Head lice fears!

[Saranne772]

I've been paranoid the last few weeks about head lice as a child in my church just caught them. As I spend quite a bit of time with her I'm worried about it! Ive been checking my hair all evening and I seem to be clear.

What nice smelling or not smelling deterrents (preferably natrual and highly effective-more than tee tree oil) are recommended?

[mooglewoo]

I just got over getting lice from church LOL Seems to be going around!

I use tea tree shampoo, and a leave-in with tea tree oil in it after every wash, and have for over 6 months, yet I still managed to get the little buggers.

[jojo]

soapnuts are supposed to kill lice, there lovely to wash with too.

[sammie883]

Always found it wweird how some people get lice so easly. Like my cousin Nikki if she is in the some building as someone with lice I swear she will be the first to get 'em. I have never got them though. Even though I have hung right around people with them. But they do say lice love clean hair and I only wash mine every three days. When I was young I could only wash my hair once a week too. I have always had dry hair and it smells clean for days so I can get a way with it. But yeah tea tree oil should be good. Nikki uses it and I don't think she has had lice for a few years. I heard garlic is good too, lol. And we use lemon dish soap to keep fleas off the dog and yard too.

[karli]

When my daughter was younger she got lice whenever someone in daycare had them. She always passed them on to me.She´s very warm, perhaps it´s easier for the lice to detect her? Tics love her as well. Fortunately, worms never detect her, a lot of her friends has had them.

The first time I had lice, I was disgusted and felt as if I had the plague, or something. But you get used to them. Nowadays I comb my hair to check for lice, every second month. It´s so much easier to get rid of them before they´v multiplied.

Since my daughter started to wear a headband, that cover most of her head, she hasn´t caught any. And remember; lice can´t fly, it´s mostly head by head they move to others.

[karli]

My english isn´t so good; to make things clear- we haven´t had any in almost three years. I don´t walk around with them all the time!

[AutumnLeaves]

I've never had them either but remember when they were going around the school I was subbing in for awhile. My girls never caught them either when they were in school, despite at least one outbreak a year!

One of the moms treated her boys by slathering mayo on their heads and putting a shower cap over their hair with the mayo on. It smothers the live critters and somehow kills the nits as well. I talked to the oldest boy and he said that she made them wear that for 12 hours. I'll bet it was good for their hair too!

[patissegrietje]

Always found it wweird how some people get lice so easly. Like my cousin Nikki if she is in the some building as someone with lice I swear she will be the first to get 'em. I have never got them though. Even though I have hung right around people with them.

I've never had them either, even though i had 2 interns who both had them for about 3 months without knowing...
We hung our coats on the same hanger and everything... was paranoid for quite some time, but i guess they don't like me, because after this ordeal a close friend of mine had HUNDREDS but... i didn't get them.

I wash my hair approximately once a week and use coconut oil which could make it harder for lice to get a grip on the hair + acv rinse after every wash...
I guess they don't like the combination.

If you do get them i believe you can get rid of them by sleeping with an smt every other night for about 3 weeks; lice will suffocate and any newborns will be killed before they can infest your head with nits...
If you comb you can get the dead creepers out... The nits are more difficult to remove, but acv helps to dissolve the 'nit glue'.

Like a lot of other pests lice don't like the smell of peppermint (maybe you can use listerine scalpwashes like suggested in another thread; great for clean scalp also, but not reccomended for children!)

And catnip is supposed to be a great insect repellant, i read somewhere that the active ingredient is more powerfull against lice (and cockroaches)than DEET... so maybe catnip soaks help too?
HTH

[LaurelSpring]

I read on the henna4hair site that henna kills them. The molecules somehow keratinize their bodies.

[NebraskaChick84]

Always found it wweird how some people get lice so easly. Like my cousin Nikki if she is in the some building as someone with lice I swear she will be the first to get 'em. I have never got them though. Even though I have hung right around people with them. But they do say lice love clean hair and I only wash mine every three days. When I was young I could only wash my hair once a week too. I have always had dry hair and it smells clean for days so I can get a way with it. But yeah tea tree oil should be good. Nikki uses it and I don't think she has had lice for a few years. I heard garlic is good too, lol. And we use lemon dish soap to keep fleas off the dog and yard too.
I only wash mine once or twice a week. so every 3-7 days. and I still get them if they are anywhere within a mile of me. :o

OP-maybe oil your hair regularly?

[spidermom]

My ex-DIL dyed my granddaughter's hair light blonde when she had lice because the normal stuff didn't kill them but the dye did. I wish she had chosen a dark blonde color closer to the child's natural color though; we've got a 7 year old with dark roots now -- looks bad.

[NebraskaChick84]

My ex-DIL dyed my granddaughter's hair light blonde when she had lice because the normal stuff didn't kill them but the dye did. I wish she had chosen a dark blonde color closer to the child's natural color though; we've got a 7 year old with dark roots now -- looks bad.
that's what I did for years. I got tired of being blond though and grew it out.

[Copasetic]

From what I have heard, lice don't like dirty hair. So putting in oil, gel, or hairspray when you are around this girl should help deter them.

[SimplyLonghair]

I know that as a rule african american's don't deal with lice, because they oil their hair and use mayo such on their hair. They even give us leaflets at work that say that. So oiling should do the trick.:cool:

[winter_star]

From what I have heard, lice don't like dirty hair. So putting in oil, gel, or hairspray when you are around this girl should help deter them.

I've heard this too. Lice are attracted to clean hair. When there was a bout of headlice at school, mum used to braid my hair or keep it in a tight bun. It would always be oiled with eucalyptus or tee tree oil and sometimes (as much as I hated it) she would attack me with hairspray.

[Sissy]

someone once told me if you give your hair regular treatments like weekly deep conditioning or cholesterol, etc treatments then you will be much less likely to get lice. I don't know how true that is now though being people are saying they're still getting lice despite using tea tree oil and such on their head.

[Beakywitch]

I know this thread is about preventing catching head lice but in the event of getting them this is the completely natural method I have used on my two daughters when they've caught them from school:

Wash the hair with shampoo then smother with plenty of conditioner. Gently comb through with a wide tooth comb and then a smaller toothed comb. Fill a basin with water and have it by your side. Now use a nit comb - plastic seems most effective, the metal ones don't seem to have the teeth close enough together. Begin at the roots of the hair and comb downwards in single strokes right to the ends of the hair. Do this to the whole head and keep moving around the head. You will need to put towels on the floor to catch all the excess conditioner and any critters. After each stroke tap the nit comb in the basin of water to remove the adult lice which will be visible in the comb. Pay extra attention to the fringe area and behind the ears. Keep combing until no more lice can be seen on the comb. Repeat this process every 3 or 4 days for 2 weeks, maybe 2 and a half weeks. After 2 weeks they will be gone. Check the head regularly after this as the person who the infection came from may still have them.

How this works: the adult lice are removed in the first session. The conditioner makes the hairs slippery so that they can't grip on and so they get caught in the narrow comb. The eggs hatch in subsequent days but the baby lice are tiny and don't seem to spread and can't reproduce. The following sessions remove these as they grow to a more removable size. After three days they are small specks in the comb, easier to see after 4 or 5 days. Lice take a couple of weeks to grow to maturity so as long as you comb out for the two+ week period of time the hatchlings cannot continue the infestation.

I know it's unpleasant having them on your head like that but when my eldest daughter was at junior school the local council really wanted parents to avoid using the chemicals as they kill off most of the lice but leave resistant lice, consequently breeding superlice. I also realise it's not great to comb wet hair but I have found that being gentle is the best way and giving the conditioner time to make the hair very slippery means there is no need for hard pulling. I have done this natural method on waist length hair.

Change the bedlinen and braid up the hair too when out and about with other people as the other infected people will pass on more adults if heads are close, however, these will be removed easily at the next comb through. I have used tea tree oil as a preventative by putting a few drops in a basin of water and applying them with a comb to dry hair.

Beaky

[Hue]

Thanks for taking the time to type all that out, Beakywitch.

[carloota]

I remember reading somewhere that Lavender EO repels lice. When I googled it, I didn't find information about just Lavendar EO, but I did find this:

http://www.make-stuff.com/formulas/lice.html

Hope this helps. :)

[Dez]

ugh, I hate lice. I'm paranoid too. I shaved all my boys heads a while ago and went on a cleaning rampage when my SS came back from visiting his mom and he had eggs. I really hope if I ever get them someone will love me enough to comb them out for me. :o

[renarok]

or you could just embrace them
http://www.27bslash6.com/nits.html

[HeavenlyTresses]

This was my worst nightmare come true. I would recommend acv rinse because it makes the eggs come unglued, then comb, comb, comb. They made my hair fall out like crazy and I think I lost almost an inch in thickness. I tried the mayo and the oils and it killed the live ones but because of the thickness and length of my hair I finally had to resort to the chemical shampoo.