A five-year-old girl badly injured in a burns accident when she was a toddler says she is "very happy" with her new head of hair created by surgeons. Sidra Afzal, from Fleur-de-Lys, near Caerphilly, had the stitches on her new look taken out at the burns unit in Morriston Hospital, Swansea.
Surgeons grew the hair on "balloon" skin over nine months and then pulled it over the damaged area.
Posing with her family and her nurses, Sidra said: "I love my new hair."
After taking out the stitches, burns surgeon William Dickson, director of the burns centre, said the surgery had been a "complete success".
It was the final stage of reconstructive treatment which began nine months ago when a special balloon, or expander, was inserted under Sidra's scalp and inflated slowly enough to allow new skin and hair to grow with it.
The balloon was filled with a gel at the rate of six teaspoons each week, with the healthy skin and hair stretching around it.
Two week ago, Mr Dickson carried out the 90-minute operation to remove the balloon and pull the new skin and hair follicles over Sidra's head.
 Saba and Mohammed Afzal say Sidra's op has changed their lives |
He said: "Sidra has done very well. I'm very pleased with the outcome from the surgery she's had.
"She is a delightful little girl and has coped very well both with the treatment and the aftercare."
"The reconstructive technique has worked exactly as it should and covered the bald area damaged by the burn."
Sidra was two when she suffered 25% burns from cooking oil in an accident at her home, leaving her bald on one side of her head.
Sidra's mother Saba said: "Sidra loves her new hair. She's a very girly child and loves dressing up in pretty dresses and shoes, and loves doing her doll's hair.
"Now she has had this operation it has changed our lives. It's really amazing, and hard to believe looking at her today, that for three-and-a-half years she had no hair on one side of her head."
Sidra is the youngest patient at the burns centre to have undergone the tissue expansion procedure.
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She is a delightful little girl and has coped very well both with the treatment and the aftercare
