Conform or Not Conform: An Embarrassing, yet Well-Known household “Guest”
by Imane Fawzy Nofal
I plucked it out in disbelief … was I wrong, or was what I was looking at locked in between my index finger and thumb what I thought it was? I headed to the sink. Let go my fingers. And it was no lie. I felt my heart beating fast. I looked at the tiny six legged insect. I was not dreaming. What I had just plucked out from my boy’s hair was a big louse!
I was shocked and disgusted … as any mother would!
I have had lice twice in my whole life but it never occurred to me that it would happen to boys too. I remembered the fear and feelings of shame, the struggle in combing out my hair every single day, the terrible smell of that spray named ‘licid’, the eggs, the itchiness … etc. Everything was just terrible then. And NOW!
“So, what should I do?” I stood there wondering.
The mere thought of head lice didn’t fail to invoke feelings of embarrassment one had experienced as a child … even as an adult. “I can’t tell anyone about this,” was my tip #1 for self. In this particular situation, I decided I was going to conform to what society sees as shameful. I couldn’t see myself meeting up with a friend and saying, “Oh, I had a terrible night fighting lice!” the same easy way I would say “Oh, I had a terrible night fighting cold”. Cold is ok. Lice is not. Cold is a good disease. Harboring lice is a bad disease.
Tip#2 was to research for natural ways to get rid of what I was now referring to as “that thing”. “Google my haven, here I come.”
Tip#3 was getting rid of them surely and immediately … this was not going to be a part of our lives for long, I decided.
Through research, I found out that lice are only transmitted through human to human contact (and are particularly common in children). They do not emerge from dirt. Oh, thank God, we aren’t dirty then! The challenge is that a louse matures in a very short time: 10 days! So I had to move fast and break the cycle so that the lice did not have enough time to lay eggs. Oh, how I wish all the eggs in my boy’s hair were male!
I also read that tea tree oil is very effective in deterring the lice because they hate its smell. Oily hair is a good thing too because lice would find it hard to glue their eggs to the hairs. Blowing the hair dry kills the eggs too. And thus started our daily routine:
- 1. Washing all family members’ hair (infested or not) with a good quantity of tea tree oil shampoo.
- 2. Blow drying hair thoroughly after each bath.
- 3. Combing out the hair with a narrow teeth comb to loosen up and get rid of them.
- 4. Greasing the hair with coconut oil.
I have come up with my own tips:
- 1. Ironing sheets and pillows every morning.
- 2. Using towels on hair once and then throwing them into the laundry basket.
- 3. Changing clothes everyday.
- 4. Washing laundry on maximum heat.
Publishing this article as well is a way of non conformity with society’s views. Lice is not a shameful thing. We are called to share information that could benefit others even in its ugliest forms. Society, I am not conforming.
Imane Fawzy Nofal is a translator, News Reporter, Copywriter, Editor, Proofreader (Arabic<>English) and mother of twin boys. She is an Egyptian living in Bahrain and blogs at Express It 2 Live It. Imane regularly shares her thoughts on human interactions and real life experiences through her DUNIA Mag column Express it by Imane. Imane’s first language is Arabic.
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