Aussie woman burns off her eyebrows in horrifying viral video: 'I'm so scared'

In a moment that's both cringe-worthy and hilariously relatable, a TikToker’s eyebrow experiment gone wrong has been shared online, and let's just say, it's giving serious 2000s brow vibes. Irene Hickman, who runs a lash and brow business, decided to give a home brow lamination kit a whirl, and it didn’t end well.

Despite usually sticking to her tried-and-true products, Irene wanted to test out an at-home kit she'd never used before, and decided to document the whole process. "I'm going to try these Luxe brow laminations on myself," she shares in the clip.

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"I like to use the products before I use them on my clients." she continues. "It didn't come with a tutorial, as I accidentally ordered a refill and not the actual kit. So we're going to try it on me so that if it goes wrong, it's fine."

Spoiler alert: It was not fine.

From enthusiastic start to brow disaster

Irene went through the motions of using the lamination product: detoxing her brows, applying the lamination solution, and wrapping them in Glad Wrap. Brushing them through, she decided to reapply and wrap her brows again.

"I can see some need a little more time," she said—famous last words.

When rewrapping them, she had an eerie premonition: "I look scary, but just wait."

After processing, horror crossed her face as she ran the brush through her brows and saw them coming out. She froze, wide-eyed, as the reality set in.

"OK, so I've just brushed through, and I've got hairs coming out," she said, her voice tinged with thinly veiled horror, with each stroke of the brush leaving her eyebrows noticeably more sparse.

"This is why I do it on myself, guys," she added. "I can't believe that's happening right now."

Desperately, she added another solution in hopes of salvaging what was left. "I didn't have it on there that long, and there was no tingling or stinging, nothing. That's probably because I've fried everything." Panic set in as she applied the neutralising solution and wrapped them again.

"Omg I'm so scared," she admitted.

Laughing through the tears

Brushing her eyebrows up again, she immediately noticed more hair shedding.

"Ok, there's more fallout," she said, holding the brush up to the camera in horror.

"That's my eyebrow hair." She quickly decided to remove everything because "now it's stinging and burning."

With a rueful chuckle, she sang to the camera, "I have no eyebrows left."

After a moment to regroup, she acknowledged, "So it's definitely my fault, but still. Still sad." Brushing her right brow up for the umpteenth time, she admitted, "I'm having a chemical reaction. That's not good." Drying her brows with a handheld fan, she lamented, "There's not much I can do at this point. I'm fighting for my life."

Ever the professional, she reiterated, "This isn't the company's fault. It's definitely mine." Then she brought her husband on screen, who stared at her in shock.

"They fried off," she told him.

"What did you do?" he asked twice, followed quickly by, "Are you alright?" And honestly — Respectful King — his reaction was everything.

Support pours in

The comments section lit up with support and empathy, as well as some similar horror stories.

"The Luxe lash lift kit completely fried off my lashes, made them hard and curly and fall out. Don't recommend this brand at all," shared one person.

"I've done it twice thinking it was my mistake!" said another.

"What did you do wrong for it to be your fault?" someone asked. Hickman replied, "I think I started gaslighting myself into thinking it was me, but after some comments and messages, I'm thinking it was the formula."

One commenter said, "I think you're way too kind and didn't want to put blame onto the brand, but I love that you actually try everything on yourself first. It shows people you're safe to go to."

Others wondered why she kept going: "GIRL, why did you continue?"

Hickman explained that she didn’t know the correct timings for the brow lamination formula. She had the product on for two minutes, wiped it off, and saw the fallout from over-processing. She had never worked with a product that worked so quickly and felt it was her fault for not checking the brand’s timing instructions first.

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"RIP your brows, babe," one person quipped. "Just shave them and start new at that point," suggested another.

A third person concluded: "Oh my f*n god, I feel so bad for you."

In the end, Hickman’s good-natured response and transparency won her plenty of support and a few laughs, turning a beauty disaster into a viral moment of solidarity and humour. Don't worry, they'll grow back, babe.

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