Look closely, a louse is jumping onto my head!!!!
My scalp was unusually itchy. Even on the mountain top I had tried to ignore it, but finally there was no denying that something was wrong. The constant itching was driving me mad!?
I stood scratching my head one afternoon, chatting with one of my Tahitian friends.
“Poux?” He asked, pointing to my head.
“Poo?” I repeated back.
“Poux.” He said again.
“Poo?” I didn’t understand. He motioned me closer and I leaned over for him to have a look. He fingered through my hair and then confirmed,
“Poux….Les enfants. Aller au pharmacie, acheter le shampooing. C’est facil.”
I didn’t understand until I made it back to my French dictionary aboard Swell, where I was revolted to read, ‘pou, (pl ~x) /pu/ nm louse’.
What!? How had I managed to get head lice? I thought back what my friend said, “…les enfants…” I had been spending a lot of time with the kids lately. The little ones especially liked to crawl all over me.
Speaking of ‘crawling’, I quickly looked up ‘lice’ on the internet and was further appalled when a magnified photo of one of them popped up on my screen! They were miniature monsters! It was too late to make it to the pharmacy before it closed that day, so with a sigh and a scratch, I confined myself to quarantine aboard Swell for the rest of the day.
- It took 6 washes over a week to get rid of them…ugh.
5 Comments
happy bd Liz!
You make me laugh and thats a great thing. Thank you very, very much.
Okay, no shame in lice. I lived in Wales for three years and lice were a commonplace problem for both children and adults. There’s a lot of urban legend out there concerning these pesky critters so beware. Fact is that they are transmitted from head to head only, often from children to adults. No such thing as an infestation in the house or the boat. While toxic shampoo cocktails will do the trick they are really unnecessary. The best and healthiest cure is this:
1. Shampoo the hair and rinse as normal.
2. Condition the hair using more conditioner than usual.
3. Using a very fine comb and enlisting the help of a friend comb out the little critters! This is fairly easy to do. Take your time and get them all!
4. Rinse as usual.
5. Here’s the important part: 2-3 days later repeat this process to catch any lice that may have been born from eggs. At this point they are large enough to comb out but too young to lay the next generation.
6. If you got them all you are guaranteed lice-free! And without the chemical exposure to yourself and the environment.
Too bad there is such a social stigma in the US concerning lice infestation, a problem that has plagued civilizations since the dawn of time! Shocking maybe the first time, but easily remedied.
Good luck Lizzy!
Hilarious and aptly named poo! Love it!
EWWWW! LOL