ew ick help

[redmj]

I am the secretary at a private school and I was just informed that a student has had lice found in their hair. I have never had lice nor do I want it. How in the world do I keep from getting it, short of not going to work. It was only one child with only one bug (which would make it louse right). Anyway, I want to do all I can to not bring it home to my mom and three sisters. Help me please. :)

[AnnaJamila]

I've always heard that keeping your hair dirty makes it harder for them to move in it. Also you can wear it up and limit hugs? Maybe wear citronella as a perfume, too. Bugs hate it! ;)

[amantha]

I've always heard that lice prefer to live in dirty hair, so you should make sure your hair is extra clean!

I had lice as a little kid one time....my hair was extremely long too. And since I was a little kid I hated bathing/showering and my hair used to get greasy....hence I was a perfect lice target. It also took my mom about 2 months to get all of the eggs out of my hair because it was so long. :(

[silverjen]

Try googling "natural lice prevention". It looks like there are a number of ways available

[Frizzle_top]

This sounded interesting to me so I spent some time tracking down info here and there.

It turns out that lice really aren't all that contagious. It's not like they can climb off of someone, then onto the carpet, up another chair, and then up onto your body. In other words, if you or someone in your home has lice, you don't have to clean the entire environment.

To go from one person to another, lice pretty much need to slough off of someones head directly onto another persons head, so just keeping back from others prevents transmission. Don't borrow or lend brushes, combs or hats or coats. Hang your coat up by itself, don't lay it to rest or hang it on another.

One website said that adults rarely pass lice to each other, simply because we keep more space around ourselves and our stuff.

Aside from that, while you're at school, I'd be wary of sitting in any chair which kids sit in.

I certainly don't blame you for having a case of the willies, though. Once while I was in college a roommate announced that she had scabies. I pretty much stayed out of the living room for weeks!

[Jean Stuart]

If you have some EO's rosemary, tea tree, neem they are said to repel lice so you can add them to shampoo or make a spray. Or you can get some shampoo with rosemary in it. Keep it up and out of the way. Good luck.

[redmj]

Rosemary and tea tree I can totally do that. I don't know whether to wash my hair or not. Will be staying away from the kids, that's for sure. No coming to hug MJ this week. Nope not this girl.

[Kathie]

I've also heard that lice don't like dirty/oily hair. Thinking about it, their eggs wouldn't be able to stick to a slick hair shaft. I also agree that they are transmitted mostly via contact. One interesting factoid that I've heard is that they can swing from one head of hair to another on a strand of hair! I don't know if its true but its an interesting/scary though.
I wouldn't be overly stressed by it. I remember when lice was found at school Mum would give me a lice treatment just to be safe. I'm happy to say that not one has actually been spotted in my hair.

[gretchen_hair]

Bribe all the kids with candy to behave, then hang out in the Principals office. Any kid who ends up there won't be in a chummy/hugging mood! :D

[Anje]

Wear your hair up where it won't come in contact with things that the kids might rest their heads against, with their coats, whatever.

Don't lend anyone your combs, brushes, hats, scarves, etc.

Read a good source of information like headlice.org (http://headlice.org).

[Kristamommyx3]

You can wash your hair, but use some sort of product in it, such as gel or mousse, braid it and spray your whole head with hair spray. This may not be a long term recipe for healthy hair, but for the next week or two, it should do the job. This procedure is mandatory every day at the expensive private school I used to work at, because it is so effective. Lice need clean loose product free hair to easily set up their home and lay eggs on the hair shaft. This makes your hair the least attractive hair in the room.

[GRU]

One interesting factoid that I've heard is that they can swing from one head of hair to another on a strand of hair!

Okay, I had a mental picture of a louse in a loincloth swinging like Tarzan on a vine! :lol:



To the OP:

Wear your hair up and avoid hugging the little germ-incubators, er, I mean avoid hugging the kids.

[getoffmyskittle]

Bribe all the kids with candy to behave, then hang out in the Principals office. Any kid who ends up there won't be in a chummy/hugging mood! :D

This is my favorite suggestion so far. :D

[redmj]

Ok. After cleaning the kitchen to cease the freak out and well clean the kitchen, I got down to some research. For tonight I made a strong infusion of rosemary, tea tree oil and vodka. If the vodka doesn't kill them it will get them all drunk. Alcohol poisoning for them.. evil ha ha
All the little germ-incubators, as Gru so appropriately put it will stay away from me. I'm pretty sure no bug would dare go anywhere near our principal's office so I will stay as close to that as I can. No one ever uses my hair stuff so that will stay the same.

Thank y'all for all the advice. I would much rather trust a fellow long haired than a commercial poison. Y'all are awesome.

[getoffmyskittle]

redmj, in case you actually do get them (I hope you don't), the one time I had them, sesame oil sent them screaming out of my hair. I don't know why but they hated it, they all came out and were super easy to pick/comb out. It dissolved the nit glue as well.

[redmj]

Oh that is awesome to know. My pastor's wife swears by using just conditioner, but I've just gotten through almost six weeks of WO and I don't want to go back.

I wonder how castor oil would do. I'm thinking they would die either of suffocation or dehydration. :eyebrows:

[Columbia River]

...I am new to LHC, however I have been reading about Henna, it says Henna repels lice too, Im wondering about Cassia and if it would do the same. Cassia would give your hair a clean (goldenish) shine...might be something to look into. IF I ever had lice I would want the most natural treatment to remove them.

[summergreen]

Oh that is awesome to know. My pastor's wife swears by using just conditioner, but I've just gotten through almost six weeks of WO and I don't want to go back.

I wonder how castor oil would do. I'm thinking they would die either of suffocation or dehydration. :eyebrows:


You actually can get rid of lice using just a nit comb - its not the quickest way but it does work over a week or so of combing, say, twice a day. As long as the lice have been combed several inches from the scalp, they can't climb back up and will die (although its preferable to get as many out as you can!) and if you keep your hair up you wont be sharing them!

Hope you don't get them though!

[bunzfan]

My eldest son got them a lot even in high school and i found adding a full drops of tree tea oil the best thing they hate it, now he has changed friends he no longer gets them so maybe the friends were the problem.

[GRU]

My eldest son got them a lot even in high school and i found adding a full drops of tree tea oil the best thing they hate it, now he has changed friends he no longer gets them so maybe the friends were the problem.

In other words, they were literally lousy friends? :lol:

[redmj]

I put tea tree oil (about twice as much as normal) in my rosemary spray and everyone keeps walking by my desk asking what "that smell" is. I just tell them it is me being lice free.:D

[redmj]

In other words, they were literally lousy friends? :lol:

Ha Ha wish I could "like" that

[Quetiepi]

I caught the willies just reading this! Seriously, even reading about lice makes my scalp itch.

[AnqeIicDemise]

The cleaner the hair, the more they're happy. I had a lice infestation that went on for three months because in my desperation I kept washing my hair three times a day with superbly hot water.

Prime conditions for hatching and growing. So sad. :(

Keep your hair up and keep clothes/ bed linens clean. Sometimes reinfestations occur from when those suckers get deposited on clothes and they lay eggs there.

[redmj]

Well I would like to report that so far, I have kept lice free. I keep applying the rosemary and tea tree oil and just gave my hair a quick rinse this morning. No other out breaks of lice have been found.