Lyclear Creme Rinse

During this elongated gap year of mine, I have been trying to keep myself busy (as well as trying to make a few quid) by going into various local primary schools to teach basic woodwind skills on sax, clarinet and flute. It’s hard work and more often than not the kids just want to play up and are not too interested in hitting the right notes. A lot of them though seem to really look forward to their 20-minute lessons (that’s as long as their attention span lasts, then they just lose interest). Some of them though, especially the little girls, seem to look forward to my visits just so they can have a chat and tell me ‘stories’ about what they have been up to, rather than being particularly interested in music.

Being such little children though, they are very tactile and invariably get extremely close to me and one another, sometimes ’fighting’ amongst themselves as to whose ‘turn’ it is to sit beside Penny this week! I suppose I should be flattered, really.

Sadly, the downside of this is that I recently got lumbered with head lice of all things! (I think I know who the culprit was, but I won’t name and shame). Suffice to say that she could be seen more often than not, scratching her head with the mouthpiece of her clarinet more times than she had it in her mouth! I didn’t even realise I had headlice as I wasn’t scratching at all. I was simply sitting watching TV the other night when I ran my fingers through my hair, as I sometimes do. I felt something hard, like a little bit of grit. I managed to grab it between my fingers and then held it under the light and looked at it through dad’s magnifying glass. Mum said immediately what she thought it was! I went cold all over!

I know they are just little creepy crawlies but the thought of me harbouring them in my hair just made me feel ill. I do remember having nits when I was really little and mum telling me off for putting my head against my friends at school, but I think it’s even worse when you’re an adult and you get them. It was fairly late – about 9.30pm but there was no way I was going to wait until the following morning to do anything about getting rid of them. I needed rid of them fast!

I went on and on so much that dad gave in and went to Tesco Extra for me and came back with a bottle of Lyclear. He paid £3.99 for the bottle and it came with a little instruction pack inside the box and a little plastic comb. The instructions said to wash my hair thoroughly first and then apply the cream rinse thoroughly, paying particular attention to the back of the neck (apparently where they are proliferate), the ears and the sides of the head. I just poured the entire bottle liberally all over my head. The instructions said that you have to sit with it on your head for 10 minutes, but no longer, while it sets about eradicating the little monsters.

The active ingredient is permethrin and this is apparently what kills them off. The instructions say it is suitable for babies from six months old (imagine a little baby having head lice!) and is suitable for asthmatics. The instructions don’t tell you how bad it stinks though. I sat on the side of the bath for ten minutes with a towel around my shoulders but I had to open the bathroom window to let in some air as it was so strong it was making my eyes water.

I waited patiently for it to take effect and then just rinsed it off under the hand held shower over the bath. Then I frantically set about using the little nit comb to see if I could get any out. I think I must have combed my hair for the next couple of hours. I only got three so I got mum to help me. My scalp was sore by the time we had finished, but I wanted to be absolutely certain that there were none left.

The instructions say that the active ingredient continues to work even after the solution has been rinsed from the hair. So, if it hasn’t killed them all straight away, it will actually go on to kill them a day or so later. For days afterwards I was paranoid that my head was crawling, despite my combing it very regularly. I bought another bottle and used the solution again seven days later, as the instructions suggest, as I wanted to be certain I was a nit free zone. I am sure I have a clean head now but every time I think about it I just get an overwhelming urge to scratch my head – I’m doing it now, and I’ll bet you are as you are reading this !

All in all, a product I would definitely recommend. It’s quick and easy to use, fairly cheap and seems to zap the blighters quickly. Now I just have to be sure I'm careful who gets too close to me when I go back into school !