A woman has gone viral on TikTok after revealing her skin-crawling occupation – killing head lice infestations.
Rachel Maroun, 21, from Sydney, Australia, works as a head lice technician and shares clips of her most severe cases on the app, where she has built up a following of four million fans.
Her followers are often left feeling rather itchy after viewing clips of horrific infestations that Rachel has dealt with – but she insists she loves her unique career.
“I don’t expect many people to like my job,” Rachel told NeedToKnow.online.
“I’m very used to the ‘grossed out’ reaction I receive for doing what I do. At one point I was the only technician in Australia since no one wanted to do treatments.
“But I couldn’t see myself in any other career so maybe it was made for me. My job, although I never imagined myself doing it has been the biggest blessing.
“It makes me happy everyday knowing that I can change someone’s quality of life in such a short period of time.
“The one thing I adore about what I do is being able to turn a negative experience into a positive one for every one of my clients.”
Rachel has worked on extreme cases of hair lice – including on a girl’s head that took nine hours to remove, and another on a little boy’s head who had “more lice than strands of hair”.
Despite the often negative reaction she gets to sharing her career, Rachel is passionate about lice prevention and has shared her tips on how to avoid it – and revealed the trick can be as simple as styling your hair differently.
In a recent TikTok, she shows herself with her natural curly locks, before saying how she’s about to share some styles that lice hate.
Rachel starts off with a big, high ponytail, before brushing down all the little hair down with a clear, gel wand.
She continues to say how lice will find any free-flowing hair to climb into, so slicking down your hair is a must.
She then shows herself with another ponytail before plaiting, explaining how keeping the hair tight and locked in is good for combating lice.
For extra help, she also puts the braid into a bun, securing it on top of her head.
For hairstyle number four, Rachel creates two French braids, which she says she does when she has a really infested client, to keep her hair extra safe.
She uses the clear gel wand to close any entry points that lice could use.
The popular post racked up 1.3 million views and over 66,700 likes. One person commented: “My mum used to always tie my hair like that when I went to school so I don’t get lice!”
Another viewer said: “Yes! This is why my daughter has never had lice we use way too much hair products to keep them out,” followed by a laughing emoji.
Someone else put: “My mom used to glue my hair with gel bc I hated when hair was in my face and I never god lice and I washed my hair everyday!” [sic]
“I’ve had lice 2 times and it’s so scary, I’ve even had nightmares about it,” commented another user.
“Hellll no. I can’t believe that’s the only thing you wear. I would have 5 hairnets on, a helmet, and a hazmat suit,” said someone else. [sic]
“I can’t even count how many times I’ve had lice,” said another viewer. Rachel says the best way to avoid head lice is by minimising your hair’s surface area.
“This is easily achieved with braids or tight buns and can work for all hair types!” she said.
“I recommend using hairspray or gel to pin down any loose or free flowing hair that’s left out of the hairstyle, this ensures that there is absolutely nothing lice could grab a hold of.
“I prefer using a hair gel stick, the one in the video I am using is from ‘Stay X’ and it’s a nicer alternative to hairspray since it does the same thing but does not leave your hair oily or sticky at all.
“Other tips include head lice preventative sprays, and keeping your hair away from others. This would involve no sharing of hairbrushes or hats at school or playdates.
“It’s also important to note that swimming caps are so important for children doing swimming lessons as lice can actually swim and are spread very easily in swimming lessons.
“It is hard to completely prevent catching head lice for your children but taking these steps ensure a much better chance of protecting their hair while at school or other events.
“I always remind parents that birthday parties and school camps are ‘lice party zones’ and are events in which these lice protection methods should be taken.”
