Lice: a four-letter-word that can singlehandedly send shivers down your spine and make you shuffle uncomfortably. Most of us spend the majority of our lives living in fear of contracting lice.
The fear doesn’t stem from what lice can do to harm you—they don’t do much besides feast on your blood—but from what others will think if they find out.
Being infested by head lice brings shame, embarrassment, and stigma with it. With the parasite serving as an unwelcome visitor in millions of lives annually, there’s a need to unpack the prevailing taboo around the subject.
Hygiene
The greatest assumption—one that has been proven wrong—about lice is that it occurs to people who are unclean. Someone who doesn’t care for the cleanliness of their scalp and doesn’t engage in regular washing is assumed to be vulnerable to lice.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Lice, in fact, are attracted to clean scalps. So there’s no need to feel like you’re dirty because you’ve contracted lice. They need blood to survive, making anyone susceptible to them.
Lack of information
The reason why there are so many misconceptions about lice is that people don’t usually know the specifics. Lice aren’t harbingers of doom, they don’t carry disease, and they don’t make you infectious. They’re simply parasites that feed on your blood and can be gotten rid of by taking a couple of measures.
The confusion probably comes from the difference between head lice and body lice. The latter do, in fact, carry disease and can be indicative of poor hygiene. While head lice aren’t ideal, they’ve gotten a worse reputation owing to the lack of information about the two.
Blaming-and-shaming
What further exacerbates the stigma around lice is the blaming and shaming that takes place after-the-fact. If someone in your family has been infected with lice, others who come into physical contact with them or their belongings are vulnerable to lice. This doesn’t mean they need to be quarantined and separated from everyone else.
Since up to 25 percent of all school-age children can be afflicted with a lice outbreak at some point in their lives—resulting in bullying, social isolation, and psychological trauma—the phenomenon isn’t uncommon and shouldn’t be treated as such. And the epidemic isn’t limited to children; anyone can be affected by lice!
Head lice are a common occurrence. But it’s important to act fast and take the proper precautions to make sure you’re not subjected to the taboo. Our experts, at
Lice Troopers, are trained to carefully and effectively handle lice outbreaks.
Our head lice removal salon in
Plantation, Florida, is a one-stop-shop for your lice inspection and removal needs. But that’s not all. Our trained professionals can also visit your home, school, or camp to carry out a screening and cleaning to ensure the parasitic louse don’t return.
Call us now to book an appointment.
