Last week's viral fixation was the saga of Tessica Brown, who had misguidedly replaced her favorite gel with a bottle of Gorilla Glue—and gotten stuck with a rock-hard head of hair. Thankfully, after a well-documented and traumatic journey, which included a fruitless hospital trip, weeks of excruciating headaches, and a friend managing to saw off her ponytail, a bottom-of-the-ninth hero entered the picture in the form of Dr. Michael K. Obeng. The Beverly Hills plastic surgeon had heard of Brown's plight and offered to remove the glue pro bono. And he did so, just two days later, with a solution he’d developed and tested on himself.
It was, in the end, a heartwarming story. Brown shouldn't have caused any lasting damage. She had started a GoFundMe anticipating she’d need to buy wigs after the damage the glue would cause to her hair follicles, and she's since committed to donating much of that money to Obeng's charity, which provides reconstructive surgery pro bono throughout Africa.
But we still had some questions. Obeng spoke with GQ about his whirlwind week of research and treatment.
GQ: When did you hear about the situation and how did you get in touch?
Dr. Michael Obeng: Last Monday, I was at the clinic seeing patients. My patient coordinator Natasha came to me and said, “Dr. Obeng, can you remove Gorilla Glue out of somebody's hair?”
I said, "Yes, I can, of course. But let's get back to work." I guess I was the only person in America who didn't know the story.
And she said, "I'm really serious. There's a girl whose hair is stuck together and stuck to her scalp." Natasha happened to have a personal connection, and I like to take challenges. So once I told Natasha I could do it, she called her friend, and next thing I know she's reporting back that the girl is coming Wednesday.
What happened then?
Once it was confirmed, I decided to find out what was in Gorilla Glue. I didn't even know what it was used for, so I bought some glue just to see the components of it—to find the right solution to break down the compounds.
The next day I made a phone call to Gorilla Glue to see if they already had something to dissolve it. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't reinventing the wheel. They told me somebody from R&D would get back to me. They knew the story, of course. But by the time they got back to me, I had figured it out—I spoke with one of my colleagues from undergrad, in the chemistry department, to find out if they had any ideas, and we were able to come up with a solution to safely untangle the hair and lift it off the scalp without causing injury.
Were you surprised by how fast you solved it?
I'm not your typical plastic surgeon. I like to think outside the box, and I like to take on challenges, things that nobody wants to do. That's what excites me. When Tessica's case came to me, I knew I had to think outside the box. This is not in your typical training that you get as a plastic surgeon. With the knowledge that I have from my chemistry days, and the things I've seen throughout the world traveling and talking to people, we were able to think of something we could do to alleviate Tessica's problem.
But I don't want to take too much credit. Whenever you have a problem, if you can think through the problem and dissect the problem, then it becomes solvable. I was a little cautious. You can take glue out. But the question is, how do you effectively and safely dissolve glue on somebody's scalp, which is an extension of skin, and not burn it? That was the biggest challenge.
My assistant and I became our own guinea pigs. I applied the chemicals to my knee but it got burnt a little bit. So we changed the concentrations around, and we found the right formula that was not toxic to our skin or would cause a chemical burn, but was also effective in dissolving the glue.
And so your custom solution worked.
Yes. We gave her a twilight anesthesia to relax her so that if we had to be a little bit more aggressive, we wouldn't cause her pain. But it worked out very well.
After we untangled her hair I used a special oil that I brought from East Africa. When she was done I gave her a sample of it to use on her scalp to keep it moisturized—it also it has a lot of antioxidants to help with the free radicals and calm down all the inflammation on the scalp.
Did you recommend any other aftercare?
No harsh chemicals. I said: Imagine your scalp is like a brand-new baby. I told her to use baby shampoo, which is mild. One of my colleagues, a dermatologist, showed me a topical steroid oil. I also recommended that when it's all said and done, she see a dermatologist to treat her scalp.
Did you have a plan B?
If all else failed, I was going to do a surgical haircut. I would just shave her hair off. The question was, the clippers might not work, but we also have specialized scissors that can cut through steel. So I knew that if I could not dissolve the glue, I could shave the head without damaging the scalp.
All the other chemicals she tried probably made things worse, so the pain worsened over a long period of time. But she handled it very well and I'm glad that she has the much-needed relief that she has now.
You did this one pro bono, but how much would the procedure have cost?
We have standard pricing, but every patient is different. Based on time, I would have charged $12,500 to $15,000. I knew it would take me at least two hours and I knew that the aftercare would have been tough, so all this goes into play to generate a number—that's how much my time is worth.
But when I heard about it, I said come on in. If we can go to Africa and Central America and do free surgery, we can do it in our own backyard and help somebody in need.
Have you thought about patenting or selling your solution?
Yes, we are getting numbers from the industry and trying to see if we can put it together so it can be available on the shelves to help people who have a sticky situation, so to speak.
Interview has been edited and condensed.
