Rainham man ended up in hospital after reaction to box hair dye

He and his family had planned to return to the London Borough of Havering on July 27, but he was scared when he woke up and saw how much his face had swollen.

“My cousins were in the breakfast hall at the hotel and they saw me and said, ‘You’ve got to call an ambulance now because you could go into anaphylactic shock’, which was a bit scary.

“I was put on a drip, IV, antibiotics, steroids and antihistamines, and I ended up [in hospital] for four days.”

Mr Varghese said he had never had an allergic reaction before, so when it came to dyeing his hair he had been “a bit blasé about it”.

He added: “I never in a million years dreamt it would be this bad. I thought, worst case, I might have a bit of an itchy scalp.

“I am going to grey gracefully, I think, so I have a full head of hair and a few grey hairs here and there.

“That’s enough dyeing for me.”