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A BAD HAIR DAY IS JUST WHERE THE STORY BEGINS.
WINNER 2003 International Health & Medical Media Award "A noteworthy film about this little-known or understood condition. It is well written and nicely paced, and provides a fine overview and introduction to this condition, with the emotional impact to help viewers understand the depth of the problem. Highly recommended!" "Bad Hair Life" is a poignant movie about the lives of people struggling to control their urge to pull hair. Trichotillomania is the diagnostic label, and its symptoms can be dry words till the emotions are experienced watching this movie. For the mental health clinician, there is no better way to begin to understand and empathize." "Magnificent in its ability to be moving, insightful, and educational.... I think that the movie will be tremendously helpful to professionals in training, really a must see." "I would recommend Ms. Raikes' film not only to trich sufferers, who would feel that their story has at last been told, I would also recommend it to their families and friends to help give them as close a sense of what this disorder is all about without actually having it. I would further recommend it to the many psychologists, psychiatrists, and other practitioners out there, whose professional training shamefully tends to exclude information about disorders of this type." "I truly feel that your film portrays honest, accurate and heartfelt information about trich. I have been a hair puller for 34 years and am thrilled that there is finally something straight forward and humanized that can be used to educate people about this unspoken disorder. Secrecy and shame so often accompany trich, and misinformation fed to the general public exasperate these feelings. It is a gift to have Bad Hair Life to help me through my journey towards recovery. A million thanks would never be enough." "We found it a very powerful documentary that provides lots of helpful information, insight, and inspiration for those who suffer with trich. As parents of a daughter with trich, we found in your film the perspective that loved ones need in order to better understand this condition. We are sure this will be a great help to many, many people." "I purchased this movie quite some time ago to watch with my 10 yr old daughter who has Trich. It IS a wonderful documentary. Matter of fact, we sat down and watched it 2 weeks after I discovered my daughter had this disorder. It remains a tool I use every few months. We sit down and watch it time and time again. It seems to mean more each time we see it." |
This vivid one-hour documentary explores the often deeply secretive disorder, trichotillomania, or compulsive hair-pulling.
The idea for this film grew out of the personal experience of Jennifer Raikes, a producer at Middlemarch Films, who has had trichotillomania for over 20 years. Five years in the making, the documentary is the first in depth portrayal of this complex disorder and the profound impact it has on the lives of those struggling with it. The documentary presents intimate portraits of adults and children at different stages of coping with hair-pulling. Using art, photography and interviews, Bad Hair Life examines the importance of hair to our identities and the cultural forces that make this disorder feel shameful. The director shares her own history with hair-pulling, starting when she was nine and idly pulled out her first eyelash, through years of embarrassment and hiding, to her present quest to understand this mysterious behavior. Expert researchers and clinicians discuss the disorder's causes and treatment. But the film's greatest power is in its intensely honest, first-hand accounts of life with trichotillomania. |
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