Salon victim files injury claim
It has been revealed that a 37-year-old woman has enlisted the help of personal injury lawyers after she suffered serious burns at a hair salon.
The female, from London, is filing a compensation claim against the hair dressing company after suffering severe personal injury which put her in a hospital days before her wedding.
The victim, who resides in Tottenham, states that she suffered toxic shock after an inexperienced assistant put a cocktail of chemicals on her hair, which then burned her scalp.
She has claimed that she was so badly injured that she had to go from the salon in Hertfordshire to Homerton Hospital – and from there - to her wedding. As a result, she had to wear a wig to disguise the patches where her hair fell out.
The office manager, who married her husband in August 2009, is therefore filing a civil action against the salon which treated her.
She alleges that it failed to carry out a patch test that would have revealed she was allergic to toxins in the dye. She also claims the hairdresser put the dye on soon after using chemicals to straighten her hair, which flared the wounds.
She stated: “At one point I went blind and that's when [my partner] took me to hospital. They had to drain the fluid from my head and put me on morphine to kill the pain. Women should make a lot more effort to check out the salons they use. There should be regulation.” The salon denies the allegations and said the case was in the hands of its solicitor.
Hair-rendous figures
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. Figures show that lawyers have dealt with 34 salon-linked injury suits in London over the past year alone. The total figure across the UK reached 338.
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, which provided the figures via a survey, have long urged for stricter regulations on hairdressers.
Denise Kitchener, the lawyers' association's chief executive, said: “We are very concerned about the number of people being injured.”
Hair-raising experience
In similar news, a 39-year-old woman from Wales, has spoken publically about her very bad hair day after she went to a salon six months ago.
Last December her former boyfriend spent £2,000 on a ‘volumiser’ – a customised net with hair attached to it which fits to the head and has real hair pulled through it. Its purpose is to create thickness for thin hair types.
After a consultation, she was told her personalised net would be ready in five weeks. However, it was after this when problems began.
She said: “It actually took 14 weeks, and when I saw it I knew it hadn’t been customised. I watched as the hairdresser started gluing it into my hair. I was confused, but was told it was a quicker, easier way of doing it and that most women thread the hair themselves while watching television. A few days later the hairpiece began to slip off, bringing pieces of my hair with it.”
The gym worker added: “A solution was used to remove the weave which was so strong it severely damaged my hair. They ripped the net off my head and my hair at the front just came out. It was so sore, my skin was red and stinging and my head was agony. The hairdressers just said it would calm down in a few days. At one point I didn’t leave the house – I couldn’t even face going outside to take the rubbish bin out,” she stated.
Due to the hairdresser’s professional negligence she has now spent around £800 on wigs and hairpieces to hide the bald squares across her head.
Lawyers in Wales have dealt with 20 salon-related injury cases, including total hair loss, scarring and burns.