A woman who fell unconscious while having her hair shampooed yesterday may have suffered a syndrome known as beauty parlour stroke.
The 51-year-old, identified only as Ms Ko, had her head bent back in a wash basin when she passed out.
Last night, she was in a critical condition in Prince of Wales Hospital. Doctors said she had suffered a stroke but they were not sure of the cause.
Similar cases - including a woman who died in Britain four months ago after suffering a stroke in a beauty parlour four years earlier - are also known as 'head back stroke'.
Ms Ko went to a beauty parlour in a shopping mall in Sunshine City, Ma On Shan, with her mother at 5pm. She had been having her hair washed for about 10 minutes when she had the stroke.
A salon worker said: 'I thought she felt very comfortable. She closed her eyes while I was washing her hair. But then when I asked her to get up, she gave no response.'
The owner of the parlour, who did not want to be named and who had never seen such a case before, said: 'I really hope she is okay.'