My hair has died a long and painful death tonight...

[Hana212]

So if anyone has read my thread about blonde foils you would know that I have booked my hair in for Monday (I have terrible re-growth so it is a much needed appointment) Unfortunately this morning I found a nit in my hair :disgust:. A single lice that altered the day. I put all the sheets and pillow cases in the dryer on HOT for 120min's ... twice! I bought lice killing gel and applied vigorously to both mine and DBF's hair whilst sanitising all of my hair brushes and combs.
(As most of you know, you cannot get your hair done if you have lice!) So I attacked.. with force and fury. :luke:
The tiny metal comb pulled, tugged, broke and ripped out my thoroughly oiled and conditioned hair (I have thick hair that is super fragile when wet)
My hair has been drying for about an hour now, and I can see fly aways and frizzy's and lots of broken hairs and it feels horrid!
Whhhyyy!!! :shrug:

so just thought I'd share my tale of sorrow...
Tomorrow I attack again, and then on Sunday - and hopefully all will be gone by Monday!!
Wish me luck!

xxx

[aenflex]

I am so sorry!! I really hope you still get to have your salon service. Lice suck!
How do you know when you have a nit?

[KittyLost]

Good luck! Hopefully you'd have got them early and got rid in time for Monday :)

I remember sitting in a bath when I was younger with horrible smelling oil stuff all over my hair for an hour haha.

[Cleopatra18]

I think someone mentioned acid rinses are useful for lice,Im not certain though.either way I wish you best of luck,they're really hard to get rid of.

[alwayssmiling]

Hana - did you do the conditioner trick that we do with the kids. The shampoos and treatments are awful. I buy the biggest bottle of cheap conditioner and put as much on the wet hair that the hair that will hold. I brush the hair out with a large paddle brush, then a wide tooth comb, then a smaller comb - then finally the nit comb (adding more conditioner as I go). I keep doing this until they are gone. In the past its actually made her hair really soft and shiny (she has waist length hair that tangles easily).

[adiapalic]

Oh no :( I'm sorry you're having to do all that. I hope all goes well on Monday :flower:

[jackiesjottings]

Oh no- good luck.. hope you can sort the problem out :(

[enfys]

Hana - did you do the conditioner trick that we do with the kids. The shampoos and treatments are awful. I buy the biggest bottle of cheap conditioner and put as much on the wet hair that the hair that will hold. I brush the hair out with a large paddle brush, then a wide tooth comb, then a smaller comb - then finally the nit comb (adding more conditioner as I go). I keep doing this until they are gone. In the past its actually made her hair really soft and shiny (she has waist length hair that tangles easily).

That's what my mum did for me when I got them; the last time was in high school and my hair was well past tailbone. I still lost more hair than I would have but no risky chemicals and it was pretty lovely after!

ETA: We used a plastic comb, not a metal one. It had two widths; one fine and one superfine so you could progress from one to the other.

[Sunny_side_up]

Sorry to hear that! Heard lashings of t-tree conditioner all over the hair when wet helps get rid of them.
Those metalcombs are sooo thin, i have seen not so thin plastic ones a available, but check out the quality of the plastic:eye: you don't want to go damage your lovely hair with unsmooth plastic. Hope you rid yourself of this before your appointment;)

[Katharina]

sorry for you :( I had hard times to comb out lices from my daughters head.
my advice: use the conditioner method described a few posts above mine. forget the lice-killers - comb the lice out. and - IMPORTANT - do that combing every second / third day until a full life cycle (egg to lice) of the lice is over. so you make sure to get all lice and have no nits left (I have done the whole combing thing on my daughters head for a month every time she brought some lice from kindergarten / school).

good luck to you and bad luck to the lices!:luke:

[Mexibeach]

Tea tree oil kills lice as well - add a few drops to your shampoo. Good luck!

[ktani]

I am so sorry to hear this. You have taken action though And I hope all goes well from here!

[Hana212]

Thank-you all for replying :D
I did a mixture of all above described methods.. I bought an all natural tea tree oil gel... I bought a metal and a plastic comb. And after washing out the gel, I piled on the conditioner and also coconut oil so that the comb could glide through properly. After washing out the conditioner I did a white vinegar rinse as well....
I covered all bases!!

Also, in regards to the combs - the metal comb seemed more effective but was a lot thinner and the plastic one felt like it did more damage to my hair so I mainly stuck with the metal one.
I really hope they're all gone... I think I might have picked it up when babysitting my cousins.. I am really prone to head lice though so I could have got it from anywhere...

My poor hair will be treated like fine lace as soon as they're all gone and my hair has been colored..

fine, soft, silky lace :)

xxx

[Oskimosa]

Oh boy... I lost alot of hair to a lice comb. And it DID NOT WORK FOR ME. I continued to have lice weeks afterwards. The goo you buy to kill them also may or may not work. It functions by attacking their respiratory system, which they can shut down for about an hour, I think.

So, following my Grandmother's advice, I slathered my hair in miracle whip, (a less oily form of mayonaise) for 2 hours, and BAM, no more lice. Bonus: soft hair! :)

[christine1989]

My friend had lice a while ago and combatted them by putting a thick oil (like castor or olive) all over her head then putting a shower cap on for 2 days. Apparently it suffocates them.

[cubedcoley]

I have heard about the effectiveness of olive oil as well as African American hair grease, as it both can make the hair shaft so slippery the nits cannot stay on the shaft. Good luck, though! :flowers:

[Hana212]

Well the goo/gel that I used was only on for 20 minutes (and both mine and DBF's hair smells strongly of tea tree oil today).
Maybe tonight I'll do an olive oil soak for like 2-4hrs?? Then a comb through again to see if there is any left over buggies... and make sure all eggs are out!

then wash, condition, comb, rinse, vinegar rinse, air dry...

please let this work!!

why didn't Noah kill those two lice - they may have been hard to find but he would have saved the world a lot of trouble!

xxx

[<3OnHerSleeve]

Once in desperation we shaved my hair off after mutant lice who wouldn't die took over my hair for a year... my mum chickened out and could only cut her hair short, so we had lice for even longer. we tried everything. 3 things that worked the best? aside from washing all your sheets and clothes prestigiously, it was natural, not harsh chemicals that did the trick: neem oil (stinks like anything, and takes several shampoos to get rid of the smell, but was the number 1 thing that won the war), drown them in conditioner, and the going through the hair with the nit comb.
Good luck, and hopefully you'll destory the little tryrants! do wat works for you, if something isn't working: stop using it!
Honestly? I don't know why God created the little pains in the first place :P

[Cholera]

When I got lice as a child (which happened more than 10 times due to my school), my mom slathered my hair in mayo and left it overnight. The next morning she'd rinse my hair in the sink and I could see all the lice in the water. My hair was super soft after, as well!

[jeanniet]

If it makes you feel any better, some years ago I went to a salon to get a trim, and the stylist cut some length off the back, paused, and then said, "You have lice and have to leave NOW." I had no idea my darling son had brought lice home from school. So I had to leave with a 2" chunk out of the back of my hair. We were supposed to go on vacation the next day, so we had to spend most of that night treating ourselves, washing and bagging up what we could, and spraying everything else. What a nightmare. I had my dear hubby finish trimming my hair, and it ended up being an inch shorter on one side than the other. The thought of getting lice now makes my skin crawl. I hope your hair survives!

[Dragon]

I'm sorry to hear this. I hope you manage to get rid of them with out doing any more damage to your hair.

[Naturel]

sorry about the little beasts getting in your beautiful hair. It sounds like they will be loosing the war soon!

[Hana212]

ALL GONE!!!
After I waged war on my head on Friday evening they're numbers had diminished greatly.. On Saturday night I did an Olive oil soak for 2 hours, then a comb through and found no more buggies YAY...

I got my hair dyed yesterday so I guess I'm all clear!! (will comb through once a week for the next month however just to make sure)

xxx

[ktani]

ALL GONE!!!
After I waged war on my head on Friday evening they're numbers had diminished greatly.. On Saturday night I did an Olive oil soak for 2 hours, then a comb through and found no more buggies YAY...

I got my hair dyed yesterday so I guess I'm all clear!! (will comb through once a week for the next month however just to make sure)

xxx

Great news! What an ordeal. At least it is over for now. How did your hair turn out colour wise?

[Hana212]

Great news! What an ordeal. At least it is over for now. How did your hair turn out colour wise?

The colour looks good.. will post a photo but as you know the road to the colour was not a good one!

[ktani]

The colour looks good.. will post a photo but as you know the road to the colour was not a good one!

That is something at least. Take heart, this is from the "peroxide thread" at the start, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=293745&postcount=72.

[LaurelSpring]

I've heard that henna kills them as well but you would want to have red hair.... Something about the keratin?

http://www.mehandi.com/shop/headlice/index.html

[Dragon]

Glad you got rid of them and could still get your hair dyed :)

[growing2shine]

Im glad to hear that you got rid of them.

I very clearly remember when I was younger and had problems with lice. So many of the kids parents from my school didn't do anything about the lice and my mom always made sure that I didn't have any lice in the morning. But often when I got home my hair was filled with big, fat, adult lice.

That's also the biggest reason why my mom always kept my hair short (Longish bob).

[Forever_Sophie]

Found this thread searching for "oil" - so glad to see there was a happy ending!!

I had started a massive thread here a year ago, I quit a daycare job because they were infested...seems most child care centres have at least one case a year. Crazy.