Jenny Mollen. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for alice + olivia
Jenny Mollen learned she had lice while on an airplane — and the internet is not having it.
“I’m on a plane with [ᴀssistant] Caroline, and she just looked at my head. Remember when I told you last week that I said my head was itchy and I thought I was having perimenopause symptoms?” Mollen, 45, said in an October Instagram video. “Guess what? I have f—ing lice.”
Mollen, a best-selling author who is married to actor Jason Biggs, shared in the clip that she thinks she knew who she got the lice from (lice is primarily shared via direct head-to-head contact), but said she didn’t want to “call that person out.”
“I can’t even deal. This is insane you guys, this is insane,” she said. “We have a five-hour flight. I’m wearing a bag that these [headphones] came in on my head.”
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Mollen subsequently showed off her makeshift hairnet that she made on the fly from the headphone’s plastic bag. The bag was nestled on top of her scalp and did not fully cover the ends of her hair. Mollen appeared to be sitting in first class.
According to the CDC, lice are parasitic insects that feed on human blood. While they are mostly found on a person’s head, the bugs can also nest in a person’s eyebrows and eyelashes.
“I’ve never had lice in my life. I don’t know what to do,” she confessed. “I’ve been itching for two weeks, so they’ve been living on me for two weeks.”
After realizing that she most likely had lice for two weeks, she figured Biggs, 46 and their two sons Sid and Lazlo, also had lice — plus everyone else their family has been in contact with. Many people took to the comments section to slam Mollen for traveling after coming to the realization.
Jenny Mollen. Courtesy of Jenny Mollen/Instagram
“Well I certainly would not be on a plane with untreated lice announcing it,” one user wrote. “Not cool.”
Mollen fired back claiming that she didn’t have it “confirmed until six hours later” after she landed in New York City. “Can you try and put yourself in that position?” Mollen replied.
Multiple people encouraged Mollen to alert the flight attendant staff so they could be aware of the issue. Several others also pointed out that Mollen should have all her hair covered or at least wear her hood over her head.
Mollen shared an update on her situation when she returned home later that month, adding that like her head her home was also “infested.” In the clip, Mollen sat in a chair as a woman treated her hair to remove the lice.
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“We’re peeling out the lice. Last night we put the shampoo on and killed everybody,” she said via an Instagram video. “Now there are ᴅᴇᴀᴅ bodies and they’re being pulled from my head.”
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She also acknowledged the backlash she received online about being on an airplane while having lice.
“I know, the airplane seat, that’s a bummer for whoever sits there next,” she said. “I want to be clear, I didn’t know that I had lice until I was on the airplane. I thought that I was going through perimenopause and for about three weeks I was just itching my scalp.”
Mollen also partially blamed Biggs for the ordeal, saying that she had previously asked him to check her scalp before she boarded a plane… but he didn’t see anything at the time.
