Image: Tina Campbell (Metro.co.uk)
It seems every long-haired celebrity is getting rid of her extensions lately. Kim Kardashian’s done it, as has Modern Family‘s Sarah Hyland. After reading this woman’s hair extension disaster story, we reckon they’ve made the right decision.
Tina Campbell, a London-based entertainment writer, paid almost $200 to have long blonde extensions put in a few weeks before her 29th birthday. She’d had them before and loved the results, but opted to try a different salon the second time because it was closer to her house.
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To quote Pretty Woman, that was a big mistake. Huge. And it turned out to be devastating for not only her hair, but her health.
“[The stylist] was vague when discussing the price, and simply waved me to sit down so she could start there and then. I could see the needles sitting on the side in blue antiseptic liquid,” Campbell writes for UK website Metro. (Post continues after gallery.)
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“I didn’t have a great feeling about the place but I wanted them done for an event that night so I bit the bullet.”
That was only the beginning of her trauma. Within weeks, Campbell’s scalp started itching and sprouted boils, which only got bigger and harder when she removed her weave.
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You can see one of the lumps in this gut-churning video:
After days of immense pain and oozing pus (oh, sorry, were you eating?), the boils burst and Campbell sought medical help. This next part is a bit gory, so put down your toast before you continue reading.
“[T]hick red, lumpy liquid seeped out that burned as it touched the raw skin. Less than 24 hours later, I was lying on a hospital bed having a section of my head shaved,” Campbell recalls.
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“Fully awake and shaking with fear, I gritted my teeth as a doctor cut a hole into my skull to drain the infection. Despite having had nine needles injected into my head to try and numb the area, I could still feel it and the sound of scalpel on bone was like something from a horror movie.”
Yep, horror movie material for sure. As they say, beauty is pain... and pus. And, um, drills into your scalp.
For three weeks after the procedure, Campbell wore a bandage around her head and had the hole filled in with special material. Doctors suspect her infection was caused by a dirty needle nicking Campbell's scalp as her extensions were sewn in.
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You'd think this experience alone would be enough for Campbell to swear off extensions forever, but nope — she's had more synthetic hair applied since the boil incident.
"Ultimately, I think that the key is to just know who is doing your hair and if you get a bad feeling, no matter what the bargain, don’t take the risk. It's not worth it," she concludes.
That's pretty sound advice as far as any beauty treatment goes, we reckon.
Have you ever had a beauty treatment go horribly wrong?
