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VintageDresses
June 7th, 2011, 03:50 PM
I have had ongoing outbreaks for two years now. I thought I had finally gotten rid of them but I guess not. I can't even put my frustration into words as I have tried everything. I think they have become resistant to the chemical shampoos (like rid). Tonight I am going to try to smother them with olive oil. Can anyone offer any advice? It's unfortunate that I'm trying to grow long hair- right now I'm frustrated enough to cut it all off..

MonaLisa
June 7th, 2011, 03:54 PM
After shampoo, do you remove their eggs?
I recall it has to be done also, or they will just hatch new lice.
there is that little comb for that purpose, and someone can help you, just get the little white eggs off.

Don't give up!
By the way, one question - are they effecting your hair condition/growth in any way?

VintageDresses
June 7th, 2011, 03:57 PM
After shampoo, do you remove their eggs?
I recall it has to be done also, or they will just hatch new lice.
there is that little comb for that purpose, and someone can help you, just get the little white eggs off.

Don't give up!
By the way, one question - are they effecting your hair condition/growth in any way?

Yes, I always do comb it after any kind of treatment.

Hmmm, I actually don't think they are effecting my hair growth/condition. I didn't really start taking care of my hair until the beginning of this year and my hair has improved greatly despite having these nasty things.

christine1989
June 7th, 2011, 03:57 PM
My friend got lice on a mission trip to Costa Rica and her case was resistant to chemical lice treatments too. What worked for her was to cover her head in vaseline then put a shower cap on them for 1.5-2 days to suffocate them. If you're concerned about the effects of vaseline on your hair then castor oil would work too and condition your hair at the same time. I also hear that neem oil is an effective treatment for lice as well as peppermint essential oil because it burns them without hurting your hair.

kwaniesiam
June 7th, 2011, 04:09 PM
Tea tree oil or neem oil will kill them. Also saturating your hair in vinegar and covering with a shower cap, it will suffocate them. Make sure you get rid of the eggs and laundry all your bedding, clothes, and check the furniture too.

Quixii
June 7th, 2011, 04:11 PM
My parents always had us put mayonnaise on our hair for lice outbreaks. I guess it worked. :shrug:

Nicolioli
June 7th, 2011, 04:11 PM
After you've done a treatment, you should mix some lavender extract/other flowery scent into your shampoo/condish. My aunt always did that because lice hate the smell of flowers, apparently. Not sure if that's true, but that's what I've heard, and it will also make you hair smell lovely. :)

Mannaz
June 7th, 2011, 04:27 PM
My friend got lice on a mission trip to Costa Rica and her case was resistant to chemical lice treatments too. What worked for her was to cover her head in vaseline then put a shower cap on them for 1.5-2 days to suffocate them. If you're concerned about the effects of vaseline on your hair then castor oil would work too and condition your hair at the same time. I also hear that neem oil is an effective treatment for lice as well as peppermint essential oil because it burns them without hurting your hair.

Be careful with the peppermint eo though, since it will not only burn the lice but also you're scalp if not diluted enough... speaking from a peppermint-mudmask experience :rolleyes:

Wavelin
June 7th, 2011, 04:31 PM
I think mechanical treatment works best, if you have one outbreak after the other. I'm no expert, but oil and combing with a good lice comb should work over time, as they are mechanical. Maybe a comb that actually combs the eggs out as well? (http://www.nitfreecomb.com) I'm not marketing it, but I have heard very good experiences of it on a Swedish hair forum.

Also don't forget to wash combs and brushes, hats and caps, and bed linen. And, as you have had several outbreaks be sure that people you live with also gets checked and perhaps get treatments.

Good luck! I feel with you, I have dealt with parasites myself, it's horrible.

Mesmerise
June 7th, 2011, 05:05 PM
I have had ongoing outbreaks for two years now. I thought I had finally gotten rid of them but I guess not. I can't even put my frustration into words as I have tried everything. I think they have become resistant to the chemical shampoos (like rid). Tonight I am going to try to smother them with olive oil. Can anyone offer any advice? It's unfortunate that I'm trying to grow long hair- right now I'm frustrated enough to cut it all off..

I have had the lice problems with my kids...and I developed a method that works really well. Basically I just make up a mix of cheap hair conditioner and add a good dashing of tea tree oil and lavender oil to it. Then slop it on the hair, really really thickly, put on a shower cap or wrap hair in cling wrap and let it sit a few hours. Then I use a lice comb to comb it through afterwards. Does it get rid of 100% of the eggs? Probably not, but it seems to kill the lice in them anyway!!! I find this very effective, and it also helped a friend of mine who had tried so hard to kill lice using chemical methods.

The good thing is, it's completely safe and natural, and quite inexpensive!

Slinks
June 7th, 2011, 05:50 PM
with my kids growing up we used to use loads of conditioner and a nit comb ..

insomniac-uk
June 7th, 2011, 06:11 PM
I have heard tea tree oil shampoo helps, but I have not tried it myself.

leslissocool
June 7th, 2011, 06:25 PM
:( I am so sorry!

I heard coconut oil will kill them, do a super heavy load and leave it there for a couple of days. I am no sure though!

Another thing, when you have lice you have to make sure you take all bedding, clothing, pillows or pretty much ANYTHING the lice has touched and put them in garbage bags for 3-5 days to suffocate them. My stepson's whole classroom got lice from an old boat he went to sleep on for a field trip. We did that and it was fine, we cleaned the carpet and put everything fluffy we owned in a patio on garbage bags to kill it. It worked.

I don't know if it's a rumor, but I heard lice do not like oiled hair. That could explain why I didn't get them and my household did, but I am not sure. I don't think it hurts to try though :shrug:

christine1989
June 7th, 2011, 06:31 PM
I agree with putting all of your bedding, pillows, couch covers in sealed garbage bags but i also heard that in order to kill them and their eggs effectivly you should also put the bags in the freezer. While typical freezers are too small for this, buisnesses with meat lockers or industrial size freezers will sometimes let you store your stuff for a few days for a small fee. You could also rent a steam cleaner to get all the surfaces of your house sterilized to reduce your chances of getting them again.

Anje
June 7th, 2011, 06:34 PM
I think the smothering is a good route to go. Do it a couple times, since it'll only get the adults, and nit-comb, and I think you'll get rid of them.

Put anything that can stand it through a nice tumble in a hot dryer to cook the buggers, put everything else in isolation for 10 days to starve everything else to death.

I've seen a lot of good information at Headlice.org (http://www.headlice.org/), and they tend to be pro-smothering and combing over chemical treatments.

GlassWidow
June 7th, 2011, 06:41 PM
Henna mixed with fenugreek or artemesia will also kill lice, even in resistant cases. Unfortunately, you'd have to be ready to have red hair. Good luck. I hope you can find something to get rid of these little pests once and for all!

allycat
June 7th, 2011, 06:46 PM
We had success with this method. Very simple. No nit-combing. The key is (whatever method you use) you MUST repeat exactly one week later. Smothering methods kill the live lice only, so you have to repeat in one week when the nits hatch and at that point they are too immature to lay eggs yet.

Worked for us, all three of us long-haired, just the two treatments one week apart.

allycat
June 7th, 2011, 06:46 PM
Oops, forgot my link:

http://www.nuvoforheadlice.com/method_explained.htm

julliams
June 7th, 2011, 06:51 PM
I'm going to guess that the reason you keep getting them back is that you are leaving two eggs in there each time. There is a cycle that has to be broken that is around 11 days or so.

When I have done my own hair in the past I have used chemicals because obviously I can't see what I'm combing out but with my children I just use cheap conditioner and a nit comb. I run the comb through EVERY strand and I mean EVERY one (and we have ALOT of hair here in my family) every couple of days until I don't find any more eggs.

I wash all the bedlinen and hang it out in the sun. I vacuum all the bedrooms.

I am a teacher and I read a study where they tested classrooms for live nits and did not find a single one. This is because lice need a host - something living because they need blood to live. Remove the source and the lice can't live. The only way I think you could get them from someone else is direct contact of heads, a chair with a high fabric back, sharing hairbrushes and/or hats with someone who has lice.

If you work with children, keep your hair braided or bunned.

It really is a case of getting EVERY single live lice and egg from your head which is very difficult to do when you are doing yourself. If there is noone to help you, I know there was a company in Canada that did lice treatments as a home service so I'm sure it exists in other countries as well. It does cost but so does buying all those chemicals every couple of weeks.

Best of luck.

<3OnHerSleeve
June 7th, 2011, 07:14 PM
my mother and i had the same trouble. which kind of in a way started my long hair dream... but I digress.

I had lice on and off from the age of 11-16. And I agree, chemical shampoos etc. they seem to have become immune too. Also, even if it does kill the lice it doesn't kill the eggs.

drowning them in tons of conditioner and wrapping the hair up in cling wrap is one of the only things that worked for us. Another thing is NEEM Oil. Stinks like **** but it's basically what got rid of them for us in the end. Fortunately again, it's natural and unlike some of the very scarry things my mother and i applied to our hair to get rid of the little mutants, doesn't have potential harmful sideffects.

Good luck getting rid of them, and please remember to constantly wash your bed linens, clothes and you will probably need to go through your hair with a fine-tooth comb to make the eggs loosen. The oil will help corrupt the glue that the lice apply to the eggs, but you will need to comb them out.

katsrevenge
June 7th, 2011, 08:09 PM
We dyed our hair regularly to kill the little buggers because the shampoo wasn't working. (It seemed that were we lived down south EVERYONE had them! Urgh.. This was years ago and it is still making my scalp crawl!)

And they can't take heat. Take everything soft and washable in your house and either bag it airtight or throw it in a high heat dryer. I'd use borax or DE earth on the carpets and in the furniture... and maybe borax in the steam cleaner/mop water if you want to be sure.

Definitely toss a bit of borax in with the laundry. As well as being a desiccant for their nasty little bodies/eggs, it is a decent insect repellent.

bunzfan
June 8th, 2011, 05:01 AM
I do feel for you, because my eldest goes to a school where not all parents check there hair i suspect that's why they keep coming back.

What has worked for me recently is obviously to check the children's hair and use a tea tree conditioner, on my own hair i have kept my hair oiled and braided then i comb mine daily they can't stick to oiled hair:eyebrows:

kitten1986
June 8th, 2011, 05:38 AM
Wash all of your sheets/doonas/clothes in the hottests cycle possible. Disinfect combs brushes and hair toys with bleach. It is absolutely essential that you thoroughly go through the house and wash any fabric that could possibly be infested with eggs or adults, the adults spend a lot of time going to and from clothing to hair, but they cant live without blood for very long, so if you have things that you cant wash, put them in a sealed plastic bag for 6 days then shake them out and leave them in the sun for a bit on the seventh day.

Go to the chemist and treat your hair with whichever insecticide the pharmacist recommends, it must be insecticide I know it sounds horrible but it is really the only thing that will absolutely kill all of the adult lice. Dont use any of the old ones as they are becoming resistant, so try to get whatever is newest on the market, a good pharmacist should know.

There are no treatments on the markets that are efficacious in killing the eggs, the only way to do this is to comb them out... all of them, and repeat the combing procedure every 3 days and the insecticide once a week for 4 weeks. At the end you want to have 0 eggs in your hair, because if one of them hatches then it all starts again! Most people fail because they want it to be a one time treatment, but you really need the repetition over 4 weeks to make sure you get them all this is because egg to adult the lifecycle takes 3 weeks.

The best way to comb out the eggs is to buy a very fine tooth comb, there are specialised nit ones on the market, slather the hair in cheap conditioner and allow it to soak in, this will swell your hair shaft and loosen the hold of the egg on the shaft of the hair making it easier to comb out it can also dissolve some of the 'cement' that holds the egg onto the shaft too. Make sure your hair is VERY well detangled before doing the fine tooth combing or you will damage your hair, section your hair into about 12-16 small sections and work through it very systematically, you dont want to miss any hair. Go from root to tip and wipe or wash the comb in between each stroke of the comb, go over each section several times then section it away from the rest of the hair and move to the next bit. When you have done all of the sections rinse then apply the conditioner again and then comb through your entire head as a whole, this time wiping on a white towel to check to see if there are any louse or eggs still present. BAD news if there is because you will need to repeat the whole process again.

If you can get someone you trust to do a thorough job to help you, then thats great, if not it is possible to do on your own if you are systematic about it.

For the 4 weeks, you will want to be using a shampoo and condish that have tea tree in them and also putting your hair into a bun and spraying it with hairspray. This is the courteous thing to do so you dont spread it to others.

Finally, I am really sorry you have been having so much trouble, I know it can be frustrating and embarrassing especially as an adult. But if you are very diligent for 4 weeks and dont get lazy about it, this is your best shot at getting rid of them.
Make sure that you wash your bedding and clothing regularly for the 4 week treatment period in the hottest water possible.

Lice is a VERY common problem, and GP's see it all the time, so this is the method they teach us in Med School to pass on to our patients, it is fairly well backed by science and it really is your best bet at beating it. Good Luck!

Squeak toy
June 8th, 2011, 06:56 AM
I am a nurse in a pediatric office. Suffocate the live live with high fat mayo and a shower cap over night. For next week comb out all eggs before they hatch with metal tooth comb in the middle of a sheet spread on the floor. Repeat in 1 week mayo. Daily wash that sheet and all bedding in hot water and vaccum the floors and sofa and mattress.if you can not wash something put it in a sealed dark trash bag for 2 weeks. After all this you will not be reinfecting yourself. Also consider if you are getting it from outside your home.

Bianca
June 8th, 2011, 09:34 AM
I had lice some months ago. I suspect getting them from resting my head in the train, not sure. But anyways, I used hedrin twice, which I believe was mostly silicones (Dont know if you can get that where u are) I also put conditioner in it everyday and combed my hair with a lice comb. I must have had them for a long time, my mom said it was crazy how many lice I had. It was so gross. I just couldn't stand the thought of them all over my scalp, so I actually sat with the comb and every time I had a itch, I combed.

But too the point, I think the conditioner + combing was what did the trick. My mom and sister, who got it from me, didn't do this, and they had a hard time getting rid of them completely.

RachieBaby
June 10th, 2011, 08:34 AM
When I used to get them from school when I was little my mum would make me wash my hair with conditioner and then use a nit comb to get rid of them, she'd do this everytime I washed my hair for about 3 weeks to make sure they was all gone. Then she'd plait my hair.

I think she may have also tried tea tree oil shampoo and conditioners on my hair :)

CrystalStar
June 10th, 2011, 08:43 AM
My Mum used to buy original source Tea Tree and Peppermint shampoo/conditioner, wash our hair with it and then soak it in the conditioner. It tingled a lot, and she would comb through with a fine tooth comb whilst the conditioner was in, and then when the hair was dry as well.

Hope that helps at all! :)

Irishred
June 10th, 2011, 09:51 AM
I wholly agree with the smothering and heat drying the sheets etc. However the one thing I have found that makes the biggest difference is the right comb. The combs in most kits are junk! Get a metal comb like the one linked to before or one like the Rid Duel combing system from CVS (http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/catalog/shop_product_detail.jsp?filterBy=&skuId=420718&productId=420718&navAction=jump&navCount=3). When we have a breakout from school or wherever (youngest got it from the dentist office once), we smother then comb daily! Once you don't find anymore, you can cut back the combing but keep doing it every couple days in case you missed just one.

WE got them at the end of school a year ago and I caught it pretty quick.

We got them in March this year and I am still fighting them, no matter what I have done . Well, now that school is out for the summer MAYBE I'll get them. I think I almost have them beaten now.

Good luck

tigr
June 13th, 2011, 07:45 AM
drowning them in tons of conditioner and wrapping the hair up in cling wrap is one of the only things that worked for us. Another thing is NEEM Oil. Stinks like **** but it's basically what got rid of them for us in the end.
How much neem oil to how much conditioner?

Copasetic
June 13th, 2011, 08:00 AM
I have had ongoing outbreaks for two years now. I thought I had finally gotten rid of them but I guess not. I can't even put my frustration into words as I have tried everything. I think they have become resistant to the chemical shampoos (like rid). Tonight I am going to try to smother them with olive oil. Can anyone offer any advice? It's unfortunate that I'm trying to grow long hair- right now I'm frustrated enough to cut it all off..

I was at Zellers the other day, and I noticed that they now carry hair products meant to prevent lice. I'm not sure how new they are, but it was the first time I have ever seen them. Maybe once you get rid of this outbreak, it might be something to look into.

feralnature
June 13th, 2011, 09:04 AM
I use to frequent a dreadlock forum and one of the treatments there was to put alcohol in your hair and then tie it up in plastic and leave it in a while. Sounds drying, but it may work.

Redheadedweirdo
August 15th, 2011, 01:21 AM
I am wondering if tea tree oil and light body sesame seed oil would work? DD found lice in her hair last night and then in mine today. We washed with extra medicated Denorex with the coal tar in it and then i took tea tree oil and dumped some into a bottle with cetaphil in it and have been sitting here. should i rinse and sleep with the sesame oil and tea tree mix? what now????

bunzfan
August 15th, 2011, 01:23 AM
Due to having a child at school until very recently i got these every few weeks but, since i started using a tea tree conditioner they have stayed away i hear they hate tea tree.

PrincessBob
August 15th, 2011, 01:43 AM
I heard coconut oil will kill them, do a super heavy load and leave it there for a couple of days. I am no sure though!
I did this, keeping hair covered with a scarf all day and for sleeping combing nightly for a week. no lice afterward.

Redheadedweirdo
August 17th, 2011, 05:58 PM
I Found another thing that works, it has neem in it and it is called Thereneem Organix from organixsouth.com. I got a 12 oz (360ml) bottle from Wild Oats here in Salt Lake. I put it in my hair after only misting my hair and then put in in my daughter's real thick hair, mine is way thinner. I waited about 4 hours and took a shower. My head is still a bit irritated a day later. My daughter took her shower and she was grossed out by the bugs and stuff falling out of her hair in the shower. I checked her hair and the eggs i did see slid easily with my fingers. I didn't even need to use my nails. I have found what works with us. The bottle was about 12.99 usd, ugh. not working and a week before school too. but so far it works and my hair feels good. i am a CO so I was a but surprised my daughter found a bug and a few eggs.