Kanyi Okeke
**Mother became first in the UK to have both procedures on same day**
**Says lashes became sparse after repeated use of false lashes**
**Had 35 hairs from head sewn into eyelids to repair damage**
**For her ‘naturally thin’ brows, 400 hairs from her head were implanted**
**Hair continues to grow as it would on the head and must be curled and trimmed every two weeks**
A mother-of-four has made medical history by having an eyelash transplant and eyebrow transplant at the same time. Elizabeth Cook, 36, from Harlow, Essex is the first patient in the UK to have both procedures on the same day. Both operations were carried out at Manchester’s Crown Clinic by surgeon Asim Shahmalak, hair loss expert on TV’s Embarrassing Bodies.
Dr Shahmalak performed the eyebrow transplant in the morning and the eyelash transplant in the afternoon – and Mrs Cook, 36, was even able to leave the clinic that day.
A strip of hair was taken from the back of her scalp and the individual hair follicles removed. The surgeon then transplanted the new hair into her eyelashes and brows.
She had 35 new lashes threaded into upper eyelids and around 400 hairs were transplanted individually to fill out her brows in a similar procedure to a hair transplant like footballer Wayne Rooney’s.
Dr Shahmalak had four technicians working with him to extract the hair follicles.
He said the new hair transplanted to the brows and eyelids is harvested from the head and therefore grows exactly like head hair.
Women with transplanted eyelashes and brows will need to trim them every couple of weeks.
Dr Shahmalak said: ‘The transplanted hair needs to be curled and trimmed so that it blends in nicely with the natural eyebrow and eyelash hair which is already there.’
