Hair loss compensation
Given the wrong set of circumstances, accidents can happen anywhere to anyone. If you suffered severely damaged hair during a workplace accident, in public, or a road traffic accident, caused by the negligent actions of a third party you could potentially be entitled to claim hair loss compensation.
Our hair can be a profoundly personal and vital part of our identity. And, avoidable damage to it could lead to compensation. In this article, we help you understand the process of launching a personal injury claim from start to finish. We also show you how you could win damages for this particular type of injury.
This article uses an example case study to illustrate how someone could successfully recover £27,000 for an act of negligence that destroyed their hair. Hair loss could have profound effects on a claimant’s self-esteem and quality of life.
We provide links and information throughout this article so that you can assess your own claim. Contact us at any point if you have a question. You can call us on 0800 408 7825 or drop us a line at Public Interest Lawyers if you need any information. Our team is here 24/7 and happy to help.
Select a Section
- A Guide To Calculating Compensation For Hair Loss
- What Is Beauty Salon Negligence?
- Hair Loss Can Cause Financial Issues
- Common Causes Of Hair Loss
- Care Claims For Negligence
- Expert Settlement Calculations Of Your Case
- Case Study: £27,000 Compensation For Hair Loss
- Claim Estimates For Victims Are Free
- No Win No Fee Negligence Claims
- Find The Most Suitable Personal Injury Solicitors
- Chat Today
- Further Help
A Guide To Calculating Compensation For Hair Loss
The impact of drastic hair loss can be devastating for the victim and all the more distressing if the incident that caused it could have been avoided. In this article, we examine who has a duty of care to protect your safety in three main areas: work, public places, and the roads. We discuss how duty of care may have been breached and how you could claim for the injuries it caused.
Our guide explains the advantages of connecting with a personal injury lawyer when it comes to valuing your hair loss compensation case. We look at how personal injury compensation calculators, as featured on many online sites, can be helpful but not as accurate as professional estimations. Our case study shows how the two heads of claim can boost the potential payout you could receive.
What Is Beauty Salon Negligence?
Hair loss can be a natural function of the body, and various factors can accelerate and increase it, such as genetic disorders. If the hair loss follows the negligent actions or inaction of a professional at a hair salon, you could claim compensation.
Under the law, those who are providing a service to us as a member of the public have a duty of care to be mindful of our health and well being. If they breach this duty due to negligence and this causes us harm we could then be eligible to be compensated. If you are unsure whether the treatment you received at a beauty salon was below the standard it should have been and as a result, it caused you an injury call our advisors today.
Beauty Salons and Hair Loss Compensation
The Health And Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places strict requirements on employers to provide adequate training, information, and maintenance of premises to ensure that the workplace is as safe an environment as possible for everyone. You can also click on this link to learn more about reporting an accident and the resulting injury that happened at work correctly. It could strengthen your case. You may work in a beauty salon and find that your employer didn’t train you correctly, which resulted in a workplace injury.
The Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957 expects a similar level of commitment to creating safe environments from those in control of land, property and premises, such as private operators and local authorities. Anywhere accessible to the public should be safe and, if there are dangers, reasonable precautions should be taken to prevent accidents. A beauty salon, for example, that doesn’t warn you of the risks of hair loss from treatment could be breaching their duty of care.
Though we’re focussing on beauty salons, you could claim if you lose hair in a car accident someone else caused. The Highway Code asks that road users show each other a duty of care, including pedestrians and cyclists. This set of guidelines requires road users to demonstrate at-least standard expertise and care, regardless of age and experience. Plus, they should drive with the expectation that others may not possess this standard on the road. This caution is designed to make the roads as safe as possible.
Hair Loss Can Cause Financial Issues
Depending on the nature of the injury and the extent of the hair loss, you may be unable to resume normal activities for some time. The sudden hair loss may affect your self-esteem and lead to depression or anxiety. If you miss work or other opportunities, you may start to notice a financial impact that could add to your stress and hinder your recovery.
You could claim back the expenses you have incurred due to your injuries through special damages if your claim goes on to be successful. This is a branch of compensation. When combined with general damages (compensation for your physical and mental injuries), your hair loss compensation amount can increase. Speak to our friendly team today to discuss how much the injuries have cost you personally and see how you might get that money back.
Common Causes Of Hair Loss
In the workplace, during 2019/20 there were 693,000 recorded accidents. And statistics of road injuries can also make troubling reading. Our example case study, provided later in the article, concentrates on an accident in a hair salon. But, there are other causes of hair loss due to third-party negligence. These include:
- Unintended contact with hazardous chemicals.
- Burns to the scalp during a road traffic accident.
- Getting your hair trapped in moving parts or machinery.
- Injuries sustained in a criminal assault.
There can be psychological and genetic reasons for hair loss too. In our example case study, provided later in the article, a young lady is injured in a way that causes hair loss due to chemical burns from a hair dye.
You can speak to us at any time on any day if you’re unsure about eligibility for hair loss compensation. There may be aspects to your accident or circumstances that have a bearing you are unaware of. A skilled No Win No Fee lawyer could help you look at your injuries in a completely different way.
Care Claims For Negligence
Care claims are possible if the nature of your injuries means you need help to cook, clean, wash, or attend to personal care. The time family and friends spent caring for you could be recovered through your compensation.
If you’re considering paying for a professional carer’s service, it’s worth reading this guide from the NHS first. Paying for self-care can be expensive but, if you have no other option than to rely on this, you could recover the costs. A personal injury solicitor could advise you about how to keep evidence of the costs and win them back as part of your special damages.
Expert Settlement Calculations Of Your Case
In a hair loss compensation case, a medical assessment can provide support for your claim. At this stage, a medical professional confirms whether your hair loss was a direct result of the accident. They can give their report to your personal injury lawyer and it is shared with the court. You could then seek two types of damages that could make your payout:
General damages compensate you for the pain and suffering caused by your injuries. For hair loss that includes scarring and significant distress, the Judicial College Guidelines (a publication that can be used by solicitors when valuing injuries) estimate award brackets for certain injuries.
Special damages aim to restore your finances. Through this type of compensation, any financial loss related to your injuries could be reclaimed from the defendant. Without proof, such as bills and invoices, it could be tough to recover the costs.
Financial losses that could be recovered so long as they’re related to the injury, include:
- Loss of earnings.
- Lost work opportunities.
- Loss of bonuses or attendance rewards.
- Travel expenses to/from medical appointments.
- Specialist fees such as therapy, remedial treatments and counselling costs.
- Adaptations to your home.
- Reconstructive surgery costs.
- Missed holidays or special occasions.
The list could go on. If you can prove that your injuries have impacted you financially, there may be grounds to include those amounts in your hair loss compensation claim.
Case Study: £27,000 Compensation For Hair Loss
Miss Adams had her hair dyed regularly at her favourite salon, but they had to temporarily close on the day of her engagement party due to unforeseen circumstances. She was forced to go to different hairdressers. She asked for her hair to be coloured with the same brand and type that her other hairdresser used. Things were going nicely until her scalp started to burn. The hairdresser said it was a common side-effect and would stop soon, but Miss Adams had not felt this before.
When she returned home, her scalp was still burning and her roots were wet. She realised that her skin was weeping and went to a walk-in clinic. She had suffered second-degree burns and got treatment.
After recovering, she was left with a bald patch near her ear and a bald patch near the crown of her head. The prognosis was not good. Distraught, Miss Adams had to accept that she would have bald patches for the rest of her life. She decided to sue the salon for negligence.
Making Her Hair Loss Compensation Claim
There is a time limit of three years to launch a personal injury claim. Miss Adams promptly collected all the evidence and information that she would need to maximise her compensation payout. Acting on her No Win No Fee lawyer’s advice, she proved all costs and had them presented against the defendant.
It transpired that the hairdresser used a totally different hair dye and failed to patch test an area to see if the client was allergic to any of the products.
The salon admitted liability for the incident. Miss Adams was awarded £27,000 in compensation; a combination of general and special damages. A break down of how her damages were calculated is as follows:
| General damages | Special damages |
|---|---|
| The injuries sustained by Miss Adams qualified her for the highest award: £10,340 |
Lost work due to injury and mental illness: £7,660 |
| She required specialist reconstructive skin procedures and hair transplanting: £6,000 | |
| Counselling for her ordeal: £1,000 | |
| Travel costs to hospital appointments: £200 | |
| Missed holiday: £1,800 |
Whilst this case is purely an example, it represents the sort of hair loss claims that could be made. It acts to help you understand the fullest extent of damages that might be owed to you for accidents that were not your fault.
Claim Estimates For Victims Are Free
When it comes to hair loss compensation, each case is different. But, when you use a No Win No Fee lawyer you could improve your chances of catching and including all the out-of-pocket expenses possible. You may have thought some were simply a regrettable part of coping with the accident. Although, it is your chose whether or not you have a solicitor represent your case for compensation it may be wise to consider it. Solicitors have vast amounts of knowledge. They deal with personal injury cases every day. They may have what is needed to ensure your case is successful.
No Win No Fee Negligence Claims
You may be familiar with the term ‘No Win No Fee agreement’. But how exactly could one help you? There are many advantages to using these agreements:
- There are no fees to pay your solicitor upfront.
- There’s nothing to pay your solicitor while the case is ongoing.
- You have nothing to pay your solicitors if your case is unsuccessful.
- If your case wins, you only pay a small success fee to the solicitor which is capped by law to keep it as fair to you as possible.
- The fee is only payable after you have received the compensation.
- You receive expert legal advice and support throughout your case.
Using a No Win No Fee lawyer can be an opportunity for you to access legal services. Hiring a lawyer for your hair loss compensation doesn’t need to be expensive or complicated. Speak to us today to see how we could help you with your case.
Find The Most Suitable Personal Injury Solicitors
Once you have decided to make a personal injury claim, you may be unsure what steps to take next. Online searches generate a large volume of results for ‘No Win No Fee lawyers’. But, as many as there may be, it can be useful to read the reviews of these companies to see how they perform:
- How quickly do they settle their cases?
- Do they value them reasonably?
- How good is their communication with clients?
If it feels overwhelming, we can help. Our panel of personal injury solicitors routinely pursues personal injury compensation cases across the country. They do it remotely. When you speak to our team, you are availing yourself of their shared experience and giving yourself a chance to recover substantial hair loss compensation.
Chat Today
Getting in touch with us is easy, and our team is happy to discuss your case. They’re available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can:
- Call us on 0800 408 7825.
- Drop us a line at Public Interest Lawyers.
- Speak to Michelle via our live support option.
We hope that this guide has helped in your decision to launch a personal injury claim for negligence. If you suffered any type of injury which you feel could have been avoided, speak to our team today for a free, no-obligation chat to see how we could help.
Further Help
For further information on accident hot spots, please read our guide.
Have you been Injured on council-owned property and it wasn’t your fault? Read our guide to claims against the council.
We also have a guide on claiming after shopping accidents.
For more reading on sudden hair loss, please read this NHS guide.
These Health and Safety Executive statistics about accidents in the workplace make for informative reading.
You can also access more information on using NHS services.
Thank you for reading our guide to hair loss compensation.
Article by EA
Publisher UI.