London: A young woman obsessed with her hair killed herself after a visit to the stylist went disastrously wrong.

Frances Warren, who hanged herself in woodland, had let her hair take over her life and feared being ginger, an inquest heard on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old bombarded her stylist with calls and more than 50 texts begging for an appointment on the day she died.

Kelly Hill cleared her diary to dye her bleached blonde locks brown only to find Warren was distraught at the result.

A few hours later, the office worker, who went by the name Frankie, disappeared, the inquest in Flax Bourton near Bristol heard. Police found her body two days later in Sedgley, West Midlands, 125km from her home in Thornbury, Gloucestershire. In a written statement, her boyfriend Sam Cotton told the hearing: “Throughout the two months leading up to her death she had problems with her hair.

“She changed her colour four or five times and had it recoloured since March but was uncontrollably upset and wouldn’t listen when I said it was OK. It took over her life.”

In another written statement, her best friend Victoria McCullough said Warren had called her after one appointment, saying ‘it has gone ginger hasn’t it?’

“She was crying but I was not overly concerned because reactions like this were not over the top for her,” she said. McCullough said she saw a stylist three times and visited a separate hair salon on another two occasions without lifting her mood.

Warren once texted her friend saying: “I really don’t feel good about anything, it is all taking its toll with my hair. I cannot cope.”

She had moved out of the home she rented with her boyfriend and back in with her parents to save money to buy a house.

But the switch had reportedly upset her and she sought help from her GP, Mark Thompson. He referred her on May 14 to Lift, a psychotherapy and counselling organisation. The inquest heard both her doctor and the psychologists diagnosed depression and anxiety issues, without a suicide risk.

Giving evidence both Dr Thompson and Jade Whiston, who saw Warren at Lift, said she was obsessing with her hair.

The inquest was told Warren agreed to attend a cognitive behaviour course but refused to take her anti-depressant medication.

On May 29 she skipped her duties as an office worker and tried repeatedly to get hold of Hill.

After moving appointments, the stylist drove to Warren’s house where she applied a brown toner.

Warren was not happy with the result of the two-hour session but failed to persuade Hill to try another colour.

She left in her Honda Accord to take her life a few hours later.

Recording a verdict of suicide, Deputy Assistant Coroner Terence Moore, said he did not understand why Warren’s mood so darkened in the week before she died.