One woman’s botched bleach job left her with a burnt scalp

A New Zealand woman was left with a burnt scalp and hair that ‘fell out in her hands’ after a a trip to the hairdresser went badly wrong.

Midwife Cherie Carline’s scalp was left ‘burned by bleach’ after a salon worker allegedly left the chemical on too long.

The damage has now been repaired by a hairdresser at a different salon, Maureen Bowring, who told Daily Mail Australia her client had suffered ‘excruciating pain’ when the colouring job went awry.

‘Her scalp was red from the burning of the bleach, this salon, wherever she went, should never have left her alone,’ Maureen told Daily Mail Australia.

‘On consultation, the whole nape area [of her hair] had gone, it had just broken off, the left side of her hair had broken off completely as well, all the way up to her ear.’

Maureen said it appeared that initially a colouring procedure had not worked properly and the bleach had been reapplied – causing the damage.  

When Cherie met Maureen at a function, she asked her where she worked.

‘I could see her hair needed some desperate tender love and care,’ Maureen said.

‘She had very long hair and she had gone in to have it made blonder and it was over processed, it was badly damaged.

‘I had to cut it all off straight away, it fell apart in our hands, and we gave her some intense treatments. We didn’t start colouring it until it was in better condition,’ Maureen said.

Midwife Cherie Carline had a botched hair treatment that hair professional Maureen Bowring was left to fix

‘She had very long hair and she had gone in to have it blonded [sic] and it was over processed, it was badly damaged’

It’s taken Maureen a year to repair the damage.

‘It’s been a long process, I cut it and shaped it as best as I could and now we’re colouring but not bleaching it,’ she said. 

Maureen, who also chairs the New Zealand Association of Registered Hairdressers, said it wasn’t the first time she had seen a colour job gone wrong and wants all hairdressers to be registered and qualified.

‘To be a qualified hairdresser we go through rigorous training to understand the process of colour and bleaching and it’s a huge process and learning curve,’ she said.

‘Some people go where it’s cheaper but cheap isn’t always the best, you need to be going through a qualified stylist who knows what you need.’