A French student lived all of our worst nightmares when a typical hair makeover went freakishly wrong. Estelle, 19, from Paris, claims she almost died after using standard at-home hair dye. The student suffered a severe allergic reaction, which left her struggling to breathe—and with a swollen head the size of a melon.
After purchasing the dye at a local supermarket, Estelle followed the instructions at home and did a patch test of the product. She admitted to only testing it for 30 minutes, instead of the recommended 48-hour window, before applying the dye to her head.
Initially her scalp started to itch and it was difficult to breathe, but she popper a couple of antihistamines and went to sleep, only to find that when she woke up her head had ballooned to almost twice its original size.
Estelle rushed herself to hospital where it was found that her head had swollen to a 63cm diameter. That’s massive dude. The doctors were able to determine that she suffered an allergic reaction to the chemical paraphenylenediamin (PPD) and give her the necessary antibiotics to get her head back to normal.
The product contained paraphenylenediamine (PPD), a common ingredient in hair dyes, especially darker shades. PPD can also be found in henna tattoos, dark-colored makeup, photocopying and printing ink, black rubber, oil, greases, gasoline, and more. While not normally dangerous, if you are allergic to PPD, it can cause serious health issues.
