First Aid advice for straightener-wielding Beaut.ies

Reader Pixie had me feeling quite faint a few weeks back when she told us about the worst GHD-inflicted injury I've ever heard of. (Hauld on to your breakfast, now.) While on-duty in A&E, Pixie had come across a poor woman who had managed to sustain a burn to her eye while doing her gruaig.

I had to ask for more details, and Pixie was forthcoming: “She was trying to straighten her hair in a hurry and put the GHD too close to her eye. She burnt her eyelid, which fused to her eyeball and burnt her eyeball because the temperature of the GHD is so high.”

Sweet Mother of Jesus, isn't that absolutely horrific?! Thankfully, the lady in question was grand in the end, as her doctor husband knew the appropriate action to take when the burn occurred. Pixie explained that you need to “tape the eye open, irrigate it with lukewarm water for a good ten minutes, and get thee to a hospital pronto! If you don't tape it open and irrigate it ASAP the burn gets much worse.”

It's one of those things that's good to know, but at the same time it's knowledge that I never ever ever want to have to put into practise.