Son ripping hair out

Post Reply New Topic

My 19 year old Aspie son has started pulling his hair out. Apparently, he does this at night, and it creates bald spots on his head that are very noticeable.

has anyone dealt with anything like this? He says he can't help it, and isn't even aware of doing it

Oof. If he truly isn't aware of it, that's tricky. But maybe now that you've mentioned it, he'll notice. When my son was using too many wipes, I made a rule that after 2, the rest had to go in a little trashcan I put next to the toilet. He stopped over-using the wipes nearly right away. He has basically never used the trashcan; I think just remembering the rule was enough to help him stop at an appropriate point.

So I don't know if this would help, but perhaps if he had directions about what to do with the hair after pulling it out, that could help break the rhythm of the activity and draw his attention to what he's doing.

It might help to wear a cap or even something like a ski mask at night so that to get to his hair, he would have to be awake enough to take it off. You might also consider a crew cut so that their hair was not long enough to get a hold of.

My daughter started doing that at age 10. That was the first indication we had that she was on the spectrum.

trichotillomania can be entirely separate from ASD and occurs most often in teens and young adults. It can also be treated in exactly the same ways as it would be in neurotypical people. It would be wise to get a referral from your child's primary care provider and starting some form of actual treatment before head-shaving or just putting a hat on. Don't you think?

My head used to get REALLY itchy. The sensation of pulling my hair out helped with the itching. I eventually got fed up and just shaved all my hair and never had a problem with itching again.