Tessica Brown made a big mistake. In January, the owner of a 40-year-old nursery school decided to tie her hair in a long braided ponytail.
By now, you’ve probably heard the story: Brown realized she was sprayless Got2b Glued Blasting Freeze, which is a common hair spray known for its durability. She figured she would just improvise, but the solution she found turned out to be an even bigger problem – one that turned her misfortune into a totally viral tale. Since his video, Brown has generated sticky copies, resisted online blowback and connected with a manager, who plans to turn his 15-minute viral into something longer.
At Zoom, Brown gave me a summary of his situation. When she applied the Gorilla Glue transparent adhesive spray, she had no idea that she would end up with hair that wouldn’t move. But the damage was done. Brown was stuck in her ponytail hairstyle for over a month, frozen in place and fearing the worst. She accidentally created what can only be described as a helmet on her scalp. In her viral video, she clicks her nails on her scalp, and it makes a sound like a marble countertop.
Originally posted on TikTok, Brown’s video was a plea for help and a warning to those who might consider Gorilla Glue as an alternative to hair spray. At the time of writing, it has been viewed more than 37 million times.
The video had a lot to offer. There was a hint of good humor from Brown when she proclaimed “stiff where ?????”, a reference to a classic AAVE-based joke, usually meaning that her hair was well combed. While Brown was genuinely unsure about how to get the superglue out of his scalp, best wishes and questioners flocked to his page in droves. There were a handful of jokes and puns (“she has 2b playing with me!”) Some people tried to make useful suggestions – coconut oil, Goo Gone, vinegar, isopropyl alcohol and so on – but home remedies were no match for superglue. . It soon became clear that Brown would need professional help.
She went to the emergency room at St. Bernard Parish Hospital in Chalmette, Louisiana, hoping to fix her situation, but all the team could offer was acetone to remove the glue, which would take hours to apply. Days later, Brown cut the ponytail in hopes of helping to cut the glue, but it still didn’t help. She was out of ideas until she received a call from a stranger who put her in touch with Dr. Michael Obeng, a renowned plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills. On February 10, Obeng had surgery on Brown for free (the procedure would normally cost about $ 12,500).
On the morning of February 11, TMZ reported for the first time that Brown had finally removed the glue. She was placed under light anesthesia, and Obeng started to work using a homemade medical grade adhesive remover solvent, an ingredient called MGD, a little acetone, aloe vera and olive oil. Gorilla Glue’s main ingredient is polyurethane, which is a polymer used to prevent water damage to wood. Obeng, who has a background in chemistry, realized that any polymer has some type of solvent. He tested his mix on a mannequin with human hair and knew he could solve her problem.
I spoke to Brown on February 16, just days after his successful surgery with Obeng. With Zoom from his home in Violet, Louisiana, Brown told me that he feels much better now and is relieved that the ordeal is finally over. Every day, his ponytail seemed to get tighter and tighter. “It was like ants dancing in my hair. I couldn’t get in to scratch. It was a terrible deal, ”she said.
Since then, all the pain has subsided, except for a slight tingling sensation. Still, she experienced immense stress from the entire ordeal, even losing weight. During our interview, she wore her old work pants – just a few weeks ago, they fit, but now they couldn’t stand without a belt.
Brown was placed under partial anesthesia for the four-hour procedure. She slept and slept all the time. She spoke sleepily, but did not remember that. “I only heard myself speak when I saw the TMZ video,” she said.
“A lot of people ask me, ‘Did you have a feeling he would be able to get you out?'”, She says of Obeng. “I knew he was going to take this away. If he was going to call me from Violet to come to Beverly Hills, I knew he knew what he was doing, ”she said. She said she is very grateful to the doctor. “I’m trying to write him a letter. I think it will be a book when I finish. “
“I only went to social media to try to get help because we tried everything we could,” she said of her viral video. “I wish I hadn’t posted this.” She was running out the door when she saw Gorilla glue. Contrary to what some have suggested, it was not a mess with the Gorilla Snot Moco gel. Brown simply realized that he was in trouble and that he could use the patch, straighten his hair, go out and wash the makeshift hair spray as soon as he got home.
When she realized she was stuck, Brown was scared, but hoped she could fix it herself. She even hid it from her mother for a week – she didn’t want to hear the mother’s scolding.
She is scheduled to go to Beverly Hills on the 22nd to meet with Dr. Obeng again for a follow-up appointment. Until then, she is leaving her head alone. No deep conditioning treatments or styles of any kind, just rest and the oil the doctor gave her.
Obeng could not be found in time for an interview for this report, but he is apparently considering selling the special solution he invented to melt the glue from Brown’s scalp.
Brown said she believes Obeng was divinely sent to her by a person she describes as another gift from God – Gina Rodriguez, now her manager, and the stranger who connected her with Obeng. Throughout the ordeal, so many people tried to contact Brown that she stopped responding to calls and messages. She took Rodriguez’s call on a whim. “Miss Gina called me and said, ‘Hey, I have a doctor here in Beverly Hills and he wants to get him out. We are about to send you away. ‘”Rodriguez then started taking Brown’s calls to her, to filter out all the noise.
Rodriguez is a California-based executive producer and CEO of GiToni Productions, which his website describes as a “full-service entertainment company”. The website notes that the company represents a variety of viral stars, such as Mama June of Here comes Honey Boo Boo fame and a most recently loved character, Nathan Apodaca, aka @ Doggface208, who exploded on TikTok after posting a video of himself practicing longboarding while drinking cranberry juice and listening to Fleetwood Mac. Other clients include real housewives, wives mafia and sports wives; several Love and Hip Hop and Jersey Shore cast; and, in a very different way, JonJelyn and Timothy Savage, parents of Joycelyn Savage, one of R. Kelly’s alleged girlfriends and one of the main themes of the documentary Surviving R. Kelly.
So, where does Tessica Brown fit into that list? This remains to be seen. She is currently selling merchandise (most notably, T-shirts with her photo that said “Bonded for Life”), but Brown says that when she meets Rodriguez in person, they plan to discuss “exactly how everything will be disbursed.” They will also discuss more about what her future will look like in terms of endorsement deals. Like most viral stars, sticking to the bit will probably be worth it for Brown. It’s a strange opportunity, but hard to give up. “Everything fit together, except all negative things, “she said.” This is what I needed. I needed someone. But I didn’t think for a second that I would be totally in Beverly Hills. “
During the ordeal, Brown created a GoFundMe to pay for possible medical expenses, but as she received her surgery for free, she is donating the funds to the Obeng foundation, Restore Worldwide. She will also make a donation to three families in need in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Of course, there are those who believe that Brown was in it for money and fame – that she is a kind of terrifying scheme genius who, in a moment of tricky brilliance, decided to stick her head together and expect him to pay dividends on social media. But Brown says he never wanted the attention it brought. She just hoped to get help. She is now wearing a short haircut, carefully cut by a local barber. “I’m trying to do this,” she said. “I’m going to need some big earrings and longer lashes to balance this.”
First of all, she was just focusing on her business: her dance team, Dazzling Divaz, which is heavily involved in charity work, and Tessica’s Little Angels daycare. Brown says some people have suggested that parents should consider taking their children out of their daycare center because of the incident. “So what do you think, I’ll spray [superglue] in their hair? Like, what are you really trying to say? ” she said.
According to an email from NetBase Quid, since Brown’s post on February 3, there have been 1.4 million posts on social media platforms about her and the incident. Brown said the negative comments were brutal, but she is trying to get rid of them. After all, without all the attention, she may never have gotten help. Misusing Gorilla Glue as a hair product is a mistake, but the worst part of the situation could be the trauma of sharing this development with an internet that largely mobs to ridicule black women.
Brown has repeatedly stated that she does not like being nicknamed “the Gorilla Glue Girl”, especially since the label has affected her children. One day, her 11-year-old daughter came home from school crying because of her classmates’ comments. The mother of five says that even the teachers at her daughters’ school have been talking about the story.
“Clout is something I will never pursue, I promise you,” she said. “[The dance team] was in a commercial. They were in the newspaper. They were in a magazine. That is enough influence for me. I don’t need it all, because it was just too much. And really, who would want to go through the pain that I went through having an influence? ” she asked.
Enter Avani Reyes – a person who apparently would like to go through all that pain to have an influence. The New York Post reported that the 20-year-old TikToker is Brown’s first impersonator. Unsurprisingly, Reyes is not getting the same level of sympathy, although she says she accidentally put Gorilla Glue in her hair. Then there is Len Martin, a man who doubted Brown’s claim so much that he applied Gorilla Glue to his lip and placed a red Solo cup on it. He had to get him out of the emergency room. There are people who would love to be in Brown’s position. Being put in the spotlight, while stressful, can be extremely profitable.
However, Brown’s main goal now is to help others. “I’m going to use my platform to try to let everyone know that you’re not your hair, because I’m not my hair right now,” she said. “If you are a beautiful person on the inside, you will be the same beautiful person on the outside.” As for the whole ordeal, she says that now that she has had the surgery and her hair is down again with just a few fine spots, she probably would not undo any of it. “I just wanted to put on a hat that day.”