Stiff where? Still stiff here. Much like the relationship between Black women and our hair, the situation involving our good sis Tessica Brown (aka Gorilla Glue Girl, as she’s been unofficially dubbed on social media) and her horrendous hair catastrophe that went viral last week has also increased in complexity.
Last week, we told you about Brown’s unfortunate circumstance involving her hair and the permanent (not meant for hair) adhesive Gorilla Glue spray. If you’ve somehow missed this story, allow me to sum it up for you in the simplest way I can. Essentially, Miss Brown ran out of one hair product and thought a completely different product would ultimately give her the same effect. The good news? It did. The bad news? The product she used wasn’t made for hair. Like, at all. Due to that fact, Brown has consequently been stuck with the same hairstyle for about a month now, with the rest of the Twitterverse now heavily invested in her journey to find a resolution. Well today, it looks like we’ve got an update.
Via Brown’s TikTok, the reportedly 40-year old Louisiana teacher apparently went to the hospital over the weekend to see what, if anything, could be done about her hair. Pictures posted on her official Instagram, which has now amassed over 600,000 followers, show Brown laying on a hospital bed with remnants of what appear to be cotton swabs still stuck to her hair, arguably implying that whatever treatment the hospital staff tried to give her, unfortunately, didn’t work. Speaking to Kiss 92.5 FM’s Roz & Mocha, the Brown recounted her painful experience, saying:
“When I got to the emergency room, when I get in the bed they got nail polish remover, saline water and they started with the back because I told her it wasn’t that much spray in the back. When she [the healthcare worker] started, it started to burn, she took the saline water and tried to cool it off. It burned so bad that my heart started beating too fast. She told me it looked like she could do it but it’s going to take at least 20 hours. I asked them can I go home? At least I’ll be home and be comfortable instead of laying in a hospital bed trying to get it all out.”So that’s what she did. Brown’s sister eventually tried to use the acetone wipes and saline water to get rid of the glue, but the pain was too excruciating for either of them to continue.
Since the original video surfaced, Brown has set up a GoFundMe and there have been talks of her exploring her legal options since Gorilla Glue doesn’t specifically warn against hair usage. Gorilla Glue has also issued an official statement regarding Brown’s conundrum, as well as the fact that its label clearly warns against usage on skin, clothing or eyes (likely never guessing they’d need to add hair to that list), and posted it to social media, saying in a tweet:
“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.”
And all the welps in Welpington continued to welp. Here’s hoping Miss Brown can find the help she so desperately needs.