Treatment of early onset hair pulling as a simple habit.
Night-time splints plus brief day-time time-out stopped all hair pulling and gave a toddler full regrowth.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Doctors worked with one 2-year-old who pulled out her hair every day.
They wrapped her small hands in soft splints at night and used a brief time-out if she tried to pull during the day.
No medicine, no long talks—just blocking the pull and a quick consequence.
What they found
After a few nights the splints came off and the pulling stayed at zero.
New hair grew in and stayed for the whole year the team watched her.
Zero hair weight on the scale matched what parents saw: a full head of hair.
How this fits with other research
Nasr et al. (2000) saw the same clean stop when they put a glove on an 8-year-old finger-sucker.
Both studies show that simply blocking the feel of the body habit can wipe it out.
Repp et al. (1987) got the same zero-pull result, but they used bad-tasting polish on thumb-sucking instead of splints—proof that different roads reach the same place.
Porter et al. (2008) later mixed HRT and ACT for adults with trichotillomania and still saw big drops, yet their package took weeks; the toddler here needed only nights.
Why it matters
If you see a very young client who pulls, twists, or sucks for sensory payoff, try the cheapest tool first: block the feel. A soft glove, a sleeve, or light splints worn only at bedtime may give you full regrowth without a long program. Start tonight, measure hair weight with a kitchen scale, and watch the spot fill in.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The authors evaluated the effects of response prevention, a treatment previously shown to be effective for routine thumb sucking and suggested to be effective for early onset trichotillomania, applied to hair pulling in a 2-year-old. Response prevention was used alone in two settings (bedtime and naptime) and combined with a brief time out in another (daytime). The authors also used a novel assessment, weight of hairs pulled, and the results indicated complete cessation of hair pulling. Corresponding photographic evidence indicated complete regrowth of hair lost to pulling. These results add to a growing literature suggesting early onset hair pulling may be more appropriately classified as a benign habit than as trichotillomania.
Behavior modification, 2002 · doi:10.1177/0145445502026003006