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A woman had to fork out a whopping $1,000 to get rid of a huge knot in her hair after unsuccessfully trying to remove it herself with hair masks, olive oil and even fabric softener.
Elle Batchelor, 33, went for a swim in the ocean in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, before embarking on an 8km run while wearing her hair in a plait. You can see how her hair looked after:
And while the day of exercise may have been good for her body, it certainly wasn’t so good for her hair.
After trying to remove the plait later the same evening, Elle discovered a large mat that she couldn’t get a brush through.
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She reached out to her friend Sarah for help and when the pair of them got no further, she ended up taking to TikTok to ask for advice.
After going live, she was flooded with unusual solutions - including olive oil and a hair mask - but the tangle got worse after they tried fabric softener.
With none of the solutions actually fixing the problem, the following day, Elle left it to the professionals and paid a whopping $1,000 in Evo hair conditioner and labour from her hairdresser friend, Chad, to 'de-mat' her hair.
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Elle, a social media strategist from Sydney, said: "I went for a swim in the morning in the ocean and it got all salty.
"I then went for an 8km run so I put my hair up.
"I took my hair out of the hair band and it looked like a pine cone- it was stuck in shape.
"This was when I first met my hair mat - who I nicknamed Mat - and it was love at first sight.
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"We tried to comb it out for hours and then went on YouTube to find an answer, but all of the tutorials were so long and convoluted.
"We decided to go on TikTok live and thought 10 people would join, but 88k people popped up.
"They were telling us different things - a hairdresser told us to put olive oil in it.
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"We tried a hair mask and a conditioner, and it was getting worse and worse.
"Someone suggested a fabric softener and it was the worst idea ever - it solidified."
After leaving it overnight, Elle knew she needed professional help - but that came a price.
The initial hair mask cost $24.99, taking Sarah out for dinner as payment will set her back $150, Chad's labour cost $390 and 10 bottles of Evo conditioner cost $100.
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However, fortunately, Chad didn't end up charging Elle for his hard graft.
Elle added: "At that point I thought I was going to have to shave my head.
"Chad took part in the separation negotiations, it took three and a half hours and 1.2 million people tuned in to watch.
"People were invested in it, I felt really supported.
"Chad used 10 bottles of Evo - a professional detangler - and gently combed mat out strand-by-strand. It slowly disintegrated.
"It was the second-most expensive break-up I've ever been through."
Claire Reid