After posting my list of relaxing activities I wanted to pursue over the semester break, I was confronted with a slight side track last night - head lice. Anyone who's ever had the delight of being introduced to these irritating little blood-sucking creatures will feel my pain.
After weeks of No. 1 Son complaining that his head was itchy and searching and searching through his hair on many, many occasions and finding absolutely nothing, I came to the conclusion that he had some sort of determatological condition of the scalp - so I bought him the appropriate Neutrogena shampoo. This seemed to stop the itching for a day or two and then it was back on. I thought maybe it was because he does a lot of sport, so every time he had training, I told him to wash his hair. Then last night TD No. 1 came to me begging me to check her hair because she too was itchy. After searching and searching through her hair, I thought I saw a little egg. I dashed down to the chemist which was just about to close, just to be sure it wasn't what I thought it was.
Once I put the lotion on both their delightful little blonde heads, it became very, very clear they had nits!!! I bet you're scratching your head now as you read this, aren't you? Even as I was in the chemist talking to the pharmacy assistant about the best solution, we both started scratching our heads. Anyway, long story short...I spent all night doing all our heads, and washing sheets, pillow cases and towels. Thank goodness it was only the two of them that had an orgy of nits amongst their thick locks.
I remember when I was at school, we had a nit nurse that used to come around and check our heads regularly (usually during the spring months of September/October). I also remember the shame on the faces of the little urchins that were sent home with head lice. In those days, it was thought that only dirty people attracted head lice. Nowadays, they say the little critters love clean hair. Yes, that's it - my children have extra clean hair - hence the nits!!! I'll take that.
I honestly don't know what sort of hair they like - all I know is that they're a pain in the butt to get rid of! And a nice little start to my relaxing semester break!
Ooh I feel your pain or itchy head! We had a visit from them a couple of years ago, teen girl bought them home - I thought only infant school children go them. The annoying thing is that the chemical shampoos ruin coloured hair ... so I spent hours painstakingly combing through mine with tea tree conditioner - the blighters don't like that apparently!
ReplyDeleteI know - the stuff I used didn't have so many chemicals and was primarily tea tree based. I just about drowned myself in the stuff, but my beautiful bleached locks fared pretty well! Scratch, scratch!!
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry that happened. I guess they have made some improvements from the harsh-smelling chemicals and comb I had to use on my daughter. What a pain that was! I hope it is over with soon for you.
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