Hartlepool coroner Malcolm Donnelly spoke out after recording an open verdict into the death of a 21-year-old who never recovered after a drunken party incident.
His death led to his friend taking an overdose of tablets from which he died, an inqu
est heard.
The family of the first victim have also made a heartfelt plea for people to stop such antics, saying: "I hope people take notice of this and stop these foolish games."
The inquest heard how David Bexley was the victim of a drunken prank when he fell into a deep sleep after consuming "vast amounts" of alcohol and painkillers.
His friend, Sean Macleod, 21, then decided to shave hair from all over David's body and shove a fist-sized bundle of clippings down David's throat on October 13, 2007.
David stopped breathing six hours later due to the cocktail of drink, drugs and hair restricting his airflow, the inquest at Hartlepool County Court heard.
He died 13 months later in the University Hospital of Hartlepool, on November 18, 2008, from pneumonia brought on by his long ordeal.
Sean took an overdose and died two months after the incident on December 4, 2007, after police arrested and questioned him but did not charge him with any offence.
A Durham Police spokesman later said he was technically still on bail when he died.
Hartlepool coroner Malcolm Donnelly said: "What seems to have started as a prank has ended in tragedy.
"The reason these inquests are held in public are to warn people of the potential dangers of this type of folly."
Mr Donnelly recorded an open verdict as a pathology report by Dr Jennifer Ruth Hamilton stated that the alcohol, liquid methadone painkillers and hair blockage could have "equally reduced his reflex to breath".
David, a joiner who was living with grandparents in Lambton Crescent, in Sedgefield, had been drinking all day and had taken two lots of painkillers when he ended up at a friend's house in Meadowgate Road, in Trimdon Station, at 3am.
He fell asleep at around 4am and at 6am Sean began using a vacuum cleaner on his face and private parts. But David did not wake.
He then shaved his eyebrows and scalp and shoved hair in David's mouth before putting margarine down his throat and over his private parts.
David did not wake up once and at 10.45am, with friends noticing he had gone pale, he stopped breathing after making a gargling noise.
Sean, who also lived in Sedgefield, was among friends who tried to resuscitate him and an ambulance crew arrived at 11.11am and took 20 minutes to get him to breathe again.
David was in a coma for eight weeks and then spent the next nine months in hospital, a short spell at the Hawthorns Care Home in Peterlee, before being rushed to the University Hospital of Hartlepool.
He eventually succumbed to pneumonia while in hospital.
His granddad, John Bexley, 79, from Sedgefield, said David was about to go and live with his dad, also called John, who lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Mr Bexley, a retired engineer, said after the hearing: "This has destroyed two young people's lives.
"David didn't know what had happened to him until he was told, but he wasn't an angry person.
