Shampoo and rinse could have cost my wife her life

The Telegraph ^ | 24/04/2004 | Richard Savill

[ijcr]

A widower has begun a campaign to raise awareness of Beauty Parlour Stroke Syndrome following the death of his wife at 51.

Malcolm Crabb said his wife Pamela became ill and was diagnosed as having had a mini-stroke after a visit to the hairdressers, during which she was shampooed over a washbasin.

The rare syndrome has been linked to the prolonged distortion of the neck during shampoos.

Mr Crabb, 49, an estate agent, from Poole, Dorset, married his wife in April 2000. However in September that year Mrs Crabb visited the hairdressers where she became ill after stretching her neck during a backwards wash over the basin.

Her husband said that over a three-week period her speech became slurred and her hands became "claw-like". She recovered from the mini-stroke but her speech was occasionally slurred.

Last week she had another stroke beside their swimming pool on the Costa del Sol in Spain, where the couple had moved this year. She died later in a hospital in Malaga and was cremated yesterday.

Mr Crabb said he was convinced the visit to the hairdressers had led to her death. He urged that more should be done to warn people who are vulnerable to strokes of the dangers of stretching their necks, particularly those, like his wife, who have high blood pressure or hypertension.

"I am not scaremongering but I want to stop people dying from Beauty Parlour Syndrome," he said. "I don't blame the hairdressers but people with high blood pressure should be aware of the dangers and not bend backwards over the basin. There should be warnings in hairdressers about it in the same way that there are warnings about people with pacemakers going through airport security machines."

Mr Crabb and his wife each have two children by previous marriages. Mrs Crabb, a school special needs co-ordinator, had gone to the hairdressers before the start of the term, and her husband had accompanied her.

Mr Crabb said: "After she got up from having her hair washed I could see her face had gone very, very red. I asked if the water was too hot and she said, 'No, don't worry'. I asked her where she wanted to go to have lunch and she just said, 'Please take me home. I feel so ill'."

Mrs Crabb saw a specialist and spent about two weeks in hospital, after her stroke was diagnosed. "One of the sisters asked if she had had her hair done recently," Mr Crabb said. "She believed that was the problem.

"After that it all fell into place. I have since learned there is a Beauty Parlour Stroke Syndrome."

[ijcr]

Gosh! This is worse than Restless Leg Syndrome.

[Judith Anne]

A true illness. If you have a carotid artery that's getting clogged, and bend your head back over a hard basin, it can cut off the blood supply to the brain.

[GeronL]

OMG!! Now I have heard everything

[goodnesswins]

YEP....my husband's grandmother died this way (in her 80's)

[Judith Anne]

I hope my hair looks nice when I die...It probably won't, nobody's ever does, but I really would like that...

[Arkinsaw]

My grandmother fell asleep in a chair with her head leaned back over the headrest and had a major stroke.

[clee1]

Holy Shite!

I have never heard of this before! I gotta call my Mom!

[Bronzewound]

I hope my hair looks nice when I die

Well, if you die like this, then it should, right?

[ladyinred]

This is a new and frightening one!

[let freedom sing]

This puts a new spin on a little wet behind the ears.

[Rocky]

"Well, if you die like this, then it should, right?"

Only if you leave instructions with the hairdresser: "No matter what happens, please finish my hair style."

[Judith Anne]

I do my own hair. Hub helps me cut it. I used to get it done, but then a hairdresser used a latex cloth around my neck, and I wound up in the ER. I'm severely allergic to latex, can't take THAT chance, either.

[Bronzewound]

Wow! Groom safely.:)

[MonroeDNA]

My grandmother died.

Come to think of it, all old people do.

And young people, and all people.

But let's sue anyway.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[MinuteGal]

I shampoo my own hair at home before going to the beauty parlor. The shampoo girls are always in such a hurry and never massage long or hard enough to get all the soap out of the scalp. Then I itch for three days.

Leni

[New Horizon]

Did they at least finish the job?

[Arkinsaw]

My grandmother died.
Come to think of it, all old people do.
And young people, and all people.
But let's sue anyway.


Reviewing my post, I don't see where I said a damn thing about suing anybody.

[Judith Anne]

Yeah.

But I'm glad this article was posted. This really isn't unheard of, this beauty-parlor stroke problem, and the article could save somebody's life.

It's bending the head back that's the problem. All the beauty-parlor sinks I've ever known of have been rigid ceramic with a sort of a depression where the neck goes, then the head bends back over the open sink with nothing supporting it but the neck. If the neck bends back too far, and the carotid(s) close off, big trouble.

[Judith Anne]

Good idea, to shampoo at home.

This could happen to a younger woman too...actually, 51 (the age of the woman in the article) is younger than me...but even women with healthy carotids could have this problem if the head was bent back too long...