Head lice

[HawktalonOfRiverClan]

I got bird lice once. There was a bird nest built in the deck of my treehouse, and I got down close to see it... big mistake. Luckily all I had to do was take a shower and they were gone.

[babybluefire]

what do you mean? do they prefer certain hair over others?

they prefer straight smooth hair, they very much dislike kinky curly hair. Also adult lice must feed off the same blood type or else their guts explode. The only way to get from one blood type to another is to have a very pregnant female jump heads, lay eggs and not eat first.

[loudwhitenoise]

Gnaaaarr, now you made me itchy.

 

Apparently when I was in primary school I had them around 3 times every two months, head lice treatment was a fact of life. I also have a distinct memory of one class in which they made us lie on the ground with our heads in a circle, which is pretty irresponsible of the school.

 

I also had problems with a pond in the local area which was chockers with pelican lice, and the carpet of dad's house which was chockers with fleas. To the point where I was bathing in aloe vera and using tea tree oil as shampoo.

 

babybluefire, I didn't know the part about blood types, how interesting.

[Pippyspot]

*Scratches head thinking about it*

 

I used to have them a lot when I was little, the best thing is to just keep going over and over with the nit comb until they're all gone. Most things you buy or remedies you see online or in books simply do not work

 

As for the kid giving your kid the head lice, I would recommend rather than speaking to the parents to ask your child to try and stay away from them if possible, like not getting their head too close

 

Good luck

[LascielsShadow]

*scratches head* Argh. Talking about this kind of thing always makes me itchy. Stupid psychological responses. DX

 

This reminds me, I have a lulzy (to me at least) elementary school lice story:

 

I have alopecia, which usually manifests as a. areata (small fingertip to quarter sized bald patches on my scalp), but sometimes it decides it wants to completely me over and show up as totalis (which is complete loss of head hair). I also happen to have a handful of small cafe au lait spots (they're birthmarks, and I have them all over) on my scalp. I had a flare up of a. totalis once when I was in elementary school, which means I had no hair whatsoever anywhere on my head. NO scalp hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes. At all.

 

Now, this was somewhere in the early/mid nineties, so they were still doing louse checks at my school. There's me, completely bald, sitting in the chair and having my head looked at by the school nurse (or whoever. It was a while ago, so maybe it was someone else, I dunno.), and thinking nothing of it, cos, yanno, no bloody hair, right? Well, not so much, as it turns out. My mother got a letter saying that I had lice, and to keep my infested ass out of class and take care of it plzkthx. When I was completely ****ing bald.

 

My mother, being someone who actually has a working brain, promptly marched over to the school with me and the letter and demanded to know what the everloving they were smoking. (Okay, maybe not those exact words, but the sentiment was there.) The school nurse told her that she had "seen" it/them, to which my mother responded with one of those "Are you a complete goddamned moron?" looks and what pretty much anyone would have said, which was something to the effect of: "She. is. bald. Where, exactly, did you see lice?" I ended up back in class the next day, IIRC. I think what the nurse saw, if anything, was a spot/freckle on my scalp. (Which, of course, makes me wonder how, exactly, one manages to confuse a freckle with a louse when examining someone with no hair.)

 

Kinda makes me wonder how many other kids may have gotten letters but not actually had lice.

Edited May 19, 2012 by LascielsShadow

[Stunningfire]

I've had lice before. It was pretty... asdfghjkl. I sure hope I don't have them again O_o

[Ashes The Second]

I have a very, very dry head ever since I got a single lice egg in the 6th grade, and I've tried washing and everything -- I've just given up and scratch my head often. ;_;. I've done it to the point where it bleeds and creates a scab, but haven't done that since the 7th grade. (in the 9th grade now). I just want my stupid dry hair to go away. D: I use John Freida Brilliant Brunette, if that helps.

[TheDarkCynder]

I have never had head lice, despite having spent the night with a girl who had head lice a while ago.

[brairtrainer]

I have a very, very dry head ever since I got a single lice egg in the 6th grade, and I've tried washing and everything -- I've just given up and scratch my head often. ;_;. I've done it to the point where it bleeds and creates a scab, but haven't done that since the 7th grade. (in the 9th grade now). I just want my stupid dry hair to go away. D: I use John Freida Brilliant Brunette, if that helps.

Ashes for dry hair I recomend gettting a mosturizing shampoo (not store bought, get one from who ever cuts your hair). I had a similar problem that also included oil in my hair. My hair stylist who knew that I didn't want to murder my hair with product gave me some of the best mositurizing shampoo with a dandruff shampoo (one that was stronger than head and shoulders) to use once a week to get rid of the dead skin and any chance that there might be a fungus causing it (which is normal; all dandruff shampoos have the ingredient some in different ammounts.)

 

Edit: Also Brilliant Burnette is great its just not strong enough, and don't use a non-clear mosturizing shampoo that will cause buildup. If you don't have problems with oil in your hair an oil treatment may also work.

Edited October 16, 2012 by brairtrainer

[RWyvern]

Just reading this topic makes my head feel so itchy *scratches vigorously*

 

I have never had head lice though. I did find a large fingernail sized louse that was all decked out in red spots and pretty iridescent blues and greens once, but that's beside the point. I have never been to a real school, but I don't know if we even get head lice in South Australia's conditions. And reading about some of these experiences make me even more thankful of that |D

[Foxypuff]

A few years ago I had head lice. I've never had any before, but one of my friends randomly put a hat on my head when I didn't want her to and then eventually discovered about the lice.

 

Otherwise, I only scratch due to dandruff.

[Syiren]

Admit it, you are all absent mindedly scratching your heads now.

Uh, yeah. Actually I did.

 

 

I have only had this problem once in my life (knocks on wood to keep it that way) A friend had come over to spend the weekend. I had been looking forward to it all week. Hours go by, everything's fine, but mom and I both notice she was itching her head a lot. We didn't think much of it and then I started itching. Mom had a gut feeling and asked to check my head. Bingo. She found 'em. not many because the little buggers really hadn't gotten a chance to infest. *shudders*

 

Dad went out and got some special shampoo for dealing with the little punks and Mom asked my friend how long had she been itching. I forget how long she said, but she said that she KNEW she had them and also that her PARENTS knew. W-T-F! If you know your kid's got lice DON'T LET THEM GO TO A FRIEND'S HOUSE!

 

we had to strip my bed, sheets, pillows blankets, the whole nine yards. Even my stuffed animals got a bath. She had to go home and didn't spend the night and my parents were not very happy. Can't say I blame them.

 

Gah! I'm still itchy just thinking about it.

[kitsune93]

I got head lice when I was like 11 or 12.

I got them from my best friend at the time.

I kind of stopped talking to her after I got rid of them for the last time. Probably why I never got them again.

[JavaTigress]

I had them once when I was little... picked them up at day care.

 

To this day I HATE the idea of getting them again. You see, i have very thick hair, so the brushing the nits out afterwards was a horrible job... both for my poor mom, who had to do it, and for me.

 

Vile, revolting little vermin, that is what head lice are.

 

As for 'nit picking'... I don't wonder about that particular figure of speech... I KNOW what it means.

Edited January 6, 2015 by Silverswift

[rendragyn]

I had a (very) nasty hairdresser accuse my mother of taking me to get my hair cut while I had head lice. The hairdresser was all "well, I've already started now, I'll have to finish".

 

Mum was suitably horrified (she was really strict about having hair tied back at school - I wasn't allowed to wear it loose). Got the whole treatment process inflicted on both myself and my younger sister. (I'm so glad they'd stopped recommending that you cut the hair short by then - I had very long hair)

 

Turns out it wasn't head lice at all. What the hairdresser had seen and assumed was an egg was actually one of the tiny white plastic bobble-tips from the ends of the metal bristles on my hairbrush!

 

 

Current theories about head lice:

• They actually prefer clean hair - the whole "dirty hair" thing is a myth
• Most products (in Australia anyway) recommend repeat treatments about a week apart to kill off anything you might have missed the first time. Wash everything that's been in contact with the head in water as hot as the fabric can stand. Anything you can't wash, expose to direct strong sunlight for an extended period (ie a full, long summer's day), or seal in an airtight package and leave for several months (nits will eventually starve to death and eggs will die too)
• Use a nit comb - a normal one is not fine enough to catch them up. You can make this easier for everyone involved by dipping the comb in your average hair conditioner, thinned down with water. It reduces the horrible pulling and hair breakage.
• It looks like Teatree may work as a repellant against head lice (good if your local school / childcare announces a breakout, but you haven't actually got them yet)

(Brought to you by almost 10 years working in retail Pharmacy)

 

Now, please excuse me while I go and **furiously** scratch at my head (psychological crawly sensations - urgh!)

Edited January 6, 2015 by rendragyn

[Starscream]

I have yet to have it and I am opposed to wearing someone elses hat. I love hats. but you don't touch my hats and I don't touch yours.

 

My husband said he had them, he caught a live one out of his hair when he was a boy, his dad ran his hair with petroleum at the time. His sister laughed at him, then they washed her hair as punishment for her lack of compassion. He's not had them since. (he lived in africa at the time.)

[KrazyKarp]

The school my siblings go to always send out a "hey parents we have lice" note. They might as well stop sending it out now, lice basically live at that school, judging from the amount of notes we've gotten.

But no, I myself and miraculously none of my siblings have ever gotten lice. And I'm not planning on getting them.

[Spottedleaf]

Never had head lise. Dont plan to

[Twyro]

I remember what my mum told me - I had lice as a two-year old, I don't remember what she said on how I got them, but they were pretty easy to notice because my hair is very very dark, and my little sister was still just a baby so dad had to take her away from me so that they don't risk her getting them from me.

Tons of shampoos and different products, all the itching and scratching... a nightmare for my parents.

[Shienvien]

To all who are concerned about catching lice/mites/etc from other animals: lice are species-specific. You won't catch lice from a bird or a rodent and vice versa. They may climb onto you when you handle the animal, but they will also soon go away on their own.

[C88]

I haven't had lice for years, and even when I had them I was never very itchy. My dad said that once when I was little I had them for a while but almost never scratched my hair Perhaps lice don't like my hair? There's also the fact that I have rather short hair, so I am less likely to get them than others.

[Banyanpan]

This thread makes me so itchy.

My sister got head lice a few years back and as a result the rest of my family did too. I caught a few of them by hand from all the itching, nasty critters. Thankfully we got rid of them relatively quickly.

Edited January 14, 2015 by alupe99a

[Cireth]

I've just (a couple of months ago) got rid of the lice I had for months. (Caught them from sister who kept catching them from this kid at high school.)

 

I tried everything to get rid of them. Nothing worked.

 

So I decided to give up on the pesticides and use the "comb all the little bleepers out" method. It took a couple of weeks but it worked.

 

The only down side is the constant combing irritated my scalp causing it to thicken the skin which caused dandruff. Which itches. ARGH! However my anti dandruff shampoo is slowly sorting that out.

 

Now I'm going to go away and scratch frantically until my scalp stops crawling.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Cireth

[ViperSwan]

UUUUUuuugh! I haaate lice!! When I was younger, my youngest cousin (who is only a year younger) got them and gave them to me... When I was rid of them, I got them again from my other cousin... *Shudders* So much Vaseline....

[KaelaBoo24]

I had head lice when I was around four or so. Definetly one of the low points of my childhood.

Edited January 25, 2015 by KaelaBoo24