Trichophagia

Trichophagia is a form of disordered eating in which a person sucks on, chews, swallows, or otherwise eats hair, whether their own or another person's. The name comes from ancient Greek words for hair and eating, and the behavior is classified as a chronic psychiatric disorder of impulse control. It is closely associated with trichotillomania, the compulsive pulling out of one's own hair: studies suggest that roughly half of people with trichotillomania also chew on pulled hair, while a smaller share, estimated between four and twenty percent, go on to swallow it. Repeated ingestion of hair can accumulate into a hairball, or trichobezoar, in the stomach, and in severe cases the mass can extend into the intestines, a life-threatening complication known as Rapunzel syndrome that can cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and bowel obstruction. The behavior is far more common in females than males, with a reported ratio near fifteen to one among adults, and prevalence estimates range from about 0.6 percent under strict diagnostic criteria to 3.2 percent under broader definitions, most often among young adults.