Photo: Carlee Russell/Facebook
Carlee Russell, who made national headlines for fabricating her 2023 kidnapping, is responding to a hairstylist who accused her of disputing a payment after receiving services.
The hairstylist, who goes by @shopsshairstudios on social media, claimed in a TikTok video that Russell disputed the transaction “as if she never got it done.”
The stylist said she did not recognize Russell when she booked and would not judge her based on the 2023 incident.
Russell addressed the allegations in a Facebook post Saturday (November 7), saying she initially contacted the stylist to request a correction, not a refund. She alleged the installation was painfully tight and that glue had been applied directly to her natural hair along her hairline, causing her scalp to bleed.
Russell said she contacted her bank only after those efforts failed.
“I told my bank I received the service. The dispute was about how the hairstyle was installed,” she explained. Her bank returned the disputed payment more than three weeks ago, she said. “So the implication that I stole from her is in fact a lie.”
The disagreement has renewed attention around Russell’s 2023 kidnapping hoax. In July of that year, she falsely reported being abducted after disappearing for nearly 49 hours in Alabama. She later admitted that she fabricated the story.
In March 2024, Russell pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges related to making false statements to police and falsely reporting an incident. She received 12 months of supervised probation, 100 hours of community service and was ordered to pay nearly $18,000 in restitution.
“I can own what I did in 2023 and still speak up about what happened at this appointment,” Russell wrote. “I'm done staying silent when people use my past to attack me and ATTEMPT to defame my character.”
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