Many people across the world have had some kind of beauty mishap – including this poor woman when she decided to get her eyebrows microbladed.
Shannon Bozell, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, spent a hefty $350 to get her eyebrows microbladed and was left with ‘big caterpillar eyebrows’ she felt didn’t fit her face. Oops.
After going in with extremely fair and thin eyebrows – apparently from years of ‘over-plucking’ – Bozell then left the salon with large and very distinct brunette eyebrows, despite having blonde hair.
In an effort to disguise her eyebrows, Bozell dyed her hair darker and gave herself a fringe. She said she was embarrassed to go out in public, with people giving her strange looks and her family asking her what she had done.
According to CBS Austin, Bozell expressed her dissatisfaction to salon owner Anne Hicks, who performed the microblading, and Hicks set an appointment to make Bozell’s eyebrows lighter and give them more of an arch.
Bozell said at first it was an improvement, but that wasn’t the end of the ordeal.
She said:
I felt better when I left. I took a few pictures, and they were lighter. I did not realize in 24 to 48 hours, I was going to have two very large blisters.
When she sent pictures of the blisters under her eyebrows to Hicks, the salon owner advised her on aftercare, though Bozell said she didn’t mention the blisters.
Salon owner Hicks told CBS:
I stand by the work that I did when she left, and I stand behind the fact that I told her in detail what the process could be and what the process was.
Hicks went on to add Bozell had microblading and colour removal in a short period of time so needed additional recovery time, and also said it takes around 30 days for the eyebrows to ‘shrink’ and become a more natural colour.
Bozell contacted Hicks again and the salon owner set up a morning appointment, but Bozell had to cancel. Despite agreeing to reschedule, Bozell has opted to go elsewhere to fix her eyebrows.
Bozell requested a refund from Hicks several times. Hicks denied her requests, saying she does not offer refunds, instead asking Bozell to come back to the salon multiple times so she could fix the situation.
Hicks also insisted she had drawn diagrams on Bozell’s face indicating the shape and position of her eyebrows following the treatment. Bozell confirmed she had agreed with the diagram, although she said she ‘didn’t really understand’ what she was looking at.
Bozell posted before and after pictures from the microblading and follow-up appointments on January 15, which quickly went viral, leading to comments on the salon’s social media and negative reviews.
Hicks said she defended the salon on its Facebook page, and made comments Bozell said were hurtful, including that said she was a recovering drug addict, despite Bozell saying she hasn’t used in nine years.
The post has since been deleted, with Hicks saying she’d been ‘backed into a corner’.
She added:
I wasn’t showing the best side of myself, but sometimes people don’t do that when they’re in really scary moments.
Hicks said her business ‘is [her] everything’ and that she tried to get Bozell to return so she could make it right with her, but she had never come back.
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Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.