Acid Attack Victim Naomi Oni Weeps With Joy As She Has Her Eyebrows Restored

Naomi Oni, 21, said today it 'feels so good' to have her eyebrows back after her face was badly damanged in a random acid attack

What a world. An acid attack victim who was horrifically scarred in a random attack wept with joy after having cosmetic surgery to restore her eyebrows.
Naomi Oni, 21, had acid hurled over her face, head and body as she made her way home to Dagenham after her shift at Westfield's Victoria's Secret store last December.
The acid burned off the skin on her face and scalp and left her temporarily blinded. She lost her eyelids, eyebrows and some of her hair in the assault.

Since then, surgeons have painstakingly rebuilt her features including taking skin from the back of her ear to make new eyelids for her. But her eyebrows remained permanently damaged.
Before the incident, Naomi described herself as a 'girly girl' who would spend three hours getting ready to go out in the evening.

Before the attack: Naomi, who last night won an award for bravery at the Women of Inspiration awards, said of her attacker, 'They can burn by skin but they can't burn my soul'

Losing her eyebrows was yet another blow to her confidence, which had already suffered so much.
Now, ten months after the attack, her skin has healed enough for her to have her eyebrows restored.
Naomi, whose attacker is facing trial at the end of this year, had a sophisticated semi-permanent make-up treatment that tattoos on the eyebrows as individual hairs, mimicking the effect of real brows.


Ten months on, Naomi was finally well enough to have the first cosmetic procedure on her face – recreating the eyebrows which were wiped out in the attack with a semi-permanent make-up treatment performed at the Debra Robson LDN clinic on Harley Street.

In her first public appearance since February, when she movingly described on breakfast show This Morning how her life was turned upside down when she was doused in sulphuric acid, Naomi now reveals on camera the extent of her suffering - and how she has managed to rebuild her life.
Naomi faces further intricate laser surgery as doctors strive to lessen the impact of her scars and reconstruct her face, using the same methods used on Kate Piper.
She said: 'It has been very difficult to come to terms with.

'My doctors have been brilliant but it will take years of laser surgery to repair my face.
'There is only so much you can do at any one time – then there is long healing process before you can undergo the next stage of the treatment.
'It is only now that I had been able to have semi-permanent make-up on my face.
'I loved having the treatment – it feels so good to have my eyebrows back.

'What I loved about the treatment was its intricacy – it is a form of cosmetic tattooing.  It is the closest you can get to mimicking the appearance of the original brow.'
In the video below, Naomi can be seen having the treatment in video – as well as the moment she weeps for joy when she sees her new brows.
Naomi smiled: 'I did get a bit emotional when I saw them. It’s the first time I have seen myself with eyebrows for almost a year.'

Naomi is on leave from her job at Victoria's Secret lingerie store at Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, East London, while she recovers.
She eventually plans to return to work and pursue her dream of becoming a make-up artist.
Debra Robson said she had loved working with Naomi. She said: 'We recreated Naomi’s brows with my FAME technique, which builds up the brow at microscopic level, hair by hair.
'First we pencilled in the brow and got the correct shape for Naomi’s face.

'When she was happy with the shape, we began to build up her brows and as you can see from the pictures, the results were perfect.
'The key is to simulate the appearance of the natural hair – so that you can see the individual hair strokes in the new brow.
'Colour is implanted into the skin – it is very sophisticated form of cosmetic tattooing.'
Debra Robson, who also worked with Katie Piper after her acid attack, also specialises in scar and skin camouflage and areola reconstruction – for breast cancer sufferers who have undergone mastectomies.

Naomi's semi-permanent brows will last between nine months and a year before she requires a top-up.
She says: 'They are beautiful – I’m so pleased I had it done.'
Naomi, from London, is still at a loss to explain why she was targeted.
She said: 'I asked, "why me?" I work hard, I’m a good person.
'I’m the same person now but stronger.

'I want to say to my attacker, "You can burn my skin but you can’t burn my soul."'
Naomi was on the phone to her boyfriend after returning from work when she was attacked in Dagenham, Essex, on December 30 last year.
She said the attacker gave her a 'cold stare' before throwing the liquid at her from behind.
She said: 'I felt a splash – that’s when I thought, someone’s out to kill me.
'I just started running straight home. I knew it was acid. It feels like something is eating way at your skin. I felt it most on my scalp, more than my face.'

She arrived at her home shouting and banging on the door, screaming ‘acid, acid.’
Her family came to the door thinking she was excited about something.
Then when her mother opened the door, Naomi said everyone’s faces ‘just dropped.’
Naomi was last night honoured for her bravery with a prize at the Inspiration for Women Awards at Cadogan Hall in Chelsea.
Student Mary Konye, 21, of Canning Town, has been charged over the attack and will stand trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court in January.


Source: Daily Mail