I Caught My Hair On Fire!

[AnqeIicDemise]

And I'm so pissed off I'm about to cry.


Long story short, I was getting ready to grill me some dinner but the stupid thing wasn't lighting. I could smell pungent gas but nothing was going on. So... I leaned over to turn off the gas and my boob (Damned things always end up honking the horn, knocking things over and now, pushing the stupid ignitor!) pushed the red button... WHOOSH

My hair caught fire.

If my friend had not taught me to line my grill with tin foil, I would've ended up with a giant flame poofing up skyward and igniting my bunned up hair.

Instead, it spread low, singing my eyebrows, lashes, baby hair along the crown and nape of the neck. I managed to jump back and estinguish what little flame I knew caught on my baby hairs but now....

I got tons of damage.

I was thinking about cutting a fringe to get rid of some of the damage at the front of my head, but the damage is really close to the roots. I'm scared and angry and so frustrated at this point I feel like grabbing the shears and giving myself a buzz cut.

-.-

I'm still at a loss as to what to do. I *do not* want to get a major hair cut. I just got it to get down to my waist!

[MeganE]

Oh my gosh!! I'm so sorry for you. :( Fire is one of my biggest hair fears, and sometimes I catch myself being foolish while cooking and it scares the bejeezus out of me. Now's probably a good time to be grateful that it wasn't worse. :(

Is fire bad for your ends? A hairdresser told me that there's an old technique for trimming split-ends out of layers using a candle and burning the edges. I've wondered since then if a burned off hair end would be bad, and sometimes I've wondered if sealing off the ends with fire might actually help prevent splits. Hmm...

But yeah. That must have been really scary, I'm so sorry it happened to you.

How do you know you have damage?

[C.H.]

I'm so sorry that happened to you. I'm glad you're okay--you're more important than you hair.

Try not to do anything impulsive...give it a few days at least to fully assess the damage and see if there might be other strategies to address it.

[ericthegreat]

Oh dear God I'm so sorry this happened to you. Again this goes without saying but we all just have to be extra cautious around open flame of any sort while grilling or cooking anything. We have to pay extra attention with our bodies and to avoid future accidents.

I don't actually think you need to take the drastic step of cutting any portion of your hair, it doesn't sound like the any significant length was singed. Just oil it and condition it like crazy, baby it and wear it up. The singed baby hair should grow back out quite quickly within the next several weeks or months. Again I'm sorry for your accident, I'm thankful however that you didn't suffer any more serious burns.

[Sundial]

My DH's hair caught fire in February while he was refilling his lighter. To be honest, the ends looked really bad, but it didn't seem to have any real issues otherwise. You can just keep your hair as it is - S&D as and when you are able to, and baby the rest as much as possible.

DH didn't bother much with his burnt ends (mainly on his fringe) and he didn't want to cut his fringe shorter, so he just left the ends alone and was just more vigilant in using conditioner. After 4 months and 2-3 trims later, all the burnt bits were gone. Of course I didn't tell him that I was secretly S&D-ing some of the burnt bits while he was asleep, but what he doesn't know wouldn't hurt him :rolleyes:

P.S: His burnt hair bits didn't have damage that travel further up the shaft nor did it deteriorate in condition. The really burnt parts just crumbled to ash and what's left was just a stump on the end of the strand which didn't get worse (nor did it get better). So you can just bun it up and ignore it until your next trim

[Sundial]

How do you know you have damage?

For my DH's case, the burnt parts of his black hair turned a lighter color and it looked like bleached hair in really bad condition. Some of the ends were split and some were so burnt that they crumbled into ash when you touch them. Some strands had stumps on them (imagine melted plastic bits).

[AnqeIicDemise]

I know I have damage because when I tried running my hand along the right side, I was left with a huge chunk of it in my hands. I also have white and grey/brown bits all over the front of my hair about inch to inch and a half awya from the roots. -sigh- And the very very tip of my widows peak is gone. Like.. singed right off.

[GoatLady]

OMG! I feel so bad for you. This gave me a flashback to Jr. High. Smoking in the girls' room. Caught my hair on fire. Had to go get a hair cut before going home that day. Mom commented on how nice my new do looked. The foolishness of youth. LOL

I hope your damage isn't too bad and you are able to save your length.

[AnqeIicDemise]

Oh dear God I'm so sorry this happened to you. Again this goes without saying but we all just have to be extra cautious around open flame of any sort while grilling or cooking anything. We have to pay extra attention with our bodies and to avoid future accidents.

I don't actually think you need to take the drastic step of cutting any portion of your hair, it doesn't sound like the any significant length was singed. Just oil it and condition it like crazy, baby it and wear it up. The singed baby hair should grow back out quite quickly within the next several weeks or months. Again I'm sorry for your accident, I'm thankful however that you didn't suffer any more serious burns.

Me neither.

My terrible sun burn made me step back faster than I would have otherwise as my shoulders/face and chest is extremely sensitive to heat. I can't stand hot showers yet.

So as soon as my breast pushed the ignitor, I began to jump back and avoided most of the fire. I have a mini fro at the fringe area so I am afraid to cut it out .. :(

I'm also glad I have a habit of keeping my hair up and out of the way when I cook; when I stepped into the kitchen to get the marinade ready for the fish I undid my loose braide and decided to do a high chignon instead. I am so glad I did or I'm sure my length would be severely damaged.

[Bene]

:bigeyes: I was just about to come in here all "Hey, you're not a n00b, you should know better. Keep your hair bunned!!!"


But, dude, your boobies are freaking menaces. :(

[HuggyBear]

Oh wow, Anq..so sorry that happened! First dealing with a horrible sunburn and now this. I'm glad you weren't hurt badly.

[Safira]

Oh no.. It´s good that you´re ok and nothing really really bad didn´t happen, you´re well and writing... Your angel must have been watching you very tightly that day.
I remember from my childhood one grown up, who didn´t have same kind of luck, he burned his face.

[UltraBella]

I am so so sorry !!! How scary. Thank god you weren't badly burned.

[jojo]

Oh you poor thing. A similar thing happened to shadow walker a few months back he ended up cutting from tb (i think) to waist, another reminder for me to keep my hair up. thank goodness you wasn't hurt, lots of conditioning treatments and big hugs xx

[MomOf2Gremlins]

Oh my, I'm so sorry this happened to you! (((Hugs))) I'm just glad to read you're still ok and the damage is not as bad as it could have been!..
Still, it must have been really scary though!..

[PianoPlaye]

Yikes! I'm horrifed to read about flame around eyebrows, lashes, baby hair along the crown and nape of the neck. :agape:
That sounds seriously scary. As well as rat fink dratted [edited for stronger terms] frustrating.

Has anyone said crop it? Or are they sticking to take heavy duty painkillers, nuture your skin and stay out of the sunlight for a bit?
Please, let the shock run through and your body chemistry steady down before you let anyone do anything to your hair. (Send 'em out for catalogues for a new brassiere instead.)

I hope you feel less stressed by the time you read this and good luck with waist growth and new growth! :blossom::chocolate::flower:

[krissykins]

*big hugs for Demise*

Thank God you're okay. Oh Demise, I'm so sorry! I'm hoping for fast regrowth for you :pray:

[EmiliaF]

SO sorry to hear this!
I agree with the ones who said give it some time and calm down before you do anything drastic. That would just make this event looooong-lasting. Can you distract yourself with a movie or something like that for a few hours? Then, when you're calmer, try coming up with some options that are the least drastic and maybe just hide the strands that are damaged.

I know there are some hairdressers on this board. Maybe someone can come up with ideas if you email them a picture or something?!
:grouphug:

[charalito]

I am so very sorry AnqeIicDemise, that must have been really scary! But the good thing is you didn't get badly burnt, and your skin and airways are ok...

Now, on the looks area, maybe you could try playing with a hairpiece for a couple of months while the singed hair grows a bit and you can really assess the damage. I just bought a Bang Thing on sale at Sallys and maybe it can help you cover the affected area and have fun playing with bangs and hairbands :)

Big hug!

[spidermom]

Oh ouch; I'm so sorry! Don't do anything rash, give yourself a couple of weeks to assess the damage and consider options.

[lapushka]

Actually, thank God that it's only your hair. That's probably not comforting at all, considering the damage, but think about what you escaped from. You could have been badly, severely burned!

I'd not do anything drastic to your hair right now even though the thoughts are overwhelming to fix things right away. Let it sink in first, all of the stuff that happened and try and move past it. Give it time, let those bad thoughts about your singed hair go for a while. Sleep on it a couple of times and reassess this in a few days! There's no need for a buzz cut. Those hairs that burned off *will* grow back, and look on the bright side, you still have just about *all* of the rest of your hair. Meanwhile, maybe a nice headband will help?

[Anje]

I'm sorry to hear this happened to you... I think your boobs may be out to get you. That or they're trying to be helpful with the whole grill-lighting thing.

As others have said, I'm not sure burned damage travels up the hair, and it's possible that the burned ends don't tend to split, so you may be able to get away with not cutting it, but just brushing/S&Ding away the burned bits and possibly trimming to even things out a little. Maybe when it grows a little you can get a fringe -- obviously you don't want to trim as short as this damage is right now. It'll grow out, and it probably won't look so bad to you in a couple days. Don't cut the mass of your hair in any case. Most of it was spared and you want it long. You just might have a few layers now.

[insomniac-uk]

I'm so sorry this happened to you :(

[AnqeIicDemise]

I do want to thank you all of you for the support. I'm still irritated and keep touching the hairline, feel the massive singe and just want to shave it all off... but that won't do me any good.

I can't cut it either as the singe job is so close to the root I'll end up with this funky mess. I think I will end up looking into those fake fringes to cover up the mess while I s&d. In the meantime, I'm keeping things oiled and hydrated.

PS: my bra strap just chaffed off a chunk of skin off my shoulder and its raw. Talk about adding insult to injury. -.- Or.. injury to insult. Grr.

I think I need to buy better boobie holders...

[krissykins]

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

[Leoslaire]

I've set my hair on fire quite a few times ( I dance with fire, Polynesian-style) and what I've found works best is an ACV rinse. Better is ionized acidic water if you have access to a home water ionizer.

Ionized acidic water is the best, I've learned that hair LOVES hydrogen ions. Many of my friends are also fire dancers, and we have used ionized water as hair first aid in a few emergencies. ACV is the next best thing, but it doesn't contain anywhere near the amount of hydrogen ions that ionized water does.

Hope that helps!

[torrilin]

It was a family joke that there was a fire elemental in our gas grill that was out to get me. I got singed several times in my teens. It's scary as hell, but if your hair is pulled back tightly, chances are good there is next to no real damage. I usually came out better than someone with short hair would have, since densely packed straight hair just doesn't burn well. No air!

After your next couple washes, the situation should be a lot clearer. Don't make any decisions for at least two weeks, or maybe until your sunburn is healed, whichever is longer.

The fire damage will not travel up your hair, and it is not anything to panic over. Actual fire damage is very different from heat styling damage, because if the hair is burnt up, the damaged stuff just falls off. Like a lot of natural fibers, our hair tends to naturally resist burning, which helps a lot.

As far as safety... if you can smell gas, the fireball can be quite large. Figure a good 2-3 feet away from where it's easy to smell gas in open air. I eventually learned if it started smelling like gas, that I should turn the gas completely off, open the grill, and wait an hour or so for the gas smell to clear if we wanted me to light it. Or get someone else who wasn't flamebait to do it.

[AnnaJamila]

I'm so sorry for this- for now go with the pyro ( :D ) about the ACV/iodized water and invest in a few thin silk scarves to tie back your hair. It'll hide the damage and the silk should be the least irritating material to it.

After a few months you could maybe get layers put in? I imagine that the damage would be limited to the hair on the top and sides of your face so a fringe and layers should take care of it if you can wait a few months.

Reading this makes me cringe- just keep the goal in sight and grit your teeth. Love and hugs!