friendlione

My son did that for awhile when about eight years old. In his case the school announced an epidemic of lice, and he kept thinking his rather course hair had nits (lice eggs), so he was pulling them out to see.

He had quite a bald spot before we noticed, and by then he had become compulsive in pulling the hair out.
We made him wear a cap, and kept watch of him until he quit thinking about it. It was around Christmas, and he looked like a monk! We just matter of factly told our son that he had gotten into a bad habit, and we were going to help him stop it. We did not make a big deal about it, but of course it really looked silly, and we showed him with a mirror.

All kids are different, so you might have a talk with him and ask what has been bothering him that he has been pulling his hair out. He may be anxious about something you can help him with. You probably can help him stop the behavior, if you are accepting and not stern, but firm that it has to stop. I would not involve a professional, which can
give it too much attention and unecessarily humiliate him as though he is a strange person, and it can then become a matter of resistence.

In fact, doing this behavior at some time is not at all uncommon for kids. They may do all sorts of things, like tapping a lip, scratching the skin, blinking eyes, biting nails, etc, without even realizing it.

[This message has been edited by friend (edited 07-05-2002).]

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~Friend~