Woman sues celebrity

A woman is suing a celebrity beautician over a treatment she claims “permanently damaged” her face.

Partnering with the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology’s Department of Consumer Affairs, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a complaint against the esthetician and licensee of the Dakar establishment for a treatment that Nelson said “irreparably damaged” her face, and which has cost him tens of thousands of dollars to try to fix.

In an August TikTok detailing his Dakar experience, which garnered more than 9 million views, Nelson said Dakar “changed” his face “forever.”

“It’s quite a scarring experience, literally, for me,” Nelson said on TikTok.

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Nelson said she started going to the Dakar clinic in Beverly Hills in late 2019 to treat her acne and was “immediately captivated” by Dakar.

“She was so smart and so convinced that we could get rid of my acne,” Nelson said.

Dakar’s clients include Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lawrence, Jennifer Lopez and more.

He began seeing Dakar frequently, even calling her his “LA mom” and said his sessions with Dakar were “half skincare, half therapy.”

In April 2021, when she went in for a routine facial, Dakar suggested to Nelson that she should get a peel. Nelson agreed, saying Dakar began putting a liquid solution on his face that immediately began “burning and stinging.” Nelson said he was not given eye protection, so his eyes began to water from the burning solution. Dakar rinsed off the solution and gave Nelson a fan to cool his face. When Nelson looked at herself on her phone’s camera, she saw what she thought was cream on her face, but soon discovered it was burned skin. Nelson said Dakar insisted the burn would be fine and that she would fix it.

Nelson said she did 18 sessions in 2021 with Dakar of “pretty aggressive microneedling” to try to fix the scabs from the burn, and 12 sessions in 2022. Nelson said she felt “permanently disfigured.”

In July 2022, when Nelson went for a routine skin check with his dermatologist, the dermatologist recommended six sessions of laser treatments, which cost Nelson $8,000.

Nelson then returned to Dakar for another 10 sessions to fix his skin and spent $10,000. Over the years, he said he spent about $60,000 in Dakar.

Since 2023, Nelson said she and Dakar have not spoken, and professionals told her that the liquid Dakar used on her face was “probably medical grade” or “at least” something an esthetician “shouldn’t have access to.” Nelson said microneedling is also not within the scope of the Dakar treatments she can perform as an esthetician.

Nelson still has scars on her face and says she feels “self-conscious” about it.

“I trusted him with my face, my skin, honestly, a lot of my innermost feelings, and to feel like this person wasn’t taking care of me the way I expected is really disappointing at the end of the day,” Nelson said in a TikTok.

The Dakar clinic did not respond to a request for comment.

The complaint filed by California’s attorney general lays out other allegations against Dakar, including that in 2008 Dakar allegedly “assaulted and assaulted a board inspector” and that in 2023 Dakar was “operating an unlicensed establishment.”

In Nelson’s TikTok posted Monday, he said Dakar might be a “bad apple” but there could be a “bigger problem” within the skincare industry.

During an episode of the VH1 reality series, “The Fabulous Life of…”, Dakar is referred to as a “skin care guru,” where Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz praise Dakar, and Barrymore says she doesn’t know what she would do without her.

But in 2020, two of Dakar’s former employees sued her for alleged racial, religious and sexual orientation discrimination, according to News.