One of the coolest things about social media is the availability of helpful tips & tricks for personal styling. If you’ve ever caught a makeup or hair stylist on TikTok, then you know how fascinating it can be to watch an entire look transform in mere minutes.
But even though there’s an abundance of great styles to mimic, there are also clips about what products NOT to use on your hair. Or face. Or anything other than wood, or metal, probably.
One woman’s failed attempt to use Gorilla glue adhesive as a hair styling product has evolved into an ongoing public saga that has included surgical removal & possible litigation.
Tessica Brown of Lousiana is not a novice when it comes to hair styling; the girl has had plenty of experience & knows what works for her. Usually, anyway.
But Tessica found herself in a “sticky” situation one month ago when she realized that she was out of her usual dependable finishing spray product, Got2Be Glue.
(And as a child of the 80s, I feel her pain; running out of Aqua Net before your canopy of bangs was frozen into place was genuinely traumatic. You young kids don’t even KNOW.)
In a pinch, Tessica grabbed another product- a can of Gorilla Glue spray.
For those of you not familiar with Gorilla Glue’s incredible adhesive powers, imagine Crazy Glue on steriods.
And as Tessica shared on TikTok a week ago, the Gorilla Glue worked well holding her hair in place: too well, actually:
My hair, it don’t move. You hear what I’m telling you? It don’t move.
Tessica’s hair was firmly glued to the top of head for over one month, despite countless attempts to remove the Gorilla Glue by all conventional means, including a trip to the emergency room.
After attempting to shampoo it, apply tea tree oil, comb it, or slather it with coconut oil, Tessica ended up taking a trip to St. Bernard Parish Hospital in Chalmette, Louisiana after experiencing headaches & scalp pressure.
I can’t say I blame her for the visit; have you ever managed to get your fingers stuck together with Crazy Glue (or Gorilla Glue, for that matter)??
It’s an alarming experience, so one can only imagine the anguish of fearing that your hair is permanently plastered tightly to your scalp, forever.
Unfortunately, even the emergency room staff was unable to successfully free Tessica from her hair-raising (with not so much “raising”, unfortunately) experience.
Although they attempted to use acetone wipes to remove some of the adhesive, the acetone burned her skin & caused even MORE pain:
@im_d_ollady Update #gorillaglue #viral #update
At this point, Tessica even began to accept that the fact that she might never be freed from her hair scare, & even considered suing Gorilla Glue for a lack of warning against using their product on one’s scalp.
In case you can’t already imagine what the company’s response was to THAT idea, here it is:
We are very sorry to hear about the unfortunate incident that Miss Brown experienced using our Spray Adhesive on her hair. We are glad to see in her recent video that Miss Brown has received medical treatment from her local medical facility and wish her the best. pic.twitter.com/SoCvwxdrGc
— Gorilla Glue (@GorillaGlue) February 8, 2021
Social media began to follow Tessica’s plight in fascination, wondering if she’d ever find relief from her trapped tresses. And the hooplah surrounding it is exactly what ended up being her saving grace… in the form of Dr. Michael Obeng.
Obeng, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, caught wind of Tessica’s plight via social media and offered to perform removal surgery, even waiving the $12.5K procedure fee!
Since this was obviously a unique situation, even for an experienced surgeon, Dr. Obeng did a trial run on a dummy scalp first to gauge the potential success of his removal plan. Mixing a combination of medical adhesive remover, olive oil, aloe vera, and acetone, he applied the solution to the fake scalp, with much success.
Tessica Brown flew to Los Angeles yesterday, and the four hour surgery was performed yesterday.
And in case you were deeply invested in the outcome, as the majority of the Internet seems to be, I’m happy to report that the surgery was a total success.
Celebrity news outlet TMZ shared original video of Tessica awakening from the procedure with the glue gone, & much of her hair still intact:
Thankfully, Tessica Brown’s follicular faux pas has had a happy ending- shes’ thankful to still have her real hair, & her story is a hair-raising cautionary tale about STICKING strictly to hair products when dealing with your ‘do.