CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Researchers discovered that dozens of victims suffered strokes that were caused by a seemingly innocuous action – getting their hair washed at a salon.
The study, published in the May 2025 edition of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, examined 22 studies that analyzed 54 cases of “beauty parlor stroke syndrome” across five decades. Beauty parlor stroke syndrome occurs when a victim’s neck becomes hyperextended while leaning back into a hair washing bowl. The action can compress or tear vertebral arteries in the neck, cutting off blood circulation to the brain and, in rare instances, causing a stroke.
In addition to the stroke, the syndrome can cause dizziness, vertigo, blurred vision, loss of balance, headaches, nausea, slurred speech, paralysis, and weakness on a specific side of the body, as reported by People. The symptoms could take multiple days or even multiple weeks to present themselves after the victim visits the salon.
The study determined that around 80% of the victims affected by beauty parlor stroke system were women, although there was no specific age range that was predominantly affected…