Scientists are investigating whether Covid changes your immune system permanently after people reported allergic reactions to hair dye after having the virus.
Professionals across the UK are reporting their clients suffering an allergic reaction to hair dye which they didn't have before - and the clients involved have previously tested positive for Covid, reports the BBC.
Imperial College London is now researching whether Covid has 'reprogrammed the immune systems of people who have recovered from the virus.
And hairdressers are being advised to patch test all clients before they dye hair - even if they have no known allergies.
Reactions have included burns and rashes.
One woman, Gemma, told the BBC her hairdresser had insisted on a patch test. She had been using the same dye product for 10 years with no problem - but then contracted Covid in January.
She said: "I came along, had the patch test, the following day I felt a really hot burning sensation behind my ear, which progressively got worse to the point where it had taken layers of skin from behind my ear."
Gemma's stylist Stacey Klein said: "I was picking up and seeing a lot of reports from stylists and salon owners saying that people were having these new reactions that weren't having them before
She said she had had a number of clients coming back 'with the same issue'.
Professor Danny Altman, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, said: "Amongst the many bizarre and horrible things that the virus does, one of the things it seems to be able to do is just reprogramme and return and tune up and tune down different parts of the immune response.
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