Would You Sue a Salon for $50,000 if They Screwed Up Your Hair?

The main thing is the salon should have made her sign a waiver .. When you have been bleaching that long you should go into your salon and at least get a deep deep condionter once a week ... If you want that beach blond hair take care of it ... As far as the crazy lady if she did'nt sign a waiver a bet the salon or stylist is liable.

ok...i am a hairstylist and i deal with people like this all day long!! they never listen to our recomendations.they want what they want and that's it!! it's very frustrating..ugh!! the company i work for which is a regis owned company,we make all of our clients getting a chemical service sigh a release form,that way if their hair does fall out like we told them it would..they can't sue us!! maybe this perticular salon should check into having paperwork like this!

http://www.examiner.com/x-6732-SF-Health-and-Beauty-Examiner~y2009m5d8-A-case-where-not-all-blondes-have-more-fun

They decided that she didn't deserve a dime for this... this lady is loco!

dumb move in my opinion! she was bound to know that your hair will eventually fall out the more you BLEACH it!!! what a complete idiot! is that the lady in the picture by the way??

omg!!im a stylist!!!i would not nor have i sued anyone!i refuse peoples services when its my intuition screaming .whether its color,cut,whatever.i will not go against my gut feelings.if u sue its ,in this case ignorance.i see people like the ones who would sue..because its a quick way to make money.we always blame the other person in other areas of our life.yes we are the professionals,but we are human too....and the stylist will now unforunately learn the hard way!peace...but somewhere i read the client didnt win....whooo hoooo.hopefully she learned alesson in this too.

They are hair stylist not miracle workers! Of course bleaching you hair is bad for you it takes all the moister out of it especially after doing it for a few years. But why sue the stylist does she actually think these women have billion of dollars from doing this for a living? They live paycheck to paycheck just like most hard working people. Also not properly taking care of your bleach hair like deep conditioning treatments and using thermal protecting products when flat ironing and curl will cause breakage, sounds like this women just didn’t take care of her hair and the salon can only do so much.

maybe depends on the situation. My hair is my pride and glory but I wouldn't hold anyone responsible if I demanded the service. Now lets say for instance I bleached my hair and she left it in too long by accident then yes the stylist is reponsible.

Ok, my b/f is a hairstylist, has been for 30 + years, was also a teacher. He was always totally against bleaching hair. He knew how destructive this was for healthy hair. Yes, he says he lost some customers when they wanted it done, but it didn't matter cause he had the reputation of keeping his customers happy with healthy, shiney, nicely styled hair. At one time I wanted blonde highlights in my hair, he told me to "go to someone who didn't care"!
He remarked about this particular incident and said that after 25 yrs of bleaching, she shouldn't even HAVE hair! LOL

I would sue for the cost of the hair extensions, and a bit more for pain and suffering but I don't think that all adds up to $50,000.
Of course she should have taken action! Negligence caused her to lose her hair. The salon needs to hire people that are better trained and hairstylists should be more careful with all the things they do to people's hair.

In this case, the stylist, knowing how bad this woman's hair is and how long she's been bleaching, might have considered saying, "No." On the other hand, how simple do you have to be to not understand that after 25 years of bleaching, your hair is going to be FUBAR? Especially with beauty mags and blogs everywhere telling us just that? That woman is nuts if she thinks she's actually going to get any restitution for this.

had THIS stylist said no, another stylist would have done it.
its this lady's fault. she was warned and even told how to style her hair, she didn't listen.

This lady is crazy. It's her own fault that her hair started falling out I mean after 25 years of bleaching your hair is going to be in horrible condition. One of my friends has only been dieing their hair for about 12 years and their hair is so fried that it isn't even funny. So why would she not expect this to eventually happen.

I would totally sue! You trust these people with your hair, they should know what to do and what not to do! so yea, it is their fault!

everyone who has been to a salon more than twie knows that regular bleaching of hair weakens it and to go and use heat styling products on damaged hair will cause breakage. if the picture above is the woman in the story, i can see that she has WAY over damaged hair. she should have been denied the service all together. while i do not agree that her hair is in any way worth $50,000; i do think she should be entitled to get her money back and be awarded the cost of extentions. although the extentions will further damage her hair. it is stupid that our courts allow such a thing to appear before them. it's not like her actual health was endangered. and her hair wil grow back if she just leaves it alone for a while.

As a hair stylist, I can see the both sides of the situation, but I have to say that this woman in the story is at fault. Like the article stated, she didn't use proper products for her hair, and didn't take proper care of it. Hair stylists unfortunatly don't get to go home with you to do your hair for you every day, so, when we tell you what to use and how to take care of your hair, we need to have you follow our suggestion, otherwise something like this can happen. Just like a doctor presribes you with a certain medication to make you better, we are giving you a prescription for your hair. Would you have your doctor prescribe you medicine, but then not use it, knowing that it would make you more sick, or would you go get the prescription filled as soon as possible and follow the directions on the label? This lady obviously chose to ignore the suggestions of her stylist resulting in the damage and "chemical haircut" she had in the picture. Now, if she had done everything that the stylist recommended her to do for the best care of her hair, and then the stylist left the bleach on too long, used the wrong developer, or something else to cause the damage themself, then, yes, the stylist is at fault and should be reprimanded, but I don't think there's any need to sue unless there was injury to the client's scalp such as blisters from the bleach. That would indicate that the stylist possibly left the bleach on too long or used an off the scalp bleach for on the scalp application. To even think about suing anyway is not so smart because you will more then likely pay more in the legal fees then it cost to get the initial hair service done, and whichever other services to correct that first service. Plus, like someone else mentioned, I don't see someone getting $50,000, more like she would just get the cost of everything paid back. So then, it's not a win-win situation, it's more like a lose-lose situation. Lose the cost of the services, get it paid back (possibly), but then have to turn around and pay even more for the legal fees. So, in all, my opinion is NO she should NOT have sued because she did not suffer injury to her scalp, and hair GROWS BACK.

Several years ago I had a really bad experience at a department store salon I had a horrible stylist! She let the perm solution drip in my eye. She fried the top layer of my hair. It was actually crispy. I had no options but to let it grow and cut off the brillo pad hair over time.
The salon manager was very apologetic and offered me 6 months of intensive conditioning
treatments. I took the managers offer and accepted a couple of the treatments. Because the treatments did nothing for the appearance or texture of my hair I quit going. I had to live with that for about 2 years. 3- lessons I took from that experience. I realized that Super Bowl Sundays are not a good day for the salon. Never trust a stylist wearing a banana clip. Stay out of department store salons.

I wouldn't sue. I just wouldn't do that to my hair anyway! I listen to my stylist. They know hair and so I trust them. I found out once from my stylist that at the hair cut place I went to before I met my stylist she had actually cut my hair lop-sided (3 in. difference!). Will I sue? Nope. She did it wrong, but it's not worth suing over! Hair will grow back and you can go to a good place that can fix any mistake! If all else fails, there's always a wig!

I've got more important things to worry about than my hair. Personally, I think the stylist should have refused to work on the woman's damaged hair. If she kept mistreating her hair than it's her fault that it broke and fell out not the stylists. Besides that, it's just hair. It grows back. I've had a couple of hideous haircuts from discount hair cutting places and all it takes it time and scissors to fix. Not worth suing over.

Well, I didn't read the linked article saying that she didn't win the case, but thanks for posting that info just the same.

Really, the only way this woman would have had a case is if her hair would have started breaking right there in the salon, which can actually happen. Once she's gone, anything could have been the cause for the damage, so there's no way that she can prove anything. Even if she could have, there's no way she would have gotten $50,000 FOR HAIR, when people don't get that much money FOR ARMS AND LEGS, or even WRONGFUL DEATH. GET REAL!

People should know, however, that using chemicals in your hair is still not a risk free process. There are risks involved in perming and coloring your hair. That's why home kits tell people to do a skin test before you use them (because they can actually harm your skin), and if you use them wrong, they can destroy your hair. I get my hair professionally dyed all the time, and depending on what hormone levels are on the day I go (I have thyroid disease) sometimes the chemicals really bother my skin and sometimes I don't notice them at all.

Still, these products have come a long way. My grandmother, who is now 87, was the head nurse at a skilled nursing/retirement home. There was a female patient there who was bald, and had a collection of wigs. Her story was famous around the facility. When perms first became popular, she went to get one. The chemicals burned her head and burned off all of her hair. The salon apologized, put her hair in a shopping bag, gave her a scarf to cover her head, and sent her home. Her hair never grew back. The lady said she sat in front of her mirror and cried for days. Maybe that sounds shallow to some, but remember, this was back in the days when women had little more to look forward to than being pretty and finding someone to marry them. She never sued, because back then, you coulnd't sue for such a thing. Today, she would own that place.

She is lucky it only happen once after bleaching her hair for 25 years. Maybe she learned a lession and will not bleach her hair anymore.