How Sara Sampaio Deals with Her Hair-Pulling Disorder

“The worst thing you can say to someone is to just stop doing it”

sara sampaio eyebrows

Sitting on the end of a New York City hotel bed, mere feet away from Sara Sampaio, it’s hard to make direct eye contact. There’s too much else to take in: her improbably equal-sized lips, the sheen coming off her brunette waves, the slope of her cheekbones. But it’s her eyebrows that distract me most. They’re dark and full, but not heavy, with a pronounced curve that reminds me of every brow sketch I’ve ever seen on waxing salons’ signage.

It’s those famous arches that have been getting a lot of attention lately—but for a reason I’d never detect sitting here with the 27-year-old model now, at the launch party for Moroccanoil’s new vitamin-C-packed Night Body Serum (she became an ambassador for the brand last year, in addition to her coveted Victoria’s Secret Angel status). Recently, Sampaio told her 6.8 million followers on Instagram Stories that she suffers from a hair-pulling disorder. When a follower asked about Sampaio’s brow routine, the model took to her Stories to share her struggle. “Well, I try not to touch them, but unfortunately I suffer from trichotillomania and I pull on them!” she wrote, explaining that she pencils in the gaps.

She later added that it’s something she’s dealt with since she was 15, and that, while she’s fortunate to have a mild case, it always worsens when she’s under stress. Like, the kind of stress that the lead-up to an annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show—which happens live on Thursday, November 8, and will air on Sunday, December 2—could bring? “Yeah, when I haven’t slept much, I notice myself doing it quite a lot,” Sampaio tells me.

Though the pressures of her job can make her condition worse, she’s using her platform to help raise both awareness and funds. She teamed up with the TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviours to auction a pair of tickets to this year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, a meet and greet and the after-party, with bidding that started at $24,999 (the final sale amount isn’t publicly disclosed). She plans to keep working with the foundation, and is committed to keeping the conversation about trichotillomania going. In that spirit, she told us all about how she manages the disorder.

Why she decided to share her personal story:

“I’ve always been very open about it and all the people that are close to me knew about it. Because I have a very mild case and it’s very easy for me to cover it up, I’ve never felt self-conscious about it. I was just doing those Instagram Questions and someone asked me what I do with my eyebrows. Knowing so many people that follow me that suffer from it didn’t even know what it was—that’s what brought me to talk more about it. I’m either going to help people or educate people.”

What the response was like:

“I’m still receiving so many messages from wonderful people that were like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you suffer from the same thing,’ or, ‘I do that as well; I thought I was weird.’ It’s just been so incredible to be a part of it and the response has been so heartwarming.”

How she first came to terms with the disorder:

“I had a lot of ticks growing up, but they always went away. I would press my eyes, squint, do stuff with my fingers. I always bit my lips and things like that, but they would always go away. Then, I started doing this on my eyebrows and I never really thought about it, but when I started having gaps, people would ask me, ‘Did someone cut your eyebrows?’ Or, ‘Why are you doing that?’ It felt good, and it was kind of like a stress relief at the same time. It’s part of the reason why it’s really hard to stop; it feels really good. When I started getting gaps, I realized that this is kind of different, so I started googling to understand more. I went to a psychiatrist and I told him, ‘I think I suffer from this,’ and he was like, ‘Yeah.’ But I don’t do it with my hair on my head, and he told me you can do it with other body parts. I think that’s also what made me go look for a doctor; I was worried that I’d start pulling on my hair and that’s when the situation can get worse because it gets harder to cover it and it can lead to your hair never growing again. I was worried I couldn’t get through it, but he was like, ‘Yes, you can.’ He’s helping me figure out what works and what doesn’t, and we’re going from there. It’s not a life-threatening disease, at least not for me. It’s something you want to be on top of though.”

sara sampaio eyebrows
Sara Sampaio showing off her new nighttime fave, Moroccanoil’s Night Body Serum ($68,, at its launch party in New York. “It’s fast to put on and your skin looks amazing the next day,” she said.

How she connected with the TLC foundation:

“They contacted me and thanked me for talking about it, and then we had a really nice meeting in L.A. I was like, ‘I would love to find a way to help you guys.’ Because it’s not a life-threatening disease, there’s not a lot of studies or research around it. So the foundation is really trying to work on that because it does affect so many kids. We’re in a time where there’s so much mental health talk going on. In the Instagram world, not having hair is really taking a huge toll on girls’ and boys’ self-esteem, so they’re really trying to get more studies. We’re really excited about the Victoria’s Secret ticket auction, and I think we’re going to have more exciting things coming.”

How she treats her trichotillomania:

“I’m still figuring it out. I’m on this supplement called NAC, which helped reduce the impulse a little bit, but it’s still here. I notice that when I cut my nails short, I tend to not do it. But then I’ll find myself letting my nails grow because I know how good it feels. If I’m feeling strong, I’ll be cutting my nails constantly. Like right now, I’ve had a very stressful week; they’re pretty long. You start figuring out things, but at the end of the day it’s an impulse, and you really can’t control it. The best thing to do is talk about it, and if people around you know about it, they’ll be more compassionate. The worst thing you can say to someone is to just stop doing it. If it were that easy no one would suffer from it.”

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