Arthur Greene
A hair salon in India has been ordered to pay over R4 million in damages to a model after a bad haircut caused her to suffer a “severe mental breakdown”.
The woman was a regular patron of the luxury hairdresser, which is part of a prominent hotel chain in Delhi.
But when she turned up for her usual haircut one day in 2018, her regular stylist wasn’t available. So another employee had to pick up the scissors and get to work.
Against her instructions, the stand-in hairdresser reportedly cut off too much of her hair, according to court documents.
After she complained about the cut, the salon offered her free treatment, but this only ended up causing further damage to the woman’s remaining hair, according to the BBC.
According to the model, the botched haircut and the disastrous followup treatment sent her life on a downward spiral, causing her to suffer severe trauma and ultimately lose her job.
“She stopped seeing herself in the mirror. She is a communication professional and [is] required to be involved in meetings and interactive sessions. But she lost her self-confidence due to little hair,” the court order said.
So she took the salon to the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), which awarded her 20 million rupees – the equivalent of over R4 million – in damages.
In its ruling, the NCDRC said that the botched haircut had caused the woman to lose work modelling for hair product firms and shattered her dream of becoming a top model.
It noted: “She underwent a severe mental breakdown and trauma due to negligence… in cutting her hair and could not concentrate on her job and finally she lost her job.”
