Lice, no way back

LegacyUser

Hi, myself and my boyfriend I have just spent a lovely holiday with my friends.

Everytime I spoke to one of the girls with whom I'm quite close but not VERY close, she kept looking at my hair. When I wasn't looking there she was staring up at my hair. Again and again she did it so I kept this unusual distance from her because it started to freak me out. I have dandruff I've always been self conscious about, but this time it was different.

My hair WAS unusually itchy the past two weeks, so as soon as we got home I just got worried because the itching actually woke me up from sleep. I went into the bathroom just brushing my hair out over the stink to try find what it was and two little red insects came out of my hair. I looked at them when i got the shock of my life: LICE.

I ran to the chemist and got this stuff and left it in for 12 hours. after washing it I combed out my hair with the metal thing and nothing came out, nothing anywhere, i suppose I had washed them out with the special treatment.

I'm sure my friend knows and had seen them in my hair but just didn't say anything to me.

How will I ever face her again? Or anyone else? What if she told the others in our group?

I'm really starting to worry. I treated my boyfriend too, and we practically fumigated our entire house, washing everything in sight.


I'm so embarrassed and shamed

Canard

Dont worry! Everyone has had lice at some stage. Maybe she was just being careful they didnt swing into her hair, or maybe she was trying to be polite by not telling you - she might have thought you already knew and didnt want to upset you.

The important thing is theyre gone now. It's like the chicken pox, everyone goes through it.

LegacyUser

Thank you for the message,

I am so scared as to whether I should tell her I had them, or just keep my mouth shut, she might not ever want to be beside me again in any situation in case she thinks i still have them. I hate this.

I want to move cities, it's that bad how I feel. I'm trying to take the "it's normal" pitch with myself but it's just so difficult, I don't want to go out for a long long time now... I'm afraid that I'll even catch them again, seeing as every girl in the group has got long or medium long hair... I just don't know

calex71

Christ if I noticed this on a pal , I would have called them aside and told them rather than sit there gawking. It would be awkward for both parties but that would be gone now as opposed to what the situation is now. And if we are all adults here all should know lice prefer clean hair and that it is not a sign of bad hygiene and was likely caught form the bed you used on holiday or something.

I wouldn't worry op , I'd drop it into the conversation to clear the air when you meet , something along the lines of "Oh I caught bloody lice from the bed on holidays ....... had to treat me and the boyfriend to the lovely stinky shampoo" and be sure to enforce the point they go for clean hair air is cleared let them say what ever the hell they like after that.If they want to be childish about it so be it. Had a dose myself not so long ago itchy little bast@rds they are

LegacyUser

hey, come on you're being really hard on yourself.

I had headlice once a few years back when I was 18...mortified but I kinda said to a few close friends 'hey look OH MY GOD ive got nits' and well because they were good friends at the time I knew I could trust them not to judge me on headlice..just be honest, if you're friend was any kind of friend she will not even blink an eyelid and ask if your ok etc.

R.D. aka MR.D

You are being to hard on yourself. EVERYONE knows that they only go for clean hair!

But I agree with the other poster if you want to 'clear the air' then say 'oh my god I got nits, i think it was the hotel. Were you ok?'

No one will care.

tenchi-fan

I wouldn't be too worried if I never saw that "friend" again.

If she noticed you got lice she really should have told you.

muboop1

She probably wasn't certain what she saw and didn't want to bring attention in case she wad wrong? Don't fret either way, although you see it as a big deal... It isn't. Live love clean hari, not dirty like people used to think etc. So there should really be no shame in it!

Relax and forget about it

Fittle

OP, I doubt very much she actually SAW the lice on your head. Unless you had billions of them - I doubt you had either, because you would have been much more itchy that 'just a bit'.
I've a son in primary school and himself and all his pals get them regularly, but you rarely (if ever) see them. I just cop when I see him scratching and have to have a proper look for them.
I can honestly say I've never seen lice in anyones hair - so I think you're being overly paranoid. And I'd say if you did a poll here, there are very few people who've actually SEEN lice in another adults here as they stood chatting to them.

Blackdrag

R.D. aka MR.D wrote: »

EVERYONE knows that they only go for clean hair!

That’s correct even though i wash my hair daily iv never had them. i once read that they sometimes they don’t like the oil that some people give off. Don’t know how true it was but that’s probably the reason you only had a few and they didn’t multiply.

Anyways i wouldn’t worry iv knew people in the 30's that have had it.
You can catch them anywhere, shrug it off and have a laugh about it.

mikemac

Yep, they go for clean hair

Everyone gets it as some stage, usually in school with busy classrooms.
The treatment in the pharmacy works, foul smelling stuff but it's effective.

No big deal, certainly no need for you to move cities

LegacyUser

Hey op

don't worry
Maybe she passed them onto you and was trying to figure out a way of telling you, hence the staring at your hair, she was probably trying to see if she had

Easily sortable doesn't even take over night anymore

kelle

OP, don't forget to give your hair a second treatment after 2 weeks to get rid of any hatched fleas (the treatment doesn't remove the eggs).

I had the awful critters in my hair last year, I would treat them but they would come back worse than ever and I was always back at square one!

I wouldn't worry about your friend. I actually caught them from my children who caught them from their school. As a result, a lot of the parents caught them too. There's nothing you can do to prevent them getting into your hair from outside.

By the way, I found this thread very useful in eradicating them completely
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055488769&highlight=head+lice+kelle

bohsboy

Wouldn't get too upset. Can be an awful shock but it's quite common. Thankfully you did'nt find them on another part of your body!

Fittle

Fittle wrote: »

OP, I doubt very much she actually SAW the lice on your head. Unless you had billions of them - I doubt you had either, because you would have been much more itchy that 'just a bit'.
I've a son in primary school and himself and all his pals get them regularly, but you rarely (if ever) see them. I just cop when I see him scratching and have to have a proper look for them.
I can honestly say I've never seen lice in anyones hair - so I think you're being overly paranoid. And I'd say if you did a poll here, there are very few people who've actually SEEN lice in another adults here as they stood chatting to them.

I agree. I've never seen lice in anyone's hair, even when I was looking for them. Perhaps she was looking at your dandruff, or admiring your hair colour, or you're simply being paranoid?

iguana

tenchi-fan wrote: »

I wouldn't be too worried if I never saw that "friend" again.

If she noticed you got lice she really should have told you.

Really? Because if I saw lice on someone's head I'd figure there's a very, very good chance they already know about them and is treating the infection so I wouldn't want to embarrass him/her by saying anything about it.

xzanti

Christ this brings back memories..

I went to the hairdressers a few years back and when the girl went to dry my hair she froze up, went off upstairs for a few minutes, then came back and asked me to " step over to the basin for a minute" didn't even twig, I thought her dryer had broke or something.. Then she leaned in a said my hair "needed to be treated" still didn't twig, I thought she meant I needed a tonic for it or something as it was a little dry at the ends.. when she told me I almost died.. I could feel the blood draining from my face

She said the most likely place I'd have got them was if I was around kids recently.. and I had been at a kids Birthday party the previous week.. It was the first time I ever had them, and hopefully the last..

Every time I go to the hairdressers now I get a horrible sinking feeling, I will never forget the mortification of it.. Never went back there again..

And to make matters worse I had visitors (of the human kind ) that weekend aswel, and they were in my house expecting me to come back witha nice new hairdo as we were all going out that night.. I had to hot foot it to the chemist and then drive to my mothers house with wet hair, treat my hair and get her to dry it before I could go back home.. Picture it.. Nightmare!!

LegacyUser

calex71 wrote: »

Christ if I noticed this on a pal , I would have called them aside and told them rather than sit there gawking.

Yep - I would have also.

I thought I caught fleas a couple of years back - I turned it into a funny story and never worried about what others thought.

It turned out that I didn't have them btw but it wasn't something that one should be embarrassed about.

Cuddlesworth

Sounds more like she found lice at the start in her hair and then was trying to see did anybody else have them.

Stinicker

When I was 12 in primary school I got these and they had hatched and and were friggin disgusting. I only discovered it when my late gran said "has that lad got fleas or what!" and I said yeah there are these things under my nails which I had complained about to my mother and father who brushed it aside as midges with it being summer.

I got some spray called Chinese Whispers and anti lice shampoo and they were soon gone, it was regular to have outbreaks in school and it is nothing to do with hygiene as lice prefer cleaner scalps. It happens, nothing to be ashamed of and I can think of far worse places people get lice!

Therickmachine

R.D. aka MR.D wrote: »

You are being to hard on yourself. EVERYONE knows that they only go for clean hair!

But I agree with the other poster if you want to 'clear the air' then say 'oh my god I got nits, i think it was the hotel. Were you ok?'

No one will care.

That is incorrect according to the makers of Lyclear and the NHS. Lice DONT CARE where they go as long as they have a warm head of hair. They don t care about your age or hair type. The clean hair theory is a popular myth.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Head-lice/Pages/Causes.aspx

ANYONE can get them, take it from a primary school teacher who caught them at the age of 25. When you re around kids they SPREAD, end of story. I can t understand why people freak out. They re a fact of life when you re around kids.

Its really no big deal just go get some Lyclear. I find combing regularly with conditioner helps to prevent this as well.