Lice at School and Home

Lice

There is no other word that can strike fear in the heart of a teacher. Sure, we worry about catching the flu, the stomach bug, and any other illness that can be passed. We wash our hands, use our smelly hand sanitizers, and remind students not to cough or sneeze directly in our face. After 20 years I’ve built up quite an immune system, so I shrug off the panic when the latest virus makes its way around the building or community. Plus, I wash my hands constantly. I’ve got a solid M.O. for keeping the germs out of my system.

But despite all the precautions we make as educators, nothing prepares us for the day we start to scratch our heads and it occurs to us it’s more than just a little dry scalp…

The Following Is What My Teammate Experienced With Head Lice...

Last June, I attended an end of the year event where many of our students participated. It was so great to see them perform. At the end I felt like the Belle of the Ball, all the girls wanted to take pictures with me and hug me. I was warmed by all the love I was getting. Little did I know they were sharing more than just love.

A few days later, I was grocery shopping and my head started itching in a way that I had never felt - like in all 43 years of my life! I kept it under my hat - a literal hat - all day long. Monday morning I rushed into school and told my teammate what I was feeling.

She told me that she would take a look. Having lived through this nightmare the summer before with her daughter, she was a certified lice whisperer! Sure enough she found a few nits. I was totally devastated. How could I have let myself be so vulnerable and allow myself to catch this?

So for the next week she picked out my hair before and after school and even on our lunch breaks. Your real friends hang around when you get lice and your even better ones help you get rid of them!

The shampoos that are available are not 100% effective and the chemicals that are in them aren’t good for your body. Against my teammate’s advice, I did try the shampoo but it didn’t do anything but get my hopes up. To combat the critters I even tried an old wives tale involving olive oil and a shower cap. That didn’t work either.

Following an Old Wives Tale in hopes that it would kill the lice.
It didn't.

Despite my best efforts with daily picking and home remedies, after 10 days I was ready for the big guns! I went to a local lice “doctor” to see if they could give me the remedy I needed.

After a screening that cost my $25 I gave my consent for the treatment. They used a machine that looked like a vacuum but instead of sucking out the lice, they heated them up to death. This process lasted for about 45 minutes as they heated different sections of my hair. They claimed that the heat kills the live bugs and all 3 stages of eggs. They were very knowledgeable on the process but costly. I didn’t have the patience to wait out the life cycle of the lice and it was starting to drive me crazy! So I paid an additional $179 for them to do the treatment on me.

There was an amazing 30 day guarantee that I would get as long as everyone in my household would also get screened and treated. Can you hear the dollar signs? So now I added $50 more to my bill for their screenings just to hear they were clear. Now that my heat treatment was over, it was time to sit through them combing through each section of my hair with a special comb. They ended up finding nits and one live bug. I was so excited to be done with this nightmare. I also bought $100 in hair products. They told me that after having lice the male lice leave a pheromone on your hair up to 6 months that makes you susceptible to catching bugs again! So I got the Fairytale shampoo, conditioner, and spray. I had to keep my hair guarded. I had 2 weeks of school left!

A day went by and I thought I felt my head getting itchy again. Sure enough there were nits and I was devastated. While my teammate was picking through she thought she saw something live move. She went to grab it and it fell… we just weren’t sure where it fell. I called for my follow-up appointment that was part of the guarantee. They said, “Our heat system is only about 96% proof and when we comb you out that brings your chances up to 99%.” To my horror she then said, “You might have had some hatch but we will get them at your follow up appointment.” It seemed like I was the only one that was worried about the chance that I could still have lice after spending over $300!

So my check up appointment came and it was another $44. They said they found nothing and I have now been clean for 2 weeks. I am still staring into the mirror thinking any dash and dot  could be something. I guess I will get over it just like I did with the stomach bug. But this definitely left a mark on me! I might always have PLSD: Post Lice Stress Disorder.

Advice for Lice

Like my teammate mentioned, I lived through the lice experience with my daughter. I learned quite a few things during that summer and I will now share it with you.

When I discovered my daughter had lice, I immediately resigned myself to having them too. Afterall, we had shared combs, brushes, and pillows (!). We had snuggled and slept with our heads right next to one another. There was no way I didn’t have them. By some miracle, I didn’t get lice. It was a relief that I just had to focus on getting her head clear.

I will admit that I thought I would wash my daughter’s hair with the special shampoo, comb her out, and that would be the end. Boy, was I wrong. I have a much deeper understanding of why some of our students never get rid of these pesky bugs. My two big takeaways on lice: they are harder to get than you might think and nearly impossible to get rid of.

Lice Shampoos Help

But, if you have Super Bugs, like my daughter did, it’s a waste of time and money. Even after two thorough shampoos (a few days apart), she continued to have knits. To elaborate, it was summer and I had a lot more time. I was combing her hair out at least 2 times a day; very slowly and very carefully sectioning her hair, wetting it down, and combing through each section while hand-picking out the nits. Each combing took approximately 45-60 minutes. At the time, my daughter's hair was past her rear end.

This was the one that started it all! (Her coloring is a cue that she's older and at the end of her life cycle.)
I found her after shampooing and during a second combing out. I had combed out once but wanted to be thorough. I couldn't believe I had missed her the first time.

I believed that if I could get to the end of the approximate 30 day cycle, I would have outsmarted the lice. It was an exhausting summer. On any given day I would find between 6-30 new eggs. I could not find the female (only found 2 live bugs the whole summer) and it was frustrating. As the summer wore on I knew that a new cycle was going to start and if I continued to miss the female laying the eggs, we would never get this nightmare over with. In the end, the definitive factor that got rid of the lice was heat (see tips below).

Nits. I would find 6-30 at a time.
Some days I would find just 2-3 and think I was at the end of the nightmare.
But I was wrong.

The TWO live bugs I found. The mini-hair clip gives you an idea of how small they truly are.

Lice Factoids

The lice cycle is approximately 30 days. One week from egg to nymph. One week from nymph to adult. 30 days as an adult. Adult lice need human blood several times a day (from a head) and will die within 48 hours if they are not on a human head.

Lice love dark and warm. The majority of the time they hang out at the base of the neck and behind the ears.

Best Tips for Preventing Lice

• Keep hair up. Ponytails are good. Braids and buns are best.
• Don’t hug head-to-head.
• Do not use props in a photo booth that involve putting something on your head.
• Do not put hats, helmets, costume masks (on display in a store) on your head. Even if you're in the Happiest Place on Earth. Just don't do it.
• Keep your jacket away from others’. Don’t hang them next to one another or throw them in a pile. If your jacket has been in a pile next to another, do a quick check along the collar to make certain there aren’t any bugs on it before you put it on.
• Dry hair with HIGH HEAT. In the event a bug does get on you and lays eggs, the heat will kill both.
• Additionally, high heat works as a preventative measure as well. I’ll gamble on high heat over tea tree oil any day.

Best Tips for Getting Rid of Lice on Heads

Caveat: if you are working with an infested head, do the shampoo and use the lice comb. It’s a good start to getting things under control. Follow the directions on the container. After the initial shampoo and combing, the real work will begin.

After the initial cleaning you should check the head twice a day. I did it in the morning and in the early evening. Get your kit ready before you start combing.

My LICE KIT includes the following:

• Rattail Comb
• Lice Comb (occasional use)
• Hair Clips
• Water Bottle
• Paper Towels
• Blow Dryer for HIGH HEAT. Even though I was picking out my daughter's hair, I didn’t dry it afterwards. That is the key to killing the eggs and bugs. Once I started to dry her hair - and I would dry it so hot that I couldn’t touch it - the nightmare came to an end.

Also keep in mind:

• If you can “flick” it off, it’s not an egg/nit.
• Eggs/nits are easier to see if the hair is damp.
• Eggs/nits are easier to see on blond/light hair. If you are working with dark hair, I highly recommend spraying the hair down. It helps with seeing the nits as well as controlling the different sections of hair.
• Eggs/nits are sticky. You will find them near the scalp. The easiest way to get them off is to pinch the egg between two fingers and drag it down the hair. It will stay stuck on the hair unless you make certain to pull it completely off.
• Have a paper towel ready to transfer the nits from your fingers to the towel.
• Don’t mix the hair you’ve just combed through with hair that hasn’t been combed through. I know that sounds basic, but long hair can be a challenge; avoid mixing. Use clips to keep the hair separate and make sure lice do not have an opportunity to scurry to a darker/shaded section of hair while you’re working in another part. It happened to me. I flipped a section and once the louse was exposed to the light it scurried to a dark part. I lost the bug and was unable to find it; even though I saw exactly where it went.

Best Tips for Getting Rid of Lice in Your House (you probably don't have any but just in case)

Don’t panic on this one. I didn’t freak out and wash everything in sight. But I would recommend the following:

• Wash all bedding.
• Wash jackets.
• Wash all combs, brushes, etc. and keep them separate from others’.
• Change the infested person’s pillowcase every two days.
• Place infected towels and clothes in a separate pile and wash separately.

Your couches and chairs are fine. Your pets are fine, too. You don’t need to do anything special for these. Yes, they sell lice spray. No, it doesn’t really do anything except give you the illusion you are “doing something”. Save your time and money.

Final Thoughts

If I had to go through this experience again, I am confident that I would be much quicker with removal and prevention. If I had the time, I would do the same routine but add the heat in after every comb out (at least twice a day). If it happened when I didn't have time, I would pay the money to get the head professionally cleaned. In either scenario, I would use the high heat every day.

If you are one of the unfortunate souls who has to personally endure a lice infestation, you have my sympathy. I've been there, done that, and I'd rather I didn't have the t-shirt.