Twisting hair into knots

So Alice has picked up this nifty new behavior in the past two weeks. She is twisting one section of her hair into knots while she's sleeping. I cut her hair when I realized that was why that one section of her hair was knotty, but I only trimmed it hoping that by having clean ends it wouldn't knot.

Well, it didn't work. She woke up this morning with another knot in her hair, my husband had to take an exacto knife to it to try to get the knot out (it's beyond a tangle at this point.) Has anyone else dealt with this? I realize that I play with my hair, same exact spot, but I know how to not tangle my hair, and my hair is not as fine as hers is, making mine impossible to knot. Should I just go get her hair cut short(er)? Her hair is falling out/being pulled out/broken and I'm finding clumps of her hair in places I didn't expect. And pieces of her hair in weird places like her butt. She had at least one strand in her poop, so I'm guessing she's eating it too? When did she turn into a cat?

 

Both of my girls did this, Sarah was the worst. She, however, would pull her hair out when it got into those knots, so we would have piles of hair on the floor. She actually pulled one side of her head almost bald, it was a nightmare. I am like the sticker chart queen, so we started a chart and would give her a sticker every time she woke up without hair on the floor. And, it was constant reminders.."don't twist your hair", "get your hands out of your hair please", "No pulling your hair, tell mommy and I'll get the knot out". I would say a good year of this and she has totally stopped. From time to time we will see them twist their hair and immediately get on to them. I understand fully how big of a nightmare this is and it was hard to get it to stop. It's not like you can put some bitter tasting yuk on it to make it stop, it was just constant reminders.

ETA: I actually remember posting about it when it had gotten so bad she had no hair (here)...hopefully you can squash it quickly!

 

So that was twoish years ago and your girls would have been around 3 1/2? Same age. I have only seen her doing it once, she's doing it in her bedroom/while she's asleep.

Yeah, we get weird piles of 6 inch long blonde hairs in the bedroom. My hair isn't blonde and the boys have short buzzed hair, so there's only one place it would come from. Should I get her hair cut short? It is summertime, and I personally don't really care if she has long hair or short hair. I guess if I get it cut and make it hard for her to twirl she would probably stop.

 

We ended up cutting Sarah's hair out of pure necessity because she had pulled so much out. It did help because she had nothing to hold on to and she hated it being short. We were able to use the "I'll cut your hair" threat forever (and still do). Once it grew back out she started it again, but with the threats and constant nagging from us she stopped it pretty quick.

 

OOooooh I think I might have found a hairstyle.

How cute is that?

 

I just read about this phenomenon in a two-year-old book. They recommended redirecting by twisting a small, thinner, blanket...like a lovey, or, cutting her hair so it wouldn't be easy to do, or encouraging hats for a while to distract. Parents reported that many kids who did this made themselves near bald, but also reported that pedis said they would eventually drop the habit like everything else. The consensus seemed to be "how much hair loss do you want to allow?" Tough one! Good luck mama.

 

can you put her hair in a braid or a pony tail at night so she can't twist it?

 

That's adorable! I say go for it!

 

Her hair is very thin, and not long enough to really pull back plus she hates having things in her hair or hats on her head. It's above her shoulders already, then I cut off an inch the day before yesterday. I was hoping that it would stop tangling but the one picture is of this morning's knot. Yesterday's was about the same size and had to be cut out, and I had to cut out the one on Sunday. Saturday's knot was ripped out of her head and lying in her blanket, Friday's was still partially attached to her head. Thursday cut out, so on and so forth about two weeks back.

It's a new habit, so I'm hoping that it's not that ingrained.

 

Bex, I'm a hair twirler as scalp picker and I am telling you that it is my worst and most destructive habit. If you can nip it in the butt now, do it. I do it subconsciously and don't realize I'm even doing it until I pull out hairs or make my scalp bleed. Seriously. It's so gross (and I cannot believe I'm admitting it). Alice would rock a pixie cut so I say cut her hair and use the tips others have offered. Fo' sho'.

 

I agree with all of this (from another hair twister/puller... one of the reasons why I have a super-short pixie-ish cut).

 

Perhaps I'll get her haircut tomorrow on my day off.

 

Bex, good luck! I used to be a hair twister when I was a child and I know there were a few times where my mother had to cut knots out of my hair (and eventually did have it cut short). I did grow out of it eventually but it drove my mother nuts. Let us know how the haircut goes!

 

Bex, I'd say cutting her hair shorter is definitely the way to go for now. Hopefully she'll be like Sarah and having short hair for a time will be enough to get her out of the habit. We've had no more major problems since then.

 

Lennon did this when he was 3-4, we had to cut his hair very short (it was shaggy) and every time he'd go to twist it, we'd say something like, "Just pat your hair." He would pat his head and couldn't get a grip to twist b/c it was too short. He had a few bald spots from twisting, knotting, and then pulling it out. He did outgrow the habit after we kept his hair short for awhile.

 

I used to do that when I was a kid (and still do sometimes). I cut a knot out of the front of my hair about a week before I had to be a flower girl.. mom was super duper impressed. I'd try cutting the hair before it gets to be too much of a habit and also try giving her something like a satin edged blanket to rub. For me it was mostly a nervous habit with my hands/liking the feeling of silky soft hair.

 

Her hair is cut. It's cute, but this isn't such a good picture.
Hope it works.

ETA: Oh she totally did try to twirl it last night, I kept watching her hand go up to her hair, and she couldn't do it. Success!!

And the haircut was free because the lady snipped her face and drew blood.

 

It's super cute. She looks a little vexed about it though :lol: Hopefully that does the trick. And ouch on the cutting her face! Not the best way to get a free haircut.. try a flowbee next time

 

She was in a mood yesterday, that's for sure. She was so happy and excited about the haircut though, she really likes it. That was a "Dad leave me the f*** alone" look.

 

I can't see the picture.

 

I think she looks really cute with the haircut :wub:

 

Aw! :wub:
Poor punkin for getting her face cut though.