Fidget Toys for Trichotillomania: Tools That Help

If you have trichotillomania (trich), someone has probably told you to “just keep your hands busy”. It’s not bad advice, but it’s only half of it. A fidget works best when it gives your fingers something close to what pulling gives them, and when it’s already in your hand at the moments you tend to pull.

This guide covers what the research says about fidget toys for trichotillomania, how to match a tool to the feeling you’re after, and what people who pull keep within reach. There’s a short section for parents near the end.

Do fidget toys help with trichotillomania?

Yes, for many people, especially with automatic pulling: the kind that happens while you read, scroll or watch TV without noticing. Busy hands can’t drift into pulling as easily, and a good match gives your fingers some of the feeling that makes pulling satisfying.

Fidgets aren’t a treatment on their own. They belong to Habit Reversal Training (HRT), a structured approach that teaches you to notice when you’re about to pull and do something else with your hands. One part of it, called stimulus control, means changing your surroundings so pulling is harder and less automatic. A 2015 review of psychological treatments lists keeping fidget toys in high-risk situations as one of these changes, alongside covering mirrors and wearing gloves. The same review found that at least half of people get a clear, meaningful benefit from therapy built on these steps.

We couldn’t find a study of fidgets by themselves, only as part of this package, and that’s the best way to use them.

Our guide to Habit Reversal Training explains the full method, step by step.

Which fidgets match which urges?

Start with what pulling gives you, then find a tool that gives your hands something similar. Pulling is rarely random. Many people hunt for a hair that feels coarse, wiry or “not right”, roll it between their fingers, or like the small tug as it comes out.

There may be a reason touch matters so much. In a 2018 survey of 609 adults with trich, about three in four said they were at least mildly over-sensitive to everyday touch and sound, more than people without trich. A 2019 lab study found that adults who pull their hair or pick their skin could feel lighter touches on their fingertips than people who don’t. Researchers are still working out what these findings mean, but they fit what many people describe: the feel of it is a big part of the pull.

Not sure what pulling gives you? Notice what your fingers do just before the next pull. Our guide to focused and automatic pulling can also help you work out your pattern.

What do people with trich actually use?

Mostly simple, cheap things, and often everyday objects rather than anything made for trich. The UK’s NHS (National Health Service) shares tips from people with trich: squeeze a stress ball, use a fidget toy, clench your fist, wear a beanie or bandana, and put plasters on your fingertips.

Things people often mention:

• Everyday textures: Velcro, a dried sunflower head to pick seeds from, a soft paintbrush to run over your fingertips, a length of thread to roll.
• Pocket tools: a worry stone, a spinner ring or a lump of putty. They’re quiet enough for work, school or a meeting.
• Things for the scalp: a scalp massager or a firm hairbrush, used when the scalp itches or tingles.
• Things for the mouth, for people who bite, chew or run hair across their lips: sugar-free gum, crunchy snacks, or a chewable necklace made for adults.
• Something absorbing: knitting, crochet, colouring, sketching, a puzzle or a game on your phone.

If you’ve ever wondered why certain hairs and roots feel so satisfying, our guide to why pulling hair feels good explains the rituals many people share. Our complete guide to trichotillomania lists more practical tools.

Do gloves help with trichotillomania?

They can, as a barrier rather than a fidget. Gloves, plasters on your fingertips and false nails all make it hard to grip a single hair. That small bit of friction is often enough to make you notice what your hand is doing, and noticing is the moment you get a choice. The 2015 review lists wearing gloves and putting on false nails among the standard ways to make pulling harder.

• Thin cotton gloves while you watch TV, read or work at home. Wear them at your riskiest times, not all day.
• Fabric plasters on the two or three fingertips you pull with.
• Press-on nails, which blunt the grip that pulling needs.
• A soft beanie, or a satin sleep cap at night, to cover the hair you pull from.

Barriers and fidgets work best together. The barrier catches the move; the fidget gives your hands somewhere to go next. If bedtime is your hardest time, our guide to pulling at night covers night-time barriers.

How do I get the most out of a fidget?

Put it where you pull, and pick it up before the urge peaks. A fidget in a drawer won’t help at 11pm on the sofa.

• Keep one at each hotspot. Bed, sofa, desk, car, bag. Your top pulling places are where fidgets earn their keep.
• Reach for it early. The best time is the first sign: a hand drifting towards your head, fingers starting to search, a boring task beginning.
• Pair it with a competing response. In Habit Reversal Training, a competing response is a small action you can’t do while pulling, held for about a minute or until the urge passes, such as making a fist. Squeezing a ball with your pulling hand does both jobs.
• Rotate your tools. Novelty wears off, so swap fidgets every week or two.

Some therapists match tools to what drives your pulling using the ComB model, a framework that looks at the sensations, thoughts, feelings, movements and places behind pulling. You can read how it works in our guide to the ComB model. For a full plan that also covers triggers and handling urges, see our guide to how to stop pulling your hair.

What should I avoid?

Avoid anything that hurts, shames or ends up in your mouth when it shouldn’t.

• Pain-based tools. Snapping a rubber band on your wrist, or pressing spiky or pinching tools until they hurt, doesn’t teach your brain a better habit. It adds a new problem.
• Fidgets that become a new ritual. If you spend long, trance-like stretches picking a fidget apart, swap it for one you can’t take apart.
• Small parts for anyone who mouths objects, and for young children.
• Fidgets as a rule or a punishment. “Where’s your fidget?” said in front of others adds shame, and shame tends to feed pulling.

Our guide to eating hair explains the warning signs in more detail.

Are fidget toys good for children with trich?

Often, yes, and they fit well into school and homework time.

• Let your child choose. Offer a few and let them pick the textures they like.
• Check the age label. Many fidgets have small parts that aren’t safe for children under 3.
• Offer, don’t police. A fidget left within reach helps more than being told to use one. Never use it to point out pulling in front of others.

If you’re a parent, The Parent’s Guide to Trichotillomania covers how to help at home: understanding what your child is going through.

When should I get more help?

Get support if pulling is upsetting you, taking up a lot of your time, or affecting your work, school or relationships, or if you’ve tried tools like these for a few months without much change. Fidgets are one part of a plan. Someone who understands hair pulling can help with the rest, including urges, feelings and triggers.

Everyone in our directory has told us they understand trichotillomania and already help people who pull, in person or online. You can search the directory to find someone near you.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Snorrason, I., Berlin, G.S. & Lee, H.-J. (2015). Optimizing psychological interventions for trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder): an update on current empirical status. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 8, 105–113.
2. Falkenstein, M.J., Conelea, C.A., Garner, L.E. & Haaga, D.A.F. (2018). Sensory over-responsivity in trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder). Psychiatry Research, 260, 207–218.
3. Houghton, D.C., Tommerdahl, M. & Woods, D.W. (2019). Increased tactile sensitivity and deficient feed-forward inhibition in pathological hair pulling and skin picking. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 120, 103433.
4. Mansueto, C.S., Townsley Stemberger, R.M., Thomas, A.M. & Golomb, R.G. (1997). Trichotillomania: A comprehensive behavioral model. Clinical Psychology Review, 17(5), 567–577.
5. NHS. Trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder).