Why You Should *Always* Do a Strand Test When Bleaching Your Hair

16-year-old Courtney Andrews wanted ombre hair, as do many folks now that summer's approaching. However, she was in for a sorry surprise when she ended up with far less hair than she started with.

The teen and her mother, Claire Coles-Morton, decided to go the DIY route, purchasing a "blonding kit" from their local highstreet. The teen did a patch test — an integral step for any dyeing process to avoid scary allergic reactions — but did not do a strand test, which reveals how the results will look on the individual's hair and how their hair will react. Here's what she started with (it's a bit blurry, but bear with us — you need to see the "before" to understand the "after"):

Coles-Morton applied the formula to her daughter's long brown locks, and checked it periodically. "I checked the dye every five to 10 minutes after I applied to it to Courtney's hair," she told The Sun. "It got to half an hour and I needed to go to the loo to wash the dye off my hands."

When she returned, Andrews' hair had gone from a bit warm to so hot that she claims she couldn't even touch it. Rightfully, she panicked. "We rinsed her hair and put a comb through and the hair just kept coming away with each brushstroke," she says. The evidence:

As one might imagine, Andrews was absolutely shocked by this terrifying result. "Courtney was in hysterics, her hair was breaking off and falling out in front of her eyes," Coles-Morton told ​The Sun​. Here's how dramatically Andrews' length was decreased by the incident:

Coles-Morton has now spend a small fortune on a whopping ​three​ appointments to fix her daughter's hair.

Superdrug, the store Coles-Morton purchased the dye from, says the pair should have done a strand test on Andrews' hair to see how it reacted. "We are sorry that Claire Coles-Morton isn't happy with the outcome of the investigation into her complaint regarding her daughter's experience using our brand hair dye. ... We strongly recommend [a strand test] as it not only allows customers to gauge the colour results but also helps to highlight any underlying problems."

The only bright side to this tragic hair tale: they were only trying to do ombre, meaning it was just the tips of Andrews' hair that broke off. Had the pair attempted a full bleached look, this could have been ​so​ much worse.