A Sydney man has issued a stark warning over a popular beauty product, claiming it “blew up like a firecracker” and set his mother’s room on fire on Monday night.
Luke, a 28-year-old Sydney man, shared a video to TikTok claiming a can of Batiste dry shampoo had “exploded” while sitting in his mother’s handbag, sparking a dangerous fire that caused significant damage to the room.
“Ladies if you are thinking of using dry shampoo I would think again,” he said in the video.
He said the exploding aerosol can “set her whole room on fire”, with the video showing soot and burn marks all over the room and furniture
“My mum usually sits right there on the side of her bed. I would have lost my mother today. Luckily she was downstairs taking down my washing,” he explained.
Luke showed the “unrecognisable” remnants of the handbag, with the force of the explosion reportedly causing bits of leather to stick to the ceiling.
He claimed the explosion was so strong it blew out the screen door.
Speaking to news.com.au, Luke said he received a call from his mum at around 7pm on Monday night telling him what had happened.
He alleged the can was inside one of his mum’s handbags that was sitting on the floor of the bedroom when the incident occurred.
The Sydney man said the bag was not exposed to any heat source or open flame at the time.
“It was inside a handbag but she doesn’t use too frequently. She’s always changing her handbags and this particular handbag she doesn’t use it too often. So it’s just like one of those bags that’s just lying around,” he explained.
“It wasn’t near any naked flame. I know aerosol cans shouldn’t be next to a naked flame or any of that stuff but when it’s just in your handbag in a cool, dry place … this was just in a handbag.
“And Monday was a relatively cool day as well, so it wasn’t hot either.”
Luke said his parents’ neighbours saw flames coming from the bedroom and called the fire brigade who came and assessed the situation.
“I guess the common denominator is the can,” he said.
His mother is “very shaken up” by the ordeal, noting it could have been “catastrophic” if she was sitting on her bed at the time of the incident.
Luke stressed that he made the initial TikTok video purely to inform others of what happened and his intention was not to call out or shame the brand.
This video has now been viewed more than 282,000 times and has received hundreds of comments.
The Sydney man noted that many of the comments were from people “laughing” because he mentioned his mother was taking down his washing when the fire broke out.
“I know a lot of people were laughing in the video because I said lucky she was downstairs taking down my washing but I guess that had saved her life pretty much,” he said.
His family has reportedly been in contact with Batiste and have been sent a form to complete ahead of further discussions.
News.com.au has contacted manufacturing company Church & Dwight, which owns Batiste.
The young man said it is situations like this that highlight the important of having a fire extinguisher in the house and knowing how to be fire safe.
“Because if my dad hadn’t had the extinguisher in the house, the outcome would have been so much worse by the time the fireys got there,” he said.
“So I think it’s really important for every Aussie household to have fire protective measures in their houses.”