BOSTON -- For men, it's a sign of virility. For women, it's often called their crowning glory. But believe it or not, when it comes to their hair, some people can't resist the urge to pull it out.

RESOURCES All About Trichotillomania Support Groups Success Stories For more information, call (831) 457-1004

NewsCenter 5's Liz Brunner has the details about a rare and little-known disorder.

Cassy Stott, 21, wears a wig -- not because she wants to look different, but because she is different.

"Just when I pull it out by, and the root is on the end -- that's what I like, the feeling of that," Stott said.

Stott suffers from trichotillomania, or compulsive hair pulling, and it's so bad that she's nearly bald -- a far cry from the naturally curly mane she used to enjoy.

"It started out just up here, and then it moved to I had no hair on this whole side, and then now I just seem to do it from all over the place," Stott said.

Dr. Nancy Keuthen, who co-authored a book on trichotillomania, said that although it's still unclear what causes the disorder, it is clear what pullers get out of it.

"They experience pleasure or gratification upon engaging in the behavior, although generally they experience guilt or shame afterwards," Keuthen said.

One to 3 percent of the population -- mostly women -- has the condition, which usually starts in puberty. Some pull for emotional reasons. Others, like Stott, do it when their minds are focused on something else. At the suggestion of her therapist, Stott's monitoring her hair pulling but hasn't found that magic bullet.

"Mostly, the biggest thing that works for me is just to wear, like, a bandana and stuff just to keep myself from doing that, and then I just started back on medicine last week," Stott said.

Experts said that a combination of medication and counseling appears to work best but isn't a guarantee.

"People can get better. We do not tell people that they're going to be cured, but what we are unfortunately finding is that there are high relapse rates," Keuthen said.

For Stott, the best part of overcoming trichotillomania would be no longer having to hide.

"I could just be myself and not have to worry if somebody gave me a hug and then pulled my hair from the back or something like -- just little things that I think about that bother me, I guess," she said.

Some early research suggests that -- for women -- hormones may play a role in the disorder. A study at Massachusetts General found that women reported more intense urges and more frequent hair pulling prior to their periods, but again, definitive studies have yet to be done.