WARNING: Graphic content:
Kirsty Weston, 29, from Hertfordshire bought high street kit for a few pounds. Left with severe full thickness chemical burns and needed skin graft on head. Has undergone six operations and hair will never grow back on grafted skin. Is now covering up with wigs and scarves while considering further surgery.
Anyone who loves to experiment with their hair colour will tell you it's hard to resist the siren song of pastel hair. And with so many popular brands now selling fantasy colours right next to the more traditional colours on the high street, it seems so easy to transform yourself into a something of a mythical creature.
Kirsty decided to use an at-home bleaching kit to try to give herself unicorn hair. Instead of a pastel-toned mane, she ended up in hospital for six weeks, partially bald and suffering from severe chemical burns.
She picked up high-strength powder bleach from a shop on the high street so she could lighten her naturally dark hair before adding pastel dye. The box of dye included sachets of powder bleach, which needed to be mixed with peroxide (that Kirsty had to buy separately).
Kirsty bought 40 volume 12% peroxide and mixed it with the powder bleach,
She claims she applied the dye according to the instructions, but just before she was about to wash out the bleach after 15 minutes, Kirsty experienced a burning sensation.
She explained: “Within 15 minutes, my hair was literally smoking.
"The pain was so excruciating that I started to feel dizzy, like I was going to faint.”
Despite rushing to rinse the bleach out, she felt severe pain on her head and the next day, her face began to swell.
“I thought it was a reaction,” she said. “The next morning, I went to A&E at Watford general as at that stage, I couldn’t open my left eye. It was getting really painful.”
At A&E she was treated for an allergic reaction and prescribed antibiotics.
But over the following weeks, she continued to experience pain and discomfort.
It wasn’t until a return trip to A&E on February 23 that doctors realised she was suffering from severe burns.
Kirsty recalled: “A plastic surgeon came to see me and when they lifted my hair, most of my scalp came away with it."
“I was a complete emotional wreck."
"They told me that I needed to have surgery the next day."
"They put a bandage around my head and I wasn't able to put pressure on it, so I had to sleep sitting up."
Kirsty was transferred to the Royal Free Hospital, north west London, and the next day, they shaved her hair and cleaned up the wound before she underwent the operation.
After surgery, she was transferred to St Andrews Centre for plastic surgery and burns in Chelmsford, Essex, for further treatment.
Admitted for three weeks, she had five further operations, including a skin graft, where doctors removed skin from her thigh to replace the skin she had lost on her head.
Because the skin does not contain the same hair follicles, Kirsty had to face the fact that she would probably never be able to grow hair there again.
She has been offered two treatments, but both would involve further operations and may not be successful.
Kirsty explained: "My options are to have a skin expansion treatment. They place balloons under the skin. These are filled with saline every week, until that skin stretches enough and then the healthy skin is pulled down onto the damaged skin, to reduce the baldness"
"I'm not sure if I'm ready for that at the minute. It would require more surgery and I would have to travel back and forth to hospital every week, which is difficult when I have a little girl to look after."
"I have also been offered a hair transplant, but they aren't great for women. It will cover the scalp, but I'm never going to have long flowing locks."
"I'm not sure what I am going to do so, at the minute, I'm just concentrating on getting my skin graft healed."
While Kirsty considers her options, charity the Katie Piper Foundation has stepped in to fund a bespoke hair piece from Bloomsbury wigs for her to wear to cover her burns.
"Where I have got hair, it is very thick and it's growing fast so they wouldn't be able to put on a full wig. They are creating a hairpiece that will clip around the existing hair," she explained.
"It should be ready in September and I think that will completely transform my life. I will be so much more confident going out and about."
"At the minute, even if I am just nipping to the shop, I put my hood up or wear a headscarf. It's really knocked my self-confidence."
"I want to see if I can live with the hair piece. I might be able to avoid further surgery if I can get used to it and feel happy."
Birnur Aral, Ph.D., Director of the Good Housekeeping Institute's Health, Beauty and Environmental Sciences Lab believes that, even if Weston was following the directions provided with the bleach, it was risky to attempt to follow those directions as a non-professional.
"Kirsty probably got a lot more on her scalp and possibly did not use it in a well-ventilated area," Dr. Aral says. "If you ever dyed your hair at home, the instruction sheet would always advise a patch test to be done 24 hours ahead of the application. This is all to make sure that an adverse reaction such as this can be prevented."
And that's exactly what Weston admits she failed to do: "I didn't do a patch test and I know I should have."
Generally speaking, the chemicals used to dye your hair aren't that great for you, so there's that. But when it comes to peroxide and bleach? That stuff is no joke.
All in all, you have to be really careful when dealing with these types of chemicals, even if they look innocent sitting in the beauty aisle at your local pharmacy.
Remember to do patch tests on your skin before you cover your whole head with this stuff, and most importantly, consult with a pro (no, Siri doesn't count) who has a lot of experience with this kind of thing. They can give you tricks of the trade, and tell you how to best handle chemicals while applying.
