New Delhi, May 19: Women often pop into their local beauty parlour for a quick hair wash and blow dry. Unfortunately the price for looking lovely can be your life. This theory about “no pain, no gain” is utter nonsense. The next time your neck is being yanked backwards in the most uncomfortable position by “professional parlour girls” when washing your hair, please do protest. Or you could die! It was recently reported that in UK, Pamela Crabb, a mother of two, suffered slurred speech and loss of balance while having her hair rinsed at a salon recently. During this procedure, her face turned red and she could barely speak, except to say she wanted to go home as speedily as possible. This condition is known as the “beauty parlour syndrome.” Tests later showed Crabb had suffered a minor stroke and she died. Although an infrequent condition, it’s not rare. Another victim of the beauty parlour syndrome suffered a stroke when her head had been extended backwards for five minutes, when a tear in an artery occurred. Says Dr Ranjan, a neurosurgeon at the Apollo hospital “The condition can happen to anyone who has a defect in the spinal cord, from teenagers to elderly women and men.
The spinal cord runs through a hole in the spine and if there is instability there due to sudden compression, it can lead to complications, resulting in death.” A definite link has not been established between hair washing and strokes, but well trained hairdressers are taught not to extend clients necks for long periods of time and make sure that the person is comfortable. Unfortunately, not all parlours in the city have trained staff because young girls are often seen learning through their errors. Agreed, you can’t stop going to the salon, but be careful.