A woman said she was "lucky to survive" after her hair erupted into a fireball during a bottomless brunch.
Fiona Young was on a night out with pals in Liverpool when her hair caught fire in a bar in the North West while she posed for a photo next to a candle.
The mum's ginger locks went up in flames, with her only noticing when she began to smell an intense burning - forcing her to hit herself in the head to extinguish the burning hair.
Fiona, a GP receptionist from Solihull, lost a huge chunk of hair, but said things could have been much worse if the ordeal just lasted seconds longer.
She said: "In the photos, you can see I'm leaning in to pose with my friends but I didn't realise the was a candle there.
"Everyone laughed in the end. I laughed and I think, if I was shocked or upset, no one would have laughed or anything. You had to laugh because it could have been a whole lot worse."
She added: "The DJ was cheering when he played that and everyone cheered. I was laughing. It could have been worse though so I was lucky really to survive. Seconds longer and it would have been a different story. I was so lucky.
"It was a bottomless brunch and it must have happened just as it got dark. It would have been a lot worse had we been more drunk, as thank God I had not had a lot to drink."
The receptionist added: "Staff must not long have put the candles on the tables before the accident because it was only then getting dark.
"Then, minutes after it happened, they removed them all and took them away. It was not the best idea to have the candles anyway. You get a lot of fake ones these days for that reason.
"It could have been a lot worse. My boyfriend thinks it was funny but I've told him he wouldn't be laughing had it been seconds longer."
