10 month old pulling out own hair

[LearningFast]

My 10 month old son has started pulling at his hair, and other people's hair - does anyone have experience of this? Is it a phase that some children go through and if so, what can I do (or not do) to help / stop it from becoming a habit?

He notices other people's hair - on other children's heads / DH's arms and chest etc and wants to pull it, and he plays with his own eyebrows and lashes whilst breastfeeding. Recently he has started to pull at the hair on his scalp (when tired mostly) and put it to his mouth when he's pulled it out.

I am finding this extremely distressing, and would be grateful for other's experience of dealing with this.

I knew a child that did this, and after a long time they realised it was a comfort thing - the mother had hairy nipples and her dd was used to the sensation when feeding and it gave her comfort. It was when they started bottle feeding that it became worse. They ended up adding a circle of hair to the teat of the bottle.

Could it be something like that?

Your best bet is to distract with something else tactile not made of hair. My DS pulls hair when tired so I give him a soft blankie. When bf/bf he likes to pull my hair but am re training him to touch my lips so I can kiss his fingertips and he forgets about my hair. I also have hair off my face during day to stop temptation.
It does pass but can be painful if pulled hard so firm 'no that hurts mummy/friend etc'