June 6, 2013

"I just got a haircut, and it's short enough that I can no longer play with my hair."

"What can I do instead?"

You might think this is an opportunity to how to avoid nervous, compulsive behavior, but here is someone trying to get new ideas for fidgeting.
Temporary fixes I've used in the past include playing with hair elastics worn around a wrist and squeezing small plushies/stuffed animals, but these tend to loose their appeal quickly with me. Knitting also quells this urge, but it's not really an option during my work day. Chewing gum is also out due to TMJ.

25 comments:

Tank said...

Smoke a cig.

Rusty said...


""I just got a haircut, and it's short enough that I can no longer play with my hair.""

"What should I do instead"


Play with yourself.

Strelnikov said...

Obsessively comment on blogs.

Deirdre Mundy said...

Bounce your legs. Flip Pencils. Drum your fingers. Get a desktop toy.

edutcher said...

I have a feeling there will be openings in the field of impromptu munitions fairly soon.

rehajm said...

Supposedly if you get a squishy ball and squeeze really hard for 5-10 seconds 10x per hand in a month you'll lower your blood pressure numbers by 10%.

Anonymous said...

TMJ - a sure sign of underlying craziness.

ndspinelli said...

Trichotillomania is a common OCD disorder.

tim maguire said...

If you have to do something, shift around a lot, drum your fingers or feet, rub imaginary sores, play with the weird hair you keep meaning to clip off but forget whenever you have clippers handy, click your fingernails by rubbing the edges against each other, if you have a swivel chair, swivel around without moving your upper body.

Possibilities for fidgeting are endless.

Clayton Hennesey said...

Why not try that knife thing the cyborg Ash (Ian Holm) does in the film Alien, except on your own weak side hand?

rcommal said...

Grow your hair back. Meanwhile: Extensions.

rcommal said...

Or one of those clip-on teeny braid thingies.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

She should pick her nose and examine each discovery.

William said...

Find the still center of the turning world and perch there.

bagoh20 said...

Do your damned job and stop just sitting there.

But if you are on your own time, I always enjoy the company of aggressive scab pickers.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Chew tobacco. Spit a lot!

DADvocate said...

How true. I used to work on the 4th floor of a building where we could look across at another building about 20 feet away and see a young female worker who continuously wrapped and unwrapped her hair around her index finger. Any time her hands were free of other tasks she did this.

learn how to relax.

DADvocate said...

She should pick her nose and examine each discovery.

This is the key to happiness as well as the secret of Zen.

Sam L. said...

Get a full drum set, and amplifiers!

glenn said...

Do more work.

gerry said...

Continuously attempt to expel flatus while avoiding disaster.

I mean, if one is seeking compulsion, let's get really involved.

Methadras said...

I think that many people are susceptible to the obsessive repetitive nature of bodily movements that their brains seem to have a need to want to perform in order to feel some sense of satisfaction. Not quite obsessive compulsive, but just on that precipice.

Freeman Hunt said...

Bounce your legs.

I am a leg bouncer. My father before me was a leg bouncer. Who knows from what ancestral depths this habit hails.

kcom said...

She could spend a few minutes learning to spell common words like "lose".

P.S. I just learned something. My phone spelled the word as loose and I had to manually change it to lose. Maybe it's one more thing to blame on auto-correct.

Crunchy Frog said...

Scratch yourself in inappropriate places and fora.