3 months in Lice Land

One evening, while helping with bath time at "Beatings R Us", I noticed a small bug crawling near Sarah's hairline. Not wanting to cause panic or listen to incessant teasing the rest of the evening, I picked it out of her hair and squashed it between my fingernails. I had a lot of training for this as my Maltese-Poodle mix at home enjoyed running around in flea prevalent areas.


After the bath, I went to alert their mother. She was very upset and quickly judged that it had been a louse (look at me using the correct terminology!) It seemed the girls had gotten lice sometime in July and they had already spent most of their summer washing linens and picking through hair strands. Now that it was September, they must have picked it up at school - knowing what I do now, I'd say it's probably more likely they never got rid of them. In a society that is obsessed with the organic remedy, this family refused to use a chemical treatment. This should've come as no surprise seeing as how they didn't even have a microwave! The remedy instead would be "Rosemary Repel" shampoo...


Criminally, they charge $25 a bottle and it never worked! Both girls slept in the same bed, both girls got lice. When one would get rid of hers, the other would spread her little crawlers to her sister overnight. (Is your head itching yet?)
I worked for this family 3 nights a week. Every night, for 3 months, I bathed and shampooed both girls and then picked the lice and eggs from their head. On some nights, I even checked their parents, if they were feeling particularly itchy. For 3 months! Occasionally, I would find notes from the school in the girls' binders saying someone in the class had lice and to make sure to check your children so they do not spread it to other children. More than once, Sarah was sent home from school because she was caught scratching her head and incredulously checked soon after. I even had my own head checked twice by the nurse at my college because I was getting so paranoid about the situation. I have a TON of hair. Most people who have thick hair say that, but honestly, I've never been to a salon where the hairdresser didn't bring others over to the sink to see how my hair filled it. If I had gotten lice, who would've picked them out of my hair?

Certainly, not my super macho, boston-tastic, male, roommate! When December rolled around, the same week I got hit in the face, I had finally convinced the mother to buy Nix and try it. I am almost positive, my own personal story about how my mother used it on me when I was only 5 years old ("and look at how well I turned out!?") sealed the deal.


I'm not sure how it all ended up working out because I quit shortly after the switch to potentially effective treatment but I would not be completely surprised if those girls were still scratching their heads. GROSS!

- sam