A top Ghana-born plastic surgeon in the US has successfully removed Gorilla Glue from the scalp of a woman who sprayed it on her hair last month mistaking it for hairspray, TMZ videos show.
It took Dr Michael Obeng four hours to remove the glue from Tessica Brown’s head, the celebrity gossip site said.
The Harvard-trained, Beverly Hills-based doctor offered to perform the $12,500 (£9,000) procedure for free when he heard about Ms Brown’s plight after she shared a video on TikTok last week.
Nothing she had tried to remove the waterproof glue, which is usually used for fixing bathroom tiles, wood flooring and decking, had worked – and she had been forced to cut off her ponytail as it was pulling her scalp so much.
After the treatment, an emotional Ms Brown can be seen running her fingers through her hair.
Asked how she felt, she replied that she wished she hadn’t had to cut off her ponytail.
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Dr Obeng, who has a chemistry background, told TMZ that he used various things to break down the polyurethane, which is the main ingredient in Gorilla Glue.
He did some research and came up with a mixture of medical-grade adhesive remover, aloe vera, olive oil and some acetone.
After mixing up the ingredients, he first tested them on a dummy, whose hair extensions had been sprayed with Gorilla Glue, to make sure it worked.
“She is very very lucky that she did not sustain a lot of injuries to her scalp. This type of ordeal is no joke,” he said, adding that the glue had made Ms Brown’s ponytail as hard as a stick.
He urged people to take more care to read bottles before using products.
Dr Obeng specialises in cosmetic surgery and, according to his website, he is the founder of Restoring Emotional Stability Through Outstanding Reconstructive Efforts (Restore), a charity which offers free reconstructive surgery in developing nations and trains local physicians.