A woman who went for a vacation hairdo was left horrified after her hair fell out and her eyes were injured.

Leanna Ming, 53, said huge clumps of hair fell out after a trip to Nadz Beauty Salon, Hamilton, and claimed it was because the hairdresser mixed the wrong chemicals for hair-straightening treatment, and left the mix in her hair for too long.

She added a beautician at the salon also attached false eyelashes too far up her eyelids, which caused days of irritation and swelling.

Ms Ming said: “I was so traumatised about the hair loss, I didn’t even want to see it.”

Nadine Dillas, the owner of the Court Street salon, insisted her staff were not responsible for the hair loss.

Ms Ming, a nurse from Warwick, said she went to the salon in July for a makeover, before she travelled to Barbados.

She said that the hairdresser left perming cream in her hair for more than 15 minutes and that “something didn’t feel right”.

Ms Ming added: “I told her my hair was burning, so she began to wash my hair out.

“I put my hand in back, to touch my scalp, and hair came out on my hand.”

Ms Ming said that she suffered hair loss on the back and sides of her head, which she insisted were caused by chemical burns from the cream.

Ms Ming said: “I felt the back of my head and my fingers went straight to my scalp.

“She didn’t notify me of how much breakage I had in my hair. She just told me that my hair broke because I hadn’t permed it in a long time.”

She added: “I went and got some lashes done and the lashes were put inside the red area of my eyelids.

“The glue was too much and I couldn’t take them off, so I had to use mascara to push the lashes out of my eyes.”

Ms Ming, who studied at a beauty school in the United States, said that chemicals used to perm hair breaks down hair proteins and has to be neutralised with a special agent.

She claimed that was not done and the perming cream broke down her hair.

Ms Ming added that the addition of peroxide-based colour to the mix applied to her hair worsened the effects.

Ms Ming explained: “I was told by the technician that it’s going to burn.

“It should never burn; not to the point where it causes your hair to break.”

She added: “They didn’t have the expertise to even understand that you don’t put in a peroxide-based colour with a relaxer.

“It’s all over the internet, for people who don’t have training, but I’ve been to school, so I know the difference.”

Ms Dillas said that the beautician who applied Ms Ming’s false eyelashes had not been trained in the technique she used, and had been fired.

She maintained that Ms Ming’s hair fell out because she often wore wigs that weakened it.

Ms Dillas said: “If you’re wearing a wig, or even a cap, every day, it’s going to leave a mark in that spot and it’s going to take hair from there.

“Her hair was weakened in some spots, and when the hairdresser added the chemicals to it, then it would take some hair from around there.”

Ms Dillas, who has owned the salon for more than ten years, said that she has given the hairdresser advice on how to work with sensitive hair, and planned to do the same with future employees.

She added that she will also introduce competency tests for new employees, to make sure they can carry out treatments correctly.

Ms Dillas said that she planned to give Ms Ming a refund. She added: “I do not like the way she chose to go about this.”

Ms Ming said that she was angry over the way her complaint was handled and that she had had poor customer service.

She added: “I’ve owned my own business for 18 years and any time I’ve had a customer that doesn’t feel happy about a service, I would almost get down on my hands and knees.

“Instead, she’s turned this into me pleading and begging with her, and I don’t think that that’s good business ethics.”

She added that she now felt humiliated and embarrassed and depressed, by the state of her hair.

Ms Ming said: “My hair has still been coming out, that’s why I feel like this story should be heard, by other people.”

And she told other clients of salons: “Make sure that you ask your cosmetologist what they’re using in your hair beforehand, so you won’t fall in this problem that I’ve fallen in.”