A new study has revealed that years and years of breakdancing and doing somersaults on your head can cause a painful bump on your skull.
Breakdancers defy gravity, but in some cases this art can have consequences such as the case of a dancer who, after almost twenty years of spinning on his head, noticed something strange: a painful bumpnestled on the top of my scalp, which was getting bigger.
Doctors have published a case report on a rare and unusual lesion, called “breakdancing bulge” or “head hole”. Breakdancers, or “breakers” as they call themselves, have been aware of the phenomenon for years, but it has largely escaped the notice of medical literature. Now, thanks to one patient’s case, the condition is finally getting doctors’ attention.
The study
This rare condition develops due to repeated friction between the scalp and the floor. The dancer, who had been practicing headspins for more than 19 years, reported that he trained five times a week for 1.5 hours per session. Each time he spent two to seven minutes spinning on his head.
The lump, about an inch thick, became so cosmetically unsightly that the dancer in public was forced to wear a hat to hide it.
When he finally sought help, he turned to doctors at Copenhagen University Hospital. The team began to wonder what might have caused this mysterious bump, and an MRI showed that it was now more than an inch thick, but not malignant.
The culprit? Repeated trauma to the scalp due to years of dizziness. Doctors called it an “overuse injury,” similar to what athletes suffer from constant wear and tear on a particular body part. In this case, the damage was concentrated on the skin and soft tissues of the scalp, creating what doctors in the report call the “cone head sign.”
The condition typically begins with the hair lossfollowed by the formation of a mass due to repeated trauma to the scalp.
While breakdancing-related injuries like this are rare, they are not impossible. In fact, this wasn’t the first time a dancer had faced such a problem. But the case sheds light on the broader risks dancers face. Dr. Christian Baastrup Sondergaard, one of the authors of the case report, says that those who notice early signs of “breakdancing bulge” should consider reducing or avoiding dancing on their heads.
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