But a week on the Mollymook woman is thankful she has no memory of the actual incident.

Dr Pia Winberg was working in her lab near Nowra on February 7, when her hair became caught on a drive shaft, ripping her scalp from her head.

"I remember I went into our factory to ironically drain extract from our seaweed that we are using in new tissue and wound repair...and I bent down to attach the hose and then my memory is gone," the 48-year-old said.

"I then remember wandering why I was in a confusing dream, having to untangle hair from a drive shaft and then I looked down and saw my hands were all crimson with blood.

"Still I thought it was a weird dream but I then apparently walked 200 metres with my scalp in my hand to my lab and colleagues."

One of her colleagues then called triple-0 and she was attended by four ambulances.

She was stabilised after a massive blood loss and was then flown by helicopter to St George Hospital in Sydney for specialist surgery.

After five hours of microsurgery her scalp was unable to be re-attached and the 13-centimetre hole was covered with a graft from her thigh.

"I'm just very lucky and glad to be home," Dr Winberg said.

"The graft has attached well and I have to thank the amazing doctors and surgeons.

"It will be five weeks of regrowing my scalp. Apart from having an odd scalp I don't have any other injuries.

"I'm tired because I had blood loss and seven hours of surgery and physical trauma but I don't have any mental trauma and I don't have any physical injuries apart from that, so I'm very lucky and I expect a full recovery."

The former University of Wollongong research fellow was looking forward to getting back into developing seaweed extracts for wound healing.

"I have a new appreciation for this research now. It means something extra to me now and I'm looking forward to develop this new seaweed into a whole range of new products," Dr Winberg said.