‘I’m bald now’: Atlanta woman pays $480 for hair appointment. Then the stylist cuts off her hair and chemically burns her
We’ve been cutting hair for thousands of years—ostensibly, more. And yet getting a haircut still feels like a coin toss.
From botched bobs to butchered bleach jobs, stylists seem to be inventing new kinds of horror stories every day. Now, one client is going viral for also getting burned—literally.
What happened at this hair salon?
In a multi-part video series, the first video of which has gotten nearly 30,000 views since being posted on Feb. 15, TikToker Nilyria (@nilyria) shares a particularly harrowing experience at an Atlanta hair salon.
Over several videos, Nilyria details how stylist Alesyah Flores, the founder of Salon Moraee, allegedly turned what was supposed to be a normal haircut into a chemical burn. She says Flores also cut her hair “down to the scalp at the nape.” When Nilyria confronted Flores about it, she says Flores hung up on her and blocked her.
“I’m bald now,” Nilyria tells her TikTok audience. “I have no hair in the back of my head, and my scalp is hot to the touch, and I don’t know how to make it stop.”
Apparently, this nightmare unfolded during what was supposed to be a simple “keratin treatment and a trim.” However, Flores allegedly “did not follow the procedure to apply this correctly,” resulting in a chemical burn. Nilyria visited a dermatologist to treat her scalp. She wrote in the comment section of one of her videos that she plans to take Flores to court.
On her website, Flores says she has “been in the hair business for over 20 years.” In a now-deleted TikTok comment, the official account of Flores’ salon, Salon Moraee, appeared to accuse Nilyria of lying. Nilyria responded to the comment with a TikTok video of her own. This video featured security footage of her hair appointment, apparently provided by Salon Moraee. Although Nilyria claims the footage has been edited to cut out the salon’s mistakes.
A back-and-forth
Narrating over the footage, Nilyria says she was happy when she left the salon. She didn’t yet realize something was amiss.
“I did not know I was chemically burnt, and I did not know that I had hair missing from the back of my head,” Nilyria says. “And that I was pretty much shaved down to the scalp in the back.”
But Nilyria says she felt “a lump” forming on the back of her head at some point during the appointment. When she flagged that with one of the stylists, they allegedly didn’t “even bother to try to feel it.”
“If you are in a spirit of sharing, please go ahead and … include the clips of me telling you to rinse my hair again because my scalp is burning,” Nilyria says, addressing Salon Moraee. “Please include the clips of me telling you that I have a lump in the back of my head and you refusing to actually check it out or touch it.”
She continues, “If you want to settle this out of court and do the right thing, hey. I’m down to, you know, work with you and get things moving. But if you want to hold this position that you didn’t do anything wrong and that I didn’t get chemically burnt by you and that you didn’t cut my hair from the base of my neck to literally my scalp of my head, despite the fact that your own video proves that, then I guess we should just hold off and hang out in court.”
@nilyria This is my $480 experience with Alesyah, stylish and owner of Salon Moraee in ATL. She said “I did everything correctly, I provided the service” She did not apply the treatment correctly according to the product instructions and now I’m going bald in the back of my head. No Refunds, no apology, no accountability. #atlhairstylists #myvalentine #hairhorrorstories #chemicalburn #hairtok ♬ Trarags red shirt music – Bonkaaa?️
How to treat a chemical burn on your scalp
If, like Nilyria, you find yourself battling a gnarly chemical burn on your head, don’t despair. Do, however, soothe the affected area with cool water for about 10 minutes. Make sure you wear gloves so you don’t get any chemicals on your skin.
Avoid touching the burn with anything that might contaminate it. Use only the gentlest, organic-based products to wash your hair. Above all else, make sure to follow Nilyria’s lead and see a medical professional—like a general physician, dermatologist, etc.—to get the proper medical treatment you need.
The Mary Sue has reached out to Flores via email and Nilyria via TikTok comment.
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