Hyderabad: Woman suffers 'beauty parlour stroke' after hair wash at salon

HYDERABAD: A recent trip to the salon almost turned fatal for a 50-year-old woman from Hyderabad, who suffered a stroke while getting her hair washed before a haircut. Doctors treating her said that a key vessel supplying blood to the brain was pressed when she bent back her neck for the wash, causing the stroke.
Incidentally, such health scares - often termed as the "beauty parlour stroke syndrome" after it was first reported in the US in 1993 - have been reported in the past too, said city doctors, adding that similar cases are common among men walking into salons for a neck massage.
"It happens when the masseur presses down on the neck and head hard, at times even twists the neck to produce a cracking sound. This leads to tender vessels getting injured, leading to a stroke," said Dr Praveen Kumar Yada, consultant neurologist at KIMS, Secunderabad, who has handled multiple such cases over the years.
The usual symptoms are dizziness, nausea, and vomiting, among other things. The 50-year-old woman experienced these signs, along with imbalances in her body, and initially consulted a gastroenterologist. She was referred to a neurologist after the doctor found no gastric issues.
Salon stroke triggered by choked artery
By the time the patient came to us, about 24 hours had passed since the original symptoms. But she had a slanted gait and was weak which made us suspect it was a stroke and we asked for an MRI. As expected, clots were seen in her right cerebellum and in a key artery in the back of the neck called PICA," said Dr Sudhir Kumar, senior consultant neurologist, Apollo Hospitals, Jubilee Hills.
Dr Sudhir said they concluded it was "beauty parlour stroke syndrome" as it occurred due to "hyperextension of neck towards the basin while washing hair". Like any other stroke patient, the 50-year-old has been put on medication for life.
While these strokes often happen due to a pre-existing risk or anomaly - in the latest case the woman had a thinner than usual vertebral artery, leading to slower blood supply to the brain - it can be caused by severe injury to the vessels too, said Dr Subodh Raju, director, neuro and spine surgery, AIG Hospitals. He said: "At times we also see kids suffer strokes and that's because of a thinner vertebral artery."
In his past 20 years of practice, Dr Sudhir said he handled two other such cases involving women - in their 30s and 40s - with no known risk factors. "Immediately after their salon visit, however, they presented with milder strokes called 'transient ischemic attack'. Since they were younger, they required only three-five years of blood thinners."