Eileen Thomas is ecstatic that a lifetime’s
practice of arranging her hair to cover up bald spots is now over with.
Mrs Thomas, who suffered burns to her scalp
as a seven month old baby, has been unable to grow hair on the scarred parts of
her head for most of her life.
However, a hair restoration procedure
developed and performed by hair restoration specialist, Dr Jennifer Martinick,
has changed all that for her.
In September 2004, Mrs Thomas had 350 hair follicles
transplanted to a bald spot above her forehead.
Now sporting a thick growth of hair in her
former bald spot, she is sharing her story in the hope she can help others who
have experienced similar traumas.
Mrs Thomas said she was overwhelmed that
the wounds which prevented her from growing hair for almost five decades could
be healed by a short afternoon procedure.
The transplant cost her just over $2,500.
Mrs Thomas’ bald spots stems back to an
accident in Dundee , Scotland when as a seven month-old
she fell out of her pram and into a coal fire.
From then on she was unable to grow hair in
the coal-cinder scarred parts of her head.
She spent her childhood and most of her
adult life trying to cover up her bald patches with hats, headbands and careful
positioning of her hair.
“I was very self conscious about my bald
spots, but didn’t do anything about it because it wasn’t life threatening,” said
Mrs Thomas.
“I was also very busy in my twenties with
four young children and didn’t have as much time to think about myself.”
When Mrs Thomas reached her early thirties
she finally asked her general practitioner if there was anything she could do.
This was during the 1970s - a time when
hair restoration was nowhere near as sophisticated as it is today.
The doctor referred her to a surgeon who recommended
a scalp reduction. She eventually had
four of these procedures, but as she got older the effects of gravity saw the
scalp loosening and her bald spots were exposed again.
“This was the only solution on offer,” she
said.
“One surgeon did it for free to help me
out, but unfortunately the solution didn’t last.”
Mrs Thomas said she didn’t learn about the
new hair restoration techniques now available until, after relocating from New South Wales to Perth ,
a local plastic surgeon recommended Dr Martinick.
“I went to see a plastic surgeon about
getting another scalp reduction, but he told me that no matter what he did my
bald spots would eventually come back as my scalp loosened up again,” Mrs
Thomas said.
“He then told me that Dr Martinick was
doing some wonderful work with new hair restoration techniques.”
Dr Martinick, who is the resident hair
restoration specialist at the Bondi
Junction Private Hospital ,
said the successful transplant offered hope to many thousands of burns victims
who thought they could not grow hair on scarred areas.
Her technique, “known as the coronal
technique” had been used to treat over 60 burns or accident victims at her clinics
around the country.
“I want people to know that if you have a
scar in a hair bearing area it can be treated with hair transplantation,” Dr
Martinick said.
Amongst the other patients who have
benefited from Dr Martinick’s techniques are a farmer with a gun shot wound to
his head, an eight year-old Indian girl with burns who was treated in Mumbai,
and a Sydney dentist
whose scalp was badly damaged in a car accident.
Mrs Thomas said few people realised that
modern hair restoration was virtually impossible to detect.
“I am telling my story in the hope that
other people, in particular young kids, will become aware that they can have
things done,” Mrs Thomas said.
“If I can save one kid from going through
what I went through I will be very pleased.
“We’d like to think that kids don’t tease
each other but they do and that can be very painful.”
Media contact: Evelyn Duffy 08 94476532 or
0439981505 or Dr Jennifer Martinick on 08 93896000.
Ends