Girl Temporarily Blinded by Hair Dye Is Awarded £20,000

Health experts constantly warn of the dangers of using hair dyes without following the instructions on the box to the letter (in the case of home dye kits), or without seeing that the hairdresser does so before getting started. Charlotte Gilchrist, a 21 year-old mom from England, was just recently awarded £20,000 in damages for an incident involving hair dye, dating back 5 years and that left her temporarily blind, as the Daily Express informs.

Charlotte was just 16 when she went through a very agonizing experience with hair dye, and that’s not even a dramatization of the fact. Before her prom night, she decided to color her hair and went to a salon, where a hairdresser’s assistant applied hair dye on her head. The moment the color started to take, the woman recalls, she started feeling itching on the scalp. She went home but returned to the salon the next day because of the unbearable sensation of burning. Only hours later, she was in the hospital, completely blind.

For the pain she underwent because the assistant who did her dye job did not patch test it before applying it, Charlotte was awarded £20,000 in damages. “Charlotte Gilchrist had the chemical applied at a professional salon without a patch test being performed first for possible allergies. The dye made her face erupt in blisters and swellings developed which left her unable to see for five days. Charlotte, 21, said: ‘As a young girl you care about how you look – I felt embarrassed – but the worst thing was the pain’,” the Daily Express writes.

She now recalls that, in spite of the pain, she did go to the prom as planned, but ended up spending the entire night in tears. The morning after, she woke up and half her head was excessively swollen and there was clear liquid coming out of her scalp. She went to the hospital, where she was put on antihistamines, but it wasn’t until five days later that the swelling came down enough to allow her to open her eyes and, thus, see.

Charlotte Gilchrist is now using her own example to warn of the dangers of hair dyes. She will personally never be able to dye her hair again, but she wants all women to know, whether they color their own hair at home or go to the salon, that performing a patch test for possible allergic reactions is paramount to avoid incidents like hers.