Scuba Diver Panics as She Felt Something Crawling on Her Head — Then, She Realized What It Was

A scuba diver’s biggest fear might be facing off an aggressive shark in deep waters. When speaking of the smallest, a tiny crab hitching a ride in your hair can also be terrifying enough. A woman’s blissful diving session was interrupted after she felt something crawl on her scalp but eventually realized what it was. A larval crab was hiding beneath her braided hair and put up a fight when people tried to free her from the mini intruder. Kayleigh Grant (@mermaid.kayleigh), an avid diver and underwater videographer, shared the incident on the internet, which quickly turned into a viral moment, viewed over 63.5 million times, on Instagram. 

In the snippet, Grant, who also owns Kaimana Ocean Safari, which offers scuba diving tours in Hawaii, feels something crawling and scratches her head in the blue underwater. Soon, she is up on a boat with her hands still feeling her head when viewers get the first glimpse of the small crustacean, camouflaged with the woman’s hair. The camera zooms into her scalp for a closer look while someone else tries to pick it out. “He’s like really dug in there!” a voice can be heard saying as Grant lets out a faint scream of pain. “POV: you feel something crawl on your scalp in the ocean,” the overlay text on the video hinted. 

However, she was not the only victim there. Soon after her crab was pulled out, her friend also felt another crab crawling around her neck. Quite accurately, the divers spotted a second larval crab and handed it to her friend. Hence, the video was captioned, “Casually picking crabs out of our hair.” Grant might have initially speculated that she has “sea lice” but turns out, that these baby crabs are common and have a solid reason for such creepy behavior. In an interview with Newsweek, she explained, "It's pretty common for us to have larval (baby) crabs use us to hitch a ride in the deep open ocean. In this environment, they are vulnerable to being eaten by larger fish so anything floating along (including us) becomes a safe haven for them.”

Moreover, Grant emphasized that these tiny sea creatures are common and nothing to be concerned about besides the unpleasant feeling of intrusion. They also may try to crawl into the ears where it often meets its tragic fate. “I have a friend who had one die in his ear. Luckily, he was able to remove it with tweezers,” she recalled. Grant, an avid adventurer, was scuba diving near her home with a group of divers in Kona, Hawaii, a popular tourist destination. She and her husband run their diving tour company together, given the great demand for scuba diving activities on the island.

While it may be a minor inconvenience for Grant, the internet had wild reactions. “New fear unlocked,” one person (@soy.jelo) said while another (@nicte.azul) joked, “Did you tell the crab it can't park there?” “That’s it, I’m never swimming again,” wrote a fearful netizen (@peachybabies). Someone else (@anna_mb35) quipped, “The way I’d be screaming my head off.” A comment by an internet user (@waldist_) related to the underwater terror and figured, “I have curly hair, that would be a nightmare for me.” 

You can follow @mermaid.kayliegh for more underwater adventures.