Hair extensions: One woman's agony

The desire of a middle-aged woman (name withheld) to beautify her face by changing her hairstyle brought her pain and agony for over five months.
She was left with a fungal infection which made her bald. Her ordeal cost her over GH¢500.

The story

In December, 2012, after she had braided her hair for almost a year, this woman went to one of the best salons at Osu in Accra, to get a human ‘hair fixed’ in anticipation of a jolly Christmas.

What happened

She followed her sister to this expensive salon where she paid over GH¢130 to have her hair done.

What she got was a nice ‘human hair’ which was fixed for her at her desired length to fit her face.

However, within 10 days of wearing the ‘human hair’, her scalp developed serious dandruff which itched badly.

She scratched her scalp to the extent that it developed sores. She could not stand the itching any longer.

Looking for solutions, she contemplated going back to the salon but decided to take it off at home as she could not stand the pain she was going through from scratching the wounds.

To her amazement, as the ‘human hair’ was being removed, her real hair came off with it.

To compound her problem, blood began to ooze from the wounds on her head.
The result was that the rest of the hair that was left on patches of her head started smelling.

The Solution

Amazed and perplexed by the outcome, she was directed to another salon at East Legon also in Accra where she was told her situation would be solved within days.

However, after buying expensive creams to apply, her situation did not change.

Despite her pain, she had to resort to braiding the hair that was left on her head to cover her bald head since, according to her, she was embarrassed.

She spent more money buying various types of foreign and local creams all to no avail.

Somewhere in April, 2013 when she saw that her predicament was not going away anytime soon, she mastered courage and went to see her doctor who also advised her to see a dermatologist as soon as possible.

Her saviour was the dermatologist who gave her pills to take in and creams to apply on her head.

Within a few weeks she realised that new growth has started forming on her head and the itching and dandruff had stopped.

Her problem

Enquiries from the dermatologist showed that she had contracted fungal infection of the scalp from the human hair she had worn.
A number of infectious agents and infection-related conditions can contribute to hair loss. Fungal infection can occur anywhere on the body. If it develops on the scalp, it can cause patches of hair loss and is known to doctors as "tinea capitis."

Ringworm is the same thing as athlete's foot, and the same kind of fungal infection can affect the nails.

On the scalp, ringworm usually begins as a small pimple that progressively expands in size, leaving scaly patches of temporary baldness.

The fungus gets into the hair fibres in the affected area and these hairs become brittle and break off easily, leaving a bald patch of skin.

Affected areas are often itchy, red, and inflamed with scaly patches that may blister and ooze.

The patches are usually redder around the outside, with a more normal skin tone in the centre.

The main difference between scalp fungus and fungus elsewhere on the body is that scalp fungus can be trickier to treat.

Her advice

She will not advise people to go for ‘human hair’ as what happened to her could have happened to anybody.

Recounting another friend’s story she said after having migraines for days from wearing a human hair, the friend went for a head scan where it was discovered that the weave-on had maggots in it.

To her, the treatment of ‘human hairs’ needed to be revisited by manufacturers saying that with her bitter experience, she would advise people who want to change their looks by wearing weave-ons, to go for the synthetic ones.

She has now braided her hair to cover her hairline as all the hair on her frontline are eroded.

By Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho