Greek Girl Ate 700 Grams of Her Own Hair

A 14-year-old girl in Kilkis, northern Greece has undergone surgery in a private clinic to remove 700 grams of her own hair she had been eating for the past 12 years.

Reports say that the girl was rushed to the clinic with stomach pains. Doctors spotted her making a strange move. She pulled out a hair from her head and ate it.

Doctors surgically removed the hairball that had formed over the years. The hairball also included curtain and cotton threads.

Eating hair is a rare condition known as the Rapunzel Syndrome

The girl has been diagnosed as suffering from Rapunzel Syndrome, or trichophagia, which can be deadly. A psychotherapist was called to help treat her.

The Rapunzel Syndrome, or trichophagia –from the Greek words tricha (meaning hair) and phagia (meaning eating) — is a rare psychiatric condition where people eat their own hair.

The condition mainly affects girls over the age of 12, Dr. Katharine Phillips, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University told Healthline recently.

The medical complications can be deadly, Phillips added. Over time, a hairball can seriously damage the body by causing ulcers or fatally blocking the intestinal tract.

Hair isn’t biodegradable, Dr. Runjhun Misra, an internal medicine specialist in Oakland, California, told Healthline. For example, when Egyptian mummies are discovered, their hair is usually intact. Likewise, hairballs can sit in the intestines, getting bigger and leading to obstruction, Misra noted.

“There’s a slow buildup of hair over time,” she said. “You wouldn’t even be aware of it.”

Hair pulling fits into a broader basket of body-focused repetitive behaviors, such as lip chewing and nail-biting, say experts.

With the hair-pulling version, there’s a compulsion to pull out body hair of all kinds.

What causes the Rapunzel Syndrome?

The ailment is listed in the handbook used by psychiatrists, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, as being part of obsessive-compulsive disorders.

To qualify as a disorder, the behavior must cause distress and impair thinking, Phillips said. And there’s a broad range of severity.

No one really knows what exactly causes Rapunzel syndrome, though. And people aren’t even aware that they’re eating their hair, says Phillips.

Also, the syndrome is shrouded in shame and silence. Because of this, it can go undetected for years.

Since Rapunzel syndrome is largely invisible to others, clues can be hard to come by.

But some of the physical tip-offs as the syndrome worsens include abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting, according to studies.

Earlier clues may include wearing scarves or wigs to hide hair loss or having bald patches.