Head Lice Cometh

See this cute little baby that looks like she just had her thumb up a light socket? That’s me. And see the blond bombshell holding me? That’s my Ma. Or as she will later be known as, “The Lady Who Had To Comb Head Lice From The Head Of Four Little Girls With Super Thick Hair Down To Their Arses.” Poor Ma.

Our head lice was different from modern head lice. Ours was early 1970’s head lice that died when you dumped pesticides on children’s heads. I can remember being bent over my grandmother’s sink being shampooed and combed out, swearing that this was all my little sister’s fault. I didn’t bring it home. They found it on her head. I was an innocent bystander. Woe is me. Etc. Etc.

I don’t remember getting lice again. I don’t remember it being like I hear it is now, when our clients try again and again to get rid of them, lured into a false sense of security because they treated them at home with the shampoos and then two weeks later…SHAZAM!…..more head lice. Ma combed us out and that was the end of it.

We are very busy women, The Lice Aunties. Some days more than others, in surges of busy. But when we get hit, its bad. It’s a tidal wave of vermin. Because it is very very rare to find one case of head lice in one classroom. Usually its 1 client with lice, then maybe their siblings and then a whole bunch of others from the same classroom because there was really 2 or 3 cases whom thought that they could treat it with pesticide shampoo and the others would never catch on that…THEY HAD LICE.   Only those pesky head lice have developed a resistance to the pesticides, the combs in the kits were substandard so the parent didn’t comb out the nits (and maybe some bugs) from the head thoroughly and the kids are back out there, incubating a whole new generation to crawl onto their neighbors.

The good news is that we give head lice way more power than they actually have. None of the Lice Aunties have contracted head lice since we have been working there. Oh sure, we have been worried, but the longer you treat people, the more you know how head lice operate. We know our enemy. We have seen clients learn to properly assess their own situation when their children have been exposed and treat them before an infestation ensues.  And if they do come in with a dose of cooties, we send them home clean with instructions on how to deal with the residual effects of infestation in their homes and teach them precautionary tactics.

Yes it is not in the imaginations of those inflicted. There does seem to be more than when we were kids. Old methods don’t work as well but head lice still don’t possess super powers. And they aren’t bed bugs…

For more information on services please go to www.liceaunties.com

 

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