a peek inside the fishbowl

I can’t even tell you how many cases of lice we’ve had here at Casa Fishbowl. I’m thinking at least four or five, but it’s all a blur. I do know this (a) lice never arrive at a convenient time and (b) it’s awful for all involved.

If you’ve had lice in your house too, you already have an idea of how many hours are spent washing heads and combing hair. And when that washing is done for the day, there are sheets to be washed and dried, sofas to vacuum, and plush toys to stuff in garbage bags to await happier days.

Our most recent case of lice was only about two years ago. You think teens can’t get lice? HA. I’m pretty sure we picked them up while we were zip-lining. Once again, hours of washing, combing, scratching, worrying.

I have never had lice myself, but it has always been something I worry about. What would I do if I got it? As much I love Mark, bless his heart, I couldn’t imagine him combing my hair out and (I’m so sorry to say this honey) but Doing A Good Enough Job.

When Anne Doswell of Lice Services Canada sent me an email and asked me to come over for a visit I had to say yes on behalf of Ottawa mothers everywhere. I knew this was a service that people needed to know about!* And it’s right around the corner from us too!

Lice Services Canada is located in a nondescript little place on Churchill Avenue in Westboro, just a short walk from the main strip. Anne is lovely, and so friendly too. She is exactly the kind of person you want to chat with at a cocktail party.

She gets it. She understands the stress, the heartache, and the social stigma that unfortunately still comes with lice.

If you have lice, it doesn’t mean you’re dirty, or don’t wash your hair. It just means you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Here’s where I see Lice Services Canada to be the most useful:

They will save time
Expert staffers can get through All The Hair in a fraction of the time you can do it at home. A first appointment generally runs 60-90 minutes. Follow-ups are an hour. (!) I think I spend three hours washing and combing that first night of Home Treatment along.

They use great products and they’re pesticide free.
Not only are they very thorough but they also have the proper lighting, tools, and treatment. Apologies to all the parents who think that slathering a kid’s head in mayonnaise will kill lice, but it doesn’t work. What’s more, lice are becoming resistant to chemical treatments. I was never comfortable buying that box of Nix at the drugstore but I felt like I had no choice. Now I do! Lice Services Canada uses a safe and effective enzyme-based treatment that is appropriate for all ages. They also use the best lice comb on the market, which you get to keep.

Have I mentioned they are experts?
I like to think that I am an expert in Lice Matters. There should be a parenting merit badge for this. In fact, I mocked one up in case someone wants to start making them and awarding them to survivors:

I know exactly what to look for now and I know (more or less) how to deal with lice… but many people do not. The staff at Lice Services Canada – there are 13 of them – are REAL experts. I am willing to bet there aren’t many people in this world who know as much as they do about lice. Many staffers also work as nurses, teachers, or educators. They know kids! Their goal is to get the lice out of your hair, out of your life, provide a shoulder to cry on, AND teach you to know what to look for next time. Hopefully, there is no next time. But it’s good to be armed with knowledge, right?

Their goal is to get the lice out of your hair, out of your life, provide a shoulder to cry on, AND teach you what to look for next time. Hopefully, there is no next time. But it’s good to be armed with knowledge, right?

They are equipped to deal with all of the worst-case scenarios
Imagine the whole family gets lice, mom and dad included, and you’re all just about to go away on vacation. Also: the volume of hair that needs to be treated for an entire family. Can you imagine combing through all of the kids’ hair AND the husband’s hair? Just thinking of this makes my fingers ache. I had partial hand paralysis just combing out ONE kid’s head.

Related to this: some people would just prefer an objective third-party going through their hair. Imagine, for example, a wedding party needing treatment. It’s happened!

I got the tour of the space at Lice Services. The business has taken over the interior of an older single-family home on Churchill Avenue. It’s kind of perfect because it was quite warm and welcoming, not to mention, discreet.

There was a family getting treated upstairs so I didn’t take photos there, but I will say the spaces are big and bright and there are plenty of things to keep the kids busy. Also: cookies. (I am not above bribery in times of need.)

I think most of us have already told our kids not to share hairbrushes and pillows at sleepovers, but I asked Anne if she had some other helpful tips for Ottawa families. She did! And they are worth sharing here:

• If you’re about to participate in an activity that requires the use of a helmet that is shared by other people, give the inside a good wipe with a moist towelette. Even a baby wipe will do! The goal is to squash any live critters hiding in the helmet.
• Lice can’t jump, they crawl, and they can loiter while they’re waiting for a new host. Places to watch out for: movie seats, and airline or train seats. Basically, if there is a cloth surface someone can lay their head upon, lice can be there, WAITING. Pro tip: lay a shawl over the headrest before sitting down. Anne says they always get a rush of appointments after March Break.
• Lice don’t like the smell of tea tree oil, lavender, and mint oils. Instead of adding it into the shampoo as many parents do, Anne suggests making a hair spritz out of your favourite essential oil and spray heads in the morning before school. This way the smell is stronger. The shampoo smell dissipates too quickly to make enough of a difference.

Does someone in your family have an itchy head but you’re not sure if it’s lice? Take a photo and email it to info@liceservicescanada.com for a free diagnosis. You can also take a peek at their Facebook page – they’re myth busting over there! – as well as their Twitter account.

Part of the issue with lice (other than the fact that the process of getting rid of them is so onerous) are the mistruths out there. Some people are still spraying their kid’s head with RAID or think that they can get rid of lice by swimming in a pool. (Wrong and wrong.) So just getting people out there talking and sharing good information, is a great way of helping other parents and eliminating the stigma.

I recommend you bookmark the Lice Services Canada website in case you need it. I hope you don’t, but if you do, I’m glad that there is a service that’s there for us whenever we need it.

*This is a sponsored post but opinions are my own.

Target cashier checking me out said “is a project due at all the schools? I’ve checked out so many posterboards today.” YES. A PROJECT. pic.twitter.com/QoT2QRjhPM

— Courtney Enlow (@courtenlow) January 20, 2017

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Mark texted the girls and I the other day and told us that we were going to do something FUN as a family after dinner. But, there was a catch. He wasn’t going to tell us what it was.

Of course, the three of us were mad with curiosity but Mark would not budge. The only hint he gave us was in regards to hairstyles. (?!) It was rather mysterious, actually. He told us not to wear our hair up.

AHA. This obviously meant that whatever we were doing involved helmets. Hmm. What could it be? Maybe we were going climbing. Or indoor race car driving. Or to a paintball range. I tried convincing the girls that we were probably going Extreme Bowling, which involves launching people down the lane instead of bowling balls, but for some reason they wouldn’t believe me.

What other activity in Ottawa requires participants to wear a helmet? We were in the car, on our way, and we STILL couldn’t figure it out.

We drove from our home in Westboro along Carling towards downtown (ahhh, DOWNTOWN!) but then we suddenly turned on Preston Street. Hmm. What’s on Preston Street (other than a ton of great restaurants, that is)? And THEN we turned on a little side street, and THEN we passed an inconspicuous doorway with a small sign on it that read: Colony VR.

AHA! This was going to be fun.

This is was the view when we entered.

Mark told us he booked a two-hour session in one booth for the four of us. Note: I am using the term ‘booth’ for lack of a better term, as each set of VR equipment as its own little area that is semi-enclosed. They call it a ‘hex pod’ on their website.

I wasn’t sure if two hours was too long or too short, but for us first-timers it proved to be the perfect amount of time.

We were given an introduction by a staffer, who showed us how to put the goggles and headset on. The whole contraption is connected to the ceiling and the wires prevent one from wandering too far from the centre and banging into the walls.

Our eldest went first. She went through a tutorial – a fun little introduction – and then chose an underwater adventure. The three of us saw a version of what she was seeing on a large external monitor. Her world was a dark one. She was underwater, armed with only a flashlight. She could look up, down, all around. And then, things started to change. Sea creatures started to illuminate the darkness, including beautiful jellyfish.

I am bummed that I didn’t get to see the jellies for myself. :|

What else? We had an all-too-brief stint with Google Earth: balancing on the edge of mountains, looking over valleys and cities and gorgeous landscapes.

I had to laugh because OF ALL THE CITIES YOU CAN EXPLORE – Prague, Paris, Rome, Vienna – Mark took his allotted time to zoom over to Ottawa and look at our house.

When it was my turn I walked around inside a painting and later played a role in saving the rebels from the evil Empire with my buddy, R2D2.

Mark eldest battled skeletons and looked for treasure:

Our youngest entered a world of 360-degree art and made it her own. I tried that for a bit too. It’s hard to describe it in any way than to just say it is Simply Incredible. Your two remotes are drawing instruments and you use them to change colours and tools, but it’s not just pencils and paint brushes. You can spray blue smoke in the air, or spread stars across the sky. You can draw a fire and then walk inside it, and see it from the other side too.

Funny thing. There is a feeling that comes with playing a video game… we have all played video games and we play the role of observer for the most part, but being INSIDE a video game is a very different experience. It’s pretty darn surreal and fully immersive. A rebel ship passed over my head as it was landing and I ducked. Mark hurled his sword at evil creatures with real determination. That jellyfish? It really looks like it is floating in front of your face. You don’t just see it, you hear it all too!

It’s fun even when you’re not playing. We watched the other members of our party don the goggles and navigate in their world of choice. Granted, it’s not the same perspective at all, as it lacks the multi-dimensional world that is offered by virtual reality, but it was amusing nonetheless.

I had more time to look around the place while I was waiting for my turn. To be perfectly honest, Colony VR is a little on the sparse side but I suspect this is only temporary as they grow. It’s obvious that their initial funding has gone into technology and the setup, but I think there needs to be more to it in order to create a sense of atmosphere to encourage people to return and bring other people with them. For example, there are great big walls are screaming for some kind of group graffiti art project.

Worth mentioning: a few snacks are available for purchase (think: chips and artisanal popcorn) but it could certainly be more robust in this area. While I was there I found myself remembering Jumbo Video (ha, I am dating myself here, who remembers Jumbo Video?) and the popcorn they gave out to customers in those little paper baggies. I’m certainly no business expert, but if Colony VR picked up one of those carnival-type machines they sell at Costco and gave away free popcorn they could make their money back on beverages. (Hey, a liquor license wouldn’t be a bad idea either.)

If you’re looking for something new and cool to do in Ottawa, this is it. Teens will be particularly impressed, whether or not they play video games as a rule.

We asked the kids if they wanted to go back even though we already knew the answer. (The answer was a big YES, by the way. I REALLY enjoyed it too.) The cost is $40/hour and you can book a time slot by email or phone via the Colony VR website.