Are you suffering from Hands in Hair Syndrome? I've got the cure for you!

I was inspired to write this post today from an email question I received. This young lady and I have something very much in common. We both have a terminal case of hands in hair disease. For those of you who aren't familiar, hands in hair disease is the uncontrollable desire need to fondle, touch, and play with your hair. Most often, this man-handling occurs several times throughout the day. Sometimes our actions are subconscious and we don't even notice that we're inadvertently repeating this behavior. You may be asking yourself "what's so wrong about playing with my hair? I love doing it!" The problem with disease is that it's a silent killer, slowly threatening the health and thickness of your hair without you even knowing it. Trust me, I know the devastating effects of this monster first hand.

So let's discuss some obvious symptoms of the dreaded hands in hair disease. You may be a sufferer of hands in hair disease if you exhibit the following behaviors:

• You catch yourself playing with parts of your hair throughout the day. Including your ends, nape, edges, or any other exposed area.
• You take your hair down several times a day to redo your bun, ponytail for absolutely no reason whatsoever.
• You're aware that you are constantly playing with your hair but you can't make yourself stop no matter what you do.

If any of the above sounds familiar to you. You may have a severe case of the infamous hands in hair disease. In the past, this condition was terminal (for your hair), but I think I may have found some effective treatments that may cure you of your ailment once an for all.

Remedy #1: Know your triggers

My hands in hair disease has cost me dearly. I knew I reached a breaking point when I realized that the left side of my hair was suffering dearly at the hands of my every own..........hands. Triggers are the situations that cause you to start playing with your hair. Sometimes a trigger might be boredom or stress. For me, stress was the main trigger. Everyday when I drove home from work, I would take my hair down and start playing with the left side of my hair while my other hand was on the wheel. Looking back at those days, I realized that my hair was shedding like crazy and playing with it only made the situation worse. So day after day, I would drive home and spend nearly an hour over-manipulating my hair. As a result, the left side of my hair thinned out tremendously. Turns out I was doing this unconsciously. Once I became hip to what I was doing, I decided that playing with my hair while driving could no longer be an option for me. Today, I no longer use a long car ride as an excuse to zone out and cause damage to my hair. As a result, my hair is much happier overall.

Remedy #2: Pre-occupy yourself

One of the ways, I avoid messing with my hair is by putting my hands to work doing something else. When I want to avoid boredom hair fondling, I tend to engage in other activities that keep my hands pre-occupied. Most notably, I like to rub my fingernails together. You might remember from my previous posts that rubbing fingernails together is thought to help promote hair growth by stimulating the scalp through nerve endings located near our fingernail beds. Not only am I promoting healthy hair growth, I'm also creating strong beautiful nails when I rub them together. So now I have a choice, I can either run my hands through my hair and pose more harm to it or I can rub my fingernails and improve both my nails and hair at the same time. Every time I make the right choice, I reap the benefits.

Rubbing your fingernails isn't the only option, you can substitute hair playing by picking up a pen and start writing that book you've always wanted to publish. You can also update your calendar, repaint your nails, do 10 jumping jacks or whatever. Basically, you have a million other options of what you can do with the time you use to play with your hair. You might even set up a little challenge for yourself. Anytime you catch yourself playing with your hair, you have to do 10 sit-ups. That way, you have a flat stomach and thicker hair by summer.

Remedy #3: Try new hairstyles

If my hair is down all day, there's a 100% chance I will play with it. If I wear a bun, I'm likely to take it down and fondle every couple of hours. However, if I wear my hair in curls, I turn into a good girl and suddenly I have the ability to keep my hands in check. For some reason, the need to have defined, beautiful curls overtakes my obsession with hair touching. Don't get me wrong, I still touch my hair, but I don't do it in the way that is as destructive as when my hair is in a straight style. I also noticed that when I wore that cute single braid, I would still play with it but the braid kept my hair protected while I fondled. Styles like the one below also work well for me. A clean polished look is key to this style and I can't afford to let my roaming hands get in the way of the intended look.

Remedy #4: Use your hands for good

Sometimes, keeping my hands out of my hair is impossible so instead of trying to avoid it, I use my hands to benefit my tresses. If my hands are gonna be in my hair several times a day, might as well take the opportunity to re-moisturize and seal throughout the day. This gives you the opportunity to satisfy your urge for a mid-day feel all while re-freshing the look and feel of your hair.

My all time favorite thing to do with my hair now is to use my hands (that once use to cause damage to my hair) to give me a scalp massage. Whenever I want to play with my hair, my tendency is to reach for my ends. The result of doing this long-term has contributed to thinning ends. Now I try to focus my hands on giving me scalp massages that promote growth and a healthy scalp. Now, if I want to play with my ends, I vow to utilize that time to add moisturizer or Gleau Argan oil blend to nourish my ends.

I hope these suggestions will give you hope in knowing that you don't have to suffer through living with hands in hair disease for the rest of your life. You can live a normal life again. One where you can go through the day without the embarrassment of uncontrollable hands in hair syndrome.

Good day.