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What Drives a Mummy to Drink? L.I.C.E.

by

A couple of weeks ago, my son caught my full attention at dinner when he dropped his fork into is plate with a clatter, and scratched the back of his head with both hands, full force.  I was all, Huh?  What the devil is the ma… NOOOOOOOOO!!!  I ran over to him and cleaved his massive ‘fro with my hands, and started checking his scalp.

A million thoughts were racing through my mind.  Had he been scratching like this for a while?  Had I failed to notice before this?  There had been notes about head lice that came home from school at the start of the year… it’s a usual thing… but wait. Wait!  What am I looking for?  What are the signs?!
I looked and looked at his scalp, but what I saw was some dandruff, mostly agitated by scratching, I thought.  I was due to wash his hair.  It’s a weekly thing.  (If you saw his hair you’d understand why – the task is EPIC.)  And there wasn’t time to wash it that evening, so it was to be the next day…
In the morning, as he stood brushing his teeth and scratching around his ear with his free hand, I looked at his scalp again.  I really didn’t know what I was looking for… while he was at school, I scoured the internet for information.
Nits (eggs) are usually found close to the scalp, attached to a single strand of hair, especially around the ears and nape of head.  Live bugs can be killed with treatment solutions found in most drug stores, but nits must be removed one by one…
Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.
As soon as I fetched Oliver from school, I had another good look at his head, in the natural light of day… and my heart sank.  Nits are teeny-tiny… whitish, like a hair follicle only smaller, and are stuck to hairs with the permanence of super-glue… and they were in all the places described in my readings, and more so.  And once, I actually saw something… scuttle.
*shudders*  Pass the wine, please.
Listen.  I’m a mother.  I can stomach all kinds of gross things like vomit and poop.  I can deal with blood (though thankfully, such incidents have been minor and very few – touch wood!)  And being a science-minded person, I know better than to feel all “dirty” about this situation.  It happens.  Lice happens.  It plagues families all the time, especially around the back-to-school time of year.
But still.
Head lice. HEAD. LICE.  They’re bugs.  Bugs!  On my kid!  In his hair!! 
Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.
We went straight to the drugstore and bought the stuff necessary to kill the said bugs.  (Ew.)  My first problem was figuring out how I would ever get that itty-bitty fine-tooth comb through my son’s crazy hair because a) I’ve never even combed it with a regular kind of comb – at least, not since he was a baby, and 2) there was no way combing it would even be a possibility at this point, since I hadn’t washed his hair in a week and it was rats-nesty at best in many places anyway.
Clippers?  No.  Oh hells to the no.
Oliver has the coolest hair.  It’s like tiny little phone cords cropping out all over his head, only very, very tight ones.  They’re also very, very long, since he’s six-and-a-half years old and has never really had a haircut, save for the odd tangled knot that we had no choice but to snip.  When it’s wet, it reaches the middle of his back.  People always remark on it, and want to touch it and pull on the curls.  He looks like a rockstar.

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Regular washing of this hair requires a good shampoo, and then about 45 minutes of working two or three LARGE handfuls of conditioner through his locks, working through the tangles, and getting the curls to stay together.  Afterwards, he’s always tired, but looking glorious.
The treatment said conditioner could neutralize the effectiveness of the stuff, but if I wanted a fighting chance, I really had to use whatever means necessary to work that nit comb through it all… which meant conditioning it one day, and using the treatment the next.
On that first evening, I worked about half a bottle of Pantene conditioner through his hair, using smaller and smaller combs as we went along.  It took about 6 hours.
Six. Hours.
The next day I kept him home from school (of course!) and started working the treatment through his hair.  I was wary about harsh chemicals – there are a host of other treatment alternatives on the net to be found, but frankly, I wanted them gone.  I reasoned I was going to have enough trouble just getting them out of his actual hair, that I didn’t need for the product to be the least bit wives-tale-ish, you know what I mean?
It didn’t smell as bad as I thought it might, but it did strip the nail polish off my fingers as we went along.  And though I saw him at a small table in front of the tv, with a laptop in front of him for playing his beloved Need for Speed racing games, he was boooored… and he whined about when we’d be finished… and how much longer, mummy?…. and are we done yet?!
I worked the treatment through his hair for about 6 hours. And I picked nits for days and days and days after that.  I arranged to have his hair trimmed before his second treatment seven days later.
My baby’s first haircut.  It looked like this:

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By Hedy at Mod’s Hair, Westmount

 
He was brave and didn’t cry at all!  He looked more grown up after his haircut.  *sniff*  I had to leave him to get cash to pay her while she finished up… by the time I got back, all the curls on the floor has been swept up and trashed.  I braved a stiff upper lip and didn’t cry about it.  My baby’s hair…
I have to say, between the washing of ALL the bedding and stuffed animals and jackets and things, vacuuming couches and mattresses daily… holy crap, I was exhausted.  I kept a close check on everyone in the house.  No one could scratch any place above his or her shoulders without me pouncing and searching.  Fortunately, the nits were gone, and Oliver seemed unscathed by the whole ordeal.  He’s too young to have the “stigma” of having head lice affect him.  This is a good thing.
I kept looking through his hair for days and days
… and they were gone.  Nothing but super-shiny locks.  I managed to save his awesome hair!!  I did the happy dance a lot in the days that followed.
Sadly, it came to pass that I was dancing a bit prematurely.
To be continued… 

Comments

  2. Ellamae Pauly says

    Great to be reading your journal again, it’s been months for me. In fact this particular piece is what i have been wishing for so long. I really need this post to finish my university assignment, and your blog post is a nice support. Kudos, great share.

  4. Tracey says

    I read the same thing about tea tree oil, but that it cannot be put directly on skin… I dunno. I’ve read that more than once… but in a spray added to water, it can be very effective. It’s worth a try!

  5. Kath says

    Ahhh Tracey…you poor, poor thing. I await part II with bated breath, and a heart full of dread.
    I had lice as a kid and, like Amreen, I’ll never forget the shampoo and nit-picking. That damn comb! And I have super-straight, super-thin, super-fine hair. I cannot imagine what you and Oliver went through!
    He is an incredibly gorgeous child, and will be so with or without all that beautiful hair. On that note, you should ask Jen about the time the neighbour kid cut all her daughter’s hair off: right down to the scalp! It does grow back, and though the ensuing months may be difficult, hopefully one day you will be able to look back on it with laughter…or at least a faint groan.
    Maybe if you poured a bottle of wine on his head? Oh wait, I think that remedy is to pour a bottle of wine in YOUR head 😉

  6. marcyb25 says

    Not to go off topic here but I read your description of your sons hair and its just glorious….I have a similar texture and have tried every brand of conditioner out there….my hair savior is Suave coconut conditioner…very light on the pocket book and works wonders on natural hair….try it….the hair de-tangling process will be a more pleasant one…. I promise

  7. Amreen says

    OMG. thanks for sharing this story! like so many things, it’s one of those things that no one EVER TALKS ABOUT! first time reading your blog, and i love your frankness. I got head lice when i was 8, and don’t think i’ll ever forget the distinct chemical smell of that shampoo when my dad washed my hair in the bathroom sink. I remember it was green and smelly, but that it worked.
    your son is gorgeous and his hair…to die for. look forward to reading the rest of your story!

  8. Nancy says

    I feel your pain! I lived your pain! It took me and a girlfriend (my husband was busy cleaning everything in sight) 5 hours to comb out my 8 year daughter’s hair before we could even begin to use the nit comb. I used a product called Resultz which recommended conditioning. I left a 1/2 of bottle of conditioner in her hair just so that I could get the nit comb through her. I went through 4 nit combs! For the following 7 days I applied conditioner and comb her hair with the nit comb. I did the same treatment again 7 days later, but this time I decided to keep it in her hair. Her hair is like a huge sponge so it sucked the product up and actually made her hair soft and managable. There were no harmful chemicals. I really struggle and searched the internet before I decided to leave the product in her hair. I actually left it for 3 days. And, I contined using the nit comb religiously. But, I realized that it was passing over the nits! She has so much hair that I couldn’t possibly get all the nits out!
    I kept seeing them as I searched the endless layers of her curly hair. I kept pulling them out. It was endless. I broke down in tears as I did another treatment – her third! The week following that I brought her to have her hair chemically relaxed, blow dried and flat-ironed. There was no way those nits were going to survive.
    This was war! And, I was determined to win! Those nits were going to burn in hell! But, just to be sure that there was absolutely no nits left, I brought her back to the hair salon a week after that to have her hair washed, blow dried and flat-ironed again.
    Now, every day I pour a few drops of lavender on my hands and rub them through her hair. And, off she goes with my never ending warning “Do not touch heads with any of your friends!”

  9. Sherry says

    Oh LORD. We had to deal with lice for the first time this summer and it was a complete and total nightmare. I think I was traumatized because every time I see anyone scratch I panic.
    I heaved a huge sigh of relief when my daughter came home from school yesterday and told me they were doing a lice check on everyone in her grade and that her hair was completely lice-free and nit-free. WHEW. Otherwise I think I would have shaved everyone’s head and lit all our stuff on fire.
    And ditto to momkim about the tea tree oil. Every day I spray a bit of it (diluted with water in a spray bottle) on the “hot zones” to protect all of us from any future invasions. UGH.
    Here’s a glass of wine. 🙂

  10. momkim says

    since I been adding a few drops of TEA TREE OIL to our reg shampoo/conditioner we had not had a head lice problem…In grade school both my girls had waist long hair NIGHTMARE to de lice them.
    Thank you TEA TREE OIL:)

  11. Tracey says

    Oh you’re right… though I don;t drive, so we don’t use the car much – but that’s an excellent tip I might have overlooked – thanks!! Uch. Ew.

  14. malgray says

    LICE freaks me out also….I feel for you, and him!!! Don’t forget to clean his car-seat….they live on everything!!!

  15. Julie says

    i shall have a glass or two and think of you tonight. i am dreading having to go through that….i’m knocking on wood and keeping my fingers crossed…for you and the rest of us….your son is waaay handsome by the way 🙂

  19. Sara says

    I didn’t see the tweet shot…is all his hair gone – my god he is GORGEOUS! With or without hair he’ll be beautiful! ughl – my sister has been battling lice with my niece for a month…just keeps coming back – I told her to shave it off…but she’s still picking and picking. Good luck….

  28. Christine says

    oh dear…I anxiously await the follow up!!
    I can’t even imagine dealing with nits and we’ve dealt with A LOT of blood. A lot. Nits…ugh.