A woman was left hospitalised after suffering an allergic reaction while getting her eyebrows tinted.
Megan Francis, 23, from Telford, was left in agonising pain when she had her eyebrows tinted and threaded at a Superdrug branch in the town at the end of last year.
The appointment lasted half an hour, but Megan began to worry when she started experiencing an intense burning sensation across her brows and face.
Within a few days, her face had swollen so much she was rushed to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, Shropshire.
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Mum-of-two Megan says: “It felt like my face was cooking. It was so painful and so scary. I had no idea what was happening to me.
“My mum gets her eyebrows tinted and threaded all the time, so I assumed it would be fine. It was awful and left me really shaken.”
Megan claims that before she had the appointment, the beautician did not ask any questions or do a patch test.
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“It felt really rushed. They sat me down and started straight away, without asking any questions or checking that I wasn’t allergic,” she claims.
“The girls were so upset and worried about me, they couldn’t understand what had happened to my face. They were so distressed at nursery, that their teachers called me to find out what was happening at home.
"My youngest just kept asking what was wrong with my face. It was the week before Christmas and we had so much planned that I had to cancel. They were so upset and confused as to why I couldn't leave the house."
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After spending a day in hospital, Megan was able to return home and recover, and was given strong antibiotics and creams to help with the pain.
“It was just before Christmas, and it really ruined that magical time of year for us," she adds.
“It was incredibly painful, but also made me feel really self-conscious every time I left the house for weeks afterwards.
“It was so frightening when it started to affect my vision – I was worried I might go blind. I never expected to have such an extreme reaction to such a common beauty treatment.
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“I should have been warned about the potential side effects and had a patch test done to prevent this sort of thing from happening.”
Megan's husband Brett, 25, made an official complaint to Superdrug after seeing Megan in so much pain. She was offered a refund.
A representative from Superdrug said: "We would like to reassure our customers that all beauty therapists that work with Superdrug are fully qualified across all of the treatments that we offer."
Lucy Devine