Naomi Oni,Nigerian acid attack victim weeps with joy as her eyebrows are restored (Photos)

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
.
Now, ten months on, her skin has healed enough for her
to have her eyebrows restored.
Naomi had a sophisticated semi-permanent make-up
treatment that tattoos on the eyebrows
as individual hairs, mimicking the effect of real brows.
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.
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, 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:
'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 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. Naomi was last
night honoured for her bravery with a prize at the
Inspiration for Women Awards at Cadogan Hall in
Chelsea.
Naomi's attacker, Mary Konye, a Nigerian also 21, from
Canning Town, East London who is currently facing trial
has been charged over the attack and will stand trial at
Snaresbrook Crown Court in January.

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