WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES

Click to reveal She was addicted to eating hair Click to return She was addicted to eating hair (Picture: Barcroft)

Doctors have removed a massive hairball from a teenager’s stomach in India.

The 16-year-old from Srinagar, Kashmir, suffers from a hair-eating addiction known as Rapunzel Syndrome.

She claimed she had no appetite, but had been addicted to eating her own hair for six years.


Her condition was so severe that sometimes she would even eat her friend’s hair.

Click to reveal Doctors had to operate to remove it Click to return Doctors had to operate to remove it (Picture: Barcroft)

The hairball, which was eventually removed by doctors in SMHS Hospital, had collected and grown in her stomach and intestines.

‘She has been addicted to hair-eating for the last six years,’ Dr Iqbal Saleem, professor at the Government Medical College in Kashmir, said.

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‘We found that the frontal hair of the girl was irregular, suggesting the possibility of hair-pulling.



‘This girl is suffering from Rapunzel syndrome, a rare condition in which a tail-like extension of hairball is found in the stomach.

‘The addiction of eating hair has resulted in many episodes of vomiting. The girl wasn’t able to eat properly. The girl had maintained a habit of holding her hair in the mouth and plucking hair off other people.’

Dr Saleem added that, as Rapunzel Syndrome is a psychological disorder, the girl will also be given psychiatric treatment.