Lice

[WritingPrincess]

About a month (?) ago we stayed at someone's house, and I now remember that her daughters had had lice a few weeks before, but they had eradicated them. Well. . .

My sisters (Thing 1, 9, and Thing 2, almost 8) have lice. They've been scratching their heads a lot lately ("Bug bites!" they proclaimed) and this morning my mother found a louse. Ew. They've been in and out of my room countless times, on my bed (though I don't think they've been in it) and Thing 1 uses my hairpins for ballet.

I haven't been unusually itchy, no bites on my neck, and my hair has been in a bun 24/7. Granted, I was playing dress-up in the same clothes and sleeping in the same beds at the friend's house. Is it possible I'm not infested?

My mom's out buying nit combs, mayo, and the like, and I'm washing bedding. I know I'll need a preventative treatment (she's been researching online) but, if a check reveals no lice or nits, do I need nit-combing too? If so, is it possible to comb oneself? Anything else I should know? Anything I can do to keep from getting little explorers in MY HAIR while we're going through the regimen?

Thanks.

[julliams]

As soon as anyone mentions lice I'm scratching myself. I am a teacher so lice is just a part of life and I've never had to cut my hair because of it - ever!!!

Basically a louse needs a host - a food source ie blood. They have done tests in kindergarten classrooms and found no lice crawling anywhere - they are all on heads!!! The only way you can get them is if you put your heads together, one crawls out onto a chair/bed/toy etc and then you come in contact with that chair/bed/toy.

Ok, lets assume you have them. Don't freak out! The cheapest way to get rid of them is to slather your hair with cheapo conditioner and use a lice comb. Section off your hair and run the comb through each section, wiping the residue on a paper towel. Always examine the residue. If it has tear-drop shaped eggs, it means there is a live louse in your hair. If you go all the way through and find nothing, then you are clear.

If you do find eggs, you need to keep doing this treatment every other day or so until you are clear and have found a live lice. Having said this, my children have had lice and I have combed for days and never found the live one because I must have caught it very quickly and the live one somehow removed itself from their heads. I did find one between the sheet and the mattress once - dead, must have got trapped there.

The adult live ones are about 3 mm long so they are big enough to see. The immature ones are quite small but you can still see them once you get them out.

The more expensive way is to get one of the chemical treatments they have on the market that claim to kill the lice and their eggs. When I'm treating myself, I do use this product because it means that I'm covering all the bases. Then I follow up with the conditioner treatment I mentioned before. You have to do this because the chemicals don't always kill everything and you will be back to square one in a couple of weeks.

Don't worry too much about the condition of your hair after the chemical treatments. In my experience my hair has been wonderfully soft after using them. And of course with the conditioner only method, your hair is just getting a nice treatment as you go through it all. You might find that the comb pulls out a bit of hair but that can't be helped.

The trick is to keep up the conditioner only treatments until you don't find anything anymore. If you leave even one egg, it will hatch, lay it's own eggs and when they hatch, will mate with them which is why it takes a couple of weeks and it comes back.

In terms of your room, wash your bedding and let it hang on the line in the sun if you can, otherwise in the dryer on hot. I wouldn't worry about washing soft toys because as I said, a lice needs a food source and your toys aren't going to provide it with one so it will just go looking for one until it finds one or dies.

Hope you get it sorted and hopefully you won't have them at all in the end anyway.

[WaitingSoLong]

Do a lot of internet research. Lice recur easily if not properly eradicated. Couches need to be treated/vacuumed. Eggs can take like 2 weeks to hatch, so even if the adults are gone, the eggs often hatch and cause reinfestation. Itching only occurs after lice have been there awhile, in most people. My kids had lice a couple years ago and here is what I did:

The lice treatments, thorough combing of hair, searching section by section (this took hours), removing hairs with eggs (because the eggs are cemented on, just pull out the hair or cut above the egg), I took all the communal blankets (throws), pillows and unnecessary things like stuffed animals, bagged them and put them in the attic for a month. I spray treated every surface in my house/car with spray, the carpets with dust (I am a germophobe), kept my hair bunned and covered and was chekced regularly by my MIL to see if I was infested. My one son had buzzed hair, as did my husband, but my daughter and older son both had pretty long hair and they were the ones with lice. It just takes patience. I think they were treated 3 times each. We were lucky and found it fairly early. They don't live on pets. I washed everything and changed pillow cases for them every couple days. The dryer heat thing is good. Again, just Google getting rid of lice. Read up on the life cycle so you understand how often they reproduce and how. ONE TREATMENT is not a cure. Even the ones that say they kill eggs may miss, and only ONE egg is needed to start it all over. Well, maybe two?

Put lice powder in your vacuum and vacuum like crazy, especially where you do the nit combing or anywhere hair is combed. Sterilize combs/brushes.

Diligence!

Live lice are very hard to catch, the conditioner thing works well but you cannot really check yourself. Believe me, I tried with mirrors and magnifying glasses and cameras LOL. I was paranoid for MONTHS. I never did get lice myself (I did I think two preventative treatments), but I was cleaning like a psycho daily for weeks. It was exhausting! I still fear, when I get an itch behind my ears or something...and I check again! I even check my hair that are in my brushes STILLLLLL and it has been 2 years! I check my daughter regularly now, too. My older son moved out and my other son has buzzed hair.

There is one poor sweet girl in her class that always has lice. I wish her parents would erdaicate the issue.

[Beesweet]

We stayed at a hotel several years ago and got lice. My type 4B daughters had it the worst, since it was very difficult to get out of type 4 hair. There were five of us in all who got it.

I shaved the guys' heads. My hair was fairly short and easy. The girls had a tough time.

We found that the chemicals didn't work that well. Our lice were resistant. I nit-picked, literally. I now know what that term really means. Went over hair a square inch at a time, time and time again. Washed all bedding, any towel that touched the girls, all cloth they touched, daily. I vacuumed several times a day all the rooms they were in. They were not allowed to sit on anything that had upholstery. I made them a soft place on the floor where they could lie down and rest their heads if they wanted to read or something.

If memory serves, just to be on the safe side, when I thought we had it all done, I SOAKED their heads in olive oil, wrapped the heads in big garbage bags, and put them to sleep on several layers of old towels, which I later threw away. The oil drowns the lice. It worked. We never saw lice again, but it was a lot of work. We also watched a lot of TV during the picking.

Also, I also went over their heads EVERY NIGHT for about a week after, just to see if I missed an egg.

For the record, they say henna takes care of lice...

[Squeak toy]

I work in a pediatrictions office and we recoomend that you treat everyone to stop it in the begining. Whole Fat mayo over night to smother live lice. Then for 1-2 weeks or until you are sure there are no more lice for a few days comb each day. Nothing will kill the eggs they must be removed by hand. Wash sheets daily in hot also all sheets and pillow cases. Anywhere they lay their head can have them so even put couch pillows in the wash or in a trash bag for 2 weeks.
You may not have it or ever get it. Have your mother look for lice in your hair and for eggs if she does not see anything still do the mayo and keep looking. If she sees eggs then you can comb yourself but it will be hard as they are small and you have to see all of your head.
The CDC has good guidelines on their website

[Delila]

My niece had terrible trouble with lice when she was younger, but I think it was mostly because her mom (my sister :rolleyes: ) was in total denial.

I once spent the better part of an evening treating the problem with actual chemicals and combing, section by section, rinsing out the comb in the sink. The lice she had seemed to blend in with her hair color, so they were hard to spot.

I'd say that acknowledging the problem and taking serious minded steps to do something about it puts you way ahead of the game.

As others have said, cutting hair isn't necessary in any way.

[DragonLady]

The last time we had them we used a combination of the chemical shampoo, Suave coconut conditioner and overnight olive oil treatments. I very much believe the coconut conditioner did the best job removing them.

Just have the child shampoo their hair, then put a handful of the conditioner in and work it through with a comb. Grab the nit comb, and carefully comb it out one section at a time.

We did NOT go through the whole rigamarole of washing bedding everyday, vacuuming our brains out or scouring the house. We simply couldn't -the kids were in school and DH and I owned a store so there were simply no hours in the day to do it.

It took two weeks of daily combing, followed by two weeks of every-other-night to be sure we were clear. After that, I did it once each weekend for another three weeks just to make sure we didn't have new hatchlings from eggs we had missed.

[Aleria]

When I had lice as a child, we got rid of it with a big chop (Read: the reason I never want to cut my hair that short again!) and tea tree oil shampoo, along with nit combing.
My grandma tried the nit combing alone all summer and it never worked, but I got home and my mom did the tea tree oil thing and chopped it and they were gone in a couple days.
I don't recommend the chop, but definitely the tea tree oil.

[Nat242]

My partner (APL hair) works with kids and he's come home with lice a couple of times. I slathered both of our hair in a mix of conditioner and EVOO each night, then I used a lice comb on his hair each morning. Slowly, thoroughly. The conditioner/EVOO treatment was a very effective preventative treatment.

[Jules diamond]

Tea tree shampoo saved my life. Killed the nits and lice fast and kept them away. And it smells so nice!

[Hana212]

I recently got back from a 6 week holiday (backpacking through europe)
Now.. backpacking and a tight budget means hostels and shared bedding...
I unfortunately got nits.
ewww I know.. but even more unfortunate is the fact that it's not so uncommon for me, I don't know if they really like me, or the fact that I wear my hair out a lot... or that I love children and maybe catch them off my cousins etc.
I returned home about 2.5 weeks ago and have treated them twice..
My hair is about arm pit length so luckily not too long, but it gets very very tangled especially when wet - I have broken two plastic combs (and plenty of my hair)
I think I need to buy a metal comb - but no matter how much conditioner I have in my hair the combs get stuck, my hair gets broken and I hate it!
is there an easier way????
how do I protect my hair more through this process?

[Soraine]

Just reading this made me shudder. I hope I will never experience getting lice on my head...

[DragonLady]

I think I need to buy a metal comb - but no matter how much conditioner I have in my hair the combs get stuck, my hair gets broken and I hate it!
is there an easier way????
how do I protect my hair more through this process?

The little nit combs can do a LOT of damage. If you comb real well before you start, really slather in the conditioner, and then use the nit comb very slowly and start at the ends, it won't be as bad.

[hmmm]

Two pages and nobody's mentioned neem oil? :p

Okay, assuming it's available there, it's about the most effective anti-lice thing there is. It's even used as insecticide (not in oil form, but the same chemical is used).

First thing you need to know is that it smells very, very strong. So my advice would be to use it in a 50:50 dilution with whatever oil you use on your hair. I would also strongly suggest that you use a little essential oil to mask the smell... you could probably use tea tree oil, as some people have suggested. But no matter what you do, the oil is going to smell strong. It just does. Use it at night or when you don't have to go anywhere.

The life cycle of a louse is about 25 days, so you might want to do it more than once, to be sure that everybody's all dead. Oil of any sort smothers insects so that they can't breathe through the spiracles anymore. Neem oil affects insect hormones in a way that they can't feed or breed normally during/after exposure.

[WritingPrincess]

Thing 1 and Thing 2 wore mayonaisse (sp?) all night, washed it out this morning, and are currently getting nit-combed. I think I'll heavily, heavily oil my hair either tonight or tomorrow night, leave it in overnight, and then comb the next morning, (I'm hoping Saturday). We're washing all the bedding, but I think I'm clear! No undue itching, and I checked the hair in my comb this morning. No one is allowed near my comb, anyway.

How do I sanitize the comb? My mom wants to soak everything, but it's wood. Most of my hairtoys are going into quarantine for a month or so, but the comb. . . ?

[paperwhite]

How do I sanitize the comb? My mom wants to soak everything, but it's wood. Most of my hairtoys are going into quarantine for a month or so, but the comb. . . ?

I wonder if you could pop it in the oven in a baking dish for a few minutes... Aside from that, I'm not sure what could sanitize a wood comb without wrecking it. Does it really need to be sanitized? Would a (very, very) thorough inspection be sufficient?

[WritingPrincess]

I was thinking oven, too, and a thorough inspection. If I'm clean and no one else has touched my comb, I don't see a need for sanitation.

[Anje]

How do I sanitize the comb? My mom wants to soak everything, but it's wood. Most of my hairtoys are going into quarantine for a month or so, but the comb. . . ?
I think you might be best off getting a cheap plastic comb to use for the duration of this episode, so you can sanitize it well. (Some of those shower combs with hooks on the end so you can hang them have exceptionally smooth seams.) Put the wooden one in quarantine for a week or two, to starve any buggers that could be hiding there. (ETA: What I'm reading says that nits hatch in 7-10 or 10-14 days, depending on the source. The newborns then need to feed within 24 hours or they die. Adults die within 55 hours without eating. So I'd say that a 16-day quarantine is probably sufficient to kill off anything, but you could push it longer if you want to be certain.)

I haven't dealt with lice since I was little (and the chemicals worked...), but my instinct says to detangle hair with all the lice-smothering gunk (mayo, olive oil, conditioner, whatever you're using) still in it, then put the detangling comb in some sort of sanitizer (hot water?), and go through hair with the nit comb while it's still all slippery with the smothering substance. That should make the combing process way easier, and I'd think it would still get the bugs out.

Wash your bedding and anything else fabric that's touched your head, using hot water. Dry it thoroughly in the clothes dryer, so everything's hot and dry. Then, if you can, shut Things 1 and 2 out of your room. I'd suggest you keep your hair well-contained and head-contacting places like couches and chairs! Those should be cleaned or quarantined from human contact til anything on them starves to death.

[hmmm]

I wonder if you could pop it in the oven in a baking dish for a few minutes... Aside from that, I'm not sure what could sanitize a wood comb without wrecking it. Does it really need to be sanitized? Would a (very, very) thorough inspection be sufficient?

I wonder if heat is good for wood...

Why not just oil the comb, too? :p I'd just use a plastic one for a while, because they're just easier to clean. If you're using the wooden one though I think you can still wash it with shampoo or soap. Just make sure you don't soak it and dry thoroughly afterwards. Mine doesn't warp with that sort of treatment once in a blue moon or two.

[Merlin]

Two words....

Nitty-gritty

And remember, headlice are unpleasant, but they're not fatal. The little buggers are just something you learn to live with while you decrease the population over time and when they're gone they're gone. Just keep reminding yourself that, cosmically speaking, a couple of weeks of slathering, combing and scratching is not that bad. I get them fairly often so I've learned to be philosophical about it.

The ones to watch out for are the ones which are so BIG that they're an equal match for the comb, in this case you're only option is to take them on in hand to hand (to hand, to hand, to hand, to hand, to hand) combat! I'd suggest avoiding napalm as it tends to lead to a measure of heat damage which makes straighteners seem benign, and if you're trying to avoid using electrical styling appliances a tazer might seem an unwise option too. A well-sharpened hairstick driven into the gap between the chitinous plates usually takes them out. Beware of any which seem in possession of armoured vehicles or which can call in air support....

[Othala]

Ugh. Never had them but I would not hesitate to use that anti-lice insecticide shampoo on my head and boil wash bed linen, towels and clothing that have been exposed to them.

[hmmm]

Two words....

Nitty-gritty

And remember, headlice are unpleasant, but they're not fatal. The little buggers are just something you learn to live with while you decrease the population over time and when they're gone they're gone. Just keep reminding yourself that, cosmically speaking, a couple of weeks of slathering, combing and scratching is not that bad. I get them fairly often so I've learned to be philosophical about it.

The ones to watch out for are the ones which are so BIG that they're an equal match for the comb, in this case you're only option is to take them on in hand to hand (to hand, to hand, to hand, to hand, to hand) combat! I'd suggest avoiding napalm as it tends to lead to a measure of heat damage which makes straighteners seem benign, and if you're trying to avoid using electrical styling appliances a tazer might seem an unwise option too. A well-sharpened hairstick driven into the gap between the chitinous plates usually takes them out. Beware of any which seem in possession of armoured vehicles or which can call in air support....

shudder: Gross! :lol:

Just use neem oil, people. :neutral:

[melikai]

When I had lice as a child, my mother saturated my hair with white vinegar and comb them out. Got rid of them fast. :shrug:

[kwaniesiam]

Completely fullproof way of getting rid of them: Saturate your hair with rubbing alcohol and cover. Wait an hour, the lice will all be completely suffocated. It will dry your hair out a lot though. It works better on dreads, I've never had lice but got rid of them on a friend this way. Vinegar might work too though I've never tried it.

[LisaJaney]

Yipes! I had a friend who thought they had this. I had her get conditioner and soak the hair in that (makes nit-picking easier), and then she slathered all their heads in OIL with peppermint or teatree oil in it (lice hate that stuff, I guess) and then wore a showercap on her head with oilyoilyoily head... And she went out in PUBLIC like that: showercap on here head, and all!

If you do that, I want a pic! :)

[WritingPrincess]

Yipes! I had a friend who thought they had this. I had her get conditioner and soak the hair in that (makes nit-picking easier), and then she slathered all their heads in OIL with peppermint or teatree oil in it (lice hate that stuff, I guess) and then wore a showercap on her head with oilyoilyoily head... And she went out in PUBLIC like that: showercap on here head, and all!

If you do that, I want a pic! :)

I'm not doing that! I said "overnight", peoples, not "out in public".

[Hana212]

Two pages and nobody's mentioned neem oil?

Neem oil?? What is that and where do I get it?!?!?

[salls]

Quassia bark ftw.

Boil saucepan of water, add a handful or two of quassia bark (from wholefood-type shop), let stand until the water is cool. Remove bark. Use liquid asap as a final rinse after washing hair and do not rinse out. Use for about 2 weeks after every wash. Also works as a preventative. Tis a very good natural insecticide. Don't get it in your mouth, though as it tastes foul. :P

It's about the best thing & no combing etc. needed. It'll kill any live louse on the head so just use it for long enough to allow the current eggs to hatch & get killed. Works even when they're resistant to the chemical stuff and is far far less nasty than putting that on your hair.

:)

[hmmm]

Neem oil?? What is that and where do I get it?!?!?

I don't know where/if you get it in Australia... here it's available in pharmacies and general stores.

It's the oil made from the seeds of the neem tree.