Danielle Hubbard paid £12 for an eyebrow tint ahead of her holiday to Malta but says the treatment went horribly wrong – now she wants to warn others
A woman says an eyebrow tint left her blinded in hospital after her beautician allegedly forgot to do an allergy test.
To add insult to injury, Danielle Hubbard says she was unable to claim damages because the salon had no insurance. Danielle booked in for the £12 beauty treatment ahead of her holiday to Malta and says she wasn’t offered a patch test by the beautician. While her face was initially fine, her left eye had swelled massively by the following morning with her face painfully red and inflamed.
“I couldn’t see out of my eye,” she says. “I then looked in the mirror and was horrified. It was completely shut and my eyebrows were tight, crusty, inflamed and red.”
The support worker says she was given steroids to treat her allergic reaction at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, taking oral steroids for the next fortnight as her face slowly healed. She returned to the salon to complain and get a refund but says her beautician showed “no remorse” and there was no apology.
Danielle claims the salon tried to get her to sign a waiver which said she had received a patch test in order to get her money back. The 28-year-old from Blackburn, Lancs, refused and contacted a solicitor to take legal action against the shop.
To Danielle’s frustration, her solicitor found the salon was operating without insurance, leaving her in a no-win position. “I can’t claim or complain as she has nothing to claim against,” she says. “I’m just frustrated. I don’t understand how they can get away with causing injuries like this to my face.
“Luckily I haven’t been left with any permanent scarring. It took two weeks to heal, the swelling gradually went down but I was left struggling to see for a fortnight.”
Danielle says the treatment had a huge impact on her holiday too. “Originally I was going on my own but because I didn’t feel confident to walk around with my eyebrows looking like this, my sister flew out on my first day to be with me.
“My eyebrows made me feel really self conscious. I had to walk around in a baseball cap and sunglasses for a good few days.”
According to Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, patch testing is a legal requirement and failures to perform patch tests have led to prosecutions and high fines. Danielle is furious that salons are able to operate without insurance and is sharing her horrifying images to warn others to be careful which beauticians they choose.
“People need to know that they need to get a patch test done if you get any of your hair dyed,” she says. “It’s a legal requirement to have a patch test and this should be stressed.
“I’d never had my eyebrows tinted before. I have not been back to the salon since and I will never get my eyebrows tinted ever again.”
