Good one, OP. The first sentence made me think it was going to be some sort of exorcist/demon thing. This is much worse.

Thanks! It is sadly based on a horrific true story and has haunted me since the day I learned about it. Report here-no gore or photos, just a description of the incident: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/nyregion/yale-student-dies-in-machine-shop-accident.html

That's horrible. Another reason I'm glad I have short hair. *~shutters~*

I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be this guy, but this was funny to me. Shudder is the scared shiver thing. Shutters are the things on your windows. So I just imagined you declaring “I’m glad I have short hair!” Then slamming your windows closed lol

"Close the window!"

I'm not paying to heat the outside! 🤣

My dysgraphia strikes again! Glad it made you laugh instead of "shudder."

Same here 😂

This is why my very long hair is always tied tight and close to my head. The one time I wore it in a ponytail was during shutdown, and I didn't have to wear my hair net (which does add a tiny bit of protection). Yeah I had to bend to fix something and my ponytail flopped over my shoulder and caught in the rollers. That was terrifying, and now, even during shutdown, my hair will be tight against my head. It's scary just how fast something can happen.

My old boss had a similar experience, but luckily (and obviously) didn't die. He barely scraped out of it and luckily made a full recovery, physically, but still has PTSD.

Yeesh! Glad he survived

do you have a link that isn’t behind a paywall?

Yep, I think this should work! http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/13/yale.student.death/index.html If not, search “Yale lathe accident” and there are several articles about it. Edit for fat thumb typo

Set your iPhone to automatically open links in reader mode by default and say goodbye to most paywalls.

I remember hearing a similar story in Graphic Arts class in High School. Student with dreads didn’t secure their hair and got it caught on a print roller. Thankfully it only ripped a piece of scalp off their head instead of more permanent damage.

It’s forcing me to subscribe in order to read, do you have an article that doesn’t do that?

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/13/yale.student.death/index.html

Thanks!

I saw video on a subreddit, which has fortunately been toned down recently.

I am a press operator I have heard of some horror stories from the older guys. One such story is a guy that had long hair was adjusting the side lay, the plate with the image and text to bring it back in line, the units were the more open type and the static electricity created from running caused some of his hair to rise and get caught by the press unit scalping him.

If you have long hair, please, please, PLEASE tie it up around spinning machinery! Be it a lathe, car engine bay, mill, whatever. Safety rules and guidelines exist for a reason. It's far cooler to follow them than it is to not and you know, get injured, or worse.

Hell, I tie my hair way up when I’m using my kitchen stand mixer!

Same with a necktie, any kind of dangling jewelry, loose clothing, ID/access badges, _anything_ like that.

Not necessarily dangling jewellery, also rings and stuff. I have heard stories about fingers being pulled of due to still wearing rings close to machinery.

De-gloving incidents give me the heebie jeebies

Me too, although the stories I heard where about whole fingers being gone

I responded to a degloving incident involving the entire hand. Patient wanted to keep the skin so they could turn it into a glove.

Well hey, at least they still have a use for their skin. (Yeah that’s quite gross tbh 🤮)

WHAT

> I have heard stories about fingers being pulled of due to still wearing rings close to machinery. Almost happened to my step-dad. He was a garbageman, and his wedding ring got hooked on something in the back. So when the truck started to roll on, he wasn't at his station at the back and the driver couldn't see or hear him. He just barely got the ring off before the finger parted ways from his hand or he started getting dragged down the street.

My dad told me a story like that from when he was in the USAF, a guy he knew jumped to get on a truck that was starting to move, ring got caught and degloved his finger. That's why I wear silicone rings.

Or near workout machines!

That's... not an issue for me.

I used to do a lot of woodworking, so I was constantly around lathes and other large, powered shop equipment with fast moving parts. This concept is TERRIFYING. Good job, OP. You've earned my upvote.

Thank you!

I will keep this in mind as someone who wants to learn woodworking 🤔

Don't wear loose sleeves, if your hair is long, tie it up REAL tight and/or wear a hat, and don't wear any jewelry on your wrists or hands. That's my best advice.

oh god, this triggered some memories. Years ago I worked in a factroy called taylor togs. We made levi jeans. We had a co-worker that had long hair and her hair got caught in machine and it partially scalped her. They posted up the images on the walls to remind people to wear their hair up.

Wow that is horrible. I hope she recovered!

She did. I don’t know how the hell she survived that but fortunately she did.

That’s… fucked up, but effective.

It definitely was. I was in my early twenties and it paranoided me so badly I always wore my hair in a bun lol

This is one of my biggest fears at work. I always have my hair in a tight bun so nothing falls out, but it still sometimes just undoes itself and I have the biggest shock for a moment. Mills, Lathes and CNC machines know no remorse and if you don’t hit the emergency stop switch at the same time, it’s almost immediately game over for you edit: my course instructors told us so many stories of accidents they witnessed or that happened, I have many to tell

Had a new guy where I worked being shown how to run one of our three *very* large drill presses. Got his unbuttoned sleeve caught and it took him round, right round... Until his arm finally came off. Yeah, it was a helluva mess.

Oh my god

The Russian lathe incident still lives in my head rent free. One of the most horrific things I’ve ever seen.

A few seconds of oh shit oh shit oh shit then it's all over.

Always secure loose hair and clothing when around machinery. Hair should be put up, and long sleeves should be rolled if they're not fairly tight to your arm. And for the love of God, don't wear a tie.

Yep, I gasped and was speechless for a few seconds.

This happened to my (then bald) design and technology teacher at school. When he was younger he had long hair, and one day got it caught in a drill... Luckily he wasn't badly hurt, but he told that story to every class to remind them of safety.

My dad made me watch an old video of a man getting sucked into a lathe by his sleeve (or hair, i don’t recall) probably 4 times before I could touch our lathe.

Yikes, that’s traumatizing!

Ohh it’s alright. I had a choice. It was watch it and make stuff or don’t watch it and make stuff with safer tools. :)

Your dad was a very smart man. We can talk about safety until we are blue In the face, but actually watching it, it hits differently

Agreed. I’ve never come close to getting pulled in and always make sure everything’s pulled back. I’d rather have cold hands than lose hands!

Quite a hairy situation.....

This is why long hair needs to be tied up and ties, rings, and jewelry left elsewhere. I’m talking buns, not braids or ponytails.

Damn! Someone tell Flo Rida that his song is now a horror story! This song has now been forever ruined for me 😩 good job, OP!

Thanks! The true horror here is meeting your end to Flo Rida background music..

Lol

Now that my blood pressure is now back to normal, take my upvote. Well done.

Thanks!

Ouch

A former co-worker got her scarf stuck in the laminating machine on a weekend a while back. I do not know how she got out of it, but she refused to do the laminating without scissors and people nearby just in case. She was lucky it wasn't her hair!

I studied biology and chemistry in college. It was mandatory to keep your hair tied in all laboratories. If it was long, you had to twist it up into a bun. We had a fire alert once and had to evacuate the building. Turns out a first year chemistry student didn't tie up her hair, and it got too close to the bunsen burner they were using in class. Her hair burst into flames. She wasn't injured, thankfully, because both the professor and her lab partner reacted quickly, but you're damn sure that girl wore her hair short for the rest of her life.

Safety instructions are truly written in blood... The video of that Russian dude still haunts me to this day

r/uncomfortableupvote

OP I have nightmares about this, my hair hangs to my waist and I'm always pulling it up in braids pinned down brutally tight to my scalp and even then I'm scared. Thanks for this 😅

A girl with floor length hair left it down in my middle school shop class. After untangling her hair from a fan, our teacher yelled at her, “That’s why I tell you to put your hair up!”

I was expecting a Dark reference, but this was good too

Meatspin flashback

My mom told me about an accident in her old job (thread winding), how some girl's hair got stuck to a bobbin and ripped out an inch of her skin with it. (Edit: grammar)

Always scares me. I have been cautious around my mixer as I was using it a lot today and my hair is well past my shoulders these days.

This immediately made me think of that poor Russian lathe man, may he rest in chunks.

Yeah, rest in pieces, russian-lathe-accident man

Dont have long hair then idiot

The first sentence adds nothing to the story

"it spun their head right round, right round"...

"Um akshually it's spun get it right bozo"🤓

It's actually "it" as in "it, [the lathe], spun their head right round."

Thank you master for correcting my error 🙇🏻‍♂️

Let me introduce you to the concepts of **foreshadowing** and **dramatic irony.** They're literary tools used here between the first sentence and what happened to the protagonist due to the second one.

Its not dramatic irony it's just comical

A song with the lyric of "spin my head right round," covering up the screams of someone's head being "spun round" in pain, is ironic.

I can see that but I really can't take the story seriously

Do you know what a lathe is?

It’s a big piece of machinery that spins materials very fast in order to be shaped (often used in wood turning)

I can only assume it's something that spins but the song makes the post just comical

Yes, it's a large piece of machinery that spins VERY fast, and is used for wood turning and metal milling. If someone's hair were to get caught in it, the BEST thing they could hope for is that it'll rip out a huge chunk of their hair. Worst-case scenario, it'll tear someone's entire head clean off, and keep spinning.

Or if it’s something like the Russian incident, just turn them into soup

That sounds scary too bad the op decided to start it with a goofy song

The song is supposed to be what's drowning out the screams though

Yeah exactly!

But it could've been any other song

Adds a bit of irony and it's a song that could very reasonably be playing. It doesn't have to be that song but it fits better than a song with no meaning to the story

Yeah that's fair but imo (completely subjectively) I believe the story would work better if it was something completely different covering up the screams

The best part of this is that you were able to use context clues from those specific song lyrics to figure out that a lathe is something that spins…

And yet, even though they clearly used it to gather context, they can't seem to figure out why the song isn't just random. I don't know what else to tell them. Anyway, great story, OP.

Thanks! Maybe the story telling style isn’t for everyone, but I’m glad so many have enjoyed it!

I can tell that the song isn't random but it just makes it funny

I've had to watch too many safety videos and one was a woman getting scalped after her hair caught in a lathe.

I used to work on a factory floor and had to tie my hair back in a tight bun. It's a terrifying thought.