50-year-old suffers from ‘beauty parlour stroke syndrome’, Know all about it

A 50-year-old woman suffered from a stroke during a hair wash at the beauty parlour. As relaxing as head washes at the salon are, the hyperextension of the neck that comes into play by placing it on the washbasins can lead to a serious condition. This phenomenon is called beauty parlour stroke syndrome. Hyderabad-based neurologist Dr. Sudhir Kumar took to Twitter to share the case of the woman showing symptoms of nausea, vomiting and dizziness. “I recently saw a 50-year-old woman with symptoms of dizziness, nausea and vomiting, which started during her hair wash with shampoo in a beauty parlour. Initially, she was taken to a gastroenterologist, who treated her symptomatically”, read the tweet.

Read the tweet here:

How does the beauty salon stroke syndrome happen?

A syndrome that occurs when the neck is hyper-extended to some extent as a result of a jerk or certain pressure while having our hair shampooed and remaining in that position for an extended period of time. The hyper-extension of the neck can cause artery compression from simply changing position, or the bones can slide a little bit over the other, resulting in carotid or vertebral artery dissection. Dissection is a blood vessel tear, resulting in a blood clot that travels to your brain and causes a stroke.

Symptoms of the stroke

This kind of stroke is associated with neck massages, referred to as cervical dissection by chiropractors. There are four blood vessels that pass blood to the brain through the anterior and posterior parts of the neck. When a stroke occurs due to a block in the blood tubes in the posterior part of the neck, it is called a posterior circulation stroke.

Should you be worried?

Strokes become more common as we age due to a variety of causes such as a blocked artery (ischaemic stroke) or leaking or bursting of a blood vessel (hemorrhagic stroke) and some additional risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure (hypertension), obesity, high cholesterol levels, diabetes, and excessive alcohol consumption.

However, the staff of the salon should practice precaution when washing and massaging customers, especially when attender older adults. It is better to request gentle massages rather than vigorous massages as they put pressure on the blood vessels, which might lead to a brain stroke. Customers are also advised to consult their doctor before getting massages if they suffer from an underlying health problem.