How To Get Rid Of Head Lice

This was written by my wife.

I am a mother of three children. I know first hand how to get rid of head lice and what it is like for a child to have head lice.

When my eldest daughter came home from school with head lice, I was horrified. I had no idea! Did this make me a bad parent? I certainly thought so at the time. Why hadn’t I noticed? Surely, it was my job to notice. The truth is I didn’t have a clue what I was looking for and didn’t really believe that any child of mine could possibly get those disgusting things in their hair. My children were clean – weren’t they? Head lice happen to other people’s children.

My eldest daughter was five the first time she had head lice (it was not the last!!) I went to pick her up from school only to be informed that she had lice in her hair. The teacher had caught the offending creature on a piece of cellotape – yuk! I can tell you that at the time I was not impressed! How could this have happened?

That evening I duly took her to my doctor who prescribed a lotion that I had to put on her hair and leave on overnight and then wash out in the morning. I also had to paint this horrible lotion onto my hair. The lotion stung my scalp and my eyes were streaming. This may not happen to everyone – but I have VERY sensitive skin that did not appreciate what I was putting on it. The following morning before school, I washed the lotion out only to find that the lice were NOT dead. My daughter, therefore, could not go to school and we had to repeat the procedure that evening. This time it worked! The lice were all dead! Yippee!

This method of lice removal works. However, I would not recommend this technique for removing lice for the following reasons:

1. It is highly toxic which can’t be good for anybody let alone children.
2. The head lice become resistant to the lotion.
3. Very time consuming.
4. Has a nasty smell
5. Has to be left on all night.
6. Although this may just have been me – My scalp flaked off in huge dandruff like flakes and was VERY red for many days!
7. Can be expensive.

The next time (and there were many!) I decided to try something different. I went to the pharmacy instead of my doctor and they recommended a mousse that has to be applied to hair and left for 30 minutes. This time it worked 1^st time!

Pros of this treatment:

1. Quick and easy to use.
2. No bad odour.
3. No need to leave on over night.
4. Much kinder to the scalp

Cons:

1. As with all lice treatments, the lice become resistant to it.
2. Still contains chemicals that can be harmful to the skin.
3. Can be expensive.

I was hoping that as my daughter got older that she would have less of a problem. Not so!

I tried all the tricks, she always had her hair tied back for school – she still got them. I think she just must have been unlucky or the lice just liked something about her. I wish they hadn’t! I have a similar problem with mosquitoes. I wish they didn’t like the taste of my blood so much. I get eaten alive in summer, then get covered in blisters. But that is a different subject…

Someone suggested putting a couple of drops of pure tea tree oil on my daughters hair everyday. (Lice are repelled by it). I tried this with limited success. She didn’t seem to come home with lice as often, but that could have been a coincidence. You could try this method of prevention if you like the smell of tea tree oil. If not, you could try tea tree shampoo which is much milder.

I had many different techniques suggested to me including and electric lice comb. (Similar to those used on dogs) You combed through the dry hair and if a louse is found the comb emits sound and the louse is electrocuted. (Sound horrible). Well I tried this and never found a thing – even though I knew my daughter had them!

THIS SIMPLY DOESN’T WORK because:

Lice can move very quickly on dry hair and can avoid the comb.

How to get rid of head lice the natural way.

I finally found the perfect way to rid my daughter of lice and it is SO simple.

This is the technique:

1. Wash the childs hair and smother in conditioner
2. Do NOT wash out the conditioner.
3. Sit the child down with a towel around their shoulders (preferably in front of TV)
4. Starting at the front of the hair comb with a nit comb from roots to ends
5. When that section is completely combed pin it up and repeat on next section.
6. Complete for whole head.
7. Rewash hair as normal.
8. REPEAT whole procedure 3 times leaving 3 clear days between. This will remove lice hatching from any eggs before they can spread or reproduce.

This method worked wonders for me and my children because it works on wet hair as soaking wet lice stay still and slide out easily on the comb.

Again it has it’s pros an cons:

Pros:

1. No chemicals involved
2. No burning scalp or stinging eyes
3. No odour
4. Easy
5. Completely Natural
6. No cost

Cons:

1. Can be time consuming if your child has long hair.
2. Has to be repeated every three day for about two weeks

If this sounds like too much trouble for you then there are other NATURAL methods available which you may find more suitable.

I hope you found this useful. I can only tell you what worked best for me and my children. Fortunately, both of my daughters are past the age where head lice are common and my sons’ hair is so short that he has only ever had them twice. I think that this has shown you how to get rid of head lice the natural way.