A hair lice technician who deals with extreme infestations of the creepy critters has gone viral after admitting she doesn’t wear any protective clothing.
Rachel Maroun, 22, stunned TikTokers after revealing she doesn’t wear hairnets or gloves, despite the squeamish nature of her job – and it’s down to not wanting her clients to feel embarrassed.
The young woman spends her days removing extreme infestations of lice, killing thousands of the insects that crawl around her client’s scalps.
While she has been lauded for her job – which fans often admit they wouldn’t have the stomach for – the revelation shocked users.
In the video, Rachel gets ready for a day at work, making the shocking admission: “I’m a head lice technician and I don’t wear a hairnet to work.
“In fact, I don’t even wear gloves in the clinic.
“The truth is, I just wear what’s comfortable. As long as I’m comfortable and my clients are comfortable, that’s all that really matters to me.”
She shows how she protects her hair, putting it in a braid style to ward off lice.
She also opts not to wash her hair before work as “lice like clean hair”.
Donning a dress and no gloves, Rachel shows clips of her running her hands through a client’s hair riddled with lice.
She added: “The other reason I don’t wear hairnets or gloves is because I don’t want to further emphasise the feeling of shame or embarrassment my client may be feeling.
“I can’t really inspire confidence that lice are normal if I’m fully kitted out in a hazmat suit.”
The TikTok garnered 113,000 likes and was viewed more than 660,000 times, but her comments left users horrified, with some even calling her “crazy”.
“I don’t expect many people to like my job,” Rachel, from Sydney, Australia, previously told http://NeedToKnow.co.uk .
“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.”
But viewers weren’t quite so on board.
User Dom said: “I mean it is important that u protect ur self it doesn’t really matter how they feel as long as ur comfortable.” [sic]
“How come you’re not scared if one of the lice gets in your hair?” user Mia asked.
“You’re crazy lice do jump,” one person insisted.
Another critic agreed: “Lice can jump it you can make a braid or a bum and put gel on.” To which Rachel quickly clarified: “Lice do not have knees ! They cannot jump.”
One user wrote: “Just put hair cover it’s not hard, and gloves.”
“Let’s not normalise head lice,” said someone else.
But other viewers were more understanding of Rachel’s unconventional approach.
One user pointed out: “You know how to get rid of them instantly so it doesn’t really matter your the pro.” [sic]
Skye said: “I appreciate that you make your clients feel comfortable and not shameful. I had lice for part of my childhood we tried everything to get rid of them.”
“Your so brave, when I got lice I had a whole mental breakdown and didn’t want to toy my hair at all, I was so sure that I kept having them again but,” another person commented.
“Safety < comfort,” another person said.
“You’re such a sweet blessing to your clients,” added one fan.
