Lice ain't nice

I had a scare over the summer . . . a lice scare.

I didn't want to talk about it - in public, anyway - until I knew if it was just a scare or not.

I think I'm safe now.

Friends of mine, parent and child, stopped in to see me one day.  I had my trusty little hat on (I've been spelling it "took," but I'm told it's actually spelled "tuque," which looks silly to me).  The child, a boy of about ten or eleven, took (ah, that explains the spelling) the tuque off my head and put it on his own, and then returned it.  I thought nothing of it.

Three days later, I learned that there was a bit of lice problem in that household.

Lice like dreadlocks.  There's plenty of room from them to do their thing, a thing that involves laying eggs (nits) on hair follicles and making scalps itch as they eat skin cells (hopefully dead ones).  Normal lice shampoo can't be used safely on locked hair, because the stuff would have to stay on the head a lot longer and its toxic nature could harm the host.

So if you want to rid a head of locks of its lice, you're going to have to cut them, or spend a lot of hours with your head wrapped in plastic bags while various substances (like vinegar) kills the buggers.  And, since the nits are so tough, you'll have to do it again in a week to ten days after they hatch.

Lice removal is no fun when you've got dreadlocks.

I spent a lot of time peering closely at my hair, looking for the nits which are tiny little black specks, white once they hatch.  I worried every time I had an itch.  I have read a lot of information about what to do if I had them, and pondered if I wouldn't just give up and cut them off to avoid the hard work of preserving the locks while destroying the unwanted guests.

It was a . . . . lousy thing to have on my mind, but I'm over it.  I didn't get them.  But yikes, what a psychological smack it was to have to consider it.

Poolside manner

Hot day, high humidity, recent swim in pool

The heat skyrocketed this past weekend, so I decided to throw caution to the winds and test my locks in a chlorinated pool.  I'd been warned off by two experienced lockists (one of whom told me that the chlorine would actually unlock my hair), so it took hundred-degree temperatures for me to risk it.  I finally realized in my delirium that the worst that could happen is that my experiment would be prematurely ended; I half hoped to see my hair all floating away just to have something really interesting to report.

So into the breach I went, to the local pool, and I immersed myself in the cooling 97-degree water (yes, it really was that hot).  I swam for the better part of an hour, got out, dried off, went home, and then returned in the early evening to do it again.  It felt wonderful.

My hair seemed none the worse for wear.  The first picture was a day after the pool event, and the second is from this morning, a couple of days after that.  The difference in craziness I can attribute to the fact that it was cool enough for me to fall asleep with my took on last night.  That hat does wonders for keeping my hair under control.  Probably the best lock-control mechanism I've found yet.

The fact that I spend so much time trying to keep these low-maintenance masses under control makes it clear that I'm doing this wrong.  Anyone who seriously will have their lives impacted by a thick lock of hair sticking out from the scalp at a sharp angle probably isn't going to have a low-key time with dreadlocks.

Merely hot day, low humidity, took training

So I guess I do have something to report:  this hair is forcing me to work a lot harder on a decent appearance than I ever have before, and is a whole lot less forgiving than a short haircut or shaven head would be.

Some days I just don't have the luxury to allow my head to look completely insane, so I'm finding myself coming up with shortcuts to save the day when the hair is bad.  Like washing it hard and putting it away wet.  A good, hot shower or bath will get my hair down where I want it, so if I'm in a pinch I'll wring them out and then shove them under the took for awhile.  It works even better if there's some wax in the locks, softened by the water.  (The "tame" picture here was achieved without any wax, though).  When I do that, I still need to get the hat off and allow the locks to dry so something horrible doesn't happen in there.  Did I mention that mildew is a deal-breaker?

Maybe at some point down the line I'll be able to just let the hair do whatever the hell it wants, and see how that feels.  This year, though, I'm just going to have to fight with it sometimes.

Water, water everywhere, especially in my locks

Humidity brings the Medusa look.

So I've discovered that humidity has as much power over locked hair as it does any other.

I did have a friend (who keeps his hair no longer than half an inch) tell me that dreadlocks repel water much like an Afro does.  That had not been my experience, but I tend not to correct people in public until I just can't stand to keep my mouth shut.

Now that the moistness of the air has shot up for the summer, I'm feeling like I understand how Medusa must have felt.  Never has my hair looked more snakelike  . . . the Gorgons must have had some kind of water snakes for hair.  More on Medusa in a future post

There are ways to keep them tame, but these fierce serpents definitely like to perk up with very little provocation.

• Wax, especially wax that has been softened by a hot shower or bath, makes them malleable.  Even if you believe that wax does not help hair lock, it definitely can help shape it.
• Hats can  also keep hair down, particularly ones like my favorite took, pictured here.  If I want to use this hat to tame my locks for uncovered display, water can again be ally as well as enemy.  Even unwaxed hair, when crammed underneath the old brown-and-tan when partially dry, will yield to the demands of fashion.

No telling what's hiding under here

So water can cure what is causes, but I have to do so cautiously.  First and foremost, my locks need to be allowed to dry thoroughly or I'm setting myself up for mildew, and I cannot to begin to imagine how disgusting that would be.  If I don't ever get a chance to write about mildewed locks, I'll consider myself blessed.

I hadn't thought about how the power of weather can control your hair, locked or not.  This is new, interesting, and from a maintenance perspective, pretty damned annoying.  There are times when it's okay to look wild, but humidity doesn't compromise all the easily.

I wonder what winter will bring to this mane of mine?