The lice ladies have arrived at Lord Kelvin Elementary School.
Armed with a binder of class lists, the two New Westminster moms – Sukhi Plessis and Gina Griffiths – march across the school’s courtyard and set up in a hallway outside their first class.
Students know the drill.
Two at a time, they plunk down on undersized chairs and offer up their hair – brown, blonde, bright orange, frizzy, sleek, curly, pony-tailed, corn-rowed and brush-cut – to the expert hands and eyes of the lice ladies.
The two women work their way through the kids’ hair in quarter-inch sections, focusing on the two inches closest to the scalp.
The brush-cut boys are done in less than a minute and even the girls aren’t there for long.
But, after a few heads, Plessis lingers over one long set of locks, running her fingernails along a few strands of hair.
Wordlessly she gestures to Griffiths for a second opinion and soon gets the nod.
“There’s usually two or three at least every run through,” Griffiths says after sending the girl on her way with a carefully folded note to take home about how to deal with head lice.
Griffiths and Plessis come into the school after every major break and check every one of the 460 students for the pesky parasites and their eggs.
“I find the biggest time is September when they come back after the summer, and then quite often we can have up to six kids,” Griffiths says, taking a break between classes.
Her lice-lady days started about 10 years ago.
Parent advisory council (PAC) volunteers were already checking the kids periodically back then, she says, but the approach has become a lot more systematic over the years.
Sukhi joined up in 2008.
Their kids have long ago moved on to New Westminster Secondary, but the lice ladies keep coming back.
“It’s a big community thing,” Plessis says. “We’ve got another connection with the school now.”
The hands-on nature of their work also creates a lasting bond between them and the students, they say.
“We have the Grade 12s now still stopping us on the street, saying ‘Hi! How ya doing?’” Plessis said.
As for getting up close and personal with the school’s lice and nits, the two women are unfazed.
“I think a lot of people are actually scared to get down and do this,” says Griffiths, who has hairdressing experience, “but because of my background and stuff, it’s not really a big deal for me to sit here and do that. It’s like, I’ve seen it in the salon; I’ve seen it here.”
The says the stigma around lice is misguided, since being in the wrong place at the wrong time is all it takes to get them.
She remembers her son once getting up from a brief sit down on a bench in the mall and a friend spotting a louse that had caught a ride making its way into his hair.
“It’s that easy,” Griffiths says.
That’s a story Ken Millard – back at the school office – knows all too well.
The Kelvin principal’s daughter got lice once in Grade 4.
“When you see them moving on your kid’s scalp, that’s probably the worst, when you’re looking and you see one and it runs away,” he says.
Millard says Plessis and Griffiths have been a godsend to his school, where lice are a persistent problem.
“I don’t know if we’ve ever had every single child lice free at one time,” he says.
But regular checks keep the outbreaks at bay, he says, and that’s a big plus for teachers who then have fewer students distracted by the itchy scalps and social fallout that usually come with having lice.
“We are definitely fortunately, because there’s not a lot of people or parents that are willing to take the time to look through hundreds of kids’ heads to find lice,” Millard says.
At other schools, he says he’s had to hire professional lice-removal contractors to help.
When asked if they’ve ever considered marketing their considerable experience for a profit, Plessis and Griffiths both say no way.
“That would take the fun out of it,” Plessis says.
Sukhi and Gina's lice-busting tips
Avoiding lice: Whether it’s curly or straight, lice prefer long hair. Don’t share combs, coats or hats. Keep long hair tied up.
Checking for lice: Check monthly. Start kids young and make a routine of it, checking while they watch TV. Go through hair in quarter-inch sections. Check the two inches closest to the scalp. If you find “eggs” further down, they’re likely debris left over from lice that have already hatched.
Getting rid of lice: Gina likes ZAP, a spray lotion. Focus on the two inches closest to the scalp. Throw bedding and stuffies into a hot dryer for an hour or into a plastic bag in a freezer for 24 hours.
