Head Lice Treatments

By: Shiloah Baker & Contributing Readers

We receive many, many emails a week on this topic, either new ideas or needing more advice.  We are glad to add any of your tried and true ideas to this page! 

And since this is such a popular topic, please post your questions, comments and other "lice" talk on the forum.  Remember you must be a member of the forum.  Sign up is free and easy!

http://www.homemakingcottage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=94#94

Herbal Lice Treatment
 

• 12 drops Eucalyptus essential oil
• 25 drops Rosemary essential oil
• 13 drops Geranium essential oil
• 25 drops Lavender essential oil
• 5 drops Tea tree oil essential oil
• 5 drops Cypress essential oil
• 5 drops Citrus essential oil
• 3 oz. vegetable oil

Shake ingredients in a shaker i.e.: cruet. Let sit on hair for 2-3 hours. Wrap hair in saran wrap or put a plastic shower cap over the hair. This should do 2 treatments. This is a very effective method of getting rid of these bugs (At least it worked well for my family). Put this treatment on dry hair for best results and then cover with a shower cap.

The most important thing to do to get rid of the lice is to make sure that you get ALL of the nits out. They are the eggs and will hatch. This is the one thing that is not killed by any treatments, even the store treatments. You must pull them out by hand. When my children had lice, I spent hours and hours pulling the nits and the bugs out by hand. We used the beer and the essential oil treatments. If you have any suggestions to add, please email.

-Shiloah Baker

Beer is another thing that works well in getting rid of lice. After whatever treatment you use, rinse with beer. Let stay on the hair for 30 minutes to an hour and wrap head in a towel. Then rinse it out.

 

Another method is using Suave Coconut shampoo. I don't know how effective this is, I would only use this on a young child who doesn't have it too badly.

Vaseline will suffocate them. This is said to be one of the best treatments. Plaster the hair right down to the roots. Leave on for 30 minutes. Shampoo with dish soap or any other degreasing soap. It takes about 6 shampoos to get it out. The chemical solutions are not working at all, do not use them, they are harmful.
 

* A tip from Olga- "I have used Vaseline on my daughter head, covered it with a shower cap and left it on all night. the next day I went through and found none. To get the Vaseline out is put cornstarch on the hair when dry, this will soak up allot, and another thing I used was dawn dish soap and baking soda and this work well too. good luck!"

*A tip from Julie Majewski, " I have a friend who tried the Vaseline.  She said she left it on for a couple days and it even killed the eggs.  She said that since the eggs take about 3-4 days to hatch, keeping the Vaseline on wont let them hatch so they will die off.  I am willing to try anything!  My daughter keeps going back to the group of people down the street who don't fully treat their house or everyone.  School starts Tuesday and she has to be lice-free.  Even if I have to shave her, she will be!  LOL (not really)  I think the over-the-counter treatments are too strong to have to keep using over and over and I want safe ways."

Olive oil (extra virgin) works the same as Vaseline.. put it on at night. put on shower cap.. see if they can sleep in it.. in the morning.. wash a few times.. then pull out all the nits as a preventative measures..

Lice HATE tea tree oil. Use Paul Mitchell's tea tree shampoo.. or add a couple tablespoons of tea tree oil to your favorite shampoo and conditioner..  

You can also add to your rinse water in your laundry.. as well as Skin So Soft. They also hate Skin So soft so you can use it as a fabric rinse in your clothing (mosquito's hate this as well.

Don't forget to boil brushes and combs and rub them down with tea tree oil as well. (Helps repel those bugs!)   Also, Bugs love nice clean hair.. you can use mouse and gel in your child's hair.. and this helps to repel the bugs too.

http://www.liceoff.com/ - sells a good, natural lice remover.

Mayo .. used like the olive oil or Vaseline

Crisco (used the same way)

Goop (used the same way) Vinegar - used to help loosen nits. Mix with conditioner  (50 50) and spray on..

Contributed by: Erika Houlton

I read that if you mix Listerine and water 50/50 and spray the hair with a light mist after every shower it will help re-infestation
-Anonymous

 We've found that the most effective way to combat lice is to put a good amount of white hair conditioner on dry hair work through and use nit comb. This should be done every day for 7 days. Seems to be working well as the conditioner stuns the lice.

-Best wishes Debbie from Australia
 

The best and easiest head lice treatment is blow-drying the (dry) hair on the highest setting the child can tolerate. Do it outside or put down a sheet behind the head, as lice and nits will dry out and fall off the hair. The ones that stay stuck to the hair are dried out and dead, and easier to remove. The nits will not hatch, but still need to be removed just to be safe!

This can be used after treating with homemade treatments like the ones already mentioned on your website. This method is a lifesaver if you are confronted with a really bad case that includes lots of live bugs.

30 minutes on high in the dryer gets rid of infestation on clothing and blankets, all the child's bedding needs to be treated, don't hang it on the line! Some stuffed animals can be placed in the dryer without damaging them, all the others should be bagged in plastic bags for 30 days. Vacuum children's rooms, backs of chairs, sofas, car seats, backpacks, mattresses;  lice don't stick to things that are not hair and will be removed. Don't waste money on lice removal products when nice clean free hot air is a louse's worst enemy!

Good luck and aloha,
Sio
 

Everyone always says that the RID shampoo will work and it does BUT if you are a messy home keeping person then it wont work because the bugs will still be in your carpet and on your furniture so try using the RID spray and after doing that try using 1/2 Listerine and 1/2 cup of water after each time your child or you wash their hair!!  And then there will be NO MORE lice!

Or try using some mayo and let it set for 30 min and then shampoo it out with ANY kind of dish washing liquid!! BUT it will take about 6 to 7 shampoo cycles of this.

-Alicia Thomas
 

I have foster children and most of them come with friends! Today I found the perfect way to get rid of them. I have tried many other ways and even the one I used today I have used before, but this time I used more vinegar.

I bought a bottle of the squirt Kraft mayonnaise and took almost 1/2 out of the bottle and refilled it with white vinegar. Smells awful but we worked through it. Coat the hair like a thick salad and cover with saran wrap for at least 5 hours. The mixture is rather runny and we had to do some wipe offs frequently. We added a nice bandana over the mess for her vanity.  I rinsed her hair and washed it twice with Dawn dishwashing soap and then used a nice Tea Tree soap afterwards. Then I started using the little comb I had bought.  She was infested but when I was done combing her hair out and blew it dry, honestly all the nits just fell off of her head. She is clean as a whistle again.

Now I am not sure if it was the name brand mayo or that I used more vinegar this time, but it worked like a miracle. After we were said and done, I took a small spray bottle full of water and added about 20 drops of Tea Tree oil to it and sprayed everyone down and combed everyone's hair in the house. This was truly the fastest and easiest time I have been able to rid our home of head lice. The best part was, I didn't have to use anything on her sweet head that was harmful to her in anyway. Hope this helps someone!
 

-Tina Hanson

After spending close to $100 buying every lice-removing-wonder-cure, I have come to the realization that NONE of them work.  Here's what my pharmacist recommends.  Not only does it work like a charm, but it's CHEAPER!!!
Wash with Prell Shampoo -- the original green one and rinse;
Towel dry;
Drench hair with Listerine Mouth Wash, the original brown variety;
Cover with shower cap and wear overnight, preferably 12 hours;
Wash again with Prell;
Blow hair dry;
Go OUTSIDE and comb with a fine tooth comb or brush (lice comb is not necessary.)

Stand back and watch the lice, eggs, and nits fall off the hair shaft!!!

It's a miracle!
 

-Contributed by: Jennifer S.

I spoke to a Herbalist after having untold problem with nits.  She said that if you're lacking vitamin B it can make it harder to get rid of nits.  And, also, get into garlic!  Evidently nits can't stand garlic in the blood!  I certainly found this helped me.

-Teresa Jones
 

First, I pour vegetable oil into the hair and start combing all the nits and bugs out of the hair.  Then into the shower rinsing with vinegar to get the oil out and adding a couple of drops of oil of oregano to regular shampoo. I have to treat my step-daughter every time she comes back from her mother's house.  I don't know why, but every time she has lice.

-Paddi Frasier
 

Denorex Shampoo

Denorex Extra Strength shampoo will get rid of head lice.    Dampen hair, lather well, let it remain on hair for 30 minutes, rinse well and good-bye to lice.
-Jean Bass

Another email about Denorex:

Use Denorex Extra Strength shampoo, leave it in about 15 minutes the first time and when you rinse it out you will see louse falling out of the hair. You will still need to remove the nits (unless you are doing it for preventive measures.) then just wash with Denorex for a couple weeks twice a day (morning and afternoon) and you should be lice free. We wash our kids hair with Denorex about once a week as a preventive measure, and when we receive the letter from school informing us of an outbreak we do it again.

-Jim Totusek

Pour white vinegar on hair to loosen the "glue" which binds the nits to the hair follicle. You can wrap hair in shower cap after applying vinegar for about 15-20 minutes. Use a nit comb to comb out the nits.  Mayonnaise also will smother the lice bugs much like Vaseline and is easier to rinse.

-Anonymous
 

Coat dry hair in mayo, then put a shower cap on and let it sit for 30 minutes exact. Then wash with dish soap 2 times then take a big curling iron and separate hair into 4 parts and put it on high and the nits will just fall out!

-Contributed by: Lauren smith

I use to have the worst time with lice at the school my daughter attended.  My sister looked in her herbal book and it said anise oil worked so we tried it.   Mind you, my daughter has past the waist thick Indian hair.  It was such a hassle doing her hair when we needed to, but not this time!  We rubbed the anise oil in till she said it was starting to heat up.   We then put her in to the shower, washed it out, dried her off, and put some leave-in conditioner in her hair and used the new long tooth combs to comb thru her hair.  We only found dead nits. Now we use anise oil in our conditioner to keep them away.

- Joy Studivent

*Note- Anise Oil is an essential oil that can be found at your local holistic/herbal store.

I had lice as a child and my mother used A200.  You can get it at Walgreens.    I never got them again until now, my daughter had them and I had a hard time finding the A200, but they finally got it in, and now no lice.  Good luck!

-Karen Foley

Help is Here for Head lice!!

We were unfortunate to catch Head lice from people we knew.  As soon as we discovered them, I started frantically with Head lice treatments.  If you have boys, there is no need to treat them, just get out the clippers and cut hair as close to the scalp as possible.  Not only did my boys not catch them from us but in all the time we suffered from Head Lice they weren't able to catch them them from us either.  You see, they aren't unable to lay their eggs as they need at least one centimeter from the scalp to keep me moist and warm thus keeping them alive. A bit like a chicken egg that needs warmth to keep it alive. Also it's too cold for the Head Lice to survive so they die. As for our girls we tried everything: KP24,Pryrenel Foam, Egg remover, Nads, Robi Comb, Olive Oil, Mayonnaise, white Conditioner, White Vinegar even Listerine Mouth Wash.  Nothing worked.  Some were worse then others. 

I finally come across, Praneem Head lice Treatment and  Repel Natural Shampoo with Neem Extract.  I couldn't believe it, it actually worked.  After two months of agonizing itching and sending us broke with the money wasted on broken promises, we found something that destroys them altogether.  Not only does it kill Head Lice but it also kills their nits too.  We all know how difficult it is to get rib of nits, leave one behind and you have failed the whole treatment.  This product is simply brilliant! 

QLD based company,: NewChem Lab PTY LTD Unit 3 60 Jijaws St Sumner Park 4074 To order Ph(07) 3376 9770.  Fax(07) 3376 7736.
 

-Marie

 

We have been suffering a strain of Mutant Head lice for quite some time now. In an attempt to get rib of these bugs we tried just about every thing under the sun not to mention hundreds of dollars (including Herbs, old remedies and over the counter treatments) Unfortunately, none of these worked for us. After weeks of searching the internet for answers I came across a site that treated fleas with a garlic and vinegar solution. The article read, "Does FLEA FREE shampoo really kill head lice ? 
 http://www.allnaturalfleafree.com/index.htm

A. YES ! This was discovered accidentally when one mother was at wits end with her daughters lice infestation. The mother knew that FLEA FREE contains only all natural ingredients. In her persistent effort to finally rid the head lice epidemic that had taken over her home and life, she shampooed her daughters hair every other day with FLEA FREE shampoo for two weeks. The lice and newly hatched lice from eggs were then gone.

I started researching garlic and it's active properties. As you may or may not know, there are many varying ways in treating Head Lice. One of those include antibiotics. Antibiotics such as (Bactrim or Septrin) is sometimes prescribed as a second line treatment for head lice. The belief is that the bacteria in the gut of the lice, which are essential for the digestion of nutrients, are killed when the lice feed on the blood of a person taking this antibiotic. They then starve to death. However, this method may cause future use of antibiotics to lose their effectiveness. The reason why garlic is so effective for the treatment of Head Lice is it's ability to act the same way as a prescribed antibiotics without the side effects.

High Potency garlic oil such as Blackmores and Natures own (3000mg x 3 per day) will kill and prevent Head lice. Treatment usually takes two weeks to complete and to break the cycle of Head Lice. Continue to use as a preventative.

I hope this information can help others who are suffering from this dreaded condition.  By the way, this treatment really works!

-Maria.

Okay ladies... It sounds like everyone has had the same hard time as I with lice... I FINALLY found a solution that works.  I have never had luck with the Vaseline and/or mayo, butter, etc.  However, I have made a concoction of olive oil, tea tree shampoo, sweet almond oil, coconut oil and then some actual tea tree oil and then I blend it up, It really smells nice.  I put it on my girls hair and top it with a shower cap.  Then, I rinse well but don't use any other shampoo.  I stand her in the shower (drain it first of course) and blow dry her hair on ultra high (keep a bottle of water nearby cause she'll get hot and sweaty, but you must preserve her)  blow dry until her hair is VERY DRY and then shampoo her again this time using Shampoo with some tea tree oil and conditioner.  Then blow dry again.  Now this works for us but I have heard of using the Listerine as an in between treatment to loosen everything up.  I keep the bugs away by washing once a week or so with a handful of tea tree oil added to the shampoo. 

Oh, one more thing... Lice can only live for 24 hours off of the body and they don't jump (although do run fast), so I take all my kid's babies and tie them in black plastic bags... same with all the bed pillows and throw pillows, and AFTER I have cleaned their heads.  I keep them out of their rooms for 3 days just to be safe... that way I am pretty sure that all the bugs are gone. 

Lice only lay eggs ON hair shaft - no kid, no hair!  I never have a problem with it being in my furniture or anything.  And guess where they're getting it?  Teachers have kids put their BACKPACKS in a bin with everyone else's - well... hair hangs RIGHT over the backpacks.  It's either the bin or some teachers have them hang them on the wall... still they're too close. Backpacks need to be considered headgear and kept with the person, or not to be carried - cause that's how they're being spread in my elementary school anyway!

-Katie Fritzsche
 

The best thing I have found to kill lice is Sergeants or Hearts Flea and Tick shampoo.  It really works and is NOT harmful.

-Roxan Castillo

I've tried everything for head lice, until I was told from a health nurse to use 1 cup hair conditioner and let stand on hair for 1 hour. Wrap in Saran Wrap or shower cap.  After one hour get into the shower and take a nit comb and comb hair out.   Rinse out the comb after each stroke in hot water.   This must be done every 3 days for 2 weeks. 

Everyone knows that some of those shampoos just don't work.   What I found that works is the RNC shampoo, but instead of only leaving it on for 10 minutes leave it on for 40 minutes.  Do not do this on young children!!
This really works.   Then rinse and comb out with nit comb.  Make sure you wash everything in hot water.   For combs and brushes, leave in boiling water for 10 min. and soak in lice shampoo.


-Heather Stone

My pediatrician instructed me to wash my child's hair in regular shampoo, then rinse, then pour white vinegar onto the hair, being sure not to get vinegar in their eyes, leave on for 10 minutes, then rinse the hair, add NIX to hair and cover with shower cap and leave on overnight, when you get up in the morning, rinse and comb.  Easy removal.

-Smorg

Hi there from Canada!  We, too, had head lice.  I was about to lose my mind when I was emailed an article about mayonnaise.  It really was a miracle.  Permeate your munchkin's head in mayonnaise and wrap plastic wrap around his/her head tightly.  Wrap head in a towel or put a hat on their head, and let them play for two hours.  After 2 hours, rinse out the mayonnaise with water, shampoo with regular shampoo, then rinse out the shampoo with white vinegar.  Comb out the hair, then comb with a nit comb.  Not only does it kill the lice (smothers them), but it kills the nits.  They turn into little marble-like things.  Kind of neat!  

Anyhow, I also (because I'm a bit anal retentive!!) worked plain conditioner into their heads each night after the initial mayo treatment, left it in for an hour, rinsed it out and combed with a nit comb.  After about 3 days of doing this, no more nits.  

We are done!  I do not hesitate in recommending this for anyone who is at their wit's end with head lice.  Remember to vacuum and to wash all bedding, though.  

- Lynda from Canada.
 

I have also struggled for a while with lice on my two children I find that the use of vinegar and baby oil ( if you get scented baby oil hair will smell nice) mixed 50/50 for 20 minutes works wonders do this 2 weeks in a row and lice will be gone.

-Heather

Lice have built a resistance to OTC remedies. Any of the over the counter medications are harmful to children because the poisons seep into the scalp as soon as ten minutes after applied. I've used baby oil with measured success, not all the nits came out, we had to remove the rest by hand. Dawn dish soap kills fleas and SOME lice.

For the furniture, get RAID Flea spray, its in a tall purple can. Works great and doesn't smell bad!
 

-Beth Weeks

This is the year 2004, we can clone human beings, yet still battle as our grandmothers did, probably worse actually, with managing head lice.
Why are they so hard to manage?

Because many of the non-hazardous methods are down right difficult and time consuming.  What I can do well is tell you how to stop nits.  Diligence is the key.

Use a half empty a bottle of Martha gardeners wool wash, or some other brand, and add three eucalyptus capfuls to the bottle , 15ml anise oil, 100ml rubbing alcohol, totally smother scalp and cover with swimming hat or other and leave on until child complains of mild discomfort, if it is getting to the child, it's getting to the bugs also due to the mutual ph requirement to survive. Approx 20 to 40 min.

Do the tooth comb thing after rinsing with vinegar, but do everyone.  et a bomb (insect) and go out for the day.  Not to a  house you would normally visit (don't want to re-contaminate your nice nit free heads, do you).

Wash your hair with your ordinary shampoo, and do the same thing as you did with the wool wash with your usual conditioner, use roughly 1/4 of the alcohol you used in the wool wash though.   To maintain, combine 15 drops each previously mentioned oils of equal quantity of half milk half water to dissipate molecules, with the addition of sprig of rosemary into a bottle of daily leave in hair conditioning spray, and give a good multi vitamin daily.
Notice how people claim sickly kids seem predisposed to getting them, it's not proven yet, but it's on the way.

A natural/herbal insect repellant works well as a before - school spritz in the morning, as does a natural dog or kitten flea spray, though thoroughly analyze the ingredients, as some can be a little sneaky.

If this fails get your kid to the doctor and ask for a course or two of bactrum, or something similar, and try this again in a week or so. The antibiotics interfere with the metabolic process of the louse.

Alternatively, you could invent something better yourself and give me the recipe.

-Meghan Tyler

I have two young girls, who unfortunately have suffered with head lice for as long as they have been going to the school which they attend.  My oldest has long and thick dark hair and my youngest has blonde, mid length, baby fine hair.  I have been ordered (with death being the punishment) not to cut either of their hair.  Getting the nits out of their hair, has become a major headache for so long till I found a few ways to help get them out easier.  

I did a series of things, and it seems to be working.  I started by putting shaving cream on with a shower cap for 1/2 an hour....then wash with the Denorex extra strength shampoo.....then use a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and baby oil, saturate the hair and leave on with shower cap for another 1/2 hour.  This loosens the glue from the nits, and after shampooing with Denorex again, you should be bug free.  

-Catrina Hilburn

My 8 year old daughter has had a terrible time with head lice.  She has worn bandanas, but she seems to attract them.   The last time she got them I tried 3 different products none of them worked, so I did a little bit of research and made my own and it works.

You need: 20 drops Eucalyptus essential oil, the same of tea tree oil plus 12 drops of aniseed essential oil and the same amount of lemon oil add these to quarter cup of olive oil shake ingredients together. 

Use a squirt bottle and coat head and work it through with a clean hair brush.  Comb through with a lice comb onto paper towel.  I watched the little suckers die.  All of them had expired after an hour.  This does make the child's hair greasy but if you rub corn flour through the hair before washing it washes out easily, hope this helps.
 

-Joanne Harvey

 To treat head lice, forget dangerous chemicals, and expensive essential oils! My daughters contracted head lice 2 years ago and after a year of trying to fight them, I was so frustrated with Rid, NIX, etc.

I gave up and hacked off my daughter's beautiful long hair.  This still didn't work, and a week later the critters were back.  I searched the web for any help.  I found many ideas, and either they didn't work or I couldn't afford them.  I finally decided to try a mayonnaise treatment, and after 30 days, had figured out a recipe that completely wiped out the bugs.  Not only was it cheap, but it was simple, and easy. 

I coated their hair with mayo, and put on a tight fitting shower cap for 2 hours.  I then washed the hair with Dawn dish liquid until all of the grease was gone, then shampooed and conditioned as usual.  I then blow dried their hair completely, and used a metal nit comb which completely took out all of the dried up nits.  I washed all bedding, coats, hats, etc., put all stuffed animals in the dryer, vacuumed, and had them wear nightcaps for the 10 day hatching period.  Finally they were bug free.  Keeping the hair in tight braids or ponytails at school helps keep the bugs from taking hold. 

-Heather Yellow Boy
 

I have some new tidbits to add as earlier this summer my two eldest daughter's brought home lice from summer school. 

1.  Do NOT use conditioner while treating for lice.  Conditioner coats the eggs (nits) and protects them from other remedies. 

2. Flea combs are finer and work better than most lice combs!

-Shiloah Baker- website owner

Apply a mixture of thick neem leaves paste, thick paste of basil leave, 6to7 clove finely ground and for making a paste use beer. Apply & keep for about 4 to 5 hours and rise with a natural shampoo.

-Sonia
 

My daughter had lice and we tried the over the counter remedy (Nix) to no avail.  I sat with her every night going through her hair and removing the nits/eggs for about three weeks.  We changed her bedding every night and removed as much as possible from her room and cleaned the entire house just about every day.  We still couldn't get rid of them.  They kept on coming back (or never going away, depending on how you look at it). 

We searched the internet for remedies and found that coconut oil was something listed as a possible remedy. It was recommended that we try Suave coconut shampoo.  We did one better than that.  We tried a can of coconut milk.  I washed and conditioned her hair and then worked the coconut milk through her hair and then secured a plastic bag over her hair and tied it with a twist tie in the back to secure it tight.  We left it on for about an hour and then washed the coconut milk out of her hair and combed it with a fine tooth comb. 

It worked....Finally.  If it happens again, that will definitely be my first choice.

-Mom In New York

After trying OTC meds and RX of Ovide from the doctor my daughters still had lice after a month. I found that a combination of things that most people have at home can do better than any treatment from the doctor and OTC stuff. This is what I done:

1st -  You have to get rid of the nits of course.
2nd - Put mouthwash on your hair and cover your hair for about 5 minutes and rinse out.
3rd - When your hair is dry put Sergeants flea and tick dog shampoo on for another 5 minutes and wash out.
4th - When hair is just about dry again put Vaseline on your hair and scalp (I used a lot) cover your head with a plastic shower cap over night.

Note: Everyone says Vaseline is hard to get out of hair.   No it isn't,  just use CORNMEAL and put it all in your hair- don't rub it in just pat it in the hair. Cornmeal absorbs Vaseline. Shampoo your hair a couple of time and you are done. If the cornmeal doesn't get it all out repeat next day and it is gone.

After 10 days I put Olive oil in our hair over night even though I did not see anything just to make sure. Also use suave coconut shampoo and conditioner (as mentioned above). It really works I know it sounds crazy but is really does...

Don't forget to wash your bedding, put your pillows in the dryer for at least 30 minutes, boil your hair brush and scrunchies & vacuum your house...

-Donna Angel

-Tanner

-Darlene Burns
 

Still looking for that "cure all" for lice? After battling them off and on for almost six months (and reading all the tips on this website) I decided to try my own. I kept reading that lice do not like certain types of oils, I figured, "What the heck?" and I looked in my own bathroom cabinet. I am a huge fan of Farouk Systems, USA, BioSilk, Silk Therapy oil. It's extremely healthy for your hair and smells great.

There are four of us in the house that had to be treated, so I started with my middle son. I could lean him over the bathroom sink and literally comb the bugs out before I even treated him, it was disgusting. He also had tons of nits at the base of his skull and above the ears. I soaked his scalp and hair in the BioSilk oil and really rubbed it in there. Another great advantage is that this oil doesn't drip - it starts absorbing into the hair.

By the time I was done saturating his head, I started looking through the hair at the base of his skull and there were lice there, already dead. To make sure they were dead, I picked them off and put them on a paper plate and watched them off and on for almost 2 hours. There was something in the oil that kills them on contact. I left the oil in his hair for about an hour, covered in a shower cap. When I took the cap off, there were dozens of dead lice on the inside of the cap. I washed his hair once with dishwashing liquid and once with coconut shampoo, then combed through it thoroughly with a nit comb.

The amazing part of this story was that all of his nits were gone - they were there before we started, but I could not find a single one, and believe me, I know how to find them!! Evidently something in the oil perhaps loosens them and makes it much easier to wash and comb them out, I was truly amazed.

I put the whole family through the oil treatment and we're as happy as can be. Of course, I plan on doing this again 3-5 days later for the next couple of weeks to make sure. As always, I washed every piece of bedding, hat, scarf, jacket, comb, brush and anything else I could think of. I treated the furniture and actually "bombed" their bedrooms with Raid room bombs. That way their mattresses and everything else is taken care of that I could not wash by hand. Hope these suggestions help!

-Michele Van Dyke

A company called "LiceEnders" came to our school to do the bi-annual lice check. My son was sent home with lice.

Step 1 of the treatment they recommended was using a lice killer (I used the homeopathic LiceFree, following the comb-out directions with a steel nit-comb, finer than the one in the box). It's a thick gel that smells like licorice. I combed out hundreds of nits, and 28 lice. Interestingly, though 26 of the bugs I combed out were dead, the two largest ones were still wiggling (though stuck in the gel).

Step 2 -washing out the hair and dry it with a hot blow-dryer.

Step 3 of the proceedure is to comb again, first sectioning hair 4 ways, applying a paste of equal parts white hair conditioner (Pantene is really white) and baking soda liberally to each section and combing out any left-over nits.

I only found 2 nits, no bugs during the second treatment. I've cleaned the bedding, his back-pack (thanks for this suggestion) his winter outer garments, and happily we don't have carpets or fabric covered furniture, and his stuffed animals sit on a shelf, not on his bed. I'm going to wrap his head with olive oil nightly before I do a comb-out again in a week.

-M Lottenger

Lice Treatment Page 2

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