EYESORE
I was thrilled to get eyelash extensions, they got so infected I woke up looking like I’d gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson
IT'S NORMAL to want to look our best on birthdays - that's why one woman treated herself to lash extensions to glow in her celebration photos.
But she was mortified after waking up the next day looking like 'she'd gone 'ten rounds with Mike Tyson'.
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Jessica Shannon, from Wetherby, West Yorkshire, claims she suffered an allergic reaction, ruining her birthday and leaving her fearful that she'd permanently damaged her eyes.
The 25-year-old opted for Russian lashes and loved how they looked after initially getting them done last year.
But two days later, after going out for her birthday, her eyelids became so swollen they completely stuck together, and were sore, itchy, and watery.
Jessica became terrified as she 'couldn't see anything whatsoever'.
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She explained: "I'd gone out for a night out for my birthday and my left eye had gone a little bloodshot but it wasn't sore or itchy.
"I got home and went to bed and the following morning I woke up and looked like I'd done ten rounds with Mike Tyson.
"They were really sore and itchy which made me get up out of bed to look in the mirror and my eyes were just extremely swollen. It was painful.
"From then they were streaming with water and just dead itchy.
"It ruined my birthday.
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"Over the next few days because they were so sticky they'd stuck shut so I'd wake up in the morning and my eyes would be completely stuck together."
The beauty-lover had to bathe her eyes to get them to open but despite this, still couldn't see.
Jessica visited a pharmacy first for the reaction, where she was given eye drops and antihistamines.
But that didn't seem to be working, Jessica added: "Over the next few days they got really quite severe.
"I got to a point where I literally couldn't see anything whatsoever.
"They were both shut together and my eyes had gone really blurry. The only way I could explain it as like there was a film over my eyes. It was scary.
"They were both bad but my left eye in particular was a lot worse. It was so swollen that I couldn't open it at all.
"The thing that was going through my mind most was because of the fact I couldn't see, I was worried that I'd done sort of damage to my actual eyesight.
"Which was one of the main reasons as well as the pain that prompted me to go to A&E just to double-check I wasn't going to end up with permanent damage to my actual eyes.
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The former carer rushed to A&E a few days after her birthday bash, where she was told she had corneal abrasions and was given antibiotic eye ointment.
Jessica said it took an entire week for her eyes to fully returned to normal and she's hoping to raise awareness of the 'severe' and 'painful' reaction that lash glue can cause.
Despite this, Jessica tried to keep the lashes on, as she loved the way they looked and paid £45 for them.
But the pain was too severe and she ended up getting them removed free of charge, which Jess says was a painful experience in itself.
"It took her a good hour and a half to get them off because my eyes were watering constantly it had made the eyelashes rock hard and they'd clumped together.
"She had to go through every individual lash to separate them in order to remove the glue to get them off.
"It was a relief when they were completely off but when she was doing it it was really quite painful because my eyes were so watery that made the glue go extremely hard on my lashes.
"I was lying there crying like a big baby."
After having them removed, Jessica is doing a lot better and said: "The top of my eyelids are really dry and still very itchy but aside from that my sight's come back and I can open my eyes fully now."
However, the traumatic experience hasn't quite put her off getting her lashes done again.
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Jessica admits: "I'd love to get my lashes done again but I don't know whether or not that's possible.
"Some people I've heard that have had a reaction to glue in the past and a few months down the line they're able to wear lashes without any problems but other people it's kind of a long time thing and it's just not possible for them to wear extensions."
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