WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT 

A 31-year-old woman had a hairball weighing almost 7lbs  removed from her stomach - which had left her unable to eat or even take a sip of water.  

The woman, from a small village in Punchkula, near Chandigarh, northern India, was admitted into a local government hospital last week with severe stomach pain.

After scans revealed the mass she admitted she had been pulling out and eating her own locks for two decades, doctors discovered.

She couldn't let anything pass through her lips without immediately vomiting.

After surgery to remove the 3kg ball of hair, doctors were astonished to find it was 40cm long - and she is now finally able to eat proper meals again.

Dr Hardeep Singh, 30, a general surgeon said: ‘When she came to hospital we asked her if she had a habit of chewing her hair to which she said no.

'But when we got her ultrasound done, it confirmed a huge mass in her stomach that demanded immediate attention.’

After surgery last Friday, the mother-of-three confessed she had been chewing her hair since she was nine years old.

Dr Singh said: ‘Her stomach and intestines were filled with hair so there was no way she could’ve digested food or water. 

'Whatever she consumed was not getting absorbed and she would vomit.’

Dr Singh said he’d never seen anything like it. ‘It was around 40 cm long. She is now having proper meals without any issue and will be discharged from hospital after three days once her stitches are removed.’

And after the mother's hair-eating addiction was revealed, one of her children went on to confessed to eating large quantities of cement every day.

Dr Singh said: ‘Once we understood the mother’s condition, we inquired about her children just to be sure they had not been affected.

'And one of her daughters admitted eating cement. 

'We will do some reports on her condition now.' 

The mother was diagnosed with Rapunzel syndrome, a rare condition in which a hairball (called a trichobezar) is found in the stomach, with its tail in the colon.

The syndrome is rare, with less than 120 cases reported in the medical literature, and almost always affects young women, according to doctors writing in the journal BMJ Case Reports.  

Dr Singh said: 'This condition is usually found in young girls where they suffer some kind of depression in their early years.'

Her daughter may be suffering from Pica - a disorder where people experience cravings for non-edible items of food.