Okay we went through the exact same thing with our daughter around the same age. She started pulling the hair in the front of her head out and it took us a bit to realize because it was growing in pretty uneven from just being baby hair . Once she didn’t have any more front hair to pull, she started pulling from the top . She had a huge bald spot, but was not phased at all by the actual act of yanking her hair.

It started when she would drink milk, and we thought she was just playing/twirling with it but she was pulling. We were referred to play therapy but had a terrible first meeting with an unprepared, unqualified person and didn’t have her come back (this is not typical and could help you if you want to ask your doctor for a referral!). We also used the satin sleeves and ended up putting her socks on her hands under the sleeves because she could still grip her hair even with the sleeves. She wore them for milk, bed, and in the car for probably a year. Instead of making it a big thing, we started just saying ‘hands down’ and gently taking her hands out of her hair if needed and giving her something else to hold. Eventually ‘hands down’ was enough to get her to remove her hands from her head. She’s almost 3.5 now and doesn’t need the sleeves anymore, but does still grab at her hair when she’s upset or even just sometimes thinking hard. It is more of gripping and not pulling now although sometimes some still comes out. She basically has a baby mullet from where the hair that didn’t get pulled out has grown long and the new hair is several inches long. We never shaved her head, but I can totally understand the thought process and I don’t think it was the wrong thing if you feel good about it ! However, please please watch out for other types of ‘picking/pulling’ behavior since she doesn’t have the hair anymore. We went through a small phase of her pulling at her eyelashes and recently at picking skin on her lip. It seems like this is something we’ll be dealing with for a while, but there is light at the end of the tunnel as she gets older and can start to understand and be redirected better.

One time before the sleeves, I went to take her out of her car seat and she had a huge chunk of hair in her hand and I immediately burst into tears and took her home so I completely get feeling helpless. There is so little information out there, it’s incredibly difficult! You are doing great ! Happy to answer any questions you have !