This recent article (Tennessee Woman Calls Attention to Rare Medical Condition Triggered by Styling Children’s Hair) caught my attention because it was a weird medical story that I had never heard before.
While having her hair curled with a curling iron, 10-year-old Gracie Brown suffered from what is called hair-grooming syncope. She started to gag and her face turned white. Other cases have reported dizziness and even loss of consciousness.
According to the article, this condition affects a handful of young patients — usually girls — each year.
While getting their hair done, the children might feel light-headed or even faint, which could present as though they’re having an epileptic seizure. Tugging on the hair, it turns out, triggers the nerves in one’s scalp to stimulate the body’s vasovagal nerve — which regulates blood pressure and heart rate — causing both to slow.
This is the type of detail that could be used in a story about a young girl’s medical history as her doctor’s try to figure out what is happening. Does she have epilepsy or not?
Or
What about some kind of brain study where all the kids wear skull caps and all the girls are all passing out. The adult scientists can’t figure out why.
Or
What if a boy suffers from this, could it mean something specific?
Or
Does this condition take over a child beauty pageant as all the kids are getting ready and more then one contestant passes out minutes before the opening number.
Who wants to talk more about how you can use this idea in your current or next story?
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