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My cat loves deep scratching.

Over time, I discovered he loves getting his fur lightly pulled out. It started with his nose, which seemed reasonable enough because it's hard to groom there, but now he likes it all over.

I'm not pulling out a lot of fur, but definitely more than would come out with a regular brushing. I don't pull very hard either. It mostly seems like stuff that would have been shed soon enough. I never leave any bare spots.

He has a very fluffy short-haired coat, and we live in a hot/dry semi-arid region of central Texas; it's October and the temperature still gets into the 90's °F (around 33 °C), although never above 85 °F (29 °C) indoors.

Since he seems to enjoy this, is it safe to continue?

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    most cuddling is grooming behavior.... – keshlam Jun 3 '15 at 4:52
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If he isn't pulling his own fur out and you aren't pulling enough to leave bare patches, I'd say there's no harm to it, particularly for a cat with a thick coat in a hot dry region. It would feel to him a bit like a brisk massage, and encourage circulation - which helps to keep the temperature regulation system working - so that would be why he adores it so much.

My (long-haired) cat adores being groomed with an undercoat stripping brush, the kind with lots of sharp metal prongs. She'll push her head against it to make it scratch her cheeks and leans right into the brushing. Sometimes I'll get what looks like a whole cat's worth of fur off her, without making her any less fluffy, so there's plenty of fur to go around.

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    quoting Garfield, back when he was still a cat: "Knit yourself another cat." Cat fur can be spun into yarn; I've successfully hand-twisted a few feet just as proof of concept, and my kids are shorthairs. – keshlam Jun 3 '15 at 4:51

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