masking the deepest scars

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Masking the Deepest Scars

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Seriously burned as a toddler, and treated in Rambam’s Burn Unit, Ilan Zakay is now giving to other burn victims in the way he knows best: with makeup. A professional makeup artist, Ilan holds makeup workshops in the unit, masking patients’ deepest scars and returning their happiness, pride and self-confidence

Ilan Zakay was an unusually mischievous two and a half year old. During Hanukkah, his mother was deep frying potato pancakes when she become distracted, and momentarily left the stove. Curious to see what was in the sizzling pan, he reached up his hand and overturned the pan’s contents on to his face and neck.

Luckily, Ilan has no recollection of the accident, though his mother told him she thought he had died, and the doctors weren’t sure he would make it through the first night afterward.

Ilan did survive. He remained in Rambam for four months and underwent numerous operations, including skin grafts from his legs and buttocks. Left with scars on his right cheek and neck, Ilan, now 35, cannot grow a beard on his injured side, and is missing an eyebrow.

During elementary school, Ilan was the victim of teasing and name-calling. Though isolated, he never felt despondent, or harbored any anger for his mother, for whom he feels only “the greatest sense of love.”

As he got older, Ilan searched for ways to disguise his scars. He turned to makeup, but found no acceptable products. Interested in this area as a career path, not just a personal solution, Ilan studied professional makeup, and began working in theater, movies and fashion. Experimenting on himself, Ilan learned to cover his burns with excellent results.

Excited by his new appearance, Ilan approached Rambam’s director of plastic surgery, Prof Yehuda Ullman, who oversees the hospital’s burn unit. Prof Ullman was thrilled with his former patient’s new look. The idea of a makeup workshop for patients in the unit arose. “Because I come from this place,” says Ilan, “I wanted to show people with scars that they can feel happy, proud and confident.”
Ilan now holds regular workshops the burn unit of Rambam, the only hospital in Israel that offers this service. “Dr Ullman believes in this idea and believes in me. He gave me the springboard to do this.”

In addition to the Rambam project and his other work, Ilan now offers individual and group consultations to people with scars, specializing in burns and disfigurements.

“I most love working with people like me,” says Ilan. “In Rambam there was a 14-year old girl with burns on her face, hands and legs, who refused to remove her pressure bandages. After I made up her hands, she took off her gloves for the first time in years.”

“This kind of work is the best of all worlds for me,” says Ilan. “I am a perfectionist, I like to make people happy, and I love the act of making up.”