Hair Pulling and Skin Picking Hypnotherapy in Manchester
Hair pulling and skin picking can feel automatic, private, and difficult to control. You may find yourself pulling hair, picking skin, squeezing, scratching, scanning for imperfections, or trying to “fix” an uneven feeling before you have fully noticed what is happening.
These patterns are often described as body-focused repetitive behaviours, or BFRBs. Hair pulling is also known as trichotillomania. Skin picking may be called dermatillomania or excoriation disorder. Whatever language you use, the problem can become frustrating, visible, painful, and emotionally draining.
I’m Adrian Tannock, a CNHC-registered hypnotherapist based in Manchester city centre. Since 2005, I have helped adults with anxiety, habits, urges, body-focused repetitive behaviours, self-consciousness, stress, and related patterns using practical, psychologically informed hypnotherapy tailored to the person rather than a one-size-fits-all script.
My aim is not to shame you, force you, or simply tell you to “stop doing it”. The aim is to help you understand the pattern, notice it earlier, respond differently to urges, and build more choice in moments that currently feel automatic.
CNHC registered · Senior member of the General Hypnotherapy Register · Practising hypnotherapy in Manchester since 2005 · Private office on Deansgate · Registered and insured to practise
Trichotillomania, Dermatillomania, and Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviours
Hair pulling and skin picking are not always fully conscious. Sometimes there is a clear urge. Sometimes your hand is already there before you have made a deliberate choice. The behaviour may happen when you are anxious, bored, tired, overstimulated, concentrating, watching television, working, scrolling, driving, lying in bed, or looking in the mirror.
You may recognise some of the following:
- pulling hair from your scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows, beard, or other areas
- picking spots, scabs, rough skin, bumps, pores, or uneven areas
- scanning your skin or hair for something that feels wrong
- feeling tension, irritation, or discomfort before pulling or picking
- feeling relief, satisfaction, or release afterwards
- doing it automatically while watching television, working, or thinking
- losing time in front of the mirror
- promising yourself you will stop, then finding yourself doing it again
- feeling embarrassed, ashamed, or frustrated afterwards
- covering the effects with make-up, clothing, hairstyles, or avoidance
- avoiding bright light, photographs, intimacy, hairdressers, barbers, swimming, or social situations
- feeling caught between wanting to stop and feeling pulled back into the behaviour
These behaviours are not simply “bad habits”. They can become learned, repetitive patterns that the mind and body return to under particular conditions.
How Hair Pulling and Skin Picking Can Keep Themselves Going
Hair pulling and skin picking are often linked with urges, tension, emotion, attention, body sensations, and the immediate sense of relief or completion that follows the behaviour. For one person, pulling may happen mainly during stress. For another, picking may happen when scanning the skin for imperfections. Someone else may pull or pick when bored, overstimulated, tired, or alone. The exact pattern matters.
A self-reinforcing cycle can develop: a feeling, sensation, or situation triggers the urge; attention moves towards the hair, skin, or imperfection; tension or discomfort builds; pulling or picking brings brief relief or a sense of “fixing” something; the area may become more sensitive, uneven, or visible — and shame or self-criticism often follows, making the behaviour more likely to return in similar situations.
Many of the things people do to cope — scanning, checking, trying to fix the area, hiding the effects, or promising never again — make complete sense. The difficulty is that they can accidentally keep the loop going. An urge can feel urgent without being an instruction. Part of the work is learning how to pause, notice it, and choose a response before the old routine takes over.
Shame often makes the cycle harder to interrupt, so the work also involves responding to setbacks in a way that is firm, kind, and practical rather than punishing. The issue is not weakness. It is becoming caught in a loop where triggers, urges, automatic behaviour, relief, and self-criticism reinforce each other.
How Therapy May Help with Hair Pulling and Skin Picking
Therapy for hair pulling and skin picking is usually most useful when it addresses the whole pattern: triggers, urges, emotional states, automatic routines, body sensations, self-criticism, and the situations where pulling or picking is most likely to happen.
The work may draw on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Habit Reversal Training, mindfulness, and hypnotherapy. Together, these approaches can help you notice urges earlier, interrupt automatic routines, handle the discomfort of not acting on the urge, and practise more useful responses.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people respond more flexibly to difficult thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations while taking action guided by what matters to them. You can read more on my Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Manchester page. With hair pulling and skin picking, ACT may help you notice the urge, the “not right” feeling, or the thought “I need to fix this” without immediately acting on it.
Habit Reversal Training can help create practical interruption points, while ACT can help with the discomfort, frustration, or incompleteness that may show up when you do not pull or pick. Mindfulness can help you become more aware of the urge as it begins, rather than only noticing once the behaviour is already underway — not by sitting perfectly still with your eyes closed, but by learning to notice thoughts, sensations, and hand movements earlier, so there is more room for choice.
Hypnotherapy may help by working with the automatic, learned aspects of the pattern. In hypnosis, we may rehearse new responses, reduce the stress cycle that feeds the behaviour, and help your mind and body practise responding differently when urges appear.
Depending on your needs, the work may involve:
- understanding your specific pulling or picking pattern — its triggers, high-risk situations, and early warning signs
- noticing urges earlier, and reducing the build-up of tension or restlessness
- interrupting automatic hand movements, and developing alternative responses
- making room for discomfort without needing to fix it immediately
- stepping back from harsh self-critical thoughts, and reducing mirror scanning or checking behaviour
- rehearsing new responses in hypnosis, and mental rehearsal for difficult moments
- building confidence after setbacks
- looking at what this problem has been stopping you from doing, and what you would like to move back towards
- simple between-session practices, where helpful
The aim is not to shame or force yourself into stopping. The aim is to reduce the frequency and intensity of the pattern, interrupt it earlier, and build a steadier, more effective way of responding when the urge appears.
Common Trigger Situations
Hair pulling and skin picking often happen more in particular contexts. Common examples include:
- sitting at a desk
- watching television
- scrolling on a phone
- looking in the mirror
- lying in bed
- driving or travelling
- reading, studying, or concentrating
- working under pressure
- feeling anxious, frustrated, tired, or bored
- feeling overstimulated or emotionally overloaded
- being alone with your thoughts
- noticing a rough edge, uneven hair, spot, scab, or skin texture
- trying to make skin or hair feel “right”
Understanding your specific triggers helps make the work more precise. Someone who pulls hair while stressed may need a different approach from someone who picks skin while scanning for imperfections in the mirror.
A Brief Example of How the Work May Unfold
Someone might come for help because they pick their skin in the mirror at night. On the surface, they may describe the problem as, “I know I should stop, but once I start I can’t leave it alone.”
When we look more closely, the pattern usually has several parts: tiredness or stress at the end of the day, scanning the skin for imperfections, and feeling tension when something looks uneven. Picking creates a feeling of relief or completion, but time gets lost in the process, and the marks need covering the next day — followed by shame, and a promise not to do it again that rarely survives the next quiet evening.
The work would then address the pattern from several angles. We might look at the trigger situation, the urge, the scanning, the relief, the self-criticism, and the practical environment around the behaviour. We may also practise noticing the “I need to fix this” thought as a thought, rather than treating it as something that has to be acted on immediately.
Hypnosis may be used to rehearse noticing the urge earlier, stepping away from the mirror, calming the body, and choosing a different response before the old pattern gathers momentum. Habit Reversal Training strategies may be used to create a practical interruption point, and mindfulness may help you notice the urge and hand movement sooner. We may also look at what you want to regain: comfort, confidence, freedom around appearance, or simply less time lost to the behaviour.
The work is not only about stopping the behaviour. It is about helping you regain choice in moments that currently feel automatic.
When This Approach May Be a Good Fit
This approach may suit you if hair pulling or skin picking is affecting your confidence, comfort, appearance, skin, hair, daily life, or emotional wellbeing.
You do not need to arrive with the pattern perfectly understood. Part of the work is to make sense of it together. What helps is a willingness to look honestly at when the behaviour happens, practise new responses, and bring small parts of the work into everyday life between sessions.
This approach may be especially relevant if the behaviour is linked with anxiety, stress, boredom, self-soothing, perfectionism, shame, low confidence, sensory discomfort, mirror checking, or difficulty tolerating urges.
If you want thoughtful, active support to understand and change a hair pulling or skin picking pattern, we can discuss whether this approach seems suitable during the consultation.
When to Seek Additional Support
Hair pulling and skin picking can sometimes cause infection, scarring, wounds, hair loss, pain, or significant distress. If the behaviour has caused injury, infection, bleeding, skin damage, bald patches, or a serious impact on your daily life, it is sensible to speak with your GP, dermatologist, or another appropriate healthcare professional.
If pulling or picking is part of a wider pattern involving obsessive-compulsive symptoms, trauma, depression, self-harm, eating difficulties, or severe anxiety, you may also need additional specialist support.
Hypnotherapy can be helpful when urges, stress, automatic routines, and emotional patterns are part of the problem, but it is not a substitute for necessary medical or mental health care.
We can still discuss whether hypnotherapy may be a useful part of your wider support, but safety and appropriate care come first.
What to Expect Next
The first step is usually a consultation. We can talk through how hair pulling or skin picking affects you, when it happens, what you have already tried, and what you would like to be different.
I will ask questions to help us understand the pattern more clearly and explain how I may be able to help. There is no pressure to make a decision on the spot. You are welcome to take time afterwards to decide whether you would like to go ahead.
You can also read more about the wider process on my page about what to expect from hypnotherapy.
Contact me
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Arrange a Consultation
If you would like to discuss whether hair pulling and skin picking hypnotherapy in Manchester may be suitable for you, you are welcome to get in touch and arrange your free 60-minute consultation, held online or at my private Manchester city centre office on Deansgate. I also work with trichotillomania, dermatillomania, excoriation disorder, nail biting, and related body-focused repetitive behaviours.
To take the next step, use the contact form or call me on 07790 506375.