Woman fails in Peter Marks damages claim

A Dublin woman, who claimed she suffered serious hair loss following a colour tint at her regular hairdressers, has failed in a damages claim in the Circuit Civil court against Peter Marks.

Judge Kevin Haugh said he had not been satisfied that the hair loss suffered by Mrs Clare Morris, Clonkeen Drive, Foxrock, had arisen as a result of a dying process carried out at Peter Marks salon in the Frascati Centre, Blackrock.

Mrs Morris said that during the tinting process her scalp had started to burn and the chemicals being used had to be prematurely rinsed out of her hair.

Afterwards her hair had started to fall out and later became so matted it was like a brillo pad. She had suffered great embarrassment because of it.

She told Ms Sara Moorehead, counsel for Peter Marks, that at the time of her hair loss she had also gone through a very stressful period due to the illness of two of her daughters.

In 10 years of having her hair done at the salon she had never previously experienced any difficulties.

Judge Haugh said that while by no stretch of the imagination could Mrs Morris’s claim be considered to be a “try on” he had not been satisfied that as a matter of probability the loss of hair had been caused due to negligence on the part of Peter Marks.

When he dismissed Mrs Morris’s claim, Ms Moorehead told the court the salon was not seeking an order for legal costs against her.