Getting rid of head lice – by Tierney O’Hara
Head lice bite. They make your scalp unbearably itchy. These guys are tiny as the tip of a pencil; they take up residence on a hair shaft and hold on for dear life. They like it on your head, it’s warm and cozy under the hair and you have lots of spots for them to feed on your blood. The first sign of having head lice is a scalp itch that won’t go away.
You get head lice by direct contact with someone who already has lice or by using the infested combs or brushes of someone who has head lice. You get it from sleeping on bedding or using towels that have been infested with lice or wearing items of clothing, especially hats and scarves that are infested.
Who the original guy or gal was that first spread head lice, we’ll never know, but if we have lice, we know we got it from someone else. For the record: Nice people get lice. Clean people get lice. Lice (plural of louse) don’t care how much money you made last year or that you are a direct descendent of Christopher Columbus or Benjamin Franklin either. Lice just want to know two things: Do you have a head? Does that head have some hair? Lice are equal opportunity parasites and despite the myth that they can’t, redheads can and do get lice just like anyone else.
Head lice deposit wee, white eggs (nits) on the bottom of each hair shaft and these nits can make you nuts if you try to get rid of them. Head lice have acquired super powers as they’ve become resistant to many over-the-counter products. Years ago a few washings with a medicated head lice shampoo and you were good to go. Or maybe mom would sit you down with a lice comb and go through your hair picking out the nits (yuck) all the while humming a tune like, “You are my Sunshine.”
Today, it’s doubtful you can deal with an infestation by yourself. Current lice are no nitwits. They’ve found a way to survive and have gotten stronger not weaker. Methods of killing lice that may have seemed to work at one point, but don’t work anymore are: applying mayonnaise, olive oil or Listerine on the scalp and hair; daily, blow-drying hair on the hottest temperature; rinsing hair in vinegar, orange juice or beer.
Massaging your scalp with olive oil and rinsing with vinegar will not rid you of these lousy lice, but will only make you smell like a tossed salad. (Also drink the beer yourself; don’t waste it on your lice. No reason to make them any happier than they already are.)
It is very unlikely that anything you buy in your local drugstore – no spray, shampoo or powder – is going to help you take control of your hair and scalp once again. It will take time, determination, thorough cleaning of your bedding; staying away from the infected person who gave you lice in the first place and most likely a prescription medicine to kill the louse (adult) nymph (juvenile) and the nits (eggs).
For the most part, lice are fairly harmless. That is if you don’t count the fact they cause intractable, insane scalp itchiness that makes you feel like you’ve got a bazillion baby bugs crawling on the top of your head. Certainly it’s not that many at all, half that at best.
It is possible to get a head lice infection although it is not common; infections come from scratching the scalp until it has open lesions where bacteria can take up residence along side the lice. Try not to scratch too vigorously or it’s going to get mighty crowded up there on your head.
Anti-itch medications might be necessary in some cases to protect your scalp and sanity while waiting for the last louse to bite the dust instead of you.
Learn more about this author, Tierney O’Hara. Click here to send this author comments or questions.
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