Avoiding lice

[VintageDresses]

There is a girl who sits behind me in one of my classes and she has pretty much always been known to have lice. I am phobic of the darn things and if I got them I don't know what I'd do. I can't move seats because the teacher has assigned them and won't allow anyone to. I was thinking about wearing my hair in a braided bun everyday and using a lice repellent spray. However, I heard that keeping it in an updo won't prevent anything. My scalp is really dry and itchy and it's making me paranoid that I may have them- even though I don't. Any advice on what to do? Thank you in advance!

[inkd]

I feel bad for people with lice. I remember having it as a kid, and always crying when I came home from school because I lost all my friends and people treated me like a monster. :( Contrary to popular belief, lice can't actually 'jump'. Moving seats would just be rude and hurt her feelings.

[CSallaround]

I've heard that oil and the scent of lavender repells lice, but I don't know if it's true.

[roundforest]

I agree with inkd - there has to be contact for the lice to get to you. They can't travel through the air, so just sitting near this girl won't give you lice. She might not even have them herself any more - it sounds like the rumour has stuck, regardless of whether she's been treated or not.

Keeping your hair up sounds like a good idea as then you won't be wondering if strands will float around and make contact with an infected person (though I don't think a momentary contact would actually give the lice time to transfer).

[inkd]

I agree with inkd - there has to be contact for the lice to get to you. They can't travel through the air, so just sitting near this girl won't give you lice. She might not even have them herself any more - it sounds like the rumour has stuck, regardless of whether she's been treated or not.


That's what happened to me, too! Even when I tried to tell people it was gone. Geez, you think you know who your friends are...and then you get lice :rolleyes:

[auburntressed]

Wearing your hair up is a good idea, yes. It won't prevent lice completely, but it will minimize your hair's contact with anything else.

Also, I don't know if you are a CO or WO person or not, but lice love clean hair. The less often you wash your hair, the less likely you are to attract lice. That might sound a little "gross," to some; but I have heard it from a number of sources.

I don't know about the lavender thing, but I'd suggest looking into that and seeing if you can spritz your hair with a lavender spray if it proves to be true.

If the worse should happen, you can try mixing henna with certain other herbs to kill the lice. No need to cut off all your pretty hair. And, I mean... even if you were to use NIX or some other commercial lice medication, cutting your hair is not necessary. When I was seventeen, my brother brought us lice from some of his friends. My hair was just barely past waist length at the time, but I got infested along with everyone else in our home except my mother (who washes her hair maybe once every three months, if that). I didn't cut my hair. I treated it with NIX, then I combed the nits out of every single individual hair. Then my mom went through and did it again for me. Yes, it was time consuming and painful. But it was very worth it, considering how long it takes to grow hair to waist length once it's been chopped.

After my treatments were done, I kept having paranoia about reinfestation. So what I did was I used the good old mayonnaise treatment. Smothered my head in mayonnaise, put it under a shower cap, and slept on it for 8 hours. It stank to high heaven, but it made me feel better emotionally about the idea of reinfestation. I think I did that like three times? Each a week apart. You could try that every so often if you are really scared about getting it/having it. Just be warned that it will smell flipping gross, and you may have to shampoo a couple of times to get rid of that smell.

[Lissandria]

Lice hate oiled hair, too. So my advice is to keep your hair oiled :)

[Mommyof4]

How about a little spray bottle of water with a few drops of tea tree oil and lavender oil in it?? Lice are "supposed" to be repelled by those.. I don't know how you feel about hairspray, but I've always heard that a spritz on your hair will keep them away.. and my mom swears it's true :) She had 4 kids, in public school, with no lice.. even when our friends caught it.. and yes, we had clean hair lol :D

[CSallaround]

That's what happened to me, too! Even when I tried to tell people it was gone. Geez, you think you know who your friends are...and then you get lice :rolleyes:

One of my close friends got lice a year or two back and she told me along with three others of our good friends that she had them. We almost laughed because she seemed so scared that we would be angry with her or something like that, while in reality we had all tried having lice before and knew it wasn't her fault she had them. Poor girl. Luckily it didn't seem like she had 'infected' any of us (yet) because we all went home to check and get a treatment.

Haven't had lice for a long while and I am not sure why, because my younger brothers are still quite young and in school - prone to lice (lol). Maybe I'm using something in my hair that they don't like?

[Milui Elenath]

SNIP but lice love clean hair. SNIP

Sorry but this is absolutely untrue but I think I know how the myth started. Since lice can be killed by smothering them in oil I guess the theory is that they won't like an oiled or oily scalp/hair which I suppose ended up as the wives tale 'dirty hair'. Now it might be true that oily hair repels them but it would have to be very oiled and not just dirty.

The reason I know that lice don't care if hair is clean or dirty is that I work with babies and toddlers. The worst case of lice I ever saw was in a child with very dirty hair (not particularly oily, but dirt, dandruff, food, etc it almost made me cry and I caught them from her too :( ) but I have also seen lice in the cleanest most well looked after hair. Frankly I think lice don't care.

I agree that they can't jump you would need contact and I also believe keeping your hair up is a good preventative. Tea tree oil in your shampoo is also effective IMO.

I do hate lice :shudder:

[white.chocolate]

Useful thread! I'll be following this one. I've never had lice before and I fear getting them one day. The thought of parasites is just :disgust:

I agree with Milui Elenath. If you do some reading around, you'll find that lice are not particularly attracted to clean hair or to dirty hair. They can be found on either hair conditions... which makes it even scarier! shudder: I'll just continue with how I'm taking care of my hair now because I haven't caught them before. I used to live in a tropical country where lice was common. They don't jump, so you can catch them only by direct contact. I used to wash my hair (using my normal routine) twice a week, sometimes more, and my environment would always be clean of dirt.

[pepperminttea]

Is there no gentle way you could broach the subject with her? I feel so sorry for her. :( She may have gotten rid of the lice since the rumour began, don't treat her like a leper. I'm sure she doesn't like lice either.

[furnival]

The "Lice only like clean hair" myth is total codswallop, I'm afraid. It may have been made up to try to lessen the stigma that comes with having lice. I was homeless for many years and had matted, filthy dreadlocks that I never, ever washed, and I was riddled with the blighters. So were many of my friends. We used to kill them by soaking our heads in paraffin (like kerosene) and it was only later that I discovered that we should have been using liquid paraffin (like baby oil) instead... Oops. Lice, like many insects, breathe through their skin, so being coated with oil will suffocate them. It won't kill the eggs though.
As long as you're not rubbing heads with this lass, you won't catch lice from her.

[gazelle]

Lice do not like the lavender smell. Using lavender rinse or lavender eo may help avoiding lice

[ladyshep]

When I was a hairdresser, us gals loved smoothers with silicones because, yes, the lice can't attach itself to slippery hair. We also used a lot of hairspray. We were lice phobics. Anyway, like others have said, use oil.

There is a lice preventing shampoo you can buy at Walmart but it STINKS!

[bouclée]

Henna is said to be good to prevent lice if used regularly. I've heard of several people whose hennaed children never get lice.

[Celtic Morla]

I have found thru exposure that Tea Tree Oil kills them but also seems to repel them. It was the only thing that worked on our DD BCL hair. I also sprayed it in my hair as a preventitive and none of the rest of us got it even though we were all sleeping in the same tent. Just fill a spray bottle with water add about 25 drops of TTO and saturate your hair daily with it.

[cheetahfast]

My former roommate had lice and I didn't get it.

I kept my scalp lightly oiled with tea tree, lavender, and coconut oil.
My hair is always up so it stayed up then too.

I freaked out since we were living in close quarters. If you're not putting your head against hers you should be fine. To be honest me biggest concern was if it got into the couch cushions since she said she thought it was living in her pillow and re-infesting her hair.

This girl might not have lice any more, according to my friend her little sister brings it home form school and they get rid of it with a treatment right away. My roommate didn't treat hers until a few weeks after she got it and she never changed her bedding so I think that is why she had it for so long.

Anyways, I was just trying to say it's not so contagious and that sitting next to her isn't going to make you get lice. If that did, I would have caught it when living with my former roomie.

[inkd]

.Haven't had lice for a long while and I am not sure why, because my younger brothers are still quite young and in school - prone to lice (lol). Maybe I'm using something in my hair that they don't like?

I think it's just that people are less prone as they get older. The experience I was mentioning happened when I was nine years old, not recently.

[inkd]

Useful thread! I'll be following this one. I've never had lice before and I fear getting them one day. The thought of parasites is just :disgust:


The majority of people DO have parasites, mostly intestinal. That's why I drink Aloe Vera gel in my green tea on a daily basis. ;)

[Tapioca]

I use Tea Tree oil in Cricket's misting bottle. About a teaspoon to a six-ounce spray bottle of water. I mist her hair every morning before putting it in a ponytail or bun or whatever, and it seems to be working to keep the buggers away from her. Oh, and I shake the bottle before every use. The oil will separate out and float on the top, otherwise.

[jacqueline101]

I heard rose marry they hate it and it repels them.

[VintageDresses]

Thanks for all the advice guys.
I just wanted to say something though... I used to be good friends with this girl, and I know for a fact she is how I got lice before. It was awful. I know that she still has it as she didn't consider it a big deal when she had it before and she still scratches her head constantly. I most certainly won't hurt her feelings about it because that's just cruel but I still don't want to get them again, you know?

[Kat]

My first question, of course, is: does she actually have lice, or are there just mean rumors going around about her? I can't believe no one else has brought this up.

I remember when I was a kid and another kid would have lice. I don't believe they were even allowed at school until they were treated and inspected and shown lice-free, so even if I didn't have other reasons to figure the rumors were a bunch of BS, I doubt the school would allow her to keep attending with an untreated infestation.

People may scratch their heads for many reasons. I have seborrheic dermatitis and my head tends to itch. Or she may have a dry or sensitive scalp. Just because she didn't freak out about having them before doesn't mean she has them now. If I got them I wouldn't make a big deal out of it either (at least not publicly).

[pepperminttea]

People may scratch their heads for many reasons. I have seborrheic dermatitis and my head tends to itch. Or she may have a dry or sensitive scalp. Just because she didn't freak out about having them before doesn't mean she has them now. If I got them I wouldn't make a big deal out of it either (at least not publicly).

Agreed. I've got psoriasis on my scalp, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't scratch my scalp quite a bit.

[auburntressed]

Thanks for all the advice guys.
I just wanted to say something though... I used to be good friends with this girl, and I know for a fact she is how I got lice before. It was awful. I know that she still has it as she didn't consider it a big deal when she had it before and she still scratches her head constantly. I most certainly won't hurt her feelings about it because that's just cruel but I still don't want to get them again, you know?

As was mentioned already, I don't think they would allow her back in school if she has not been treated. Though it is possible she was never examined by a nurse, and the school never notified if she did have lice. I doubt the administration would act on the word of vicious rumors, which are started by students all the time.

If that is the case, maybe the way to go is to go talk to the nurse about it yourself. Explain to her the history with your friend, and why you feel it is necessary to basically force her to be checked. I would consider that an extreme measure, BUT... if she really, as you say, doesn't think it is a "big deal," then that is a problem. Someone needs to convince her that it IS a big deal, a big enough deal that lice needs to be treated as soon as humanly possible the moment you find out you have it. And if it isn't, she could be infecting dozens of other students inadvertently.

I know a lot of people here have said things about how you have to have direct contact, and that is true. But really - think about how often students bump into each other during the school day. Jostling around between bells, rubbing up against each other, ect. Not everyone in the school is going to be able to avoid ever touching her at all. Not to mention that it will eventually affect her own health if she constantly has lice that she never bothers to treat.

I am sure there is a way for the nurse, or whomever checks for lice, can privately call her into his/her office and discretely speak with her about it.

[inkd]

My first question, of course, is: does she actually have lice, or are there just mean rumors going around about her? I can't believe no one else has brought this up.



Several people have, actually. ;)

[inkd]

I most certainly won't hurt her feelings about it because that's just cruel but I still don't want to get them again, you know?

Getting up and moving away from her would probably hurt her feelings and do nothing to prevent you from getting lice. That's all I was saying.

[oogie]

Notes from school say keep hair up and use styling gel or this stuff called Fairytales. Sally's has it.

There is no shame in getting them, it's keeping them that's wrong. K?

[Kat]

Several people have, actually. ;)

No one has pointed out that it's bloody ridiculous to assume this girl actually has lice just because ONE person knows of rumors going around about her. I saw two posts saying that maybe if she had lice in the past, she might not anymore, but those posts still assumed that she could have them.

I was the only one who said it's probably total bunk. I'm well aware of how cruel kids can be and the rumors they'll start, whether there's a basis for it or not-- even if she'd never had lice in the past, if she's not well-liked, kids will say anything. And again, following the logic, if it were well-known that this girl had lice and she were exhibiting symptoms, I'm sure the school would NOT just let it go and continue to allow her to attend class. This thread has fallen for cruel rumors just as much as the OP has and precious few have bothered to point out to the OP that maybe she shouldn't listen to/buy into everything the other kids say and treat someone like a pariah without proof.

Call me sensitive maybe because I was an unpopular kid and I'm sure may've had nasty rumors going around about me that I didn't even know about, but it sure as hell wouldn't have helped to know that even people who were/had been my friends were falling for the rumors without question, ignoring logic and without even giving me the benefit of the doubt, just because some mean kids said so. (and in the interest of disclosure: I've done the same myself when very young, and I will never stop feeling intensely guilty over doing so and joining the sheeple and adding to someone else's pain.) So no, I'm not going to promote that kind of behavior, which is a mild form of bullying exacerbated by crowd-following, and yes, I'm going to point it out when I see it, and yes, I'm going to wonder about it when everyone else accepts it without question.

[inkd]

No one has pointed out that it's bloody ridiculous to assume this girl actually has lice just because ONE person knows of rumors going around about her. I saw two posts saying that maybe if she had lice in the past, she might not anymore, but those posts still assumed that she could have them.

Probably because this is a thread about avoiding lice, not nasty childhood rumors.
:cheese:

[heidi w.]

There is a girl who sits behind me in one of my classes and she has pretty much always been known to have lice. I am phobic of the darn things and if I got them I don't know what I'd do. I can't move seats because the teacher has assigned them and won't allow anyone to. I was thinking about wearing my hair in a braided bun everyday and using a lice repellent spray. However, I heard that keeping it in an updo won't prevent anything. My scalp is really dry and itchy and it's making me paranoid that I may have them- even though I don't. Any advice on what to do? Thank you in advance!

Wash your hair less. Apparently lice don't take up residency in dirty hair.

Um, the school you are in likely has a policy in place for lice. Lice is a health liability in large communities where people work, attend school and such. In the US, such people are often not allowed to attend school until it's assured the lice is gone.

Oh, and don't use her hair tools such as scrunchies, ponytail holders, headbands nor combs and brushes.

Lice can be a real pain in the arse to get rid of. It can take a while to get rid of it. If this person is under a certain age, she may be living in some nasty conditions that her family might need help with. In today's world, for the most part in the US, there's no reason that lice should be somewhere and being shared.

I once had it as a kid because there was an outbreak at the Girl Scout Camp I attended one summer. Sharing mattresses, and pillows. Time to disinfect!

UGH. it's possible that her attendance with lice may be some sort of health violation of the school's policies. I'd check that out.

heidi w.

[heidi w.]

Um, someone earlier suggested Rosemary. Just to be clear, look for the bottle to say Rosemary, not Rose Marry (no rose is getting married today!). Just wanted to be sure folks knew what to look for on the label.

heidi w.

[heidi w.]

Thanks for all the advice guys.
I just wanted to say something though... I used to be good friends with this girl, and I know for a fact she is how I got lice before. It was awful. I know that she still has it as she didn't consider it a big deal when she had it before and she still scratches her head constantly. I most certainly won't hurt her feelings about it because that's just cruel but I still don't want to get them again, you know?

Scratching one's head could be a sign of other issues such as Seborrheic Dermitatus, Psoriasis, Exzema, or Dandruff to name a few possibilities. Not all head scratching is caused because of lice.

If she keeps coming up with lice, then she needs to be told by a properly licensed person why this is a big health problem, and what she can do at home to prevent it or what to do if she has them.

Now I understand the question regarding are we sure this person really indeed has lice.

Hmmm.

Almost all schools, I'd say, in the US, have clear policies regarding public health problems, lice being key for schools.

heidi w.

[heidi w.]

If one plans to give Lavender a try, know that there are different kinds of lavender. This may make a difference in what works or not. I don't know enough to know an answer unequivocally.

heidi w.