PLANO, TEXAS—
Today, we met up with a very distraught mother and daughter from Wylie at their lawyer's office in Dallas.
The mother told us what should have been a great back-to-school beauty experience has turned into a nightmare.Karole Ridley says her 12-year-old daughter, Mariah McGinnis, just desperately wants to fit in. " She wanted to look like Rihanna. She wanted to look pretty," said Mother Karole Ridley. Mariah thought having hair like Rihanna's would make life easier.
"I'm not black enough to be black, but not white enough to be white, if you know what I mean. So, I'm kinda in between. I'm just tired of everyone teasing me for it," said Burn victim Mariah McGinnis
That's why Ridley brought Mariah to the ITS Beauty School in Plano to get a chemical hair relaxer. But, Mariah didn't leave that day looking like Rihanna.
"I was telling them that it was burning and it was hurting and they were like okay, okay it's almost done," said McGinnis.
Mariah says the mixture was on her hair for an hour. Her mom signed an injury report for some small red spots visible along the hairline. However, things got worse when they got home.
Ridley brought her daughter to Children's Hospital in Plano. They referred her to Parkland's burn unit in Dallas where she says she was told Mariah has second and third degree burns.
Mariah's now taking narcotics to deal with the pain.
"Brushing my hair, the slightest little tug on my hair really hurts, and laying down at night my head gets stuck on the pillow from the blood in my head," said McGinnis.
We went to the beauty school looking for answers. A woman who described herself as an assistant director said this:
"Once a client comes in and they sign their name on the sign-in sheet, we have like this description at the bottom, that says that you do realize that you are coming to a school".
We showed Mariah's pictures to Marion Forbes whose been relaxing hair for 20 plus years.
"That's terrible. That's absolutely not acceptable," said Professional Hair Stylists Marion Forbes. She says parents really need be cautious.
"You probably get what you pay for it you go to a school. It's trail and error, they're practicing," said Forbes.
But, Mariah's mom says she never anticipated this.
"You never think your kids going to get third degree burns just trying to make her pretty," said Ridley.
In case you're curious, Karole Ridley paid $35.75 for that relaxer service.
The woman at the school we spoke says this the first she's heard of such a severe experience.
