Hair-grooming syncope is a fainting disorder caused by hair styling
I read an article by Maressa Brown in “Health” in Apple News
I’m summarizing below.
A woman in Clinton, Tennessee, Alicia Brown Phillips, shared a story on Facebook on July 7th. She was getting her little sister Gracie ready for church and was curling the child’s hair. After about five minutes of hair prepping, the child began gagging and turned pale. Alicia asked her sister if she was sick and the child said yes. In another 30 seconds the child’s lips turned blue and she was pale and was beginning to pass out. Her pupils enlarged, her facial expression became blank and she was staring blankly. She became unresponsive, her hands were shaking and then she went limp for a minute. It seemed like a seizure to Alicia. The child soon came to and said she felt OK. The child said she could hear during the incident but she couldn’t talk. She remained confused.
Gracie was taken to a childrens’ hospital and given an EKG and a scan of her head. Her family was told she was fine and that she had an incident of a condition called hair-grooming syncope. This condition can affect children ages 5-13 and occurs while curling, brushing, drying, cutting, styling or braiding a child’s hair. This can cause nerve stimulation in the scalp leading to what appears like a seizure but is actually fainting. It is a rare condition that results in loss of consciosness during hair care. It’s believed that a nerve in the scalp sends impulses to another nerve, the vasovagal nerve. This nerve is involved with regulating blood pressure and heart beat rate. The styling can lead to a slow heart rate and lower blood pressure leading to syncope (fainting). The condition is temporary.
