Hair tie causes infection on woman's wrist

Here's why you should stop wearing hair ties on your wrist

All women can relate to the hair tie conundrum: no matter how many you have, you can never find one when you need it!

Perhaps, the easiest way to keep them safe is to wear them on your wrist. But did you ever think that these tiny bad hair day savers could turn out to be infectious?

Audree Kopp from Kentucky kept a glittery hair tie wrapped around her wrist for fashion emergencies until she started noticing a growing bump.

PHOTO: WLKY

She completely failed to understand the cause of it. "It just kept getting bigger and redder and worse," Kopp told WLKY.com.



Upon consulting her family doctor, Audree was advised to have antibiotics. But the bump continued to grow landing her in the emergency room of Norton Healthcare where she was treated by Dr Amit Gupta.

"She had a large abscess on the back of her wrist, so I basically made an incision and drained the puss all the way down," he said.



Explaining the cause behind the infection Amit told CBS Philly that the bacteria in the glittery hair tie got under Audree's skin making way to her pores and hair follicles.

PHOTO: WLKY

Audree was grateful for being treated on time. "Once it gets into your bloodstream, people have been known to go into a coma; your body shuts down. It could have been way worse," she said.



Dr Alfred Aleguas, a toxicologist, said a simple solution to the problems like these is hygiene.

"If you notice you are getting an abrasion, remove it and obviously keep it clean,” Aleguas told ABC Action News.