A British influencer needed emergency surgery after an ingrown hair caused by shaving developed into sepsis, turning a routine bit of grooming into five days in hospital and a lengthy recovery.
Christy Collins, a 28-year-old content creator from Bournemouth, said the problem began after she shaved her bikini line and wore shorts on a hot day in London. She initially assumed the lump was an ordinary ingrown hair and tried to squeeze it. The lump had other plans.
It rapidly became an intensely painful mass that Collins compared in size to an iPhone. She visited her doctor and received antibiotics, but the infection continued to worsen.
How did the infection become an emergency?
Collins later developed blurred vision, dizziness and severe pain before collapsing. A friend persuaded her to seek hospital treatment, where doctors diagnosed sepsis and prepared her for immediate surgery.
Sepsis is the body's life-threatening response to an infection. It can damage organs and requires urgent medical care, which is why symptoms that spread beyond the original wound should not be treated as a minor inconvenience.
