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AIBU?

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Original poster

To shave my head to get rid of lice?

257 replies

HairIsOverrated · 10/11/2025 11:49

Tldr: I've probably got lice (though not 100% sure), I'm struggling to get rid of them and I want to stop wasting so much time and effort on this issue. I just want to cut/ shave my hair but I can't go to a hair dresser to get a proper short hair cut. If i just shave my head I'm worried about what other people think.

Ds brought lice home from school about a month ago. No problem. We used hedrin twice, wet combed a few times and that got rid of them. Unfortunately, he seems to have passed them on to me. I found one louse about a month ago in my hair and a few nits. My hair is slightly longer than ahoulder length but very, very thick. It's a nightmare to wet comb. It takes me over an hour and im pretty sure im missing large chunks of hair.

I have used hedrin shampoo 4 times now and once lyclear. I wet comb every few days but I still have nits and my head itches like crazy. After thst initial louse I never found another one but I am pretty sure that's because of my lousy wet combing technique. Im just not getting to all the roots. Dh thinks it's just dandruff or dry skin or thst my scalp is irritated from the constant treatment but I think I've still got lice. My head itches non stop. I have got a rash on my forehead and my neck and I csj still find nits on the nit comb (yup, it's a nitty gritty).

Anyway lice or not im just fed up of it. Im fed up of the wet combing, having to wash bedding and all my clothes all the time and I don't even properly hug my kids anymore because im so scared of passing the lice on to them. I just want to grt rid of this problem. Ideally i would like to just cut my hairvery short to.make wet combing easier but i can't even go to a hair dresser to get a proper short hair cut because I'm sure no hair dresser wants someone with a potential lice infection. So my only option is to use a long hair trimmer at home.

Dh shaves his head so why csnt I?

I dont care what i look like but I do care about what other people might think. If I shave my head everyone will either think (correctly) that i have got lice or that i am undergoing chemo. And they will ask questions. And I dont want to tell people I've got lice. Especially not on the school run. ds' son's school still has a lice problem so people will provably think it's because of us. But it's not. Ds doesn't have any lice and we have since cut his hair really short so it isnt hard to check.

I've got so many other things going on at the moment I dont want to waste time and energy on this nonsense.

Yabu: just put in the hours to wet comb your hair and get rid of the lice the traditional way.
Or live with them. Or act as if i I don't have lice till I actually see a live one and hope the itching will eventually go away. Having to face people's questions and telling everyone at the kids' school that this is a lousy family isn't worth it.

Yanbu: just cut the damp thing off. Life is too short to spend so much time on doing completely stupid things when there is a quick and effective solution.

OP posts:
Coffeeishot · 10/11/2025 12:00

Get your Dh to comb your hair lots of conditioner every other night and you should get rid,or get him to clipper it, then they are easy to deal with.

BastardtheCat · 10/11/2025 11:59

And yes, your DH may be right. Between the constant treatments and the sheer thought of head lice, it’s no wonder your itching!!

Honestly, take the opportunity for a brand new short style, embrace the new you and blitz the fuckers with scalp friendly conditioner.

Original poster
HairIsOverrated · 10/11/2025 11:59

KarmenPQZ · 10/11/2025 11:53

I feel your pain. I also can’t wet comb my own hair thoroughly enough and worked out i was the weak point as I kept reinfecting my son who I can effectively wet comb.

my advise would be to stick to it. Treat yourself and son with the shampoo at the same time. Keep combing your son. Give up combing yourself. Treat with shampoo 7 days later. And a further 7 days.

if in 2 weeks you feel the same go for it. Maybe a cute pixie cut instead of the full shave.

it’s hair it grows back!

Edited

Thanks. The problem is I can't get a pixie cut because I can't go to a hair dresser for as long as i suspect I have got lice. So it has to be a cut I can do at home. I'm pretty sure I won't manage to actually cut my own hair and I dont even want to invest a lot of time and effort to learn how to do that. I could just use dh's long hair trimmer. It would be neat but very, very short. Too short for people to not ask questions or to think that this is just a fashion choice.

Also ds' hair is easy to do but dd like me has long and thick hair. Thankfully she didn't get lice (even though we used hedrin as well just to be sure) but I feel like im a ticking time bomb. It's just a matter of time till she will get them from me. And she definitely isnt open to cutting her hair very short.

OP posts:
BastardtheCat · 10/11/2025 11:57

I don’t blame you but why don’t you go halfway and try for a short layered bob/messy pixie cut and then it’ll be tons easier to sort. Daily suffocation with thick cheap conditioner (B&M or Home Bargains) and wrap in cling film and invest in the nit comb until you blitz the bastards. I feel your pain though - I travelled around India and Thailand in the 90’s and had vicious lice - I shaved my head too but I could get away with it when travelling.

Maybe avoid the drastic grade 1 if you can - your self esteem may be able to take it but kids can be cruel and your DC may cop it in school.

MayaPinion · 10/11/2025 11:57

Shave it off! It’s only really short for a few weeks and then it’ll just look like a pixie cut. Think how freeing it will be.

Gettingbysomehow · 10/11/2025 11:55

That's a bit drastic but yes they are vile. Somebody child passed them on to me and my exH (my DS has grown up) we both have thick waist length hair, his is very curly so you can imagine how horrendous that was.
We got rid of them in one day.
Big sheet on the floor, one put the product on the others hair and then combed it all out.
The lice didn't come back.
We went to bed with the product in and wore scarves wrapped round our heads.
The hedrin stunk the bedroom out though.

KarmenPQZ · 10/11/2025 11:53

I feel your pain. I also can’t wet comb my own hair thoroughly enough and worked out i was the weak point as I kept reinfecting my son who I can effectively wet comb.

my advise would be to stick to it. Treat yourself and son with the shampoo at the same time. Keep combing your son. Give up combing yourself. Treat with shampoo 7 days later. And a further 7 days.

if in 2 weeks you feel the same go for it. Maybe a cute pixie cut instead of the full shave.

it’s hair it grows back!

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