REALLY bad hair day

Nurses General Nursing

Published

A woman visiting a patient of mine last week had the strangest thing going on with her hair. The front was cut very short but looked kind of normal. The back, however, was past her shoulder and appeared to be formed into a loaf shape, was matted, looked like it was mixed with grease, pieces of flesh, and dirt. The smell took my breath! Even with the door closed, people walking down the hall would comment on the smell. I wondered if there was a tumor or something underneath all that mess, but could not get a good enough look. I have smelled many foul things, but this was the worst by far. The woman looked clean enough, though. Everyone on staff that saw it said the same thing...."what the heck is that???". Any ideas? Have any of you seen and smelled anything like this?

Specializes in Med Surg.

sounds like a huge dread to me!

Im an x-hairstylist, now nurse. I'm gonna tend to go with the one who is guessing that shes hiding a growth or cyst of some kind under the mess!! She probobly doesnt wash it to allow it to keep tangling to better hide something underneath!! ugh!!! Technical dreadlocks are what they wear in Jamaica. They're not one big hunk of hair. Wow, glad I wasn't there!!

The back, however, was past her shoulder and appeared to be formed into a loaf shape, was matted, looked like it was mixed with grease, pieces of flesh, and dirt.

:barf01:

Speaking of bad hair days... In 2003 my husband (boyfriend at the time) were in a rollover accident. The car had a moonroof. The force of the impact popped open the moonroof, and during the course of the rollover my hair went out the moonroof, and when the car ended up on it's top, my hair was under the car. I was trapped in the car because my hair was stuck in the moonroof. (I wasn't wearing a seatbelt). Needless to say, firemen don't make great beauticians when getting you out of a wrecked car.

So, my hair was whacked. Bad, bad news. Besides being banged and bruised up though, I was okay. My husband had to have surgery for a broken jaw, and I didn't want to leave the hospital. I ended up staying the night because the surgery didn't end until late, and the next morning I felt awful... it took a couple of days to make it to a salon to get it fixed. The hair stylist, bless her heart, didn't even know where to start. It was a three person consult. I ended up with really, really short hair.

I admit that night it was tangled and dirty... but there was no flesh involved.

Your description reminds me of pictures I've seen on peopleofwalmart.com. Kind of like a formed mullet.

Something like this? http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/?p=15719

EEEEWWWW

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

It really sounds like a bezoar on the outside.

If you are eating or have a weak stomach ---do not--- click the link below.

:barf01::barf01::barf01:

But if you like medical weirdness you will love this!

bezoar human - Google Search

Specializes in Hem/Onc, LTC, AL, Homecare, Mgmt, Psych.

I had to look but couldn't bring myself to click on the links for a closer view! Is a bezoar a fermented or petrified hairball removed from inside a person's stomach????!!!??? From a psych disorder??

It really sounds like a bezoar on the outside.

If you are eating or have a weak stomach ---do not--- click the link below.

But if you like medical weirdness you will love this!

bezoar human - Google Search

Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
I had to look but couldn't bring myself to click on the links for a closer view! Is a bezoar a fermented or petrified hairball removed from inside a person's stomach????!!!??? From a psych disorder??

Yes, I think it's from a psych disorder where people actually swallow hair and eventually it forms a bezoar because it doesn't digest properly. I think there are animal bezoars, too, but for different reasons.

Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
Something like this? http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/?p=15719

EEEEWWWW

Thanks for that!

SO GROOOOOSSS! Wouldn't it be hard to keep clean and be really heavy on your head?

Someone said on this post that dreadlockers keep their hair clean - no they don't! We had a guy in hospital once who's hair absolutely reeked and I'm sure there were things moving around in it. I didn't even want to go near him in case I caught something.

Has the original poster found out what it was? I'm dying to know!

this thread is pretty funny:grn:

Specializes in med/surg, ob/gyn, CM.

No, I have not found out what it was, although I still have nightmares about it getting on me! Sometimes, when I go in that same room to see a patient, I think I can still smell it...yikes. The links posted both had some similarities, although the terrible stench cannot be conveyed online..and aren't you glad?!?!:eek:

This is the strangest thing. Maybe it's a GIANT sebaceous cyst that's continually oozing and leaking combined with matted hair to form a giant dreadlock? And for whatever reason, the person doesn't have the hygiene sense to know it is wrong?

:barf01:

This thread is cracking me up, despite the nausea it's causing! :lol2:

There was a homeless man in a town I used to live in that had one big dreadlock in the back. It looked like a beaver tail. Can't say I ever smelled it though!

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