ds and hair twiddling

[colleysmill]

Looking for any advice or experience of hair twiddling.

Ds is 3 and I've tended to keep his hair on the longer side (but not long iyswim) because he has an unruly double crown and this was the best way to stop it sticking up.

Recently he's started to twiddle his hair at one of his crowns - I know he gets this from me as I do it too - I think its a comfort thing when he's is tired or upset. It's escalated more over the last few weeks to the point he is actually pulling his hair out and is developing a very clear child fist sized bald patch.

We've tried to discourage it along with nursery but its not helping. He has a comforter with labels he likes to fiddle with but the hair twiddling persists even when he is asleep.

I'm starting to think cutting his hair short is the only answer although it looks really messy shorter. I'm panicking a bit that his hair won't grow back on the bald bit though.

Has anyone else had this?

Yup....ds did this too but I think it was more a nervous habit. We did end up keeping his hair short and did this on and off for about 3 years. If he didn't twiddle it violently, we let him grow it. The whole thing eventually stopped when he was about 7.

Thanks shush

Did your ds pull his hair out too? I'm not sure if it just looks more obvious because the rest of his hair is longer

Colley - yes, blinking great holes in his fringe! Once we could reason with him properly and when he also had the corresponding understanding that he looked like a twit in front of his friends it finally stopped. He's now 12 and has the longest fringe allowed!

I still hair twiddle, my DH has to keep reminding me to stop. DD doesn't do it (yet) though.

I'm a hair twiddler and I'm 39

I used to keep my hair very short and I didn't really do it then but now I'm growing it (its about 3 inches) and I constantly twiddle it....usually when tired or bored!