‘There is no need to panic as it is a very rare occurrence. Millions of people get massages and hair washes at salons on a daily basis and we don’t get very serious cases relating to them. However, staff at these salons should exercise caution when washing and massaging customers, especially the elderly,’ says Dr Vinay Goyal, director, Neurology, Institute of Neurosciences, Medanta, Gurugram.
The brain stroke in a 50-year-old Hyderabad woman after a hair wash at a salon, ostensibly because a crucial blood vessel nourishing her brain got compressed and triggered it, has understandably stoked fears and anxieties among women who consider this a routine drill. As tweets by neurologist Dr Sudhir Kumar suggested that the fatal crick of the neck might have happened when she tilted her head backwards into the wash basin, there are obviously questions about safety of practices at salons and if women need to be wary about what has become their favourite relaxation drill.
WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED?
Says Dr Vinay Goyal, director, Neurology, Institute of Neurosciences, Medanta, Gurugram, “The syndrome occurs when the neck is hyperextended to some extent as a result of a jerk or certain pressure while having your hair shampooed and remaining in that position for an extended period of time. The hyperextension of the neck can cause artery compression from simply changing position, or the bones can slide a little bit one over the other, resulting in carotid or vertebral artery dissection. Dissection is blood vessel tear, resulting in a blood clot that travels to your brain and causes a stroke.” Adds Dr Sahil Kohli, Senior Consultant, Neurology, Neurosciences, Max Hospital, Gurgaon, “There are more chances of hyperextension during bungee jumping or road traffic accidents.”
Dr Vipul Gupta, Director, Neuro-Intervention, Artemis Agrim Institute of Neurosciences, Gurugram, however, believes that with the rise in brain stroke cases in India, the beauty parlour stroke syndrome has become much more common in the recent past. “Although the syndrome is pretty rare, several reports have suggested that over 10 per cent women are at a risk of suffering from a brain stroke while tilting their neck to get a shampoo hair wash at the beauty parlour. The stroke occurs in the PICA area due to cerebral artery dissection or vertebral artery compression in people having one side of the artery thinner than the other, blocking the artery to supply blood to the cerebellum and the brainstem. Symptoms can include severe dizziness, blurry vision, loss of balance, slurry speech and facial numbness.”
As Dr Kumar wrote in his tweet, “This can occur in women with other atherosclerotic risk factors and undetected vertebral hypoplasia. Prompt recognition and treatment can prevent disability,” he wrote.
Though the tweet may have gone viral, the “beauty parlour syndrome” was coined in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1993 by Dr Michael Weintraub after he saw five women who had developed serious neurological symptoms following shampoos at hair salons. Complaints included severe dizziness, loss of balance, and facial numbness. Four out of five suffered strokes, according to The Guardian report of 2016.
es blood pressure, a sudden spike of which could be a trigger.”