Split End Pickers?

I would just like to say I'm so glad I'm not the only one who does this. Most of my split ends are on my bangs, and almost all of them are split. I look even weirder, with my now super short bangs pulled close to my face. I feel this weird sense of accomplishment or joy when I find a really unusual type of split end. I even looked up pictures of magnified split ends online! This is getting out of control. I'm going to start trying to wear a headband. It's weird, how one girl said she could feel which hairs were split without looking. That's actually pretty cool. But alas, I MUST STOP THIS!

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Sorry I posted that like three times.

I am 60 years old and recently re-started picking at my split ends and pulling out my hair. I am on anti anxiety and anti depression medication and have been for a while. I used to do this as a teenager. I believe I did it because I was molested by my grandfather and it blocked out the memories of that. I had extremely short hair most of my adult life, and when I decided to let my hair grow, I had to use flat irons on it to get the curl and frizz out. I think that's what caused all the split ends! It's comforting even at my age to know that other people suffer from this malady.

omg okay so im sooooo glad i am not the only one! i have NO idea how this addiction started but i am totally aware that its an addiction. So heres my story. I started doing this at age 12. and i was obsessed. i couldnt stop. when i was in class or just bored or maybe even just watching tv i would find my self later picking at my split ends. and my split ends are the bad kind. the "Tree split ends" they're just soooo fun to pull out. i love rubbing my fingers up and down when i find multiple split ends on one strand. So i remeber this one time in 7th grade aka when i was 12. i was in science class and my teacher always threatened to cut my hair off with scissors bc i wouldnt leave my hands alone and once she warned me about giving me detention if i wouldnt stop. so obviously i got the detention. and she always called my mom about it. it was bad. then the end of 8th grade i stopped. and now... at age 15 in 10th grade i just got diagnosed with ADHD and ive been taking concerta and it brought back this addiction! i cannooooott put my hair down anymore! its sooo bad i have a hole on my index finger from pressing my thumb nail on it. and in class i would be doing this then 10 minutes later i realized i have been doing this for the past 30 minutes and i would find bunch of hairs on my desk and its so embarrising. i cant stop and i dont want to cut my hair. its already longer than shoulder length. is this a disease? idk help.

OK SO basically i started randomly pulling my split ends apart when i saw then. I didnt really think anything of it. after a while i started taking thicker chunks, starting halfway through my hair, and sliding my nail down it. Therefore, taking out a million split ends at a time. Its crazy. idek wht to do anymore. No one understand how happy i get when i see a split end with multiple splits. i will literally pull out that strand and examine it for a good 10 mintues. idek what to do anymore. someone help me,

im so glad im not the only one i can literally sit in the mirror for hours & pick my split ends its like it gives me a rush i love it but i really wish i could stop its honestly the only thing that outs me to sleep at night or just to relax me during the day

I constantly stare and pick at my split ends. I do it so much im starting to pull my hair out! I do it everywhere. Also I don't just pick at my split ends I also like to find really tiny knots and pull them apart because I have super straight hair naturally and when I pick the knots the strands get curly. Even when im not looking at my hair im combing my fingers through it. I guess its like a security thing? But all my friends and family have noticed. Before I started picking my ends, I have always had a thing about having shiny healthy hair. I was super OCD about it! But something that really helps me is putting my hair in a high pony tail or bun. In a high pony, its harder to look but not impossible. In a bun, you cant at all. In a bun I don't even feel the urge to look. I just kinda forget. But yeah looking at my hair is super annoying. Im thirteen right now and its almost summer vacation which means swimming and when your hair is wet you cant see the split ends. But my habbit needs to be broken and idk what else to do!

For the split-end pickers like me, you know it's obnoxious when you hear suggestions like, "just go get a haircut more often, that simple- once the split-ends are gone, the problem is gone." I get a 3-4in cut every 6 to 8 months, and in between I get regular trims to (try to) manage the breakage. I also use multiple expensive professional haircare products for dry and damaged hair, and take biotin supplements off and on. But, unfortunately, I was just born with naturally very fine and thin hair, so breakage comes at a much faster rate for me than most. So even after a good cut or trim, Ill find myself scouring each and every section of my hair for splits just after a few days of that "freshly trimmed relief." My sister is a hairdresser, so I'm reminded on a regular basis how terrible for you hair it is, but my body just won't let me stop. There's no other way to describe it other than being maddeningly obsessed. Once I start doing it, especially in class, attempting to study, or watching TV, I turn into a robot. I don't care about anything else- my mind just goes numb- and that's all I can think about for the next several hours. Even when I'm in the middle of extremely important exams, if I think I see a split, I'll put down my pencil and start searching. And if I'm not searching, I'm constantly running my fingers through my hair. I've had an obsession since middle school about good looking, healthy hair, especially when bleaching my thin hair turned me into a frazzled, ugly mess. People made fun of my hay-hair and the ridiculous cut I had to have due to so much breakage. Now I'm constantly making sure my hair looks good- I can't really even go to bed without blow-drying it to make sure it doesn't look ridiculous. The intense split-end picking has gone on for about 5 years now- and at 24yo it's become exhausting, frustrating, and defeating. I hate that I'm so fixated on picking my ends, especially in public. People must think I'm a total mental case. I just wanna stop ruining my hair!

Raises hand... Yes, I do that-- My hair is curly, tends to be dry, and since I prefer it mid length vs short I am constantly acquiring and cutting split ends. Sometimes I justify it by telling myself the hair will continually split unless I cut it (which does have an ounce of truth). However, like picking, I can sometimes get into a trance and go berserk cutting them.

Thank God I'm not the only one! I don't know when I started but it's been years! I love picking my hair. I don't know what it is but I do it constantly. I love looking for them, I love peeling them apart, I love the sound when they break off but, I HATE the way my hair looks but I can't stop! I get some kind of joy seeing all the hair I've picked off but then I'm like I wonder my hair looks like crap! I hope we can all stop this. Btw, I have like little white balls throughout my hair and I love the sound of breaking them off and feeling for them throughout my hair. Anyone else have that problem?

It makes me feel better knowing there are others who do this. My story started in Junior high when I was 13. I had gotten my first hair straightener and I would straighten my hair almost everyday and because of this is it made my hair really dry and damaged. I would pick the split ends mostly because I felt like getting rid of them made my hair 'better'. I would cut the split ends but if I didn't have anything to cut them with nearby then I would rip it off which I know isn't good. But then in 9th grade I did online homeschooling so I was home all the time by myself and because of that my picking addiction became worse. I started finding hairs that felt rough and dry and I would pick at those hairs and pick off the rough parts of the hair. then in 10th grade I went back to public school and the addiction kind of got better just because I wouldn't pick in public because it was way too embarrassing. I picked at the crown of my head and now I have a short section of hair there and a cowlick which I don't know if that was always there or if picking caused it. then in 11th grade I started picking at the sides of my head and now those sections are short too. Now I am 19 and in my first year of college and for the past year it's been the most noticeable and I've been trying to stop. I sometimes can go a few days without picking and when I do pick it's usually at night or when I'm really stressed out or bored. I tend to always put my hair up because I don't pick at it as much when it's up. Lately I've been wearing a wig cap at night that covers my whole head and it keeps me from picking especially at night when I'm most likely to do it. I just hope that everyone that has this problem can stop picking completely.

Mj721 i totally feel your pain! When I was 8y hair turned from long l

Mj721 i totally feel your pain! When I was 8 I found my gorgeous straight locks started turning into frizz and curls and since then I've been looking for ways to make it straight. (Quite ironic really as I begged my parents for a perm and they would never allow it and then it came anyway but in a bush head kinda way) Since GHD's became the solution I also find these white blobs on my hair strands and they drive me insane. I love snapping them, twisting the hair around them, pulling them out but it's drives me mad as I've been trying to grow my hair long again since I was 16 and I'm now 29! I also have a section at the back that I constantly twist and I don't know I'm doing it. I tried to get friends and family to tell me to stop when they noticed I was doing it but now it's got to the stage that I resent them telling me because I love the moments I'm doing it but hate it afterwards. I've even resorted previously to sitting watching TV with a pair of gloves but since it's summer that's not an option haha! Whenever I look down and see all the split ends I've broken off I feel awful and riddled with guilt following my lack of will power to stop! Years ago I caused loads of breakage around the front and wore extensions for a while. Do you think being hypnotised is the solution, I hear it works for all kind of things?! What a crazy addiction we have.....people don't get it so I decided to Google it tonight and feel relived I'm not the only one as most people have stated on here.....help is required as I keep telling myself no more but really can't stop!! X

omg i do this, it comes and goes though, it started when i was 11 i think (thats the first time i remember picking anything) and i would pick my eyelashes out until the point where my parents thought i had alopecia, i couldn't admit to them that i'd done it, then i started plucking out my pubes, plucking my eyebrows, leg hairs, compulsively squeezing spots and blackheads, cutting myself (i don't know if thats a symptom or a different matter entirely) and then started this split hair picking, i'll be watching tv or something and then i look down and I'm covered in little bits of hair and my thumb aches under the nail - i try and find a way to keep my hands occupied all the time but its so satisfying! it comes and goes when I'm stressed, anxious, sad etc - I'm just trying to condition myself to control it :(

I thought I was alone. I spend hours peeling apart my split ends... and running my fingers on my hair strands looking for the ones that feel rough or damaged so I can pick them apart, analyze them, and then put them on the ground and get them away from me. It brings me way too much satisfaction. I am ashamed of it! Before long, Ill notice tons of short hairs on the ground next to me that I have ripped out. Im very embarrassed by it.