AIBU to be absolutely disgusted with myself?

[Buginmyrug]

NC because of the shame involved.

Back in May I started getting an itchy scalp. I tried to ignore it and hoped it would go away by using different hair products, the change of season, blah blah. It has been getting worse, though, so I googled and deduced I probably had seborrhoeic dermatitis. I booked a GP appointment and was considering buying some Neutrogena T-gel.

Then this evening A BUG FELL OUT OF MY HAIR. I have fucking LICE and I didn't know! My DD (16) spotted it and was really shocked. She then had a good look at my scalp and could see at least 4 or 5 creatures crawling about. Even typing this makes me want to curl into the foetal position. I freaked out and rushed out to the nearest 24-hour supermarket, and have spent the last few hours scraping my scalp with a nit comb until it practically bled (I cannot tell you the stuff I pulled out) and applying the overnight treatment to shampoo off tomorrow.

I'm ashamed, mortified and disgusted. Four months! I have stayed with friends, been to the hairdresser, gone on holiday... How did this happen? Is this normal? Do other adult women randomly get nits? My DD hasn't got any, we don't think (of course we'll do the treatment on her tomorrow too, just in case). Should I have thought of it sooner? Is it my fault? And is it like an STD? Do I have to warn anyone I might have infected? The shame!

I'm sitting here freaking out, wondering what the heck I will find on the towel that is currently wrapped around my head tomorrow. Sleep seems an impossibility.

If this has ever happened to any of you, please put my mind at ease. I've never had lice in my life - just in case this seems a bit of an overreaction.

I don't think you'll have had them since May, you 'd have been crawling with them!

I have been in the teaching profession for 29 years. Many times I have had headlice. Best treatment is weekly coat your hair with conditioner and comb through with a fine tooth comb.

I am a teacher and have caught nits from the kids before. Disgusting things but a shampoo and lots of combing gets rid of them. My own children have had them several times too. Don’t be ashamed. Goodluck getting rid of the blighters!

... and brush your hair twice daily especially if you have long hair. When I felt itchy I use to brush my hair over the bath or over a white towel to check for the little critters. I had them constantly throughout my career. Hope this helps

You don't need to wash sofa cushions or car seat rests.
Full Marks is the easiest, non toxic and best treatment IMO. It will make your hair greasy but is also very conditioning. You need to do 2 treatments one week apart followed with a very thorough comb through with a nit comb to remove the lice and egg cases. It suffocates the live lice by forming a plastic coating around them.
If you do this properly and then wear your hair up, preferably plaited, you should be fine. DD8 has waist length hair which she wears plaited ever day and has not had nits since Reception, it's harder for them to get a grip.
You can nit comb your hair every night as a preventative but it's up to you if you can be bothered. Personally as soon as I see a child scratch their head I get the nit comb out but not before.

Your hairdresser would most definitely have noticed if you had nits at the time and would have informed you. So it's likely its two unrelated things.

It happens! DS (11) gave the entire family nits last Xmas, including my v glamorous, pristine mum!
Treating us all was an interesting bonding experience 😂
It is nothing to be ashamed of. They like clean hair and not that unusual. I totally missed it first time around too and had even taken DS to dr. We had a year of reoccurrence which was a pain. I heard there was a family refusing to treat at school so they kept reinfecting. Grrrrr

I live in France, near Paris and have 2 kids in school. Nits are rampant in the schools here, we do a treatment and then the kids get them again the next day. I use essential oils, neen mostly with a bit of tea tree and lavender, the neen works better than the official treatments to which the nits are quite resistant, but it smells pretty bad. I add a bit of the oil mix to our shampoo and conditioner, about 5%. If it gets really bad to I delute my essential oil mix with olive oil and leave on for 1hr (starting with dry hair). Also nit comb every day unless we forget. Nits are terrible. I am sorry for you.

Just a thought could you have caught them from hairdresser, comb/brush? not a big deal but like you id be freaking out its the thought of them. all be gone tom.

You don't need to wash sofa cushions or car seat rests

I would. I've seen cast iron proof that a head louse can live in a jam jar on a piece of kitchen roll for several days.

Not happened to me, although I failed to notice my child had them! I went ant bought hypoallergenic shampoo thinking that the shampoo must be irritating her scalp.,.However an adult I know failed to realise she had them. Her husband had a heart attack on holiday and she assumed the itchy scalp was a stress reaction to being stuck miles from home with a critically ill DH.

They don't only like clean hair, that's just a fib people tell themselves.

Like any other transmittable parasite, virus or bacteria, there's no shame in having them. There's no shame in contacting genital warts, worms, measles, herpes, HIV, veruccas, norovirus, TB or Ebola.

There's shame if you knowingly have any of the above, do fuck all about it and infect others without informing them of your condition.

But to 'catch' something is an inevitable side-effect of interacting with people. It's part of life. There shouldn't be any shame attached to parasites or STDs, it just has the effect that people keep quiet, don't seek treatment amd infect others. Silly really.

I was a Speech and Language therapist.

When I worked with pads nits was sort of part of the job description (I worked in a very deprived area). I got pretty sick of it - they're nasty little buggers.

*paeds, not pads

The only thing that got rid of my daughter’s last year was a treatment called Nitwits that I ordered on amazon

I have had nits at least once probably twice actually when my kids have had them. Nothing to be ashamed about, it's just a total pain getting rid of them.

You poor thing I would be feeling the same but tbh you've said you've been to the hair dressers- I'm training to be a barber and the 1st thing they taught me was to check for lice etc before carrying out a treatment or cut.. so sounds like you may have caught them after the hair dressers?
I'm sure all the products and nit comb will get rid of them all x

I got my first ever bout of nits at 40. I've often had an itchy scalp and Tgel shampoo worked. I seem to recall the nits itchiness was more intense and also occurs at the nape of the neck. A quick Google told me that was more likely to be nits and it was

Don’t waste your time and money on shampoo type treatments. Nitty gritty and lots of wet combing.
Also agree there’s no way you had them since May or you would definitely have known about it!

Nitty gritty is great for normal hair, it’s rubbish on thick hair or curly hair.

I got them off my DC when they were in nursery. Nitty Gritty sorted us all out thankfully. Regularly check the DC hair now with the NG and use tea tree shampoo and conditioner and they've thankfully avoided any of the school outbreaks. Not that my head isn't itching now at the thought.

I think its likely a hairdresser would have noticed too after all that time, so its likely to be a more recent outbreak. You'll soon have them gone.

"the outgoing tenants have kindly left bedbugs"

Should they have taken them with them?

I've had them from my DD, she constantly had them when she was at school. Nitty gritty and hair conditioner is the best way to get rid of them. Good luck

im suprised the hairdressers didnt say anything if you had them at the time .. i have only caught them once from my kids ....but the first time i saw them i was working in a nursery and kids head was crawling with them they has light hair so could see them They are easily dealt with. the second time my daughter caught them from a friend we had saw them crawling on her fringe ...she went into school next morning in P1 and said to the class i think you need to get your mum to check your hair somebody gave me nits ... teacher had to stop her self laughing she said my daughter was really serious..

Trials have shown chemicals are not better than combing conditioner loaded hair with the correct comb - as pp have said its critical to repeat every 3-4 days until you don't find any lice. The bug busting method suggests that 4 times over 2 weeks will be enough as long as there is no external re-infection.
Cf
www.chc.org/what-is-bug-busting/