A woman in California sued her hair salon on grounds that her shampoo session at the establishment led to her stroke in 2013. Elizabeth Smith, 48, claimed that she was a victim of a "beauty parlor stroke," and she had to pay hundreds of thousands in medical bills.
Doctors assessed that Smith's uncomfortable position while getting shampooed led to the over-extension of her neck, thus causing an injury that resulted in her vertebrae slicing an artery. This then lead to a blood clot that caused her stroke.
"I vomited, my head became hot and I couldn't stand," Smith said. "I had weakness in my arms and legs. They didn't think I was going to live."
Smith's attorneys claimed that the salon, Blowbunny: Blow Dry & Hair Extension Bar of San Diego, didn't support its client's neck nor adjust the chair properly. The attorneys also claimed that Smith had to sit at a defective sink and chair. She has continually suffered since the stroke.
While Smith's case might sound rare, experts said that beauty parlor stroke syndrome is not so bizarre. "When you hyperextend your neck, there can be a little bit of compression on the artery from simply just changing the position or the bones slide a little bit one over the other," said vascular surgeon Dr. Peter Gloviczki. The same can also happen at the dentist or chiropractor's office, or when playing tennis or doing yoga.
"Actually calling it a 'Beauty Parlor Stroke' is relatively common in the teaching; it's been reported quite a lot," said Dr. Warren Selman of the Neurological Institute at University Hospitals Case Medical Center.
This condition is usually painless and unnoticeable until symptoms like headache, soreness, weakness in the limbs, vision loss and difficulty walking occur. Dr. Aneesh Singhal of the Harvard Medical School said that medications like aspirin might only make the symptoms worse, and the best thing to do if you're experiencing these symptoms is to go to the hospital for diagnosis.
If you do plan on getting your hair washed at the beauty parlor, ensure you have pads to support your neck area. Some salons have ditched reclining shampoos altogether and wash their clients' hair face down. "Avoid activities where the neck would be malpositioned for a long period of time - more than 10 or 15 minutes, but it could be even less," said Singhal. "You don't need to avoid going to the beauty parlor, just be aware that there's a small risk."
