09/17/2026
In hindsight, it wasn’t that bad.
I was being a bit dramatic, but I’m glad it’s over!
Andrea Smolin had a dirty little secret.
Her family had dealt with head lice.
It was the worst three weeks of her life, and she wouldn’t wish that torture on her worst enemy.
It started out innocently enough.
Her third grader would scratch his head while watching TV or playing video games. Andrea assumed it was nervous energy.
Then her daycare provider told her that her middle son was scratching his head too.
Her first thought was that maybe she had bought some bad shampoo.
She never imagined that her children’s little heads had been invaded by some of the vilest creatures imaginable.
They showered every single night. They didn’t go camping. They didn’t share brushes with friends.
So how did they get lice?
It was May of the previous year. Andrea’s oldest child had earned perfect attendance for the third year in a row, and the family was incredibly proud and excited.
Andrea and her husband both worked full time and had three children, so the fact that everyone had stayed healthy throughout the school year felt incredible.
Life was good.
And then the little bugs invaded their lives.
Andrea didn’t know if she had ever experienced the level of exhaustion she felt during those three weeks.
It became an all-out war.
They bought everything they could find. They started with the simple solutions and eventually spent hundreds of dollars on products that, in her experience, seemed to do more harm than good.
Through the experience, Andrea learned that female lice can live for around 30 days and lay numerous eggs, known as nits, during that time.
Their heads had become meals for hundreds of lice.
She also learned that head lice spread primarily through direct contact with the hair of someone who has them. In their case, her oldest son had apparently rubbed heads with another child during a classroom activity while that child had an active case.
Andrea also learned how important it was to focus on combing the hair and removing the nits and eggs.
She learned exactly what to look for.
There was a huge difference between lice and dandruff.
Lice cling to the hair shaft, while dandruff brushes away.
The family learned all of this the hard way.
Here are the 10 lessons Andrea learned from their battle:
1. Confirm that your kids actually have lice before treating them.
Through her research, Andrea learned that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends confirming a lice infestation before beginning treatment.
She had thought she was being proactive by treating herself when she treated her boys.
Instead, she ended up unnecessarily burning her scalp with a pesticide.
Every time she checked her boys afterward, she started itching and became convinced she was infected.
She even had the school nurse check her head during her planning periods, which wasted time and left her exhausted.
Eventually, she did get lice herself.
But that came later.
2. Don’t immediately buy medicated shampoo.
Stores sell fancy lice shampoos that look incredibly promising.
But they can be expensive—really, ridiculously expensive.
They can also be time-consuming, and lice can eventually develop resistance to certain treatments.
Andrea’s advice was to start with a nit comb and thoroughly check the hair for days.
And she learned that people cannot properly check their own hair.
Someone else needs to do it, preferably someone who knows what they are looking for.
This is not the time to be secretive.
Everyone in the household should know about the infestation, and people who may have had close head-to-head contact should be informed as well.
Andrea also learned about various home approaches, including rosemary, tea tree extract, and certain shampoos, although she realized that research and professional advice were important before trying treatments.
At the time, though, she wasn't thinking about research.
She was thinking about destroying the enemy.
3. Never share brushes.
The family threw away their brushes.
They got rid of anything that had touched their heads and couldn't be thoroughly washed and dried on high heat.
Andrea even threw away her scrunchies and some cute hair ties she had saved since middle school.
She figured replacing a few hair accessories was cheaper than continuing to worry about lice.
She bought new brushes and labeled each one.
There would be no more sharing.
Sharing was definitely not caring anymore.
4. Your dryer will get a lot of use.
The family did a massive amount of laundry.
Almost everything was washed and then dried on high heat.
Andrea quickly learned that heat could be an important part of dealing with items that might have been exposed.
She began throwing her boys’ sweatshirts and hats into the dryer after they had been out somewhere.
She washed their sheets and pillowcases.
The internet told her that extensive cleaning of the entire house wasn't necessarily required, but her anxiety took over.
For three straight weeks, she washed everything.
She changed their towels daily.
She vacuumed constantly.
She knew it was highly unlikely for lice to survive away from a human head for long, but during those three weeks, she wasn't taking any chances.
5. You will start looking at everyone suspiciously.
Andrea’s boys would come home talking about classmates who were scratching their heads.
They would mention a child who had been absent for a day or two and then returned to school with a haircut.
The boys knew exactly what that meant.
And they were often right.
Soon, Andrea would receive the dreaded school email informing parents that a student in their child's classroom had been affected by lice.
She didn't judge the child.
But she also didn't immediately invite classmates over for playdates.
She became much more cautious about where her children hung their jackets and whether they were sitting on the carpet rubbing heads during story time.
6. The bugs may come back.
The family washed everything.
They used special shampoo.
They vacuumed.
They practically disinfected their entire house and themselves.
Yet the lice kept coming back.
Andrea eventually learned what to look for.
Little black dots on a pillowcase were never a good sign.
Her husband once took a picture of a louse he had removed from her middle son’s head and enlarged it on his phone.
The image was burned into Andrea’s memory.
The vermin even appeared in her nightmares.
At least she knew what to look for.
And yes, they were ugly.
She also learned not to confuse lice with grass, twigs, sand, or the countless little playground things children somehow manage to get into their hair.
Even after a shower, children's hair can apparently contain an impressive collection of mystery debris.
The family could wash everything, vacuum, replace brushes and towels, and seal stuffed animals in bags for weeks.
And the lice could still return.
Why?
Because the real problem was never completely eliminated from the head of the person carrying them.
7. It’s not the length of your hair—it’s the thickness.
The entire family got haircuts.
Even the baby, who wasn't really at risk, got his first haircut.
It broke Andrea’s heart a little, but by that point, the family wasn't taking any chances.
Andrea cut her own hair as a preventative measure.
She knew checking 20 inches of hair would take hours, and her husband wasn't exactly excited about that challenge.
She cut a significant amount off, donated 12 inches, and loved her new haircut.
Unfortunately, the shorter hair didn't prevent the lice from finding her.
Andrea was extremely close with her boys.
She tried not to let them lie all over her, but sometimes it happened.
At some point, she rubbed heads with one of them, and one of those little creatures crawled into her clean, dry hair.
If only she had known then how helpful hair gel and leave-in conditioner could be.
Her husband became the official lice checker.
It took him about 20 minutes to check their oldest son and about 30 minutes to check Andrea, even with her shorter hair, because her hair was so thick.
Lice checking even became their strange version of romance time.
Every evening, after the children went to bed, Andrea would strip down while her husband carefully checked her hair.
She actually looked forward to the alone time with him.
He would stand there with his nit comb, checking every strand.
In her mind, she pretended he was simply lovingly stroking her hair.
Honestly, it helped keep her sane.
8. Lice don't mean someone is dirty.
Andrea admitted that she used to assume people who got lice were dirty.
She associated lice with roaches and believed cleanliness would protect a family from them.
She eventually learned that head lice infestations are not simply a result of being dirty.
That realization changed her perspective completely.
After everything they had been through, Andrea became much more cautious and started using hair products and preventative routines that made her feel more prepared.
9. Sometimes, just call the professionals.
A friend eventually told Andrea about professional lice treatment services.
By then, two of her closest friends and their families were also dealing with the same nightmare.
The professionals came to Andrea’s home, essentially turned the kitchen into a treatment area, and got to work.
They had the family wear old shirts, cover their shoulders with old towels, and sit for 30 minutes to an hour while they carefully examined every strand of hair.
They treated the hair with an oil-based treatment that Andrea described as safe and extremely effective.
They also provided a natural treatment to use every other night and instructed the family to check their hair weekly to help prevent another infestation.
Andrea took that responsibility personally.
She had finally vanquished the vermin.
And honestly, she considered it one of her greatest accomplishments.
10. Be prepared to look greasy for days.
The family was still following the treatment plan when they traveled to Savannah for Andrea’s brother’s wedding.
It was supposed to be one of the biggest and happiest days of his life.
Andrea knew there would be pictures taken all day.
Unfortunately, she also knew she had to treat her hair the night before.
Looking back at those beautiful wedding photographs, she couldn't help noticing her hair first.
It looked like she hadn't bathed in weeks.
The truth was that she had never been more thorough in the bathroom.
Her hair was simply packed with treatment products.
Even years later, Andrea occasionally felt an itch and immediately felt panic surge through her.
For a moment, she would wonder if the nightmare had returned.
Then she would remind herself that sometimes an itch was just an itch.
There was no bug invasion.
The family had been lice-free for almost three years.
And Andrea now had two little detectives who came home and told her which classmates had recently been absent and returned with haircuts.
She wasn't as vigilant about checking the boys every Sunday anymore.
But her oldest son refused to let a week go by without an inspection.
He had become her little lice detective.
Andrea knew many people might feel relieved that they had never experienced the nightmare of head lice.
But if they started asking around, they might discover that many of their friends had already lived through their own version of this hell.
Maybe they thought they were too clean to ever get lice.
Andrea knew better.
Cleanliness didn't make someone immune.
And if someone suddenly started feeling an itch while reading her story, she had one final message:
Don't panic.
It was probably nothing.
But just in case, they might want to prepare themselves.
Because once those little bugs invade your life, they can turn your entire world upside down.
Credit: Andrea Smolin
