Hair Straighteners
Children’s Burns Trust, alongside Electrical Safety First is calling for greater awareness of the dangers associated with hair straighteners among parents.
The latest figures, which come from the International Burn Injury Database (iBID), show that burn and scalds to children from hair straighteners in the first six months of 2023 increased by 20% compared with the same period the previous year.
Worryingly the increase relates to the more serious injuries where children have to be admitted to a Specialist Burns Unit and, alarmingly, doesn’t include the thousands of children seen and discharged from A&E departments.
Hair straighteners can reach temperatures of over 220°C and stay hot up to 40 minutes after they have been switched off.
Common beauty appliances can pose a serious risk to children due to the high temperatures they reach. Accidents related to burns in children can happen in an instant we are urging parents to keep straighteners out of the reach of children, whose curiosity can put them in danger.
Keep your children safe
If you use hair straighteners or curling irons, keep them out of reach of children. Children’s skin can be significantly thinner than that of adults and with the temperatures that hair straighteners reach, serious burns to children are becoming all too common. The majority of hair straightener burns among children happen when toddlers touch, grab or tread on the hot hair straightener plates. Follow our top tips to make sure that you, and your children, stay safe from electrical burns:
1. Keep hair straighteners out of reach of children
Children’s skin can be significantly thinner than that of adults so it’s important to keep hair tools out of reach.
2. Use a heat proof pouch
Hair straighteners stay hot up to 40 minutes after they have been switched off. A heat proof pouch is the easiest and safest way to store a product after use.
3. Follow the three C’s
In the event of a serious burn, follow the three Cs:
- Cool the burn with running tap water for 20 minutes if within 3 hours of burn injury. Do not apply ice, butter or toothpaste. Remove any clothing, jewellery, nappies.
- Call for help – 111, 999 or local GP for advice.
- Cover the cooled burn with loose Clingfilm or a clean non-fluffy cloth. Warm the patient.
Other causes
Hot drinks
Fireworks
Kettle
Impact
members in our private Facebook group, supporting parents and carers of burn injured children
parents and children attended Family Weekends in 2022
people reached around National Burn Awareness Day 2022