Woman hospitalised after Clairol Nice N Easy dye swells head to size of rugby ball


  • Tina Littlewood’s burns were compared to those of fire victims 
  • Waitress claims she completed a test patch before use with no reaction
  • Six weeks later, she is still suffering from scabs and itchy skin  

By
Chris Brooke for the Daily Mail

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A waitress has told how she feared for her life after hair dye triggered a horrific allergic reaction which left her unable to see for five days.

Tina Littlewood, 41, had been colouring her hair for 20 years without any problems when she bought a kit ahead of a trip to visit her son on his Army base.

But hours after applying the Clairol Nice ’N Easy dye, her face had swelled up like a ‘rugby ball’ and became covered in weeping blisters, which doctors later compared to a fire victim’s burns. 

Tina Littlewood was rushed to hospital after her head swelled up so much that she was unable to see 

Eventually she required hospital treatment to fight the reaction.

Now the hotel waitress has vowed never to colour her hair again and let it turn grey naturally.

Mrs Littlewood said: ‘It was so terrifying that at one point I thought, “This is it, it’s over – I’m going to die because of a hair colour.”

‘It was agony. I thought I would be left blind if not worse.

‘It isn’t worth it. It was the most terrifying experience of my life – I never want to go through that again.’ Mrs Littlewood decided to use the Clairol dye, which she said she had used many times before, to cover up her grey hairs before visiting her 24-year-old son Matt, a soldier based in Norfolk.

She said she followed the instructions on the packet, testing the dye on a patch of skin 48 hours before application, but experienced no reaction.

However, within 20 minutes of using the dye on her hair, her head had started to itch.

She said: ‘It got worse and worse so I went to bed and tried to forget about it. When I woke up in the morning I was in agony. The itching was so intense and I couldn’t open one eye. I looked in the mirror and my head was like a rugby ball.’

She developed a rash and weeping blisters broke out on her head. 

Meet Claudio the man born with an upside down head

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