print. Other
together as with any sport teams.
Salon, Pacific Hair Extensions & Hair
salon tools are available on the
Loss Solutions, so onlookers will
HelpMe2Stop website. With newest
FREE POSTER TO CUT OUT FOR YOUR SALON.
remember and share the information
photo sharing capabilities in social
with their friends. It especially
media, like Instagram and Pinterest,
BEAUTRICHFUL TIPS Winter 2015
Many hair replacement salons are challenged with installing a hairpiece on Trichotillomania head. Because the hair is short in many areas, they decide to shave the entire head in hopes to “start over�. This will only upset the Sufferer more and cause more pulling. Shaving of the natural hair is common not just with Trichotillomania hair solutions
but also amongst women with hairloss. I personally do not like to shave sufferers’s natural hair. In these photos, I utilize every single strand of hair, moving it back, forward, sideways and create an internal style-barrier. Once all the hair has been incorporated, I then apply the hairpiece.
Creating A Cruelty-Free
This method will also create a “double-barrier� for the sufferer, using their internal hair and the addition of the hairpiece. HelpMe2Stop endeavors to teach salons the most crueltyfree methods for sufferers. Classes are taught online or in your salon for a donation. To schedule a class, email board@helpme2stop.org or text/call 570.HELP.020
Barrier Under Hairpiece
How HelpMe2Stop Stops For almost a decade, HelpMe2Stop salons have been helping Sufferers become pull-free. The longest pull-free client, reported, is
Trich! over 9 years. HelpMe2Stop provides training to any salon or sufferer interested. For details: www.bit.ly/DreamHairClass
BEAUTRICHFUL TIPS Winter 2015 By: Camille Capriglione
I also realized that fidget toys (or fiddle toys,) are an important step in the process of becoming pull-free.
Ten years ago, while sitting in a hair salon, a stylist told me that I had severe breakage of hair near the back of my hairline and behind my ears. She was puzzled and couldn't figure out why. But I knew and was embarrassed. I'd been twirling and pulling that section of hair since my teens. I didn't know at the time that it was an obsessivecompulsive disorder, and I didn't learn what trichotillomania was until five years later. As I educated myself about trich, I realized how difficult it is to stop. For some people, it takes years of behavioral therapy or medication, and lots of trying and failing.
After I witnessed my young nephew twirling his hair last year, I thought why not create a fidget toy that simulates the tactile sensation? So I invented Twirl and Soothe.
Trich Sufferer Invents
BEAUTRICHFUL TIPS Winter 2015 Twirl and Soothe is made of synthetic hair. It is held in the hand or looped around the wrist or finger. The wearer strokes or twirls the item when the compulsion strikes, instead of pulling their own hair. It is small and discreet. The item is not a cure for the disorder, but serves as a temporary substitute, to help prevent users from damaging their hair and scalp. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT: In my research, I have not found products that provide the same tactile sensation as hair. As a sufferer myself, I realize how important that is. I discarded several hair textures before finalizing a prototype.
I began mailing samples to doctors who specialize in trich. A representative at Trich.org was kind enough to reply, with advice as to how I could make the product better. This type of helpful insight is invaluable! Currently, I'm seeking trich sufferers who would like to be product testers of Twirl and Soothe. With their guidance and input, I hope to make the product as effective as possible. If you are interested in being a product tester, please email Camille at this address: Twirlandsoothe@gmail.com.
Unique Fidget Toy
BEAUTRICHFUL SPONSORSHIP Winter 2015
HelpMe2Stop Advertising Info BeautTrichful is a seasonal magazine that can be viewed online or purchased through- BeautTrichful.com Sponsorship as low as $50. To include your salon in our worldwide listing locator guide, bit.ly/BeautyHelps For Trichotillomania Hair Loss Solution Classes bit.ly/DreamHairClass Send ad for the Spring 2014 issue to press@helpme2stop.org. To be our CoverGirl/Guy for future issues, please email your edited story to press@helpme2stop.org To send donated hairpieces, wigs, head coverings, etc, please mail along with detailed description to HelpMe2Stop, POB 202, Bartonsville, PA 18321 Photos of Cintia Rosas- MarilĂŠn Andrade.
HELPME2STOP POB 202 Bartonsville, PA 18321 570.HELP.020 Press@HelpMe2Stop.org
$200 $60
$125 $50 $40
$100 $30
$20