An SUV crashed through the front of Head Turnerz Salon on Azalea Garden Road in Norfolk on Sunday, Sept. 6, just as owner Nicole King was preparing to return to work after weeks away for breast cancer treatment. Nobody was inside the salon when the vehicle struck, and the driver and a passenger in the SUV walked away unhurt.
Police told reporters the driver accidentally hit the accelerator while trying to park outside the salon, according to WTKR. The impact caused extensive damage inside the business, the station reported, and no other injuries were reported from the crash, which happened while the salon was closed.
For King, the timing could hardly have been worse. She had been away from work for seven weeks while battling breast cancer and recovering from multiple surgeries, the station's report notes, with a return to the chair she'd worked behind for 24 years finally in sight.
A Double Mastectomy, One Surgery Still To Go
King said she had undergone a double mastectomy as part of her treatment and still had one more operation ahead of her when the crash happened. “I had a double mastectomy done and I still have one more surgery to go,” she said, per the same account. She opened Head Turnerz in 2013, building a client base over more than two decades in the business.
Accounts of exactly what happened to the building immediately after the crash differ. A snippet from WAVY described city officials declaring the building uninhabitable, forcing the business to close. WTKR's earlier reporting, however, said the Fire Marshal's Office inspected the building and that officials posted a placard on the business as a precaution rather than condemning it outright.
Weighing Repairs Versus A Fresh Start
In the aftermath, King said she was weighing her options, including repairing the current space or finding a new location altogether, the station's report states. Either path meant more upheaval for a business owner who was already managing a cancer recovery, on top of the physical damage left behind by the crash.
The episode lands amid a broader public-health picture in Virginia, where state health officials projected that more than 1,100 people would die of breast cancer in the state in 2025, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Nationally, the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Trends Progress Report found that 79.8% of women ages 50 to 74 had received a mammogram within the previous two years as of 2023.
