The next time you visit your barber for a haircut, you just might want to refuse the post haircut 'neck-crack'. The neck-crack routine is quite conventional in most Indian barber shops where the barber twists the head of the customer from side to side causing a 'crack'.

Instead of being relieved and relaxed after the 'neck crack' routine, a man in Delhi ended up being paralysed. The act reportedly had damaged his phrenic nerves which controls the diaphragm muscles that regulate breathing. Ajay Kumar, the victim of this seemingly harmless act is now put on non-invasive mechanical ventilation.

Doctors caution the public against getting neck massages in saloons explaining that such practices by untrained professionals might end up causing damage to neck joints and surrounding muscles or even bilateral diaphragmatic paralysis like in Ajay's case.