Man suffers severe reaction after botched hair coloration

Tuesday, August 6, 2024 - A man has issued a warning after a botched hair coloration left him with a swollen head.

Ryan Briggs, 27, from Lancashire, UK, said the “horrible” incident occurred in July at his mother’s house after she gave him dye to cover up his gray hairs.

“I applied the dye and it did burn a little bit, but I thought that’s what it does,” the gas technician told Kennedy News Agency. “Obviously, it wasn’t [meant to].”

Briggs awoke the next day with a tiny rash, which he initially didn’t think anything of, until his head “started expanding,” he recalled.

“I was at work and it just escalated from there. I looked like Megamind — it was bad.”

Accompanying photos show Briggs with a bloated band encircling his forehead.

“I didn’t look like myself at all. It was massive,” Ryan Briggs said.

He added that his gobsmacked girlfriend couldn’t look at him because he resembled a “balloon head.”

“My colleagues said, ‘You need to get to the hospital,'” said Briggs, who heeded their advice.

Despite his extreme swelling, doctors told the patient to return home and report back if his condition deteriorated, which it unfortunately did.

“I thought I’d wake up and it’d be gone, but I woke up and it was totally different,” lamented the Brit, who called an ambulance to pick him up as he couldn’t see due to the swelling.

Doctors said Briggs’ condition was triggered by paraphenylenediamine (PPD), a known irritant and allergen commonly found in hair dyes.

Briggs spent 13 hours in the hospital while medics attempted to prevent the swelling from reaching his neck and airways.

He was subsequently discharged after which his girlfriend had to buy unspecified prescription medication for him, as he still couldn’t see out of one eye due to the extreme swelling.

His head has since shrunk back to normal, but he says his “scalp is full of yellow and green scabs.”

Briggs says he’s just grateful his throat didn’t close up.

“It could have been worse — it was going down into my neck and everything,” he said.

He is now advising people to take a patch test so they don’t die after dyeing.