Kitten's First Hairball

I am pretty sure my 3 month old male cat attempted to pass his first hairball today. He was doing exactly what my older cat does whenever he throws up one. I have learned to not touch or mess with the cat at all when they are doing this or it can impede them from getting it out and cause it to get stuck. However my BF doesn't agree and thinks they should be massaged to help them and decided to pick him up right when he was about to pass it because he claims the cat "stopped trying to pass it anyway" when i know he was about to. Can someone please back me on this I know it's very dangerous to mess with a cat when they are trying to pass one.