A Hairy Situation

Sky News reported Friday of an Australian baggage handler who was jailed for stealing hair from female passengers' luggage.

Quantas employee Robert Lyle Peterson, 30, admitted fifty counts of theft and Victorian County Court heard that he suffered from a range of sexual deviances.

Trichophilia refers to the family of hair fetishes, including: hirsutophilia (armpit hair), gynelophilious and pubephilia (pubic hair) and tripsolagnia (hair touching or washing).

Office Manager Jim has had a hair fetish since he was 11. While he tells me many heterosexual male hair fetishists are into long hair, some are into the manipulation or even removal of hair.

The 48-year-old explains: "I get a real buzz from seeing a woman's hair sheared off with electric clippers. There's nothing like the look of an attractive woman with a freshly shaved head and the feeling of my fingers on a bare scalp is out of this world."

I imagine that Britney Spears' close shave at an L.A. Hairdressers in early February would have been quite exciting for fetishists with a similar interest.

Unlike some 'philias', hair fetishes aren't restricted by gender or sexual orientation. Set your mind back to the '80's and think of women fawning over a topless Tom Selleck playing Magnum P.I. Many websites on the internet are devoted to men who are excited by the prospect of sex with a big hairy bear hunk.

Unfortunately for some men with this fetish, stealing must be resorted to in order to fulfil their urges. Many cases are on record of men who are arrested for either stealing hair or cutting off strangers' hair.