27.8.08

A louse in your house?

This will have you scratching your heads for sure. I’ve just had an email from the barnehage to say that the third national Campaign Against Lice has started. One of the objectives is to have children turn up for school and barnehage on September 1, lice-free, so combs at the ready. Oh, how this brings me back.
When we lived in Manila, and the girls were two and half, and one, I discovered some small-winged creatures in Caoilin’s hair and set about eradicating the beasties from both girls’ mops, as well as my own and that of our household staff. My follically-challenged husband was overseas at the time so in no danger.
I wasn’t keen on chemical shampoos for delousing so I followed the advice of an Indian friend: mix a few drops of eucalyptus oil with coconut oil and comb it through the hair with a delousing comb. I did this several times (for the children;the staff did their own hair) and it worked a treat. In fact we’ve never been troubled by headlicesince, a testament to good luck I suspect rather than any hair hygiene measures.
After our louse incident, I starting paying attention to the brushes used at the hairdressers which I frequented twice a week in those halcyon days of affordable high maintenance. The following conversation occurred soon after, no kidding:
ME (eyeing up obviously dirty brush, thinking of creepy crawlies recently gleaned from daughter’s head): Er, do you mind using a clean brush please?
HAIRDRESSER: What’s wrong with this one?
ME (smiling sweetly): It’s not clean.
HAIRDRESSER (getting stroppy): But it’s only hair?
ME (still smiling sweetly whilst gritting teeth): Yes, but its other peoples’ hair!
HAIRDRESSER slams brush into sink and makes a very exaggerated gesture of getting another equally hairy brush from the shelf.
ME thinks: some day I’ll live somewhere else where I can’t afford to go to the hairdressers twice a week and look back on this moment fondly. How right I was.
Anyway, in Manila, I also consulted http://www.headlice.org/ for advice and I am glad to see that it’s still going strong. In fact the website declares September to be Headlice Prevention Month no less.
Scratching your head yet? I am.

3 comments:

beaverboosh said...

Hey thanks J, I am not sure what I am going to do with this information, but I am grateful.

The housewife said...

Well now I've learned something new. I'll give that a try this autumn. Since we moved to the UK the boys come home with nits every October! It drives me insane. The schools are not allowed to inform the parents???

Fortunately they have short hair so I find out really quickly. My hair is long so I'm paranoid.

Somebody told me to use balsam and leave it in for 20 min (the lice hate the slimy balsam). Then comb and rinse. I find that really works but you have to do it at least every 10 days. Drown the little f&*%$*s in goo!!!!!

Aargh where's that balsam now,I'm itching......

Unknown said...

BB- you're welcome.
Caroline- I'm amazed that schools are not allowed to inform parents. We get letters several times a year informing us of lice outbreaks. Scratch, scratch.