How Do You Prevent Head Lice From ...

[Isis]

getting in your hair? A black, female co-worker of mine said to NEVER let your head touch the back seat of a bus, a plane or a theater seat because previous people sitting there could have had head lice. Now, everytime I go to the movies, this possiblity crosses my mind and I'm careful not to let my head touch the back of the seat. Same thing when I flew on a plane recently. I've never had head lice although I'm considering taking a scarf or something around with me, not to wear on my head, just to put on the back of seats or headrests to protect my head.
What do you do to keep yourself from getting head lice? Do you ever think about it? And what do lice do in our hair anyway?

 

[calbear]

I've really never thought about it but I did sit in a class back in the day and watched the little critters march around the head of a blond student with dreads in front of me

. I couldn't pay an inch of attention in the class cause they were so busy. (sorry - not really an answer but thought I'd share)

 

[Nova]

A few years ago, my best friend daughter's had an outbreak of head lice in her school. My friend told me she wasn't worried about her daughter getting lice because she keeps her daughter's scalp "slathered" with bergamot grease. Therefore, lice wouldn't be able to move/exist because of the grease.

It made sense to me because every time there's been an outbreak in our area, I've yet to hear of an African-American child with a case of head lice. However, this is not to say we can't get head lice. In the meantime, I won't put my head on the back of theatre chairs or plane seats anymore unless I wear a scarf!

Isis, thanks for enlightening us.

If there are any members on this board in the medical field or know someone in this field -- could you please share any info. you may have?

 

[Isis]

Yes, that's an answer Calbear! I've never seen lice moving around anywhere - that must have been quite a sight!

: They must have laid eggs in those dreads! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Isis]

[ QUOTE ]
Nova said:
If there are any members on this board in the medical field or know someone in this field -- could you please share any info. you may have?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's interesting about the greased scalps preventing lice from moving around or existing. I too would like to hear from medical professionals about this.

 

[Aalize]

I remember reading a post on Naturally Curly that said something like black people in North America are not likely to get it because of the shape of the strands of our hair. It also said that the lice in Africa are of a different shape or they adapted or something like that, so the people there have higher instances of getting lice.

 

[Aalize]

When I was in High School my science teacher said never let your skin/hair ever touch anything public like movie theatre/bus/etc seats, because of the germs. I guess the same could apply to lice.

 

[Ipanema]

I read somewhere that lice are about the size of sesame seeds. If I ever got lice, I'd have to shave my head or something. I can't imagine having live bugs living on me...

 

[AngelaP]

I read something years ago that stated that the reason why African-Americans rarely get lice in the U.S. is because the lice we have over here cannot attach themselves to our curly roots....their "habitat" is the straight hair of other races.

However, in Africa, the lice there is of a different kind and have adapted to the hair there and they have cases of lice.

 

[Lindy]

I remember when I was in college, we heard that one of the girls in our dorm had head lice... I was concerned but I remember one of the girls on my floor saying "we don't have to worry about that; with the chemicals we use on our hair, they'd all be dead anyway!!"

Which doesn't really make sense, cuz we don't relax every week!!

 

[GodMadeMePretty]

The grease has the effect of smothering the lice so that they don't last long enough to take up residence and have other babies. Arthur had an episode on lice recently - about sharing hats, scarves, combs, etc. My daughter watched it and I used it as further support for my telling her to never let anyone at her school play in her hair - they were playing barbershop one day.

 

[cutebajangirl]

Lice here in the states do not like the texture of Afro hair nor can they survive in relaxed hair because of the products we utilize.

 

[Isis]

[ QUOTE ]
GodMadeMePretty said:
The grease has the effect of smothering the lice so that they don't last long enough to take up residence and have other babies. Arthur had an episode on lice recently - about sharing hats, scarves, combs, etc. My daughter watched it and I used it as further support for my telling her to never let anyone at her school play in her hair - they were playing barbershop one day.

[/ QUOTE ]

That was a good idea for her to see that episode. I read that children are most likely to get lice because of how they play.

 

[cherricola]

As a Public Health Nurse for several years, I have checked many a school child's head for lice and have seen the eggs and in some cases I have seen the little bugs running around in the hair, but there was never an African American child involved.
It is true that those little bugs do not like the products we use in our hair or the techniques we use for styling our hair (pressing, chemicals).

 

[shoelover1972]

I have always been paranoid about resting my head against train, plane seats etc just of the fact that there are so many nasty people out there!!! Thanks Isis for pointing this out - I never thought about the lice issue though.

When I was at school there was an 'outbreak' of headlice and not one black child (including moi)had it. It has always been common knowledge in the UK that lice cannot survive and therefore do not 'like' our hair.

 

[sereia]

I had headlice once when it was spread in my school and my sisters too (it still itches when I think of it!) At that time we had our natural 4a/3c hair so at least German lice are able to survive in our hair.

 

[Guest]

Hmm, I never heard of a black person having lice before so that was something that I never worried about.

 

[diamondlady]

Black people don't get head lice. That's what I've been told and that's what I believe. I've never heard of a case of head lice in Black people. It has nothing to do with the curl in our hair, because blacks can get body lice. I have been told that it is the products we use. I've been told it's the lack of the natural oils (some other races have very oily hair and the less they wash it the oiler it gets)

I'm not sure which it is, I'm just glad. I itch just thinking about it.