My sister is busy preparing her three kids for the opening of school. Then, she hears a commotion in the backyard. My niece and nephew are busy trying to pull each other’s hair. My sister pulled them apart. She asked them why they are doing that. The eldest, my niece said she found some hair lice in the head of her little brother. The middle child, my nephew was very angry at her sister because of that. He said that boys do not have head lice. He said only girls get it. The youngest child, my other niece was giggling; she is still a baby so she does not really understand what her siblings are talking about. When my sister learned what happened, she immediately looks at the head of her daughter and her son. The eldest was telling the truth after all.

Being Familiar with Head Lice

First of all, what are head lice? They are insects that are mostly found in the head of human beings. Their size is like the sesame seed. They are wingless. They move very fast through the hair. They feed on our blood. Depending on the blood they ingested, the color of lice can be light gray or dark brown. They have six jointed legs that have claws in the end which enable them to cling to the hair strands. You can find their eggs attached to the hair strands that are close to the roots. They are most common in children with ages ranging from 3-10 years old. The lice are usually found near the nape and behind the ears.

Fallacies and Myths about Hair Lice

My sister and I both experienced having head lice and she has her own beliefs about head lice. Other people too have some misconceptions about hair lice and some of them are:

Myth No. 1 – People can get head lice while playing under the sun.

Lice are wingless creatures. They cannot fly to your hair. You cannot get it while you are under the sun. If that is the case then everyone who stays under the sun would have acquired lice. You can only get lice by direct contact to a person who has it. That is why it is most common in school-aged children because they like to play a lot with one another. You can get head lice by being close to another person who had head lice when you are playing or using the combs and hair accessories of the infested person.

Myth No. 2 – People can get lice if they did not take a bath.

Contrary to beliefs, head lice would prefer to stay on hair that is shampooed and clean. They can survive in clean environment.

Myth No. 3 – People who are rich will not get head lice.

Lice do not choose the person that they infest. It does not matter if you are rich or poor. It also does not choose between boys or girls. Girls are more prone to the head lice than boys. It does not mean that boys do not get it, it is just that head lice are found more in girls.

Finding Hair Lice Treatment

There are several ways for you to treat hair lice. The treatment may have different effects for a person that is why you have to choose what will work best for you.

Natural Lice Treatment

Natural lice treatment or home remedies are the first one that you can consider in treating head lice. As I have mentioned shampooing does not rid lice. The thing to do is to wash your hair with shampoo then you add drops of tea tree oil after shampooing. You can also rub mayonnaise on your hair. Leave it for two hours covered with a shower cap. Wash your hair. Rinse very well. Comb your wet hair thoroughly with a lice comb. Adult lice and eggs will be removed. You can use Vaseline or petroleum jelly if mayonnaise is not available.

Head lice Shampoo and Medication

Sometimes lice can be a bit stubborn and no matter how many times you put mayonnaise or olive oil they still would not be removed. It is time to use the head lice shampoo and head lice medication. They can be bought over the counter in any drugstores. Some of the known medications are Pyrethrins and Permethrins.

There are also prescription medications recommended by doctors. They are to be used with caution. Doctors stressed that the person who will use these types of treatment should follow the instruction carefully. When the product is misused it can be toxic and harmful especially for kids.

When my sister learned about all this information she immediately treated the head lice infestation. She opted to use the home remedies because she has a small child. She also made sure that all the things used by her children would be properly cleaned to rid of the hair lice.

As I was surfing on the internet yesterday, I stumbled into a site that showed lice pictures. All of a sudden, I remembered a story about my childhood friend, Kate. Kate had head lice when we were kids. I remember how much she hated it. The other kids didn’t want to play with her and her head wouldn’t stop itching. Her mom, Eden, was so confused and felt really helpless because they tried practically everything and nothing worked for her.

Looking at these lice pictures now, I can’t help but be scared at how close I came to getting head lice too. I felt sorry for her and I wished I didn’t have to stay away from her. But my mom insisted that I don’t hang out with Kate while she still had lice. And as I continued browsing through the site, I was surprised to that you could get lice in your pubic hair too! They looked really disgusting and the thought of these pests crawling through my head is enough to make me lose my appetite.

Another thing I learned was that lice infestations can vary from mild to severe. Mild infestations are common among childhood and teenage years. Mild infestations are easy to treat but if left untreated it can worse and become a severe infestation. I saw pictures of a severe infestation and it was too disgusting to look at. I can still remember the image I saw, visible red spots due to constant itching on the nape of the neck. And if you scratch too much, you could cut the skin and cause an infection.

It was so shocking to know how fast these little pests could reproduce.   Lice can lay 15-17 eggs but they can lay eggs twice after one mating session. That’s 34 eggs for just one louse.

And if you think adult lice are disgusting, what until you hear what the lice eggs, or nits, can do. These eggs attach themselves to the hair shafts. They are grey or brown in color when laid and then they turn yellow to white after they hatched. They look like dandruff but the difference is that you can’t wash them off, not matter what shampoo you use.

After 6 – 7 days, these eggs will hatch into little critters known as nymphs. These nymphs are about a millimeter in size, like a small ant but with big stomachs. They feed on blood for 15 – 17 days until they become adults and be for the mating process. Wow! A single pair of female and male lice can turn into an army in a month.

But how do we get lice? Lice are wingless creatures so they can’t actually fly from person to person. They usually spread from either direct or indirect contact. When we say direct contact, this means you came in contact with someone who has head lice like hugging. Indirect contact is would happen when you borrowing things from an infected person, like his cap, comb, or clothes.

There are lots of treatments available for head lice. The first thing that comes to mind when you think of like treatment would be lice shampoos. These shampoos were quite effective before but now head lice have developed a resistance to the medication to these shampoos. So when you use them there’s no assurance you’ll be 100% lice-free.

There are also creams and lotions that can kill both lice and its eggs. But these treatments can sometimes contain hazardous chemicals and can be dangerous if not used correctly. These treatments have been known to cause side effects like scalp damage or allergies in some people.

Now, let’s talk about safe, home remedies. Do you know that a lot of these remedies can be found in your kitchen? Vinegar is very effective against lice and nits because of its main ingredient, acetic acid. Acetic acid can dissolve chitin, the protein that forms the protective exoskeleton of lice and their eggs. Soaking your hair for just 30 minutes is enough to get rid of lice and its eggs. Olive oil is also effective as this would drive away lice from your head because of its smell.

Last but not the least, nit combs! Nit combs are very important in treating lice infestations. Getting rid of lice eggs is very essential as these are the toughest to eradicate and the cause of severe lice infestations. Using nit combs after the desired treatment is very much recommended to make sure head lice don’t come back.

Looking at those pictures of lice on the internet really gave me the creeps. Looking at them made me realize I had to be vigilant so I’ll never catch head lice. No matter how disgusting they are, maybe I should keep lice pictures on my computer. Just to remind me of what I should do to avoid them and what I can do to stop them when I do get infected.