Things I Wish I Knew Before Getting Head Lice

1. You can get head lice from anywhere. Movie theaters, schools, TJMaxx dressing rooms: These are all great places to acquire your very own head lice. Ours came from United Airlines. I paid extra for DirecTV, a checked bag, and a lunch. The lice were free! My daughter and I were crawling with vermin.
2. You don't need pesticides. No spray or shampoo kills the nits (eggs) that are in your hair. The nasty products (Rid, Nix, Pronto, etc.) just kill the critters that have already hatched. Only extreme heat and extreme cold kill the eggs. If it were this easy, Baby O and I would have just tumbled ourselves on "permanant press" setting for 20 minutes and we would have been good to go. You can use something like Vivesan to wash your hair. All natural, super surfactants get under the chitin of lice bodies and kill them. If you use this, you have to totally saturate the affected area so it's wet.
3. Nits must be manually removed. You have to scrape the little buggers out of your hair with a nit comb. The eggs are stuck on with a super glue like substance that can only be removed mechanically. I spent 3.5 hours with the most pleasant woman, Picky Pam, who soaped my head and worked out every single nit. Every single one. Now, I have to keep combing every night to remove the 2nd and 3rd generation of nits until no more are hatching.
4. Prevention is the key...Be more paranoid! I sat in an airplane and got head lice. Now I have no free time and have spent the last 72 hours cleaning my house, my kids, and myself. Luckily, I have a vacuum fetish, but if you don't, then don't get lice in the first place. Put your kid's winter coats, hats, and cubby items in the dryer for 20min every day. That'll make sure they don't come home with any lice. Get an all natural soap and spray the hell out of stuff you come in contact with. If I had known, I would have sprayed my plane seat or put a cover on it. Now I have to get back to vacuuming and laundering my entire home. Thanks, United!