INCARCERATED in one of south America's toughest prisons for the past two years, you might well have expected Michaella McCollum to emerge from jail in a frail state.
Crammed into a cell with 30 prisoners in extremely poor sanitation, the conditions in the notorious Ancon 2 desert facility were described as horrific.
So it was surprising to see McCollum emerge from jail with a fresh and dramatic new look.
Almost unrecognisable, the 23-year-old has reinvented herself and emerged from the hell-hole Peruvian prison transformed.
Having ditched her dark locks - gone is the severe top bun from her arrest at Lima airport in 2013 - McCollum is now sporting a dyed-platinum blonde look.
Gone too is her 'party girl' image, with McCollum looking remarkably poised and elegant during her RTÉ One interview.
Wearing a chic white jacket, ripped black jeans and smart black top McCollum appeared fresh-faced with a sun-kissed glow despite reports much of her time was spent incarcerated in a cell.
You can even spot the freshly painted toe nails through her black sandals to match her red lipstick.
The new look is a far cry from McCollum's appearance when she was first arrested. Images of the young woman in court and paraded by police showed her with a pale complexion and her dark brown hair was tied up in a large bun on top of her head.
But the 23-year-old landed a coveted role in the hair and beauty salon in the tough Ancon 2 jail and learnt hairdressing while locked up.
It was reported she worked on other inmates' hair and nails in the prison's in-house salon and it appears she also worked hard on her own new look ahead of her release.
