We acted for Miss W, who is a model.

Our client was booked to appear at a show to promote hair care products.  She was told to attend at a salon the day before the show for some extensions to be applied to her hair.

The stylist first applied a relaxer to Miss W’s hair and then used a bonding glue to add the extensions.  Later that day, she noticed that her scalp was very itchy and was starting to weep.  By the time that she arrived at the show the next day, her condition had worsened and her face had started to swell.

Miss W went to see her GP and was referred to a Dermatologist at her local hospital.  It turned out that she had suffered from a reaction to the relaxer and/or the bonding glue.  The stylist who applied it to her head had failed to carry out a patch test before doing so.  If a patch test had been carried out, the reaction would have been discovered and the offending product(s) not applied.

Fortunately for Miss W, the significant effects of the reaction only lasted for a few weeks, although she continued to suffer from some itchiness for some time after that.

When Miss W came to us she had tried to sort the matter out herself but had faced a lot of difficulties. The agent who booked her was elusive and she did not get any response from the hair salon. All she knew about the stylist was his first name and that he was from America.

After discussing the circumstances of the injury with her, we advised her that she had a valid claim and she instructed us to act for her. The fact that her symptoms had largely resolved within a fairly short period did not prevent us from pursuing the claim for her.

We established that Miss W had the benefit of legal expenses insurance as part of her mum’s home contents insurance policy.  We got the home insurer’s authority to act for Miss W under the terms of the policy.

We pursued the manufacturer of the products, whose show it was.  The manufacturer was an American company but we were able to track them and their insurer down. 

Happily for Miss W, after a series of transatlantic negotiations with the insurers, we were able to obtain their admission on behalf of the manufacturer that Miss W’s injuries were caused by their negligence.

We arranged for Miss W to be examined by an independent Consultant Dermatologist. He provided us with a written report detailing what had happened to her and what the medical consequences were.  He advised that she had developed primary irritant dermatitis involving her scalp and face from which she had made a full recovery after several weeks. 

After Miss W had approved the report we sent it to the insurers, along with details of her financial losses, and they were invited to put forward settlement proposals.

We received an offer of £1,500 from the insurers and researched the likely sum that she would receive if Miss W were to take her claim to court. We advised her that the offer was too low and should be rejected. We discussed the options available to Miss W. She decided to follow our advice and instructed us to reject the offer.

We entered into telephone negotiations with the insurers and were able to achieve a 90% increase in the first offer that had been made. Miss W followed our recommendation and was very happy to accept the offer. She received the full amount of her compensation, £2,850, and our costs were paid by the insurers.

Miss W received her cheque for £2,850 within 2 weeks of accepting the offer. She wrote to us to say, “I would like to thank you for all your hard work….(I am extremely HAPPY). YAY it’s finally over lol!!! Hopefully I’ll never need your services again (not in a bad way) but if I do I’ll definitely return back to Actons.”

If you have had your hair ruined or scalp hurt by a professional hairdresser or a home product, you need to get specialist legal advice.  Please contact us to start your No Win No Fee compensation claim.