what is the best way to get rid of head lice?

Question

My niece has been infested with this lice and it is to where we cant let her come over and i feel so sorry for her we have tried all lice shampoos and have picked her hair and it still comes back. I dont know what else to do. Does anyone have any tip for me.

my niece has lice bad!! we have used all products such as nix ect... comes right back even after I sat and pick all nits out it took me 5 hours and there back.. I feel sorry for her because we cant let her come over because we have three kids and it cost to much money!!! I need some serious help... Does anyone know foe sure if like oils work such as baby oil, olive oil ect. Please Help Me and she will not shave her head!!!

Thank you for all of your help and concerned. We are going to try some of the things that we read.. Again thanks for answering my question we really appricate it....

Thanks to all, I finally got rid of the lice I had to call the doctor and they called in a shampoo called lindane and it got rid of it I hope anyway it is supposed to kill the lice and the nits. So lets just all say a prayer foe her and maybe she will be lice free.

Answer 1

FIRST AND FOREMOST
Take all of her bedding stuffed animals pillows and clothes place them in garbage bags tie them tightly and leave them for 24 to 72 hours.
THIS MIGHT SOUND CRAZY BUT IT WAS DONE TO ME SEVERAL TIMES GROWING UP IT HAS BEEN USED LONG BEFORE LICE SHAMPOOS WERE EVEN AVAILABLE SO PLEASE TRY IT WITH EXTREME CAUTION OF COURSE!!!!!!!

Buy 1 gallon of kerosene (bought at any local hardware and even some supermarkets that carry camping supplies) place a couple of towels around the child's neck and shoulders soak hair with the kerosene leave on for 10 to 45 mins.(depends on how infested) PLEASE DO NOT SMOKE AROUND HER OR ALLOW HER NEAR FLAMES rinse with very warm water shampoo rinse shampoo and rinse apply LOTS of conditioner use a lice comb and go through her hair. It worked every time on us kids when we were younger and if I got them now I would use that before I did any over the counter shampoo. Seems like the things the used before all of the stuff out today worked better.

Answer 2

I have used the over the counter medications to no avail because lice have become emmune to them. Olive oil works great. They suffocate. douse the head so thick that it runns off heavily. Next leave it on for 1/2 hour then wash away. Do this daily for 1 week and then one time a week after words for a month then one time a month untill you are sure it is stopped.. also the oil prevents the adults from laying the eggs in the hair because the hair becomes really oily and the eggs that are attatched will fall off because of so much oil! This is the same with coconut oil. Also, you may not be getting rid of the lice in the home. use a good RAID bug fogger and kill those nasties! Next, Remember the car. You can get infected by having live lice eggs in the car where your niece rests her head. also check all her family for the lice and make sure they don't have it!

Next, you MUST check all her friends. They may have it too.

Answer 3

Been there done that and I sympathize with you. It has been a bad year for it, and I am sick and tired of putting chemicals on my childs hair.

First invest in a comb called the LiceMister. Great comb, you can boil it and it is effective. I use it inbetween investations just to keep a good check on it. Second I use our regular shampoo and add Tea Tree Oil (Pure not the fake stuff) I use a generous amount of the mixture, and place a disposible shower cap for at least a half hour. Then a generous amount of conditioner and leave that on for at least a half hour. Then using the LiceMister comb, comb through the childs hair.
Make sure you wash what you can in bedding and anything that can't be washed place in the dryer if possible and safely. Good Luck and last but not least, if it has been a fight the whole year, please be sure to let you child know it is not their fault, they are not dirty or have cooties and give them a great big hug.

Answer 4

Are the home and vehicles being treated as well? Shampoo's need to be repeated after about 10 days, and hair needs to be picked everyday. A doctor can prescribe a stronger solution, it sounds like that may be necessary.
There are sprays for surfaces that cannot be washed, like the car, and furniture. Everything that can be washed, wash in hot water.
Other things like stuffed animals and soft toys should be put in sealed bags for 3 weeks. Floors should be vacuumed thoroughly.
Good luck! I feel very bad for you, I've been through lice with my daughter many times :(

Answer 5

Get yourself a cheap perm solution - one that is designed for resistant hair - and pour it on, then comb it through in all directions (there is no need to neutralize because you dint want to change the natural wave pattern of your hair you only want to kill the lice) this will kill the loving creatures and the eggs. Then you must scrape the nits (the little white egg looking things)from the hair shaft.
Leave the solution on for the recommended twenty minutes or until you are certain the critters are dead then rinse,
shampoo at least twice, then rinse thoroughly again until the water runs clear. Follow this process with a strong moisturizer then a conditioner preferably ones that can be left in such as the Loma line of products - you can find 'Loma' on line as well.
Remember teach your children not to share combs hats brushes or even hair ties with their little friends...if your children get it they will certainly bring it home to you.
Good luck '>)

Answer 6

This happened to my sister's children. Turns out, the children they were playing with had head lice and although my sister got rid of the lice, everytime they played with the kids, they got them back. She used Quell and a fine tooth comb...had to wash everything the kids came into contact with...took forever, but finally got rid of them. And, head lice are not a sign of being dirty...my sister's kids are very clean.

Answer 7

See a doctor, you need something stronger.

The medicated shampoos for head lice available over the counter at your drug store have limited strength, so be sure see a doctor.

Also, was ALL your bedding with a strong detergent, and it wouldn't hurt to wash any clothing or towels that may have come in contact with the head in question. Be sure to kill all the eggs.

Answer 8

Steps
Be prepared to fight a potentially long battle. Adult lice and immature lice are pretty easy to get rid of, but their eggs are much harder to get rid of, and it is with these that the most problems crop up. People can think that they are rid of lice, but then get another case of lice from just a couple of eggs. Constant vigilance will be necessary to win this battle.
Gather a few fine tooth combs and thick conditioner and find a room with lots of light. Sit the subject down on a firm chair.
Look for the living adult lice, which have pinchers in front, and scuttle around. The small, white "crawly" things are the little immature lice and the white/brown microscopic things attached to the hair shaft are the eggs.
Disperse thick conditioner thoroughly through the hair of the affected person. Doing so will make the hair silky and much easier to comb through with fine tooth combs, and will also loosen the eggs so that they slide right off the strands.
Separate and clip the hair up into four sections and start combing, stopping to wipe the lice and eggs on a towel every few strokes. Continue until all the sections are done.
Repeat, wash the combs, and start again. You should comb through the hair until not a single egg or nit shows up! This will probably take an hour or so.
Once done, march into the kitchen, and pour a cup of white vinegar into a pitcher of water. Vinegar is also supposed to help loosen the eggs. Wash your hair out with the vinegar rinse and then with water.
Clean all of the infected person's contaminated belongings: clothes, towels, and bedding will need to be washed in hot water, and their mattress and room vacuumed thoroughly. Use the hottest setting on the dryer and dry for the longest time you can without harming the fabric.
Wait a day, and then repeat the process, sitting down, putting in the conditioner and combing through the hair. You could be be surprised after the last comb-through that the little parasites are back, although if they are, they should be back in greatly decreased numbers.
Again, comb through the hair until not one of the lice shows up. Repeat again. And again. And yet again. Usually two weeks will pass until all the lice are gone.



Tips
Remember: vigilance, constant vigilance. You can defeat this problem; you just have to stick to the combing! It takes a couple of weeks, but it's well worth it.
If an item cannot be washed in hot water or dried in a hot dryer - don't worry - just wash and dry the item and quarantine it in a sealed plastic bag (squeeze out as much air as you can before sealing) for at least two weeks, and the lice will die from lack of air.
Brushes and hair ties should be boiled or thrown out. People who live with the affected person should be inspected as well.
If the above methods don't work, try using pyrethrum shampoo meant for dogs with fleas. Pyrethrum shampoo is meant for dog fleas. Although plant-based, it is still toxic but better than the poisons sold for humans with lice. There are few side effects.
An additional tactic can be to blow-dry the hair with very hot air whenever it feels itchy.
If all else fails, and the lice don't go away after three weeks or more, you can always dye your hair - or, rather, bleach it. Doing so will completely fry your locks, but the ammonia will possibly kill off the lice. Sometimes hair dye doesn't work, though, so consider this method only as a last-ditch solution.
To prevent future infections, consider quarantining anything suspect - like a hat from the thrift store - in a sealed plastic bag for at least two weeks before letting it into your home. Placing things in a plastic bag in a freezer is also said to work. Avoid trying on hats at yard sales or thrift stores, or hanging your coat or hat on a hook in a public place that may be contaminated.



Warnings
Beware of packaged lice treatments, even those that claim to be "natural." This is usually false advertising, and even if it is not, they don't work very well. Combing is what really gets them out.
Whatever you do, do NOT get the chemical treatments for lice. They contain pesticides that kill only about 63% of adult lice and even less of the eggs. These pesticides are also harmful, because they can enter the scalp and hurt the body. They are expensive and not worth your time!

Answer 9

Don't wash her hair so much. This works best, wash the hair with listerine.. It's a great home remedy. Lice comes from hair too clean by the way, not too dirty. Oh, yeah...wash the brushes in listerine and change the bedding, and spray it down with bleach and wash all the stuffed animals with a bleach or bleach alternative. Don't use bleach on the child. LIsterine! And, tell her not to share other kid's combs and stuff.

Answer 10

This may sound crazy but I was a maintenance tech for a large apartment complex and some of the tenants were quite fowl and I ended up with lice in my hair from working in their apartments. I always had to use paint thinner in my hair to kill them. While my hair was dry, I put some thinner in my hands a work it in, let it set for about 3 to 5 minutes and shampoo it out. That did the trick for me. Keep th thinner out of your eyes!