does anybody have any ideas?

Our son (autistic) has begun to pull out his eyelashed and eyebrows. He says he began this during his latest bout with pinkeye more than a month ago. We have tried lots of things to stop this habit--for a habit is what it has become. We have tried time-out, grounding from video/computer games, socks/mits/gloves on his hands, and always lots and lots of patience and trying to understand. He did have a very brief bout with pulling out his hair about 3 years ago, but we were able to stop that quite quickly. If anyone has any ideas, please post!!! Thanks.