Hair Dye Disaster (From Your Local Guardian)

Hair Dye Disaster

5:43pm Sunday 7th September 2008

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I'd been the blonde haired blue eyed girl for as long as I could remember. Though I liked my fair features, being blonde was getting a bit old. I'd never really experimented extremely with my hair, give or take some layering, a bad packet of blonde hair dye not dissimilar to my own colour and a few highlights. My mother never supported my desire to dye my hair brown, but when she went out of the country I saw it as an opportunity to do something I'd wanted to do since I was in Year Ten. I hate to say it, but maybe Mum did know best.

I went out, purchased a £5 packet of dark brown permanent hair dye and a brown eyebrow pencil. I hesitated slightly at the word 'permanent'. A hair change was quite hardcore for me, but I was up for it. Besides, it's the summer so if it went really badly, it wouldn't be completely irreversible. I rushed home and instructed my sister to help me dye my hair. I stupidly didn't bother reading the small print on the back of the packet. The 48 hour test is recommended for every user to allow your skin to react to the chemicals in the hair dye. If one develops a rash, one has reacted badly and one should not use the hair dye. I decided not to do the test because I was impatient to be a brunette. I figured that if I'd used blonde hair dye and not reacted badly to it, brunette hair dye would be the same. I figured wrong.

I was really happy with my new hair. I liked the dark brown hair contrasting with my blue eyes and strangely, I felt like I was meant to be a brunette all along. I'd always felt that though blonde hair is initially more eye catching, brown hair was more alluring. That was just my opinion anyway. My friends liked it too and my sister actually preferred my brown locks to blonde (though I have a sneaky suspicion that's because she wanted to be the only blonde Fraser daughter). The feedback was good and I was really happy.

Day Two. I feel a slight itch. I dismiss it as a typical light rash that anybody would develop should they put some chemicals on their head. The glands on the bottom of my head were slightly inflamed (ok, very much inflamed) and my ears were getting itchy but it was just a light reaction. One of my friends gave me an antihistamine which sent me sleeping earlier than I expected, but I will never forget the nightmare I was to wake up to.

Day Four. I realised something was wrong when I couldn't get a line on my forehead when I raised my eyebrows. I was botox-ed out. If anyone wants a cheap alternative, a bad hair dye reaction will sort you out quite nicely! I turned to the side, looked in the mirror and noticed my forehead was bulging. I was horrified and went to A&E the next morning. I didn't feel I looked horrific enough to not go out, but I was already feeling a little more self-conscious than my already insecure self! The doctor prescribed me with four antihistamines a day and I put a packet of peas on my head, hoping for the swelling to go down.

I woke up the next morning unable to open my eyes. I figured it wasn't a case of just being really tired- I literally had to pry them open. I took one look in the mirror and burst into tears- except my eyes were so swollen it took a while for them to dribble out. The swelling had moved down to my eyelids such that my eyes could barely open and they were different sizes. The antihistamines hadn't worked and aviators in hand, I went to A&E for the second time that week with my sister and got prescribed a stronger antihistamine, and was told that I should notice significant improvements within a few hours. I was feeling hopeful when I went home and was up to 5 drugs a day.

8.00pm the same evening, and I hadn't noticed any improvements. I still had the packet of frozen vegetables attached to my forehead and had to endure my brother and sister laughing at me. I failed to see what was amusing and my father called me The Elephant Girl. I decided to sleep on it and was looking forward to waking up looking a little better.

I woke up looking exactly the same and impatient as ever, I went to A&E for the third and final time. One of the reasons why I was so eager to get better was because I had a job interview later in the week and being a teenager who spends too much money, being broke really wasn't working for me and having handed in half a dozen CVs, getting an interview meant a lot to me. This time the doctor did not hesitate to prescribe me steroids- the strongest medication. I was up to 13 pills a day, quite the cocktail of drugs. Perhaps what I found the most horrendous was having a good-looking intern prescribe me the medication- the one and only time I've had a young, attractive doctor and I look like this!

The doctor also turned out to be a miracle worker because after a couple of days my face was starting to look normal again. Much to my horror, two of my best friends came to see me. A couple of years earlier, one of them had dyed their hair black and had a similar reaction, so it was comforting to know somebody knew how I was feeling- though I didn't like anyone, even friends, seeing me in such a state. Thankfully, my boyfriend was away because I know he would have insisted on seeing me. I don't think he'd ever look at me the same way again.

It took a couple of weeks before I was fully recovered as the rash had remained on my scalp and my ears had reacted badly. Looking at me today, you wouldn't know the horrors I had had to endure. Though I liked my brown hair, it was definitely not worth such a bad reaction- one so serious that if I was to dye my hair again I could die. I'm not looking forward to having my hair grow out with brown and blonde and highlights are going to be expensive!

I want to warn everybody about the dangers of hair dye and encourage people to take the 48 hour test. I was impatient and naive- don't let this happen to you. Perhaps most importantly, we have to ask ourselves why we want to change. Sometimes staying the same is the best thing you can do. Second only to listening to your mother......

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