What??? My Daughter Has LICE!!!

A few months ago my 9-year-old daughter and I went in for joint haircuts. I went first since my daughter never cares for this particular grooming event.  When it came time for her haircut, it was less than a minute before the sylist whispered to me that my daughter had lice.

What???  My daughter has lice!!!

Wow, I couldn’t believe it! I was absolutely mortified, shocked, scared and embarrassed. How could my kid have lice? My family doesn’t live in a pigsty and we keep clean. Then I chalked it up to public school and all the other heads of hair my daughter is around all week.

The stylist couldn’t finish the rest of the haircut, saying it was against policy (and rightly so) to cut hair that is infested with lice. She was kind enough to quickly finish cutting my daughter’s bangs, then advised us to head over to Rite-Aid, which was just a couple stores down and pick up a lice treatment kit.

I was thinking, “Oh my god, I’m going to have to get rid of these lice NOW!!! I can’t believe I have to do this. Ok, calm down Laura, you aren’t the first mom to do this. It’ll be OK”.

My daughter’s face, having picked up on our reactions and stares, became flushed and had a genuinely worried look. I told her it would be OK and to not panic. Easy to say, I’m such a worry wart myself.

My daughter and I then proceeded to Rite-Aid and went to the shampoo aisle, but didn’t see any of the lice treatment kits. We then headed over to the pharmacy section and, in an embarrassed, hushed voice, asked the pharmacist where we’d find these kits. She directed us to the medicated shampoo aisle and we were quickly overwhelmed with 4 or 5 different brands of the lice treatment kits. In desperation to nuke these dang lice, and FAST, I started looking for the best, most surefire product. I didn’t care what it cost!

I settled on the Rid Complete Lice Elimination Kit since it had the best sale’s pitch for being the strongest and most effective product.

As soon as we got home, I read the directions 2 or 3 times, then proceeded to get out bath towels, paper towels and a garbage can. Using the deep sink in the laundry room, I had my daughter lean over it with a towel draped around her shoulders to keep the lice shampoo off her clothes. After carefully applying the better part of the bottle of shampoo in her hair, I then rinsed it out. I found this to be a very tedious task since the product seemed to adhere to her hair very well.

I then had my daughter sit in a chair in front of the TV (there was a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon on then) while I ran the lice comb thorough her hair. I found this to be back-breaking work, especially since my daughter’s hair was a few inches past her shoulders and you’re supposed to only comb 1/2″ sections of hair at a time. Oh my god, I wanted to cry at all the work I had before me in order to remove all the lice eggs. It would take FOREVER to get all those eggs out because her hair was infested and there were a couple of lice that had hatched already. I was so grossed out and tired after an hour of working on one very small section of her hair, that I told her I had to cut a few inches off the length of her hair or I’d never get this done. My daughter was very agreeable since she was as desperate as me to rid her hair of the lice.

So 5 HOURS later and 4 inches of hair cut, I had successfully removed all the lice and their eggs. The lice removal kit said a second application was required within 7-10 days, so I planned on doing this the following weekend.  Yippie, I could hardly wait…NOT!!!   After I cleaned up all the mess from the lice removal, I made sure to strip all the bedding and wash the sheets and blankets as well as all the clothing in the house.  What a job!!!  I then sprayed all the mattresses, carpets, furniture and my daughter’s backpack, hats and gloves with a can of RID Spray. This stuff is stronger than the lice shampoo in that it kills the eggs. The shampoo says it’s supposed to kill the eggs, but it really only kills the lice that have hatched. This is why you have to comb the eggs out of the hair after you shampoo.

Anyway, after all this I went upstairs to take a shower and when I looked in the mirror to see if I had any lice, I was mortified once again to see one or two of the lice eggs. After all, I was now an expert in detecting lice, I’ll have you know. Unlike dandruff, lice eggs do not move on the hair. Instead they stick to the hair shaft.

To make a long story short, after approximately two weeks and two lice shampoo treatments later for my daughter and I , I was 100% confident our hair was finally free of the lice and their eggs. I also checked my husband’s hair, which is all of 1/2″ long and he was free from any of the critters as well. His hair was so easy to check since it was so short, which of course would have saved me HOURS of time if we’d had a boy. Ugh!

I still look at my daughter’s hair now and then and I’m happy to report that a few months after the intial incident, she is still lice free! Yeah!!! I don’t care to repeat that ever again in my life. That was way too much work.

I’m wondering if any of you have experienced a lice infestation in your family or know anybody who has and how it was tackled.  I’d be happy to hear your stories.

LESSON LEARNED: Don’t panic about lice. They aren’t going to kill you!

Tagged as: children, grooming, hair, kids, lice, school