We've all taken a hair bobble off our wrist and noticed a red mark around our arm. They're too tight – and can be uncomfortable – but we admit, if you or your child has long hair, having a hair tie literally to hand is very useful.

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But a woman who suffered 3 severe bacterial infections - believed to be caused by wearing a bobble around her wrist - is now warning others of the risks.

Bacteria is thought to have got from the glittery hairband into a tiny cut on her wrist.

Audree Kopp, from Kentucky, USA, said she first knew something was wrong when she noticed a red lump on her wrist that "just kept getting bigger and redder".

"I didn't believe it at first, I thought that it was a spider bite or something else, not from wearing a hair tie," she told WLKY News.

After visiting her doctor, antibiotics failed to reduce the infection and it became so painful she was taken to hospital.

There, doctors discovered her arm was infected with 3 types of bacteria and she was lucky she didn't get life-threatening blood poisoning.

Posting a warning on her Facebook page, she wrote:

"I want to inform everyone to make sure no one else has to go thru this.

"The glitter tie is the one that caused this issue.

"It rubbed a tiny scratch on my wrist, and the bacteria from the tie jumped in, causing a life-threatening bacterial infection.

"I was admitted to the ER, transported by ambulance to another hospital for emergency surgery.

"My white cell count was thru the roof, and I was lucky to have not had sepsis."

One of the medics that treated Audree, Dr Amit Guptee, said, "Be careful, you can't put all these hair ties around wrists, they can cause problems with the skin, with infections."

Photos: WLKY

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