Indian salon ordered to pay Rs 20 million as damages for a 'traumatic' haircut

It appears to be a bad hair day, not for a person, but for a salon as a consumer court in India has ordered it to pay Rs 20 million ($271,000) in damages to a model for a haircut gone wrong, which she claimed caused a "severe mental breakdown". 

In 2018, the model Aashna Roy went to the salon, which is part of a prominent hotel chain in India's capital New Delhi. She asked the staff to trim four inches (10 centimetres) from her tips but the hairdresser chopped off the maximum length. 

"To the utter shock and surprise of the complainant, the hairdresser chopped off her entire hair leaving only 4 inches from the top and barely touching her shoulders," said the ruling by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. 

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After the hairstylist cut a major part of her hair and left "only 4 inches from the top", the model stopped seeing herself in the mirror. The court ruling added that Aashna is a communication professional and is required to be involved in meetings and interactive sessions. 

The court also determined that as Roy had already established a career lending her skills to advertisements for hair products, the botched haircut had led to "severe mental breakdown and trauma". 

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She is a communication professional and [is] required to be involved in meetings and interactive sessions. "But she lost her self-confidence due to little hair," the court order said.

The court told the salon, which can still appeal the verdict, to pay 20 million rupees within eight weeks of the order.