A 19 year-old woman from France named Estelle has just gone public with her harrowing story about the severe allergic reaction she recently had to hair dye.

Estelle said that her reaction to the hair dye caused her face to swell up to twice it’s normal size, and it got so bad that she nearly died. It all started when she performed a patch test using the dye and left it on for 30 minutes before moving on with her dye job, even though the box states that people should wait 48 hours after testing.

Estelle noticed something was off right away, as she felt some irritation on her scalp. Not thinking much of it, she took some antihistamines and an anti-itch cream and went to bed, but when she woke up, her head was already swelling. In fact, her head had swelled up to 24.8 inches instead of her usual 22 inches.

“I could not breathe. I had a lightbulb head,” Estelle explained.

She was rushed to the hospital, where doctors gave her an adrenaline shot and kept her overnight for observation. Estelle was terrified, as she thought she was about to die.

“Before arriving at the hospital, you just don’t know how long it will take for you to suffocate, if you have the time to get to the hospital or not,” said Estelle, who is doing alright now. “I pretty much laugh at myself because of the incredible shape of my head.”

Estelle decided to go public with her story in the hopes of helping others.

“My biggest message is to tell people to be more vigilant with products like this, because the consequences could be fatal,” she said.  “I want the companies who sell these products to make their warning more clear and more visible.”