Hairdresser makes alarming discovery on mum's scalp: 'Really scared me'
Getting your hair done may not seem like a life-saving activity, but for Lee King it led to a critical discovery.
The West Australian woman was at the hairdresser in May last year when she noticed a strange blue mark on her head, something her regular stylist hadn't noticed before.
"I thought [my son] Lucas had drawn blue Texta on my head," Ms King, 43, told Yahoo News Australia, saying her doctor then referred her to a dermatologist.
"It [usually] takes three months to get in, but he saw the picture and I got in that week."
Entire growth appeared in six months
The strange mark was identified as a blue naevus, a collection of pigment cells deep in the dermis layer of the skin.
"[The doctor] looked at it and said to me, 'I've never seen anything like this in 30 years. That's normally the size of a pinprick'," Ms King recalled, admitting that "straight away" she was worried it was going to be bad news.
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"I tried to not let my head go to where the worst situation could possibly happen because I'm a pretty positive person," she said.
"But it really scared me because I'm a mum obviously."
The area was biopsied and thankfully results showed it was benign.
Ms King had last seen her hairdresser six months earlier, meaning the entire growth had grown in that time.
"That's normally the indication of something really, really bad," the thankful mum said.
"But yeah, I'm just grateful she found it."
Ms King had three surgeries to remove the mole, which she admitted were more painful than she thought they'd be.
"It took about six months [to completely remove it]," she explained.
"He had to sort of let the skin settle and stretch a bit after taking the stitches out.
"Each one got harder and harder because it was just so tight," she said.
"But I dodged a massive bullet."
Blue naevus affects 1 per cent of people
The location deep in the skin causes scattering of light and so the mole takes on a blue colour. This is known as the Tyndall effect and it's actually the same reason why the sky is blue.
"No one knows exactly what causes blue naevi, but they affect about one per cent of people and are more common in women, and those of East Asian heritage," Dr Deshan Sebaratnam, dermatologist and senior lecturer at UNSW, told Yahoo News Australia.
"A blue naevus is thought to be no more likely to turn cancerous than any other part of your skin," he continued.
"It can look alarming however because the deep blue colour is also the same look that melanoma may take on."
Dr Sebaratnam says it's important to see a doctor about any moles that you are concerned about.
"You should know your own body and where your moles are," he said.
"And you can see your GP or a specialist dermatologist to be checked for skin cancer."
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