We get lice, too!
We deal with a lot of head lice in this job. Prevention is our best friend, and we head check each other constantly! Some of our favorite things to prevent lice are :
- Our giant fluffy hats. Jennifer hand makes most of them so that all our hair is covered when we’re messing with people’s hair!
- Lint rollers! We lint roll ourselves a LOT. Lice can’t hold to fabric very well, and this way we can be sure we don’t have lice on our clothes when we take our hats off.
- Tight buns and braids. We keep our hair under the hats, but it’s easiest to prevent little strands from escaping if we have our hair pinned up.
- Preventive spray! One of my coworkers does a little dance every day as she rains peppermint spray down over herself – and anyone standing nearby! It works though, she stays very lice free.
- Head checks. We all have our paranoid moments. Usually, one of us will come in saying we itch and need a head check, and get teased about being paranoid during a good comb out. Then the next week, it’s that person’s turn to be scared!
- Sometimes, we will Treatment Goop a client and send them home. It is important to us to stay lice free, and after a certain amount of bugs in a person’s hair, we will Treatment Goop a client and send them home to wash so they can come back without excess living bugs, and we can protect our employees. This is rare, but does occasionally happen.
Some of what we do is in our own lives. One of my coworkers came in with lice and thought she got it at work. When we checked her child to make sure he was lice free, he was much worse than mom! We do head checks on our families fairly often, just like we advise our clients to do. Head lice are a very easy thing to miss, unless you’re looking closely. Our college students tend to wear their hair up while on campus, and we all are a little wary of hugging people or sharing anything.
Because so many people have head lice, it is important to be careful where ever you are. As my coworker Sarah says, “Constant vigilance!”
