Hair Damage/Breakage from Chemical Treatment [HELP!]

[ckl]

What is the name of your state? California

My girlfriend recently had her hair straightened at a local salon using a japanese process called "Yuko" Thermal Reconditioning. A day later, her hair started breaking at the scalp, leaving her with quarter-sized patches of fuzz where the the roots of the hair remain. These patches of hair feel like day-old beard growth, very rough and short.

She immediately returned to the salon the following day, where the person who had worked on her hair washed off the chemical treatment, and gave her some take-home treatments. My girlfriend's hair, however, did not improve, and continued to break off even more, especially after applying the "treatment", which looked like hair gel.

Four days after the treatment, her hair looks really bad. There are patches of hair missing from her scalp, and the remaining hair are all "bent" at the scalp, a result, we learned later, of placing the chemical to close to the scalp. These hairs feel very brittle, do not completely cover the bald spots, and seem to be in danger of falling out. We have an appointment with another salon tomorrow, with a nationally recognized specialist, who will attempt to salvage her remaining hair.

Searching on the internet, we found that she is not the only one with this problem. 20/20 did a report on this a while back. It seems as if stylists are attempting to use the Yuko system without being completely competent. The stylist is supposed to consult with the person getting the treatment, and test the resiliency of the hair, which our stylist did not do. In addition, the chemical used cannot be placed on the scalp, nor left on the hair for too long, both which the stylist did.

We are planning on writing a demand letter to the salon, asking for the following:

$250 for Refund of straightening process
$350-$1300 for Treatement/Restoration by Different Salon
????? for any additional treatment needed for next 2 years or until hair is fully recovered
????? for possible hairpiece she may have to wear
????? for embarassment, pain and suffering, stress

As a last resort, we plan on suing the salon, most likely in small claims court (CA has a $5,000 limit).

My questions are:
1) How much should we ask for pain and suffering? We would like to keep it under the $5,000 statutory limit so that we won't need to hire a lawyer.

2) How should the pain and suffering be categorized and calculated? I've heard that it's usually 2-4 times treatment costs.

3) Should we be asking for more/less money?

4) Is this a feasible case?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time out to read this!