Can you ever really get rid of head lice???

Question

All of my household seems to have continuously had headlice for the past 10 years!!! How do you get shot of them ~ without shaving your whole head off!

Answer 1

Lice live by biting the scalp and sucking out the blood. Their saliva contains an antiseptic, lice can not survive away from the head.


If your child has long hair - tie it back, or even better plait it, when they are in the company of other children.
When brushing your child's hair in the morning before school, put one drop of either lavender or tea tree oil (whichever smell they prefer) onto the brush. The oil rests on the hair (not the scalp) and deters lice from settling into the hair.
Brush the hair before bed as well - regular brushing dissuades nits from hanging around.
Once every two weeks do a quick nit check. Look behind the ears, under the fringe and at the nape of the neck for the cream coloured, dandruff-like nits. Follow this with a shampoo and then comb through the hair with a fine tooth nit comb. Using conditioner will make the job easier. Rinse the conditioner out and then follow with a quassia bark rinse (see later section.) It is a good idea to treat the whole family once a week, particularly those with long hair.

Do It Yourself Lice Treatment
Add about ten drops of essential oil to a cupful of olive oil. Massage the oil into the scalp and leave for about two hours. Shampoo the oil out of the hair and then, using conditioner, comb the hair thoroughly with a fine-toothed comb. Try to get the nits off the hair shaft. Rinse out the conditioner and then rinse through the quassia bark infusion. Leave this in the hair and dry as normal.
To make the infusion soak a large handful of quassia bark chips in a one and a half litres of cold water overnight. Strain through a colander and then it is ready for use. If you catch the rinse in a bowl it can be used to treat two or more heads. The rinse is very safe, yet it might dry out the scalp a little. The day you use the olive oil blend is day one. Do a quassia rinse (on dry or wet hair) for days 3, 5, 7, 9 and 10. This covers the cycle of any hatching eggs that might have been missed. Make up a new batch of the rinse for each day. Treat everyone in the family at the same time

You can purchase the bark from most health shops & via ebay.
I have used this method on my childrens hair & it works!!!

Good luck in getting rid of the lodgers..

Answer 2

Lice pass from heads touching each other, they cannot jump or fly, contrary to popular belief. Regular combing with conditioner and a nit comb, using some of the treatments from the pharmacy, some are insecticide based, some arent. You need to check which one is currently recommended in the area of the world you live.

The problem is that they gradually build up a resistence to the chemical treatments, so sometimes one will owrk, other times it wont. Always best to check with a pharmacy as to which is the current recommended product.

In the UK, the current recommended treatment contains Malathion.

Once all your family's heads are clear, you need to nit check regularly. Nits will live in clean or dirty hair, long or short. Young girls tend to be more prone to this as they are more tactile, they hug and cuddle more than boys, so spread them round easier. If you have girls with long hair, best keep it neatly tied up when in school. Not just a ponytail, clipped up out of the way so it doesnt dangle about as this is how the nits will travel from head to head.

Wet the hair and rub through conditioner (a cheap one will do). Section the hair and run the nit comb through, checking for eggs, wipe the conditioner off the nitcomb every stroke.

Examine around the base of the hair as this is where the eggs are laid in clusters. if you find them, comb and comb until gone, then move onto the next section of hair.

Done properly, this is a good preventative method, but it takes time and most people dont do it properly.

Shampoo containing tea tree oil is said to help prevent, though there isnt much data to uphold this.

The problem is that you may remove all of the nits, but if you leave eggs in the hair, the nits will hatch and will definitely reappear about 2 weeks later, so very very careful conditioner combing is recommended.

I am a pharmacy dispenser and have plenty of experience doing nit-checks!

Answer 3

Good old conditioner, a decent nit comb and lots of patience.. Get a comb from tesco.. they do one with long twisted prongs.. it is about £10 but it even removes the eggs.. you will never need another nitcomb.. wash and condition the hair as normal. then comb it throughwhile the conditioner is still in the hair, (best done in the shower). then sit down with a bowl of boiling water and put more conditioner on the hair and comb it through again.. rinsing the comb in the boiling water with each stroke. repeat this other the entire hair and on every member of the family every day until you can see no more lice and nits.. then once clear do the whole family twice a week with the conditioner and wet combing method..and every day with a dry comb, once the hair is brushed and tangle free...
altho the lice CANNOT survive unless on a head off hair they can be transferred onto furniture and pillows. and can live for a few hours before freezing to death.. So vacuuming furniture and changing pillows cases and sheets once you have combed everyone thru is a good idea..

Answer 4

Yes with a lot of hard work. Dont bother with chemicals. Wash the hair and comb with nit comb, this should remove anything that is walking. Then check the hair virtually strand by strand and remove any eggs on the hair. This could take about an hour if hair is long. Every family member has to be done at same time. This should be repeated every couple of days until they are all clear, this could take weeks but will be worth it. After this you have to keep checking the hair when it is washed or if you see anyone scratching. I have heard that if you use a little hairspray each day you wont get them, its worth a go if you get the problem sorted it may keep them away. You could try a few drops of tea tree oil either.

Answer 5

I'm betting that your bedding is infested. Get your house sprayed/fumigated/treated, and use the products recommended for curing yourself of head lice- also check the rest of your body. They could even be in your pubic hair, after all.

Anyway, take your bedding and BOIL IT. I do mean boil, get a big pot and take one article of clothing at a time- then boil. For about two hours. If you don't care about your bedding or it doesn't have any patterns that you're particular about, then just fill your bathtub with hot water and some bleach. Then put the bedding in and let it soak for a good long time, stirring occasionally. Then drain the tub, rinse the bedding, and repeat at least once to be sure.

Replace your pillows, too. Matresses would be a good idea, but that's really too expensive so just get the house/apartment completely fumigated or treated. Hope this helps!

Answer 6

ok for one thats gross there is absolutely no reason why you or anyone should be having headlice for 10 yrs! my god,i used to be a hippie with long *** dreadlocks down to my ***,i got lice twice over 10 yrs and got rid of them quickly,obviously you cant read the bottle of rid which states that you must not only shampoo your hair with rid but then use the nit comb to get all the eggs out (during the time i had my dreadlocks i used a natural herb recipe which required me to wear a plastic bag on my head for up to a week,not fun,and rather nasty) also if you can read,the directions clearly state that you should wash all bedding ,mattresses,basically anything that your head has touched and that will be touched by another head,lice as im sure you know can get quite large and can crawl around and jump for quite awhile after theyre off your head.i also have three kids in school and i dont know where the heck you people live that the school system allows kids to have a lice epidemic in the schools because they certainly do not here,im amazed at this,it honestly is not that hard to get rid of lice for godsakes,i got them out of dreadlocks...twice! plus my kids in under a week.no one in my family has had lice in yrs and yrs regardless of school infestation,i guess because our schools dont let you back to school unless all the nits are gone (they check).

Answer 7

Lice lay eggs in many places. You have to treat every member of the family at once with NIX or another brand of lice treatment. You have to pick all of the eggs out with a nit comb. You also have to wash all bedding and clothes, and clean the entire house thoroughly. It is difficult to get rid of lice once an infestation does occur. It takes a lot of work and dedication to get rid of them. I think it's sometimes easier to move!

Answer 8

My 2 have had headlice since May and I have just got rid of them this weekend. No lotion seems to work and I've spent a fortune on them but the main problem seems to be the amount of kids at school who have them so everyone just passes them back and forth so mine just kept coming home with more as soon as I got rid of them. I have combed their hair every night with a nit comb for the past two weeks and I can now see no eggs, they are officially free. I would imagine though that at some point next week they will be back!!
It is a major problem in schools at the moment!! I have found nitcombing to be the most effective way! Once you get into a routine doing it every night, it's no hassle!

Answer 9

I am sorry to hear your story you must be at your wits end. We had this problem at home and the secret of eradicating them seems to be to use the Lice disinfectant available in chemists and then daily for a week to use a nit comb to remove all the nits. If you pre treat the hair with a tea tree conditioner this helps get them out. Using a repellant spray can then keep them away. Treat everyone in the house in one go. Be vigilant for their return. Good Luck!

Answer 10

This honest to god, seriously works........better than Rid or Nix, which depending on the severity of the infection can get expencive.....All you have to do is pick up a bottle of hair dye......you can even find a color that's as close to your natural color as u can find, or use it as a good time to change it up......

There is a ingredient in the dye that lice hate more than anything, and it's way more effective........I've had it plenty, and that's the best solution.......After that, follow normal procidure........break out the lice pick, wash everything in site.......