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The Trich Prof

I live with, study, and advocate for people with body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRBs: picking, pulling or biting of hair, skin or nails).

BFRBs are not a choice or a character flaw. Share anything to help me raise awareness and reduce stigma! 🙏

09/09/2026

A difficult post to write...

I’m so sad that we found ourselves here, and enormously grateful to everyone who has contributed to BFRB Con 2026

More information (including the official statement) at www.bfrbcon.org.

Now, back to BFRBs...

03/09/2026

Oxford, here we come! 🇬🇧

I’m so excited to be part of the BFRB UK & Ireland Conference 2026 this October, organised by my dear friend Prof. Clare Mackay and the incredible BFRB UK & Ireland team.

I’ll be contributing in a few different ways, but one is especially close to my heart. 🤍

I’ll be speaking on “Why Parent Education Matters in BFRB Recovery: Reducing Shame and Strengthening Support.”
I come to this conversation not only as a mental health professional working in the BFRB community, but also as a parent of children with BFRBs. I know personally how important understanding and support at home can be, and how much parents need support and guidance too.

I’ll also be:

• joining a discussion on International Perspectives and Global Collaboration

• presenting a research poster on help-seeking in BFRBs, drawing on more than 21,000 SkinPick and TrichStop intake assessments and exploring the different paths people take before seeking support

I’m really looking forward to learning, sharing, reconnecting with familiar faces and meeting new ones.

If you’re going to be in Oxford too, please come and say hello! There is still time to get your tickets!

28/08/2026

One way I manage my hair-pulling

26/08/2026

What happens when science, lived experience and community come together in the same room?

In this conversation, Prof. Clare Mackay joins Meryl Da Costa to explore why conferences focused on hair pulling, skin picking and other body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRBs) can be so valuable.

They reflect on the connections these spaces create, what we can learn when researchers, professionals and people with lived experience come together, and the growing number of BFRB conferences — from events that have taken place this year to upcoming gatherings, including the BFRB UK & Ireland Conference in Oxford.

Missed the live session? The recording is now available to watch.

▶️ Watch here: https://youtu.be/P_AJsbU_ssg

Have questions about hair pulling or treatment options? Reach us at [email protected]

25/08/2026

Why would you want to come to a conference about BFRBs? Well the feedback we had after our first Oxford BFRB conference might persuade you...

All of the numbers are important and meaningful, but the one that matters most to us is on slide 6. We asked how people with BFRBs felt about their behaviours after the conference. 46% said 'much better', 37% said 'a bit better' and 17% said they 'already felt OK' about their BFRBs. We gave people the options of 'no change' and 'worse' but no one ticked those boxes.

It can be a HUGE deal to walk through that door if you struggle with BFRBs. We know how you feel... I personally spent 40 years not feeling able to join in. If you are able to come to , we will look after you, and there is a very good chance that you will leave feeling better.

Don't hesitate to ask - either in the comments or DM - if you have any questions.

22/08/2026

What happens when BFRB research and lived experience come together?

Join Meryl Da Costa and Prof. Clare Mackay as they explore why BFRB conferences matter, from sharing research and challenging stigma to building community and bringing professionals and lived experience into the same conversation.

Because these spaces are about more than learning. They’re about connection, understanding, and helping shape what comes next.

Register your place here: www.trichstop.com/webinar

12/08/2026

BFRB Con 2026 is less than 2 months away! We would like to thank the incredible organisations that have made this conference possible🫶

A huge thank you to our sponsors LEO Foundation, HabitAware and HelpingMinds for your generous contributions to the conference.
We are also proud to collaborate with some amazing non-profit organisations: the Picking Me Foundation, Neurodiverse Voices Connect, and BFRB Changemakers.
Last, but certainly not least, we are excited to host TRICH: A Solo Show on the evening of Friday the 9th of October, sponsored by HabitAware.

Want to be part of BFRB Con 2026? There's still time to sponsor or collaborate! Find out more information about our sponsorship packages at bfrbcon.org.

.voices.connect

11/08/2026

Another post inspired by an observation...

Do you experience zones where your BFRB urges are more or less frequent or intense? I've mapped mine, and I think it tells me something interesting and important. When we live with urges we can get very focused on the behaviour (the picking, pulling or biting) and maybe not notice that vast areas of our bodies don't experience urges.

I've lived with urges to pull hair for 40 years, but most of the hairy bits of my body don't experience urges. The vast majority of my pulling has been on my head, and even then, there are places without urges. For example, I've never had urges to pull from the front, sides or back of my scalp hair - it's just the crown that was a problem. And even within the confines of my eyelashes (my biggest problem) there are zones that have urges that are much worse (harder to resist) than others.

This is why the area of psychodermatology is so important for understanding BFRBs. BFRBs are not just a generic 'behaviour', or a purely psychological problems, because we focus on specific areas of our bodies, which suggests there is something different about the physiology of the hair/skin in those areas. We need to understand more about how our emotions and skin interact to create urges.

We'll be exploring this at BFRB Con in Oxford this October, and it's not too late to join us! All the info you need is at www.bfrbcon.org.

I'm really interested to hear whether this resonates with others. Is this specific to hair-pulling or can skin-pickers relate too? Are other people's zones completely different to mine? Do they stay the same or move around? I suspect it's very individual, but it would be interesting if there are common patterns.

04/08/2026

In a world where our feeds are full of miracle cures for everything, I thought it might be helpful to do an intro post about what 'evidence-based' means.

Compared to other areas of mental health, the evidence based for BFRB treatments is rather thin. No drug treatments have reached the threshold of evidence required to be recommended for BFRBs. There is decent evidence that behavioural therapies like habit reversal therapy (HRT) reduce picking, pulling or biting over the short term, but little/no evidence for long term benefit. Anecdotally, I (and many others I've talked to) have had a course of HRT found that it wasn't something I was able to maintain. Beyond that there are some interesting ideas/hunches, but not yet the evidence-base to support our (or our healthcare providers') decision making.

This is not good enough - we need and deserve better!

I'm thinking about ways to support people with good ideas to collect evidence. Let me know if you are interested in a chat about that.

Address

Oxford

Website

http://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/BFRBs, https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/clare-mackay/keep-your-hair-on/9781472149930/, htt

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