What is the medical term for compulsive hair-pulling?

The medical term for compulsive hair-pulling is trichotillomania.

Trichotillomania, also called hair-pulling disorder, involves recurrent urges to pull out one’s own hair, often from the scalp, eyebrows or eyelashes. The behavior can produce visible hair loss, distress and repeated unsuccessful attempts to stop. Some people pull consciously in response to tension, while others do it automatically without fully noticing.

The name combines Greek roots for “hair,” “to pull,” and “madness.” French dermatologist François Henri Hallopeau coined the term in 1889, although hair-pulling behavior had been described earlier. The condition often begins in childhood or adolescence and can overlap with anxiety, depression or obsessive-compulsive-spectrum conditions.

It is not the same as alopecia areata, which is an autoimmune form of hair loss, or dermatillomania, which involves compulsive skin-picking. Onychophagia means nail-biting. Treatment commonly includes behavioral approaches such as habit-reversal training, which helps people recognize triggers and substitute a less harmful action.