2. Pleasure, gratification, or relief when pulling out one's hair.
3. The unnatural and irresistible urge to pullout one's own hair.
It is estimated that eight million Americans are affected by this compulsive action.
Sites of hair pulling may include any region of the body in which hair may grow with the most common areas being the scalp, eyebrows, and eyelashes. Stressful circumstances frequently cause some increased hair-pulling behavior, but increased hair pulling also occurs in states of relaxation and distraction; such as, when watching television or reading a book.
Trichotillomania (TTM) or "trich" is an impulse control disorder characterized by the repeated urge to pull out scalp hair, eyelashes, beard hair, nose hair, pubic hair, eyebrows or other body hair. It may be distantly related to obsessive-compulsive disorder, with which it shares both similarities and differences.