# She Woke Up From A Surgery With Her Hair Perfectly Braided. Her Black Male Doctor Had Done It



## Foxglove (Jun 27, 2020)

*She woke up from a surgery with her hair perfectly braided. Her black male doctor had done it.*
*The experience drove home the importance of having black doctors*






(Courtesy of India Marshall; iStock; Lily illustration) 

*Soo Youn*
*June 26*
For the past couple of years, India Marshall has been contemplating getting another surgery to have bone growths in her head removed. She had already undergone one operation when she was about 20 years old.

Now 29, and working as a manager in a primary care clinic, Marshall was experiencing more growth from her osteomas. While not dangerous, they can be painful. Several had started to grow on her forehead and between her eyes, making it uncomfortable and annoying when she wore her glasses. She met with a few surgeons about getting them removed, but she didn’t quite feel comfortable with their surgical plans.

That changed when she met with Jewel Greywoode, an ear, nose and throat physician who specializes in cosmetic and functional facial plastic surgery. He was the only surgeon who mentioned going though Marshall’s nose, so she wouldn’t be left with scars on her face. The other doctors told her she would need an ear-to-ear incision on her head, and hair might not grow back over the scar.

Marshall underwent a successful surgery on June 9.

Aside from being pain-free and lacking a visible scar, Marshall says the experience drove home the importance of having a black doctor.

Marshall didn’t restrict her search to black doctors — Greywoode was the only black surgeon she consulted, and the one she said made her feel most confident about her surgical options.

In fact it would have been hard to limit a search to only black physicians. In 2018, just 5 percent of active doctors in the United States identified as black or African American, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The majority were white (56 percent), 17 percent identified as Asian and almost 6 percent identified as Hispanic. (The race of close to 14 percent of those surveyed was unknown.)

A Stanford study from the same year concluded that black men had much better health outcomes when randomly assigned to a black doctor.

Just ahead of her operation, Marshall washed and detangled her hair, arranging it into two braids. She didn’t put a lot of thought into what would happen afterward.

“I didn’t know what he was going to do with that — I have a lot of hair,” Marshall said. “I had no clue how he was going to get those incisions done and have my hair not be in the way, especially being natural and really big.”

For the first couple days after the surgery, she went in and out of consciousness, her head wrapped. But when her mother and husband took off the bandages to clean the incisions, Marshall noticed that she had more braids in her hair. She went in with two loose braids, but woke up with four or five smaller ones.

“I remember waking up and there were two black nurses helping me get myself together, helping me get my clothes on to go and I just assumed they did it. I was like, ‘Who else would have known how to braid?’ And they had rubber bands, so I thought, somebody had a plan and did this.”

“It was very convenient, I loved that whoever did it had thought of it because it was very easy to get to the incisions and clean. My hair wasn’t matted or in the way, and it was just easier for the recovery process,” Marshall said. “It was perfectly separated and parted along the incisions.”

On Wednesday, she went in for her last post-op appointment.

As Greywoode removed her staples, Marshall says he noticed that she had redone her hair with smaller braids and commented, “Oh your braids are better than mine. I hope I didn’t do too bad,” she recounted. (Greywoode was unavailable to comment for this story.)

“That was a plot twist,” she said, adding her mom was also shocked.




Greywoode told her he has two little girls and he braids and twists their hair. That he participates in the maintenance required for his daughters’ natural hair really moved Marshall.

“Natural hair is a lot of work,” she said. “I know a lot of people say, ‘Well dads should do that, it’s their kids,’ but to be honest there are not a lot of dads that do and can help with hair. That’s just the reality. But he does, and he clearly brought that into his patient care which is very helpful.”

“It was a very nice gesture and it just spoke to my bigger point of having black doctors and them being able to identify with patients.”

Greywoode also told Marshall that he chose to staple the opening over suturing, because when you remove stitches, you often have to cut the surrounding hair.

“He didn’t want to cut my hair. That was another part that showed me that he gets it.”

Source


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## Shimmie (Jun 27, 2020)

Yep ....  



Just sayin’.     You gotta love this guy’s true sensitivity to hair care.  



and he did this during Rona’, when getting our hair done means the most...


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## awhyley (Jun 27, 2020)

Great doctor, great husband.  Definitely a keeper.


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## Chicoro (Jun 28, 2020)

His daughters are motherless children. 

His wife was killed in a car crash  in 2012.




Trust in Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5


This memorial website was created to remember our dearest *Ashley Foss Greywoode,* born in *California* on *February 7, 1978* and passed away on *August 29, 2012 *in South Dakota in a car accident. The Greywoode family was moving to California from Minnesota to start a new job after Jewel finished his doctoral fellowship.

*Memorial Service Friday, September 7, 1pm at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach.*

Ashley was a loving wife, mother, sister, daughter, granddaughter, friend, aunt and cousin.  Leaving behind her beloved husband Jewel and two daughters Audrey (3) and Vivienne (2); Parents Tom and Stancie Foss; Sister and Brother-in-Law Carrie and Simon Dunn; Brother and Sister-in-Law Taylor and Leslie Foss; Grandmothers Thon Griffith and Orlene Foss; In-laws Emile and Eudora Greywoode; Sisters-in-Law Beryl Greywoode, Ruby Greywoode, and Emerald Greywoode; and Brother-in-Law Jacinth Greywoode. Ashley was 7 months pregnant with Baby Evelyn who has joined her in heaven. Ashley graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and University of Florida, then practiced as a licensed Physician's Assistant. We are blessed to have her in our lives for this short time and are comforted to know she is in heaven. She will live forever in our memories and hearts.

Please feel free to leave memories and comments here.


An additional site has been set up at Caring Bridge for on going info on the family. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ashleyevelyngreywoode


http://ashley-greywoode.last-memories.com/


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## UmSumayyah (Jun 28, 2020)

Poor kids


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## lavaflow99 (Jun 28, 2020)

Chicoro said:


> His daughters are motherless children.
> 
> His wife was killed in a car crash  in 2012.
> 
> ...



Oh my she was 7 months pregnant when she passed in the car accident.  
This poor family......


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## Chicoro (Jun 28, 2020)

lavaflow99 said:


> Oh my she was 7 months pregnant when she passed in the car accident.
> This poor family......



I didn't see that part. That does make it even more tragic, doesn't it. Yet, he is a great doctor and his skills provide healing, health and beauty to others. From his tragedy has sprung a comfort, knowing and knowledge that he can impart to his patients, as was experienced by the young woman who posted about him.


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## Everything Zen (Jun 28, 2020)

The fact that he was the only one who suggested the through the nose technique to prevent permanent scarring is telling.


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## naturalgyrl5199 (Jun 29, 2020)

Everything Zen said:


> The fact that he was the only one who suggested the through the nose technique to prevent permanent scarring is telling.


This is why we need more CONSCIOUS black people to stand in the gap. If it wasn't for my black OB, my wishes and Birth Plan when I delivered both children would not have been honored.


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## Crackers Phinn (Jun 29, 2020)

Everybody is entitled to accept what this doctor did in whatever way is meaningful to them.  However, I would be thoroughly creeped out if a male doctor did my hair while I was unconscious.  It's one thing to pull my hair back but parting and plaiting, like I'm a  practice doll at a beauty school, nah.  The old man would be livid.  

 There's a reason dude is unavailable for this story.   I'm very sure he didn't want this hitting the news.


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## spacetygrss (Jun 29, 2020)

Crackers Phinn said:


> Everybody is entitled to accept what this doctor did in whatever way is meaningful to them.  However, I would be thoroughly creeped out if a male doctor did my hair while I was unconscious.  It's one thing to pull my hair back but parting and plaiting, like I'm a  practice doll at a beauty school, nah.  The old man would be livid.
> 
> There's a reason dude is unavailable for this story.   I'm very sure he didn't want this hitting the news.



That's fair.

I will note that it's actually pretty common for neurosurgical and ENT residents to learn how to braid patients' hair during surgery. In fact, we make sure that the hair is taken care of during EVERY one of these types of cases where I work so this young woman would have had her hair braided at my hospital (washed, conditioned, detangled and braided).  It's just the norm for long hair, so I don't personally find it strange.


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## Black Ambrosia (Jun 29, 2020)

spacetygrss said:


> That's fair.
> 
> I will note that it's actually pretty common for neurosurgical and ENT residents to learn how to braid patients' hair during surgery. In fact, we make sure that the hair is taken care of during EVERY one of these types of cases where I work so this young woman would have had her hair braided at my hospital (washed, conditioned, detangled and braided).  It's just the norm for long hair, so I don't personally find it strange.


Thanks for sharing because I was thinking the worst about this man.


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## Fine 4s (Jun 29, 2020)

I did have the vision of a creeper sitting on the edge of the bed in the dark with his white coat on, humming some creepy song while caressing her hair. But then immediately teared up so....pre-menopausal.


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## Reinventing21 (Jun 30, 2020)

@Crackers Phinn 

lol I semi was ready to have that reaction until I realized that it was much more than just deciding to braid her hair. He did everything to save her hair and beauty during surgery whereas others not as sympathetic would have just shaved a large part of her hair to get to her scalp.

As far as the 'creep' factor, I get it as I am a super private person, but then I remembered that your doctor/surgeon will know everything about you and if waking up from surgery with my hair still there and looking pretty? Well, I would just go on and say thank you!


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## Ganjababy (Jun 30, 2020)

I don’t think it’s creepy because he probably does his daughters hair. At first I thought he was probably gay lol. Plus he is a cosmetic surgeon also. It’s all about the aesthetics lol. This made me tear up.


As long as it’s not my hair after thinking about it I think I would feel disturbed if it was me.


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