‘Massive’ hair dye reaction leaves man looking like ‘Megamind’ villain
It was a roll of the dye.
A UK man has issued a warning after a botched hair coloration left him looking like the animated movie character “Megamind.”
“I didn’t look like myself at all. It was massive,” Ryan Briggs, 27, told Kennedy News Agency of the dye job gone awry.
The Lancashire native said the “horrible” incident occurred last month at his mother’s house after she fetched him some cover-up for some unsightly gray hairs.
“I applied the dye and it did burn a little bit, but I thought that’s what it does,” the gas technician said. “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,” lamented the horrified lad. “I looked like Megamind — it was bad.”
Accompanying photos show Briggs with a bloated band encircling his forehead.
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.
In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advises prospective dyers to conduct a patch test — wherein they rub the coloration agent on their skin to see if they react — before applying the chemical to their hair.
Briggs spent 13 hours in the hospital while medics attempted to prevent the swelling from reaching his neck and airways.
The workman was subsequently discharged at around 3 a.m., after which his girlfriend had to guy unspecified prescription medication for him, as he still couldn’t see out of one eye due to the extreme swelling.
And while the poor fellow’s noggin has since shrunk back to normal, 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,” said the Brit, who’s now advising people to take a patch test so they don’t die after dyeing.