A hair salon in the UK with the unfortunate name of 'Isis' has decided to throw in the towel and change the title of their business following a purported threat by the terror group.
Karen Lawrence says that the name of her salon had become a public relations nightmare over the last few years, but she had vowed not to drop the Isis title despite its newfound nefarious connotation.
While she'd grown somewhat accustomed to jeering from the public and awkwardness from her customers over the name, Lawrence finally reached her breaking point this past summer in the form of a worrisome email.
In the menacing missive, which allegedly came from someone calling themselves the 'head of ISIS,' the writer demanded she stop disrespecting 'their name.'
Although police have since concluded that the email probably didn't actually come from ISIS, it was enough for Lawrence to give up the name for good.
The saga of the hair salon sheds light on the unlucky individuals and companies that once proudly bore the Isis name and now regret it.
Incredibly, Lawrence says that people actually thought her business was somehow working with the terror group and her employees had even been threatened because of the confusion.
Lest one think that Lawrence's plight is merely an amusing annoyance for the business owner, she says that name change came at a considerable cost since so many aspects of the hair salon bore the name ISIS.
And, making matters worse, the now-named Studio No.5 still receives the occasional threatening phone call from strangers who believe the business is called Isis.
In what may be the understatement of the year, Lawrence mused to a local newspaper, "you'd think common sense would prevail but apparently not."
Source: Essex Live