The Trich Prof

03/07/2026

There was a glitch and it looks like it's fixed... Keep Your Hair On is now available for pre-order in the US, and will be shipped in less than 2 weeks.

Thanks for your patience.

30/06/2026

Lovely review! 🙏🙏🙏💙🦚💙

We’re excited to recommend “Keep Your Hair On” by Clare Mackay, a must read for anyone seeking to better understand hair pulling, skin picking, and other BFRBs. The book offers an excellent analysis of the existing literature, with a clear picture of where research still needs to go. Clare uses her expertise as a neuroscientist along with her lived experience with hair pulling and skin picking to make this book an incredibly valuable resource. We especially appreciated the emphasis on the trancelike state that so often accompanies these behaviors. Understanding this dissociative quality is essential, and treatment has to address it directly to be effective. The book’s focus on compassion as a tool for combating shame is a message that is extremely important for everyone in the BFRB community to understand.

Our Chief Clinical Advisor, Dr. Laura Chackes, was lucky enough to meet Clare Mackay in person to get this autographed paperback copy that is not yet available in the US. The audiobook is available on Amazon and Spotify, and is narrated by Clare herself in her clear, engaging voice. We highly recommend this book to anyone living with a BFRB, their loved ones, and treatment providers. It’s a must read for everyone in this community, whether you’re new to BFRBs or have years of experience.

28/06/2026

Ooooh!!! Thank you to the The Hidden 20% for adding my book to your very excellent list of resources for people interested in neurodivergence!

I'm a bit of a fan, so am pinching myself...

Check it out: https://hidden20.org/resources?neurotype=neurodivergent&type=read

26/06/2026

We're almost ready to share the programme for BFRB Con and it's looking AMAZING! We had >40 submissions and are working on fitting as much in as possible.

We know some of you will want to see the programme before deciding whether to come, so we've extended the early bird registration rates until the end of July.

Watch this space!

23/06/2026

June 20th is the Trich Prof's birthday!

(It's not actually my birthday... it's just the anniversary of my 'coming out' post)

It's been a whirlwind, and the momentum continues to grow. Thanks to everyone who has come on the journey with me, and the many new friends I've made. I found my tribe, and am so glad to be amongst you.

Onwards and upwards!

#

22/06/2026

I read lots of books and papers while doing the research for Keep Your Hair On, and they're all listed in the back of the book, but here are some of the books that had a particularly big influence:

1) The Compassionate Mind by Paul Gilbert (). This book has a huge impact on me - it was a really important influence on changing my mindset from self-criticism to self-compassion.

2) Behave: the Biology of Humans at their Best and Worst by Robert Sapolsky (.sapolsky). Anyone who has listened to me over the last few years knows how much I look to primates as a way of understanding human behaviour - this book explains why

3) Stigma: Notes of the Management of Spoiled Identity by Erving Goffman is a little gem of a book. It was the first description of the various ways in which stigma manifests and affects us.

4) Healing the Shame that Binds You by John Bradshaw. I also watched, listened to and read lots of Brene Brown () while learning about shame, but this older book captured something about the experience that I thought really nailed it.

5) The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (). A colleague lent me this book as I was heading off for a break from work for a few weeks, and it had a big impact. The central message is that we're all creative - we just need to stop damning our own river and let it flow. Creativity helps me in so many ways on this journey.

All highly recommended!

17/06/2026

Body focused repetitive behaviours share features with, and often co-occur with, other disorders, but it's so important that we don't ''sweep them under the carpet'.

The evidence suggests that around 80% of people with BFRBs who make it into a specialist clinic have a co-occuring disorder (e.g. Grant et al, Psych Res, 2020), and these are many/varied (everything from anxiety [55%], ADHD [29%], bipolar disorder [19%], addiction [18%], eating disorders [17%] etc). However, most of us never make it into one of these clinics/studies, and arguably, those who do are more likely to have additional needs/complications.

Notwithstanding the issues around over/under diagnosis, the way I interpret this evidence is that anything that increases distress makes BFRBs more likely, and that BFRBs are a consequence of distress for some people.

And importantly, not everyone with BFRBs has another diagnosis!

If we want to properly understand what makes us experience uncontrollable urges to pick, pull or bite at their hair, skin or nails, and find the best ways of supporting people to manage them effectively, I think it is vitally important that we recognise BFRBs as distinct.

14/06/2026

A month to go until this year's BABCP, which will feature a BFRB symposium for the first time. https://babcp.com/events/2026-annual-conference/

BABCP (British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies) is the leading organisation for CBT practitioners in the UK. The majority of training courses for therapists includes little or nothing about BFRBs, and we're doing what we can to change that.

If you are a therapist (clinicial psychologist, counsellor, etc) - please consider coming along. If you have, or know, a therapist - please encourage them to come along.
If you're not a therapist, or can't make this year's BABCP, but would love to know more, please come to our own BFRB conference in Oxford in October! www.bfrbcon.org

12/06/2026

I thought this was a great idea when I saw 's post, so here is mine. I'm a geek, so I've probably over-complicated it, but I hope it's understandable.

I think of my BFRBs as a constant, so it's really interesting to notice the ways they've changed over the the years, including the times I was able to manage them more effectively (until recently, only briefly).

One of the times I managed to stop pulling out my eyelashes for a few months was when I was pregnant. I remember being motivated by not wanting my son to have a mum with no eyelashes. That makes me feel a bit sad now.

Since learning self-compassion my BFRB urges are generally easier to manage, but they haven't gone away, and I've come to accept that they never probably never will. I no longer live with distress, so that means I would no longer meet diagnostic criteria for a disorder, and that's good enough for me.