The Beauty Treatments Our Editors Regret the Most

"When I first started as a beauty editor, I was invited in for a facial, which I excitedly accepted. Little did I know this was not a regular facial — it included a laser to help 'resurface' my skin. I didn't realize this until I was quite literally in the establishment and ready to get the treatment done. Figuring it couldn't be that bad, I decided to move forward with the process and things went very wrong, very quickly. From the first test pass, I knew I'd be in pain. Still, I sat there for about 10 to 15 minutes while they used this machine to zap my entire face. I left feeling like my face was on fire and cursing whoever came up with this idea in the first place.

"I've since gone on to have better experiences with laser treatments, but for a casual facial, I'll gladly steer clear of them. The treatment didn't even end up working for me, which was the worst part of it all."

"When I was in seventh grade, I begged my mom to let me get chunky highlights. This was right around the time of peak 'American Idol' fame, and I wanted nothing more than Kelly Clarkson's glistening blond stripes. Finally, after months of persuasion, she folded, and I walked into the salon with a crisp photo of the star printed onto a piece of paper from my family's janky HP DeskJet. Let's just say the ink must have been off that day, because my head looked like a McDonald's carpenter had their Golden Arches way with it. Naturally, I refused to go to school the next day, but it would be another two weeks before my mom could get me in for a correction. Now, I rarely, if ever, dye my hair — we're talking two, three times since that fateful day — because the trauma still lingers."

"When I was in high school, moments before a haircut appointment, I decided on a whim that I wanted to dye my hair for the first time. I had been eyeing a dip-dyed look (it was in at the time, OK?), where the ends of my dark-brown hair would be a blond hue. The stylist reassured me she could easily do it but my virgin hair ended up posing quite the challenge for her. Five hours later when we finally lifted my natural color enough to apply the blond dye, I was regretting my choice. I left with brassy, straw-like ends that I wound up chopping off a month later. (Thank god I only did the bottom inch of my hair.) I've yet to dye it again."

"My biggest beauty regret will forever and always be getting my eyebrows waxed at the nail salon in seventh grade. I had the thickest, hairiest, in-your-face eyebrows, and I was dumb enough to hate them. I would give anything to have those brows back on my face right now. These days, it takes tinting every week and filling in sparse areas with 10 different types of brow pencils to give me a visible eyebrow. RIP, seventh-grade brows. I miss you."