I've got a great shower head here in China, and want to bring it back to the US with me. The threading looks about the same, just eyeballing it. Does anyone know if this is something that has an international standard?
Plumbing – Shower Head Threading: International Perspective
plumbingshower
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This is a picture of one example of a rough shower plumbing install:
As you can see, at the top there is a cross brace, and there is a 90 degree angle that's been mounted into that brace secured, preferably with screws but possibly with nails.
My guess? Your shower head was braced with nails, some idiot hit your shower head pipe pretty hard and pulled the nails loose, and the sound you heard was one of the nails falling out.
It's not serious - as long as you don't put any weight on the shower head - and the fix will involve opening up the walls. Technically you can fix it from behind, so you won't have to destroy tile in the process, but that's a harder way to do it. Basically you have to pull the wall behind the shower, cut the pipe to the shower head, pull the brace, re-secure the shower head, replace the brace, and then fix the feed to the shower head w/ a connector.
Try letting the shower head hang for a few days while it's not in use. This might help "unwind" the plastic. You could even run hot water through it once in a while, while it's hanging, to help the re-straightening process. Next trick would be to remove it and place it in hot water then let it cool while hanging.
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Best Answer
ISO is, of course, the International Standards Organisation.
However I'd not be surprised if China, and most of the planet, use metric threads for this sort of plumbing.
The US has a proud, some might say stubborn, habit of ignoring International standards and inventing its own.
That's National Pipe Thread. Not BSP, Not metric.
In your shoes I'd measure at least the internal diameter and thread pitch. I'd also check for straight vs tapered.