Head lice and the clean hair - dirty hair question.
Oh dear, I spoke too soon in my praise of
Dr Dana Whitten in my Blog a couple of
days ago. No, the good doctor’s article on the
realities of head lice and their treatment
is still a gem but the next article I
received felt like a sock to my stomach.
A single line in an article on head lice
in The Springfield News-Leader, entitled
“When kids get lousy, lice do a number
on parents’ heads, too”
written by Doreen Nagle did an astonishingly
bad deed to loving parents all over America.
This is the short paragraph it appears in-
“The head louse (pediculus humanus capitis)
is a human parasite, and more than 6 million
people get them each year. It’s caused by
not keeping your child’s hair clean enough.”
Parents, how did that make you feel?
Like head lice are your fault?
Like, if only you were better parents this
wouldn’t happen?
The statement above is just plain wrong
and can only feed in to the ignorance and
prejudice surrounding head lice.
Let’s get some clarity here.
Head lice are not caused by anything or
anybody. They are a normal part of the
natural population of this planet.
No one asks, “What causes Giraffes?” Do they? No.
So why state that something causes head lice?
No-one’s actions causes head lice to pop up out
of thin air.
Head lice move from hair strand to hair
strand using curved hooks on their short legs.
When two kids get their heads together when
whispering secrets, sharing a hug or reading
together their hair strands get so close
together that a head louse can catch hold
of a strand on the other kid’s head. Bingo!
A new case of head lice.
Did the cleanliness of the hair of either
child have any influence on this exchange? No.
Did the louse investigate how clean the new
head was before moving on to it? No.
Once on to this new head of hair the louse uses
it’s uniquely adapted hooked legs to hang on tight.
Head lice are perfectly adapted to the shape
and size of human hairs, so much so that they
can only live and thrive amongst the hair of
the human head.
But surely good parents wash their kid’s hair
frequently and the lice would be gone
wouldn’t they? No. Washing hair with shampoo
has no effect on head lice or their eggs
whatsoever.
Head lice can seal up their breathing holes
and hold their breath for up to 30 minutes
and don’t slip or slide off due to the barbs
on those little hooky legs of theirs.
The glue that holds head lice eggs to the
hair shafts is left completely unaffected
by shampoos and soaps.
So washing and scrubbing will only produce
and extremely clean hair that is still
infested with lice and eggs.
In summary, keeping your kids hair clean
has no effect on them getting or not getting
head lice and does nothing towards removing
head lice once they arrive.
Blaming the arrival or presence of head lice
on a lack of cleanliness is irresponsible,
unhelpful and potentially very damaging to
the self-esteem of both parents and children.
Head lice are a normal part of being human,
they come, they go and we just have to deal
with them.
A simple programme of gently removing both
the lice and eggs is all it takes to manage
this problem.
Manually removing lice and eggs needn’t be
very time consuming. Using a gently combination
of ultra fine combs and NITMIX Wet Combing Aid
a head of hair can easily be combed under
10-15 minutes. There is no need to spot
individual lice in the hair because that
will come out along with all sorts of debris
once trapped in the lubricating blend of
Essential Oils.
While I am sure there was never meant to be any
malice in the article bad advice seems to find
a way to get around all on it’s own and is hard
to kill off once it is out there, much like
head lice i’m afraid.
John Owen
NITMIX Ltd
Head lice treatment and advice from NITMIX. The All Natural Head Lice Removal System, F.D.A Registered too!