I NEVER thought it could happen to me: Head Lice!
*Sigh*…Yeah, I’ve always heard of it happening to someone else.
I always believed that “Black people don’t get head lice” and now I know better.
No, it wasn’t ME…it was my youngest, 9-year old daughter. One of her friends had it and although she says she didn’t, I truly believe that my baby broke one of the “golden rules” I’ve always taught my children…NEVER, EVER under any circumstances put someone else’s headgear on, use their combs or brushes or allow them to do the same with YOUR stuff.
But nevertheless, however it happened, it happened.
It was a very disturbing experience, to say the least…seeing those critters crawling in my baby’s head…seeing the nits (eggs) attached to her hair strands.
In case you didn’t know, she HAD locks…6 years of growing them and she loved them dearly…said she was NEVER gonna cut ‘em. But on that dreadful (no pun intended) day…I had to shave my baby’s locks off.
A DESPERATE ATTEMPT
I wanted to salvage them so I did my research and tried every (natural) remedy I could. I put together a concoction of coconut oil, olive oil, neem oil and I even sprayed an all-natural, non-toxic, orange oil-based insect spray on her scalp. I covered her soaked hair with a plastic cap and let it sit for hours!
Then, I washed her hair only to discover, while many of the lice were dead, some were still alive and the nits weren’t going anywhere with that “strategy”.
I knew that one of those combs designed for this sort of thing with those itty-bitty, tightly-compacted teeth were NOT going through her kinky tresses even after I cut the locks but left her new growth.
HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?
So, I ended up cutting it down virtually to the scalp. She cried…once I left her presence, I cried…but my baby girl is strong and she was soon okay with her “loss”. But she *did* beg me to get her a wig…I quickly convinced her otherwise and got her to agree to wearing ponytail headwraps from various old t-shirts we had around. She loves those.
Her hair is growing back very quickly thanks to prayers, genetics and a rosemary essential oil-infused olive oil that I’ve (or rather SHE’S) been applying to her scalp.
In all honesty, I think she looks absolutely ADORABLE with her low-cut TWA (teeny weeny afro) and I’ve tried to convince her of such…we all have! But she is not trying to hear it…she will go nowhere nor allow anyone (aside from immediate family) to see her with her “bald head” as she calls it.
Oh well…she’s her own lil’ woman…I won’t force her.
I went through this with my son too. He was about 8 years old and it took 8 treatments and checking his head daily to pick out nits and any eggs I could see. His sheets and clothing needed to be washed separetly but boiled first. I used Lice MD and the hottest water my son could stand. I did not cut his hair, he begged and pleaded for me to not cut it. Diligence and patience won.
I don’t blame you Cherie, I wouldn’t have been able to stand seeing those little critters in my child’s head either. Kudos to you, Shaneka. Ladies a mama’s got to do what a mama’s got to do.
I hope by now she has length enough to start a new set of locks!
LOL…yes she does! Her hair has grown back beautifully. She had expressed not being ready to go back to locks as of yet, but we’ll see what happens!
I am a school nurse with locks and never thought this would happen to me either. I used the RID shampoo,3- 4 times in the span of a week. Concocted a jojoba,rosemary,peppermint, tea tree shampoo, bagged my whole head in straight vinegar for an hour, and had my sister pick through my hair 8 times. I am now lice free but religiously check my head and my children’s heads daily. Honestly I still see nits (shells from lice eggs) but they are so tiny and barely noticable. I am considering coloring my hair so that I can not see them anymore,I have a trained eye from all the “lice heads” I see at school. I’ve told myself should I be this unfortunate again I”mgoing to shave my head. This is a post I guess for folks who want to save their locks or for future reference. I’m not squimish though. HTHelped someone.
Hi Amanda!
Wow…thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us! I’m happy to hear you were able to save your locs. How mature are your locs? Have you ever considered brushing them to remove the leftover nit shells? Not sure if it’d work or not…just a thought!
Thank you again,
Cherie
My 7 yr/old daughter has sister locs. Two weeks ago we discovered what seemed to be a mild/early infestation since we only found about 5 or 6 live bugs. We washed with RID, which killed everything moving, and waited the initial 8-10 days. After that time nothing seemed to hatch so we thought we were in the clear. I continued to inspect her hair several times daily, and there was no evidence of any problems until today when I discovered live bugs in her hair again. Apparently sometimes the incubation period takes two weeks rather than one, which I didn’t realize.
I also have locs and never came down with lice. For some reason I’m not so concerned about my own hair because I’ve shared the same intimate space with my daughter before and since the infestation with no problem. But her live-in caregiver has very thick traditional locs that she has been growing for 5+ years and is nervous about getting lice and being forced to shave her head.
To make matters worse, I am leaving on an 8-day tour abroad tomorrow, so I don’t have time to do much other than a RID shampoo treatment plus whatever home-remedies I can scare up on the internet. I’ve doused her hair in olive oil and covered it with a plastic shower cap, but I don’t know how I can possibly remove the nits when they seem to be identical to lint particles. As everyone knows who has locks, lint collection is normal. Even after washing, you reintroduce some lint when you towel-dry your hair. My question: how to tell the difference between lint and eggs?
Hi Raya,
Wow, I’m SO sorry to hear of your daughter’s episode.
The way to tell the difference between lint, lice eggs and even the hair bulbs at the end of shed hair strands (which some people sometimes mistakenly think are lice nits) is this:
lint will come off relatively easy; the hair bulbs are found only at one end of the hair strand…at the very tip; nits/lice eggs are usually somewhat oval in shape, pearl-colored, found along the hair shaft but not necessarily at the very tip as with the hair bulbs from shedding and…they are not easy to remove just by using fingertips but would have to be pulled off with your nails to be removed.
Thanks for your comments. Thanks for your ideas about how to get rid of lice. How do I prevent myself and daughter from getting lice?