--- title: Selfies Cause Head Lice in Teens Says Expert Marcy McQuillan description: "But now, teens are sticking their heads together every day to take cell phone pics." canonical: https://time.com/9572/expert-claims-selfies-are-giving-teens-head-lice/ author: Jessica Roy article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-24T18:26:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:17.724Z og:title: Selfies Cause Head Lice in Teens Says Expert Marcy McQuillan og:description: "But now, teens are sticking their heads together every day to take cell phone pics." og:url: https://time.com/9572/expert-claims-selfies-are-giving-teens-head-lice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6045bc6c9e554e97/69868303361760ec2090aa6c/selfie1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: selfie1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Selfies Cause Head Lice in Teens Says Expert Marcy McQuillan twitter:description: "But now, teens are sticking their heads together every day to take cell phone pics." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6045bc6c9e554e97/69868303361760ec2090aa6c/selfie1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Expert Claims Selfies Are Giving Teens Head Lice by [Jessica Roy](https://time.com/author/jessica-roy/) ## Jessica Roy Feb 24, 2014 6:26 PM UTC  Yellow Dog Productions/Getty Images by [Jessica Roy](https://time.com/author/jessica-roy/) ## Jessica Roy Feb 24, 2014 6:26 PM UTC Teens everywhere are smooshing their heads together in an attempt to capture the perfect selfie, and while that sounds pretty innocent, danger is lurking just around the corner: all those selfies could be causing an uptick in head lice cases. [SFist talked to a lice expert](http://sfist.com/2014/02/24/are%5Fselfies%5Fcausing%5Fhead%5Flice%5Finfes.php) located in Scotts Valley named Marcy McQuillan who notes that though lice is usually found in elementary aged kids, she’s seen a “huge increase” in lice cases in teens this year. The obvious culprit for this anomaly? Evil, evil selfies. “Typically it’s younger children I treat, because they’re at higher risk for head-to-head contact. But now, teens are sticking their heads together every day to take cell phone pics,” McQuillan [told SFist](http://sfist.com/2014/02/24/are%5Fselfies%5Fcausing%5Fhead%5Flice%5Finfes.php). There’s only one clear solution here: shave your teen’s head. That’ll show ’em. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/9572/expert-claims-selfies-are-giving-teens-head-lice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/9572/expert-claims-selfies-are-giving-teens-head-lice/"},"headline":"Expert Claims Selfies Are Giving Teens Head Lice","datePublished":"2014-02-24T18:26:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:17.724Z","description":"\"But now, teens are sticking their heads together every day to take cell phone pics.\"","url":"https://time.com/9572/expert-claims-selfies-are-giving-teens-head-lice/","keywords":["Newsfeed","selfies","health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6045bc6c9e554e97/69868303361760ec2090aa6c/selfie1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jessica Roy","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/jessica-roy/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6045bc6c9e554e97/69868303361760ec2090aa6c/selfie1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"selfie1","caption":"","creditText":"Yellow Dog Productions/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/9572/expert-claims-selfies-are-giving-teens-head-lice/","name":"Expert Claims Selfies Are Giving Teens Head Lice"}}]}] ```