Why people eat hair- everything you want to know about hair-eating disorders

Ever wondered why people eat hair? Trichophagia refers to compulsive eating of hair. Read more.

By: Shaloo Tiwari | | Published: November 22, 2017 4:12 pm

Trichotillomania: This is a rare disorder where the patient has the irresistible urge to pull out their hair from the scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes and chewing on it or eating it. Due to this, they suffer from hair loss and develop bald patches. While the exact cause of trichotillomania is not yet known, doctors have linked it to depression and anxiety. In extreme cases where it isn’t detected early, hairballs have to be surgically removed from the patient’s intestines.

According to media reports, recently a 1.5 kg ball of hair was removed from the stomach of a 25-year-old woman. This is a result of a condition that might shock you. In this year itself in Mumbai, a similar case had come up where the doctors pulled out 760g of hair from woman s stomach. This unusually rare condition, called Rapunzel syndrome, in humans is caused when the patients ingest so much hair that it forms a ball of hair in their stomach which is called bezoar. It is associated with a hair-pulling disorder called Trichotillomania, which causes them to pull their hair uncontrollably and with Trichophagia, which is the compulsive eating of hair. Therefore, the bezoar that is formed tends to block the gastrointestinal tract. This really dangerous because human gastrointestinal isn t able to digest human hair and the Trichobezoar (big ball of hair) caused that has to be removed surgically most of the time. People resort to psychiatric evaluation and treatment to stop this impulsive pulling and eating hair. Here are a few facts you should know about this condition: Also Read - Noonan syndrome with multiple lentigines: Have you heard of this disorder before?

Rapunzel syndrome is an exceptionally rare intestinal condition and is named after the long-haired fairy tale character Rapunzel written by the Brothers Grimm.
The hairball, trichobezoar is formed in the stomach. However, its tail hangs in the small bowel and/or in the right colon. (Hence the the word ‘Rapunzel’ in the name, like her hair would hang from the balcony.)
This condition occurs mostly in psychiatric patients.
Surgical treatments are mostly the only way left to remove the Bezoar.
One suffering from Trichophagia will pull out the hair and then eat the ends of the root bulb or sometimes even the hair shaft itself.
The person affected Trichophagia, who compulsively keeps eating hair may even eat the hair of others.
The condition, Trichophagia is mentioned in the 1000 Ways to Die episode that features a young woman who dies from it.

This disease though rare, but the numbers are increasing. This is the second case in the year 2017 and we aren’t even talking about the undiagnosed. Also Read - Vitamin D deficiency + 6 other conditions linked to hair problems

References:

Gonuguntla, V., & Joshi, D.-D. (2009). Rapunzel Syndrome: A Comprehensive Review of an Unusual Case of Trichobezoar. Clinical Medicine & Research, 7(3), 99 102. http://doi.org/10.3121/cmr.2009.822

Franklin, M. E., Zagrabbe, K., & Benavides, K. L. (2011). Trichotillomania and its treatment: a review and recommendations. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 11(8), 1165 1174. http://doi.org/10.1586/ern.11.93

Mehra, A., Avasthi, A., Gupta, V., & Grover, S. (2014). Trichophagia along with trichobezoar in the absence of trichotillomania. Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice, 5(Suppl 1), S55 S57. http://doi.org/10.4103/0976-3147.145204

Wang, Z., Cao, F., Liu, D., Fang, Y., & Li, F. (2016). The diagnosis and treatment of Rapunzel syndrome. Acta Radiologica Open, 5(11), 2058460115627660. http://doi.org/10.1177/2058460115627660

Published : November 22, 2017 4:12 pm

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