Gorilla Glue Saga: Dr. Michael Obeng explains how he was able to unglue Tessica’s hair

A few weeks back, Tessica Brown began trending on social media, after she released a viral video on TikTok and Instagram. In the short video, she revealed that she mistakenly used Gorilla Glue to lay down her hair after she ran out of hair spray. Unknowing to her, she used the wrong Gorilla Glue.

Ms. Brown had undergone different hospital procedures to unglue her hair but it was to no avail. In the first TikTok video she released, she revealed that she washed her hair at least fifteen times a day but it remained glued as before.

After a month of seeking help, Dr. Michael Obeng, a black doctor, finally offered to perform surgery on Tessica for a $12,500 surgery for free, as reported by TMZ. It was a grueling surgery process that lasted for about 4 hours

TMZ was present at the surgery to record the whole process, and it was a success.

Brown’s first reaction after the procedure was to quickly run her fingers through her hair again. Although a good part of her hair was lost, she is glad that her hair isn’t stuck in a ponytail forever.

In an interview, Dr. Obeng explained what he did to get Brown’s hair unglued and how the surgery went.

“Surgery went well. She had a lot of irritation on the scalp especially on the edges of her hair, in her head, because of all the chemicals that she has put in. And her hair was actually very, very, tough, very, very matted down, and it would not lift up. She’s very lucky that she did not sustain a lot of injuries to her scalp,” he said.

The doctor explained that the procedure was all basic chemistry. He was able to combine medical-grade adhesive remover, Aloe Vera, olive oil, and some acetone. The mixture was all that was needed to break down the polyurethane, which is the main ingredient in Gorilla Glue.

Dr. Obeng made it known that Tessica went through a lot of pain, and advised that people should be extra careful about the products they use by reading labels.

Before her visit to Beverly Hills for the surgery, Brown said the only relief she had gotten in a month was from chopping off her ponytail with a superglue remover. She said she can’t wait to get her hair back to that length, and expressed her excitement about how Dr. Obeng was able to save her hair.

Brown told TMZ that she had already given up on her hair and was set to wear wigs for the rest of her life, before the procedure. But it’s a different story now as she doubts she would be needing wigs for long.

There was another report of a similar Gorilla Glue saga. In a viral Instagram post, Lenise Martin who believed Brown’s story was a bluff said that Gorilla Glue wasn’t so effective to keep her hair glued for so long. He decided to prove his theory by sticking a red cup to his lips, and that he’ll just “lick it off.” Unfortunately for Martin, it didn’t go as he expected and he found himself in the emergency room.