Taking a selfie is all fun and games until someone doesn’t check the background, or walks into a pole, or gives their mate lice. All of these are very real possibilities, but only the lice one gives me shivers and makes me want to bathe in disinfectant.
We all lived through some variation of The Great Nits Outbreak Of Year Three (and Year Four… and Year Five…). Hats were to be protected at all costs, and there was honestly nothing worse than spending a lovely sunny Saturday having that tiny comb raked through your hair. My poor mum spent her 40th birthday pulling nits off my brother and I.
I should probably apologise to her for that.
Turns out that the days of lice outbreaks aren’t over though, and selfies are to blame. Little kids get them so often because they’re always playing close together and in close contact. As we get older, we generally stop piggybacking our mates to class and plaiting our hair together so that teachers can’t seperate us for talking.
As selfies have become a thing though, we’ve taken to posing with our friends by jamming our heads together. All of a sudden, our childhood nightmares are crawling back.
Kristen Abrahams runs a head lice treatment salon in Sydney. Speaking to 10 Daily, she said that:
“One hundred percent selfie and phone use is contributing to more adults getting lice.”
“This is because 98 percent of how you get head lice is through hair to hair contact, hence selfies and young girls cuddling. The other two percent is live lice that came off the head onto a hat, brush or bed sheets.”
So please, for the love of everything, do us all a favour and get yourself some KP24. Selfies are fine, but nits are absolutely not.
For a happier childhood memory, listen to the GOAT Team chat about this three year old girl singing about dinosaurs…
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