Doctor who was tired of spending 20 minutes a day filling in her sparse eyebrows has a TRANSPLANT using hair taken from the back of her head
A doctor who was tired of using makeup to fill in her sparse eyebrows has revealed how she underwent a hair transplant procedure using strands from the back of her head.
Simone Maybin from Myrtle Beach, Carolina, used to spend 20 minutes a day penciling in her eyebrows before having the seven-hour procedure with Dr Jason Champagne, who also performed Chrissy Teigen's eyebrow transplant.
Under local anesthetic, Dr Champagne, of Beverly Hills, extracted hair from the base of Simone's head, removing 5in from the roots, with the follicle still attached.
The process, known as Follicular Unit Transfer, then involves grafting follicles to the eyebrow line for permanent implantation.
Simone, who volunteered to model the procedure for Dr Champagne, did not share how much the transplant costs.
Simone Maybin from Myrtle Beach, Carolina, used to spend 20 minutes a day penciling in her eyebrows before having the seven-hour procedure with Dr Jason Champagne, who also performed Chrissy Teigen's eyebrow transplant. Pictured, Simone before the transplant
Under local anesthetic, Dr Champagne, of Beverly Hills, extracted hair from the base of Simone's head, removing 5in from the roots, with the follicle still attached. The process, known as Follicular Unit Transfer, then involves grafting follicles to the eyebrow line for permanent implantation.
Simone is thrilled with the results but received some criticism online from social media users who said she looked like 'Michael Jackson'.
Simone, a physician, said: 'Any other makeup I could do without [except my eyebrows]. I've done a lot of different beauty-type things, modelling and fitness competitions, and the standard of beauty is they're supposed to be full.
'My whole life they've been dressed up to look nice and be full and luscious and that's all I knew of them to be.'
Every day, Simone would spend 20 minutes perfecting her eyebrow shape with brow clay in the mirror before going to work.
She was never tempted by temporary solutions like microblading or lamination as she was satisfied with her own makeup.
But when an ad for an eyebrow transplant appeared on her Instagram about a year ago, it was a lightbulb moment.
The physician said: 'As soon as I saw it I was like, "I'm getting that". There was no question in my mind. I'm a very analytical person and very cautious but as soon as I saw it that's the procedure for me.'
She booked an appointment with surgeon to the stars Dr Jason Champagne before undergoing the procedure on November 13, 2021.
Simone chose Dr Champagne for her first ever cosmetic surgery because she was wary that not all surgeons would be experienced with curly hair like hers.
She said: 'If you think about it eyebrows are not curly and my hair is naturally curly. I chose to pick somebody I thought was the best in the world because it's my face.
'But what am I meant to be, 50 and drawing in my eyebrows? So I said let's do it.'
Simone said she felt more confident within a few weeks of the procedure.
She added: 'They looked ten times better than I could have ever imagined, it was exactly the right decision.'
However despite her satisfaction she faced some bullying from TikTok users after she documented the journey online.
Simone said: 'Somebody said I look like Michael Jackson. Somebody said I look worse, that I looked better before, but when you share you open yourself up for that.
'It didn't bother me it was kind of funny, and with however many negative comments I have double the positive.'
Some commenters who had their own insecurities around their brows booked an appointment after seeing Simone's journey, including one woman who had lost hers during cancer treatment.
Teigen, 36, announced on Instagram last November that she was having 'eyebrow transplant surgery'.
She said: 'I never wear makeup if I can avoid it so I was so excited for this eyebrow transplant surgery where they takes hairs from the back of your head.'
The mum-of-two chose to undergo the procedure after years of furiously plucking out her eyebrows as a teenager.