A teen feared her eyebrows would never grow back after a horror allergic reaction to tint caused most of the hairs to fall out and left large 'scabby', weeping sores across her face.
Beauty technician Ruby Nelson had been tinting her eyebrows for years and used her usual product when she unexpectedly suffered an allergic reaction to it.
The 18-year-old woke up the following morning with an extremely itchy, swollen and red face and a 'burning' sensation that she says got progressively worse as the skin blistered.
After a hospital trip and some antibiotics, the reaction began to calm but the scabs that formed pulled most of the hairs out, leaving the teen worried she would have no eyebrows left.
The eyelash technician has now shared shocking photos of her swollen face and blistered eyebrows to warn other beauty technicians about the risk of developing an allergy and the need to re-patch test regularly.
Ruby, from Leicester, Leicestershire, said: "I do my own eyebrows and I've been tinting them for years - it was the same tint I always use.
"I did it before I went to sleep - I took the tint off and went to sleep and then in the morning my eyes were really red and itchy.
"I could've realised sooner if it wasn't right before I went to bed but obviously when I woke up it was too late because it had already soaked into my skin overnight.
"My face was itchy and then I looked in the mirror and it was all red and swollen.
"It progressively got worse and then it started blistering the next day. It felt like it was burning my face, it was honestly awful.
"Then they started scabbing and hairs were coming out with the scabs so I thought I wasn't going to have any eyebrows left.
"They were really thin for a while and I was worried they weren't going to grow back because of scar tissue."
The eyelash technician says she had been using the same dye that caused the reaction for the last three months, tinting her eyebrows every two weeks without any issues.
But by the most recent time she used the tint - 15 December - she seemed to have developed a severe allergy to a component of the store bought paste.
In the horror reaction that followed she was left with a swollen, itchy face for five days and sore, blistered eyebrows.
After being prescribed antibiotics and told to wrap her 'oozing' brows, the teen was horrified to see most of the hairs fall out as they scabbed over and flaked off.
Ruby said: "I went to work because I thought it would be fine but it slowly got worse - the burning was really bad.
"I went to urgent care the same day because of the swelling and itching and they gave me some antibiotics.
"The next day I ended up going to the hospital because it was worse and they gave me stuff to patch up my face because the blisters were oozing and really sore.
"They said it should just go down on its own but that the swelling would get worse before it gets better.
"I was off work for a couple of days because of it and I just looked crazy."
Thankfully, the beauty technician's eyebrows healed by the following week and slowly grew back in over the next month.
After her painful experience, Ruby says she doesn't tint her eyebrows anymore and is going to get tested to see what she is allergic to, to avoid suffering further reactions.
The beauty technician, who has done eyelash extensions for almost two years, has recently added eyebrow tinting and lamination to her services and says she always patch tests her customers.
To avoid the same fate she suffered, she also re-patch tests customers who haven't had the beauty treatment in over a month to ensure they haven't developed an allergy like she did
Ruby said: "It's put me off tinting them, I just don't touch them now. If I'm doing my makeup and going out I'll fill them in with a bit of eyebrow pencil but that's it, nothing major.
"I won't do people's eyelashes or eyebrows if they don't have a patch test because legally we have to but I will also say to people if you've not had it done for a month then get it re-patch-tested because you can develop an allergy.
"I would definitely encourage anyone getting a beauty treatment to make sure they get a patch test as well."
