A woman who suffered an allergic reaction to hair dye is urging hairdressers to take proper precautions.
Shaylene Gartly, 23, felt “beautiful” after having her hair done but then hours later her scalp became extremely itchy.
Then things got even worse when the next morning her face started to balloon.
The receptionist claimed her face swelled to three times its normal size when she treated herself to a trip to the salon last month.
Friends thought she was using a Snapchat filter as she progressively began to resemble a Space Invader crisp.
She dashed to A&E twice that day and said the pain was so excruciating that it made her want to “rip her hair out”.
Now Shaylene is sharing her ordeal after claiming that the hairdresser hadn’t offered a patch test.
She said: “When the swelling was at its worst, I would honestly say that my face looked like one of those moon emojis.
“My sister said I looked like a thumb, that’s kind of accurate as well.
“My face was just kind of flat and when the swelling hit my neck too I looked like I was maybe 300lbs, it was crazy.”
Shaylene, from Ontario, Canada, had visited the same salon for a cut before but she believes she should have done a patch test.
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She added: “Just after my hair was done I felt great, honestly I felt beautiful, it was the first time in a long while that I’d felt good.”
When she woke up on July 15, her left eye had completely shut.
Shaylene went to the hospital where she was given antihistamine and antibiotics but the reaction started to spread.
She described: “You could literally touch my forehead and see the indent of your finger because my face was so swollen.”
Shaylene said: “The swelling started at the very top of my head and slowly made its way down into my chest throughout the days.
“It was quite excruciating. I had to have ice packs on my head almost every single night to freeze the pain.
“I was taking tylenol as often as I could and morphine at night just so I could hopefully sleep.”
She has thankfully recovered and said her hairdresser had messaged to see if she was okay.