For these of a sure age, Coneheads is an iconic 90s movie. However for breakdancers, it appears, creating a cone-shaped head may be an occupational hazard.
Based on a 2024 medical case report, a breakdancer who’d been performing for 19 years was handled for “headspin hole”, a situation often known as “breakdancer bulge” that is distinctive to breakdancers. It entails a cone formed mass creating on high of the scalp after repetitive head-spinning. Further signs can embrace hair loss and typically ache across the lump.
Roughly 30 % of breakdancers report hair loss and irritation of their scalp from head-spinning. A headspin gap is brought on by the physique making an attempt to guard itself. The repeated trauma from head-spinning causes the epicranial aponeurosis – a layer of connective tissue just like a tendon, working from the again of your head to the entrance – to thicken together with the layer of fats beneath the pores and skin on high of the top in an try to guard the bones of cranium from damage.
The physique causes an analogous protecting response to friction on the arms and ft, the place callouses kind to unfold the stress and shield the underlying tissues from injury. On a regular basis repetitive actions from holding smartphones or heavy weights by means of to poorly becoming footwear can lead to callouses.
However a cone-shaped head is not the one damage to which breakdancers are susceptible, nonetheless. Widespread points can embrace wrist, knee, hip, ankle, foot and elbow accidents, and strikes such because the “windmill” and the “backspin” could cause bursitis – irritation of the fluid stuffed sacs that shield the vertebrae of the backbone.
A headspin gap is not the worst damage you possibly can maintain from breakdancing both. One dancer broke their neck however fortunately they have been fortunate sufficient to not have any main issues.
Others, akin to Ukrainian breakdancer Anna Ponomarenko, have skilled pinched nerves which have left them paralysed. Ponomarenko recovered to characterize her nation within the Paris 2024 Olympics.
As with different sports activities, it is unsurprising to listen to that the usage of protecting tools ends in the discount of accidents in breakdancing too.
However breakdancers aren’t the one ones to develop cone formed heads.
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Newborns
Some infants are born with a conical head after their pliable cranium has been squeezed and squashed throughout the journey by means of the vaginal canal and the muscular contractions of mom’s uterus.
A misshapen head will also be brought on by caput secundum, the place fluid collects beneath the pores and skin, above the cranium bones. Normally, this situation resolves itself inside a couple of days. Infants who’ve been delivered utilizing a vacuum assisted cup (often known as a Ventouse) – the place the cup is utilized to the highest of the newborn’s head to tug them out – can develop an analogous fluid lump known as a chignon.
Vacuum assisted supply can even lead to a extra vital lump and bruising known as a cephalohematoma, the place blood vessels within the bones of the cranium rupture. That is twice as widespread in boys than in ladies and resolves inside two weeks to 6 months.
For those who’ve ever seen newborns sporting tiny hats within the first few hours of their life, then one in all these circumstances could be the purpose.
Some youngsters can also current with “cone-head” attributable to craniosynostosis, which happens in about one in each 2,000-2,500 stay births.
New child skulls are made up of numerous small bony plates that are not fused collectively, which allows infants’ brains to develop with out restriction. Normally, as soon as the mind reaches a slower progress tempo that the bones can sustain with, the plates fuse collectively.
In craniosynostosis, the plates fuse collectively too early creating in a different way formed heads. Surgical procedure can forestall mind progress restriction however is often pointless if the kid hasn’t been recognized as having an formed head by six months of age.
Adam Taylor, Professor and Director of the Scientific Anatomy Studying Centre, Lancaster College
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