eyelash tint left teenager blind for 3 days

A teenage girl went blind for three days after an eyelash and eyebrow tint made her eyelids blow up like tennis balls.


Kristina Brown, 17, was rushed to hospital after getting the treatment from a trainee beautician friend at a local college.

Her reaction was so severe that it took another trip to hospital, two visits to her GP, antibiotic eye drops and a cocktail of tablets to bring down the swelling.

Student Kristina, from Huddersfield, West Yorks, who has beautiful eyes, said last night: "My eyelids were like tennis balls - I was literally blinded. I couldn't open my eyes for three days.

"Then I had to wear huge dark glasses because the dye had made my eyes red and supersensitive to light."

Kristina should have had a skin test before the treatment to find out if she was allergic to it. But no check was made. The nightmare began three weeks ago when her friend Annie asked her if she would act as a model for her college assessment. Kristina agreed and, under supervision of the college tutor, Annie applied the Salon Systems eyelash and eyebrow tint - used in beauty salons throughout the UK. It can also be bought on the internet as a £14 kit.

"When I woke up next morning I was in agony," said Kristina. "I was terrified when my eyelids were completely stuck together."

Her mum Cathy Singleton, a nurse, rushed Kristina to hospital.

She said: "I knew Kristina was having a severe allergic reaction.

Goodness knows what was in this dye to make her face swell up like that. It was frightening. The hospital doctors were shocked."

Kristina took ten tablets a day for a week - six of them strong steroids - to get the allergic reaction under control.

Beauty salons offering eyelash and eyebrow tinting require a special treatment licence.

Beauticians need to be qualified and are required by law to carry out a skin test on the client 24 hours before treatment to check for allergic reactions.

Mrs Singleton, a mum of two, said: "You don't expect this sort of thing to happen with any beauty treatment - let alone one supervised by a college tutor."