A Sinking Feeling

There’s a new peril amid the chemicals, scissors and razors at hair salons: the sinks where customers get their hair washed. People with arthritis, pinched nerves and neck injuries from traffic or sports accidents risk developing a painful condition from leaning their heads back over a sink, according to researchers at New Jersey Medical School in Newark. The researchers have given it a name: salon sink radiculopathy, or injury to nerve roots leading from the spinal cord to the extremities. Experts recommend padding the sink edge with towels, having your hair washed face down or washing your hair at home before a visit to the salon. Mable Graham, 60, one of about a dozen people identified with the problem so far, does an exercise for a pinched nerve in her neck at her New Jersey home.