Woman Loses Case Over 'Bin Laden' Hairstyle

June 6, 2002 9:14 am EST

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong woman lost her case for compensation against a hair salon which she claimed made her look like Osama bin Laden when she wanted a hairstyle like Hollywood actress Julia Roberts.

After the judgement was handed down, she refused to leave the Small Claims Tribunal and had to be taken away by ambulance following a standoff of more than an hour with court staff, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.

Chu Ieu complained her hair was seriously damaged by two perms she had done at the New Idol Hair Salon last July and August.

"Do you mean you did not get the Julia Roberts

look after the perm?" adjudicator Yuen Chun-kau asked her during the Wednesday hearing.

"Not just that. It was like a broom. Every hair struck out and it looked like an open umbrella which could not be shut. It was horrible. I looked like Osama bin Laden," Chu replied.

Yuen dismissed her claim for HK$50,000 (US$6,410) in compensation as she had offered no evidence to prove her hair had been damaged. "You've only shown the court that the hairstyle did not look good," he said.

But Chu said that Yuen was not sympathetic to her claim.

"He's bald. Of course he would not know the pain of having damaged hair," Chu fretted, sitting on the floor of the courtroom in protest against the judgement.

Can you imagine the defense in this case?

"Your Honor! We did the best we could with the material we were given. We wanted to wax her beard, but she absolutely refused.

"She came to us with this dream of looking like Julia Roberts, but in order to look like Julia Roberts, you have to be Julia Roberts.

"Look at her, Your Honor! She's got Osama's build. She's got his buggy eyes. She's got his stringy split ends.

"Oh, and just try to peel that turban off for the shampoo. She'll turn on you like week old fish. She put out the shampoo girl's eye.

"Your Honor, some people are just ugly. Some people look like Osama and ain't no amount of wax or cream or weaves that can fix that."

And then the plaintiff. "What does he know, Your Honor! He did this to me. And you're bald so what do you know about wax or cream of weaves?"

I so wish I could have been there for the standoff. I'm never in Hong Kong when the good stuff goes down.

Posted at 2:42 p.m.

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