Characteristics
Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. In humans, hair can be scalp hair, facial hair, chest hair, pubic hair, axillary hair, besides other places. Men tend to have hair in more places then women. Hair does not in itself have any intrinsic sexual value other than the attributes given to it by individuals in a cultural context. Some cultures are ambivalent in relation to body hair, with some being regarded as attractive while others being regarded as unaesthetic. Many cultures regard a woman's hair to be erotic. For example, many Islamic women cover their hair in public, and display it only to their family and close friends. Similarly, many Jewish women cover their hair after marriage. During the Middle Ages, European women were expected to cover their hair after they married.
Even in cultures where women do not customarily cover their hair, the erotic significance of hair is recognised. Some hair styles are culturally associated with a particular gender, with short head hair styles and baldness being associated with men and longer hair styles with women and girls. Hair, especially head hair, is regarded as a person's secondary sexual characteristic. In the case of women especially, head hair has been presented in art and literature as a feature of beauty, vanity and eroticism. Hair has a very important role in the canons of beauty in different regions of the world, and healthy combed hair has two important function, beauty and fashion. In those cultures considerable time and expense is put into the attractive presentation of hair, and in some cases to the removal of culturally unwanted hair.
Hair fetishism manifests itself in a variety of behaviors. A fetishist may enjoy seeing, touching or eating hair, pulling a young girl's braid of hair or may cut a stranger's hair, stealing locks of hair by snipping off pieces in public spaces. Besides enjoyment they may become sexually aroused from such activities. It may also be described as an obsession, as in the case of hair washing or dread of losing hair. Arousal by head hair may arise from seeing or touching very long or short hair, wet hair, a certain color of hair or a particular hairstyle. Others may find the attraction of literally "having sex with somebody's hair" as a fantasy or fetish. The fetish affects both men and women.
Some people feel pleasure when their hair is being cut or groomed. This is because they produce endorphins giving them a feeling which is similar to that of a head massage, laughter, or caress. On the other hand, many people feel some level of anxiety when their head hair is being cut. Sigmund Freud stated that cutting woman's long hair by men may represent a fear and/or concept of castration, meaning that a woman's long hair represents a figurative penis and that by cutting off her hair a man may feel dominance.
Tricophilia may present with different excitation sources, the most common, but not the only one, being human head hair. Tricophilia may also involve facial hair, chest hair, pubic hair, armpit hair and animal fur. The excitation can be arise from the texture, color, hairstyle and hair length. Among the most common variants of this paraphilia are excitation by long hair and short hair, the excitement of blonde hair (blonde fetichism) and red hair (redhead fetichism) and the excitement of the different textures of hair (straight, curly, wavy, etc.). Tricophilia can relate to the excitement that is caused by plucking or pulling hair or body hair.
Hair fetishism comes from a natural fascination with the species on the admiration of the coat, as its texture provides pleasurable sensations. An infant develops this kind of pleasure to feel the hair on his or her early life, manifesting as aggressive behavior that will drive to pull the hair of people with which it interacts. Tricophilia is considered a paraphilia which is usually inoffensive.
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