How to get rid of head lice naturally
Do you fear your kids coming home with head lice? Do you wonder how to get rid of head lice naturally, without having to use those dangerous chemicals? Fear no more, I’ve got you covered. I fought head lice and won!
I’ve always feared the day that lice would make its first appearance in our home. The horror stories of putting everything you’ve touched into garbage bags for three weeks and covering your child’s head with chemicals and cleaning your whole house bottom to top, UGH, I just didn’t want to fight that battle! But guess what? I did it. And we survived.
Anyone scratching their head yet?
I am, too. Get used to it, it happens whenever you think about lice, but don’t worry, that doesn’t mean you have it. Not always anyway.
I’m a weirdo…
Some may wonder why I’m so open on my blog and why I’d tell the world that we recently had lice at our house (and a while back I told you all about my ringworm, too), well there are a couple reasons. First of all, most people know that head lice can come home on anyone, there’s no rhyme or reason to it. Also, while I may not personally know most of you, call me crazy, but I do think of you as my friends, and I want to help you in case the same thing happens at your house.
So here’s what happened to us:
Our daughter had been scratching her head, so of course I looked her over because one of my biggest (non-life-threatening) fears has always been dealing with lice, since I’ve heard what an unbelievable nightmare it is.
But I didn’t see anything. So at first I thought it was bug bites from one late-night playing outside on a warm fall weekend. Then I thought it was the different shampoo she’d been using. When it kept up, I took her to my friend, Patti, who cuts our hair. That’s when she found them! AHHHHHHH!!!!! Here’s the video I took that day; warning: it’s really sick to watch:
It’s terrible to see actual bugs in your child’s hair! Patti was great and calmed me down. “It’s OK, the same thing happened to us when my daughter was little. I didn’t see anything for a few days and then there they were! And I’m a hair stylist! You can handle this…” She also showed me that nits are actually stuck on the strands of hair, whereas dandruff or conditioner that wasn’t rinsed out well or whatever just falls off – that’s how you know if it’s lice nits or not.
I quickly regained some perspective, and knew that there were much worse things to deal with in life than lice.
So off we went to the drug store. I bought those nasty expensive chemical lice kits, not for the chemicals, but because that’s the only way you could buy the dumb combs. At that point I had no intention of using the poison on my daughter’s head.
I called Kent and told him that I knew how to treat her hair, because I have an earlier post on lice full of great info in the comments about what worked for my readers, but I was freaked out about how much cleaning we’d be doing all weekend! By the time I got home he’d been Googling and found this article, Why do we clean our houses?, and thought it would help me to chill out. I said, “Kent, whether or not that site is right, I’m not going to not do everything to the house and our bedding, etc., that I’ve heard we need to do for years, just based on one website.” I figured better safe than sorry so we didn’t have to go through all this again in a couple weeks!
Here’s what we did to Get Rid of Head Lice Naturally:
Based on information from my previous post on lice, advice from friends who have gone through this, and more reading on websites, we took the following steps…
- As soon as we got home, I had our daughter get into the shower, as hot as she could stand it.
- Meanwhile, I asked Kent to strip all the beds, grab any towels, coats, or sweatshirts that might be lying around, and get them all into the laundry. HOT water. HOT dryer.
- Some things we put into a HOT dryer without washing, like pillows without pillowcases, decorative pillows on the couch, stuffed animals, or blankets that had just been washed the day before. Everyone says that 15 minutes in a hot dryer will kill the nits, so I did 45 minutes to be sure.
- We got ALL our hairbrushes and combs and put them into the HOT dishwasher.
- I asked Kal to start vacuuming the carpets.
- While they were doing that, I started mixing up my lice potion: first I melted about 1/3 cup coconut oil gently (not too hot, I wanted all the beneficial stuff still intact), and then added about 1/3 cup olive oil and about 12 drops of tea tree oil. (From the health food store, which I’d already had on hand, thankfully.) Friends have said they just used olive oil and had good luck, but I’d read many good things about coconut oil and tea tree oil, too, so I wanted to be sure!
- Once she was out of the shower, I got her onto the kitchen stool and went to work with the combing. I had a couple different combs sitting in some HOT (almost boiling) water in a cup, using one comb at a time, and then dropping it into the hot water and using the other comb for a while. Each time there would be bugs and nits floating in the water, ewwwww! So I changed the water a few times, obviously. I kept going, carefully working through each section of hair, until I couldn’t find any more little nasties. This took well over an hour, and she was such a trooper, and was throughout the whole ordeal! According to this article, The key is in the comb, this is the most important part of treatment. (They recommend the metal combs, which I did end up getting, but the cheap plastic ones worked well too, in my opinion.)
- Then I saturated her hair in the lice potion and covered it with a plastic shower cap, she slept this way for a few nights.
- By now I was scratching and decided to treat myself, too, just to be sure. I checked Kent and the boys and they were all good. Although I might have found a nit in Kal’s hair, probably not but we were all paranoid, so he asked me to shave him almost bald just to be sure, and I was tempted to do that with all of us!
- I called her teacher and asked her to email the class, hoping parents would all check heads and make sure no one came in with it on Monday, so we didn’t start the cycle all over again.
- I also called her friend’s Moms that she’d been with recently, just because it was the right thing to do. Of course they were all cool about it.
- Over the weekend (thankfully all this went down on a Friday after school), I washed bedding one more time, and threw a bunch more stuff into the dryer here and there – the dryer ran most of the weekend. I also kept putting brushes and combs into the dishwasher over and over because I was combing through her hair a LOT to make sure I didn’t see any nits.
- Every time we washed and dried her hair (and mine), we used high heat on the blow dryer, and actually I’ll never use cool or warm setting again! My friends who dealt with lice recently swear by this as a good preventative since the lice/eggs hate the heat.
- One thing I probably should’ve done, but didn’t think of it again until now, is vacuum out the van where she sits.
Each morning there were fewer and fewer nits in her hair, and by Monday morning I didn’t see any. I called the school and they said that the school nurse has to check to be sure, so we met her in the office. (I love Linda and have told you before how cool she is about vaccinations – that post tells about our vaccination drama with the school and doctor’s office a while back.) Heck if she didn’t find TWO more nits. I was feeling discouraged and asked her what she suggested. She didn’t pressure me even a little, but just said sweetly, “If it was me, I’d just do one of those chemical treatments.”
My heart sank.
I really didn’t want to put that crap on her head, I’ve heard for years how dangerous it is, and the article I linked to above, The key is in the comb, lists more of the scary side effects from that stuff. But she couldn’t keep missing school either and I couldn’t keep the dryer running forever, right? By the way, check out our piles of laundry:
I went to the store and got the “name brand” poison, which was even more expensive, thinking that if I was only giving
her one treatment, I may as well take the best shot at it, and this came with better combs, too. I called some close friends, who are also freaks about chemicals like I am, and they were great. They gave me some more good ideas (“Did you try the natural products at the health food store yet? And be sure to ask them for advice, those people know a lot about treating stuff naturally!”), and they also reassured me by saying, “If you have to, you have to, don’t beat yourself up over it. Just give her loads of healthy fats and big doses of the fermented cod liver oil to build up her immune system to fight off any of the toxins.”
So the chemicals stared at me all day long.
I didn’t know what to do. I so badly didn’t want to put that stuff on her head (especially after looking over those inserts!), but also couldn’t stand the thought of going through all this a few more days or weeks, either – I’d read about those who have it keep coming back over and over again! I prayed and Googled and prayed more. One piece of information I found in my Googling really stood out: these days lice have become resistant to the chemicals in those kits, so it may not even work. So I might risk my child’s health to kill the nits, and there’s a very good chance it won’t do anything?! Then I knew what to do. I went to the health food store and dropped some more cash. (Notice the price tags on the products I bought? Ouch.)
I decided to use the stuff in that little yellow box on her head that night. Then the next day I rinsed her head with raw apple cider vinegar (that stuff works on anything!) and had her wash her hair with hot water and this Neem oil shampoo and conditioner below (my naturopath friend said Neem was a good lice killer oil):
Once she showered and we blow-dried Tuesday morning, her hair looked great. Linda, the school nurse, looked at it and asked me what I did. I was so excited to tell her and show her the junk I did NOT use:
And then she saw that the $20 bottle of stuff I had bought (in the tall blue bottle on the right, a couple pictures above) but didn’t end up using was the same stuff she gives out for free, so she suggested I return that, which I did, and at least got some of the money back.
About the expense:
Here’s the thing, I’m not convinced that the $22 bottle of stuff I used really did any more than the lice potion I made up myself. It was the last “oomph” that I needed just to feel better and feel like I was doing all I could, but I do think that between the potion and the combing and the ACV and HEAT everywhere, I was pretty much already on top of it all anyway. So if you can be a bit more patient than I was, you could most likely take care of this with a lot less expense than we did.
Prevention!
Hopefully the following plan will prevent this from happening again, but you never know.
- I’ll be checking her hair more frequently, especially now that I know what I’m looking for. (People say boys get it as much as girls, but I don’t care what they say, it just makes sense that short hair is less susceptible, and it sure was in our house.)
- When that super expensive Neem shampoo and conditioner above is gone, I’ll add a few drops of Neem oil (pictured above with the other stuff from the health food store) to our regular shampoo.
- We’ll continue with the high heat blow-drying after every shower.
- We’ll continue with the high heat in the clothes dryer as long as I’m feeling paranoid, forever probably.
- Every now and then I’ll throw our brushes and combs into the hot dishwasher.
- See the comment below about spraying some hairspray on their heads to repel the lice.
About the stigma…
I was thankful that our daughter wasn’t all embarrassed about this. She asked me, “Mom, when it’s time to share ‘good things’ in class, can I share that I’m glad my lice is gone?” Her teacher didn’t think that was a good idea, but I thought it was sweet that she wasn’t concerned about people knowing. Probably because I was all matter of fact about it. Not that I was laid back about the bugs in her hair, this had me freaked out and we combed a lot to make sure we got them all, but overall I didn’t make a big deal of it and she heard me nonchalantly telling others about it. I’ve also found out that lice actually prefer clean hair to dirty hair anyway. I have no idea where she got it, maybe church or the store or school, but the school hadn’t had a report of it yet this year. However, they did say this: “Most people don’t tell.”
Have you had to deal with this?
Did you find any remedies that worked for you? The comments are always where the best information is, I love hearing from all of you because that gives me more information for next time, but believe me, I’m praying that there IS no next time!
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{ 73 comments… read them below or add one }
In elementary school (fourth grade) I got it. I know who and how I got it, the boy who sat next to me. He scratched his head all the time. I had it so bad by the time anyone caught it that, not only did I give it to my brother, I remember constant itching and seeing bugs fall out of my hair (they had wings!) onto the school book I would be reading or looking at. And I wondered if that had just fell out of my head/ hair. Anyway, we had NO money to spare. We didn’t have what we needed as was, so it was not a fun time with my mom having to buy everything. I don’t know where she got the money, I just know it was a big deal and cussed the school a lot. The hot water was so hot. Laundry everywhere. Stress from adults. Felt a burden. THEN we were lice free. Back in school, and no kidding if this same kid wasnt scratching again! The isles were pretty far apart, so surely I had a chance. Nope. Got it again! She has left over lice killer. We used that and the hottest water I could stand. I am getting queasy just thinking about it. From what I have always believed was the hot water was so hot that it made me queasy. I will never forget it, I fel sooo sick, and I had to sit in there. I am just now accepting a little extra hot water all over my body again, and I just turned thirty. When the timer went off, the routine again… Nurse checks, I am in school again. I had two siblings in elementary school with me, and only one got it the first time, then only I got it the second time, then… Yep. I got it again, just weeks later. I knew who, how, when, what, where! I knew more than my mom about this craziness! I knew, no one else knew. I itched, bugs were falling out again, I saw nits when looking. I was way more concerned what my mom would say or do, than anything else. She wasn’t home after school when we got home. So I went and found he nit come, doused my hair (it was long, down to the small of my back) went out side, flipped my head upside down, and combed, and combed. After each swip cleaning the nits out of the comb. It took an hour or two, but didn’t stop until I never saw anything in the comb again. I haven’t had it since. If I ever was to get it again, I know without a doubt, from experience, the stuff isn’t necessary. The chemical might have been what made me sick, after reading your post… And that is my story. But do you know how hard it is, and how long it takes to get baby oil out of the hair…:-)
That is so sad, not just for what you went through (and your Mom!), but also for that poor kid who had it all the time and his parents never helped him get rid of it! It just breaks my heart at what some kids have to go through with no support at home, it shows how strong humans can be that many of them still turn out great, and it’s no wonder that some don’t.
Again, it puts something like your kid coming home with lice into perspective.
Kelly
I agree. There was this little girl, who was grades below me, that had lice almost all of the time. Looking back, I don’t think/know if her conditions were fair for a child?
I am grateful for Moms and their hard work!! Comb away.
Abranda, that sounds just icky. I had full blown lice too when in elementary, but I did not know what it was. Then my mom checked me… I learned very quickly what lice was and that it was full blown! Whoops
I meant to say what I doused it with, which is why I brought it up at the end. Baby oil. I was thinking slippery. So the nits would have a hard time sticking to the roots.
I used olive oil when my daughter had it, plus this stuff, which I think is made in Michigan, and is expensive but probably wouldn’t be difficult to reproduce: http://www.fairytaleshaircare.com/ – I used a watered down version of thier Repel stuff every day on her now. I water it down because it smells very strong, not so much because of how much it costs, though it is expensive.
We also like Fairy Tales Hair Care for prevention. It works when we remember to spray our hair each morning.
I would love a much less expensive version. Any one know of another prevention spray? Or how to easily make it?
Clear heads to all!
My daughter got lice the third week of public school (our first experience after being at montessori school for 6 years!). I made the mistake of using the chemical because i was ignorant. afterward i swore never again–it only (barely–some were still moving afterward–like they were stunned!) kills the bugs, and you can’t be sure of the nits–anyway, i spent the next 10 days combing through her hair everyday to look for nits. the special comb i got (metal) is important–it has really long tines so that you can comb all the way to the ends of the hair and pick up adults or eggs. Over that week and one half, slowly i went from finding dozens of eggs to finding none by combing her hair section by section. I don’t think you need anything but the comb–and of course the hot dryer. I don’t think special shampoos are worth it–just comb, comb, comb…
Twenty-nine years ago when my two day old baby decided to stopped breathing and was put in ICU, my 5 yr. old daughter decides to bring lice home! Thank the good Lord, one of my sisters had also just arrived the day before from another state to help. She took care of the lice the only way I knew how…chemicals. Now, after teaching in a very poor school where our nurse was required to treat students on a daily basis, I knew I had to find another way. And yes, she (the nurse) can’t send them home because they never get rid of them. I started using olive oil once a week and my husband got very good at checking my hair. This worked great and now I work in a different school.
We are living overseas. We live in an area where many people have lice. After 6 months living here, I thought my oldest daughter (10 yo) had lice. I saw a lot of white “stuff” in her hair but no bugs. I was devastated because of the thought of cleaning everything. AND we don’t have HOT water in our washer, and we don’t have a clothes dryer. Ugh! I figured everything would have to be tied up in plastic bags for 2 or 3 weeks. I was sooooooooooo not looking forward to this challenge. But as I was showing my daughter’s hair to my husband, I became less sure it was lice. Something I thought I had always heard was that if it is a nit, you can’t just pull it out of the hair. Instead it is really stuck in the hair. Her white “stuff” was falling out or moving around, but there was so much!!? Was it dandruff? I had my neighbors look at her hair (with my daughter’s “ok”). It was NOT lice, praise the Lord! Instead we have discovered that most likely, it was JUST SHAMPOO she did not rinse out of her hair good enough! After several days of her washing her hair better & rinsing better, we are FREE from the white stuff! =0) I WAS SO RELIEVED!! So sorry you had the real stuff! So glad you were able to rid your family of it without the bad stuff!
I meant to include that in the post (about how nits are stuck on the hair and that’s how you know what’s what), thanks for the reminder!
Thanks for the difference b/t dandruff and nits, that’s good information for (hopefully not needing) future use.
The nurse at our pediatrician’s office recommended just spraying a little hairspray on my boys hair when there is an infection going around and the lice won’t like it. They like clean hair with no gunk in it. If they have any that we didn’t see, the lice would die off. Of course, the boys have short hair so I don’t know if it would work with really long hair like your little one has.
Oooh, that’s a good idea, I’d heard that before but forgot to include it in the post, will do that now. Thanks!
In August 2010, I noticed my 5 year old daughter scratching her head the night after the first day of school. I kept them home for the 2nd day. The whole family had it. My husband had to work (he is usually home with the kids.) I had to take the day off work and deal with this!
I found this treatment on the web: http://www.nuvoforheadlice.com/
It involved:
- washing the hair
- saturating it with Cetaphil and letting it sit
- combing out the Cetaphil
- using the lice comb to remove bugs and nits
- blow drying the hair completely (which takes forever).
Each head took over an hour. After the blow dry, we all looked like rock stars
. That day I did all 5 heads of hair (including mine). The next day we all got haircuts. For the next two weeks later we repeated the whole thing once a week.
This treatment worked for the majority of us. According to the website, washing the bed linens is useful but not mandatory. I washed most of it but didn’t get stressed out.
One child kept getting lice over and over. I remember on Thanksgiving she walked up to my mother-in-law and said, “I have lice!”.
My husband found a homeopathic lice treatment at the drug store. I don’t have the bottle anymore but I think it was LiceFreee http://www.licefreee.com/. It really worked. It was super easy. Gott sei dank!
I’m all itchy just thinking about this now.
By the way, my school district had a policy :
“Head lice-children may return to school following shampoo with special medicated shampoo and removal of ALL NITS (lice eggs) from hair. Please contact the School Nurse of any known lice infestation, and for further directions.”
So what do I do about the kids who got the Cetaphil treatment?
I find it hard to comply with many of the school rules on health. When my son had strep, I worked with my family doctor to avoid antibiotics and use vitamin D supplementation instead. We just kept him home from school and didn’t notify the school he had strep. Their rules,
“If your child is diagnosed with strep throat, please notify the School Nurse. The germ that causes strep throat can also cause more serious illness. Children with strep throat may return to school after 24 hours of treatment with antibiotics and a doctor’s note. “
I’m pretty sure that if the school knows you’re all over it and taking care of it at home (just tell them the kids got “a treatment”), then they probably won’t give you a hard time and won’t even know that you didn’t use the “medicated” junk. It’s not like they’ll come over and check to see what you used, so you should be fine.
We’ve also had good luck with Lice Freee!
It’s the easiest to use. Spray and leave in.
Good luck everyone!
I feel your pain. We just went through the same thing. 5 of us had lice-it was disgusting and incredibly time consuming. I’m happy to say we survived (as does everyone!). My kids were awesome throughout-they kept reminding me that they weren’t sick-only their head was itchy. I went into full panic mode. We ended up hiring a nitpicker and didn’t use anything but a good comb and olive oil. I blogged about it too-I didn’t want anyone to have that helpless, vulnerable feeling I had. Glad you survived.
I’m a School Nurse and lice is always an issue. The one product we have had success with is Lice Ice. I’ve only been able to find it online, but it’s well worth it. We’ve had kids with persistent issues clear with this.
My then first grader brought lice home last year. Because my husband works at the school and often deals with the children/lice situations he already know about the child with lice sitting next to our son. Unfortunately I didn’t find out until after he was infested and had passed it on to his brother. He got it in November and I’m guessing that his jacket fell off his seat onto the floor by the other child’s or some other similar contact was made. We tried combing (most effective), natural treatment, olive oil, chemical treatment (least effective- up to 80% of lice are resistant, it shouldn’t be legal to sell the stuff as a lice killer), homemade essential oil sprays, and finally, more combing. I also had a routine that involved drying sheets/pillow/comforters on high for 20 min. each morning and then grabbing jackets as they came in the door and throwing them in the dryer as well. I think meticulous combing is the most effective way to treat them. Eggs/nits hatch within 7-11 days, and to survive need to eat within minutes so any nits accidentally dropped on the floor aren’t really a threat. They cannot live on pets. Nymphs feed for 7-10 days before becoming adults and laying eggs. Adults can only live 1-2 days off a host. They cannot jump or fly and once off hair don’t move very easily. It was interesting to catch them and put them in a bowl. They weren’t able to move around very well unless they found a piece of hair, then they took off on it (still in the bowl awaiting a trip to the toilet where all blood sucking bugs get dumped). This is probably the most informative, accurate, and complete information I’ve come across on lice, and like you, I spent A LOT of time searching the internet for answers. http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7446.html
And if we get lice again, I will definitely be trying Cetaphil next time http://nuvoforheadlice.com/method_explained.htm
You can order a fantastic comb on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Terminator-Professional-Stainless-Treatment-Removes/dp/B000HIBPV8/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1319589888&sr=1-1
It takes out even the smallest nits. Keep combing for a week or 10 days and you are lice free. I used some conditioner in the hair before using the comb, fantastic and cheep solution.
Kelly WOW you poor thing! I got stressed out reading this, and itched my head the whole time lol. I am so very glad you are comfortable sharing this with us. We search day and night for natural remedies to treat the boys and ourselves (tea tree oil comes up a lot for topical solutions). We keep it on hand as well. Lice has not happened to us yet but if and when it does I will feel a lot more prepared now. I have to say in our search for these natural remedies I am yet to hit a wall that tells me chemicals are the only answer. Good job and we do the same exact thing with buying every 20 -30 dollar remedy that the coop has on hand all while making our own home remedies. There is no price on avoiding putting chemicals on a precious little one!
We’ve had it a couple of times in our house. Me and three girls with long, thick hair. It took several hours to treat the four of us, but it was “easy” to do. My husband searched the internet and found that the military uses Listerine. One big bottle for all four heads. Here’s what we did: Saturate the hair and scalp with the Listerine (it’s very cold!), cover your head with a shower cap or plastic bag, and let it set for 2 hours. Keep a bath towel around your shoulders to catch any drips. Rinse out and saturate hair and scalp with vinegar, cover, and let it set for 2 hours. Rinse out and comb through hair with the lice comb. The Listerine kills the bugs and nits, and the vinegar helps release the glue holding the nits on the hair.
I have also started putting tea tree oil in our shampoo, since I’ve seen it in a “lice-defense” shampoo. We use Suave coconut conditioner and occasionally use coconut oil on the hair. The tea tree and coconut oils repel the lice.
Did the washing, drying, vacuuming, and bagging of things too!
Wish I would have known all this a few years ago!
Vinegar and a comb is what I used growing up and for myself as prevention when my son got it. We just shaved his head…I wasn’t going to do that to myself. Vinegar strips the glue off the eggs, and the fine tooth comb removes eggs and bugs from the hair.
I learned as an adult that braids are excellent prevention for girls. My son got it from a “found” hat OR a playmate who’s mother didn’t know she had them. Great big grandpa lice….EWWWW!
I have not yet dealt with this problem on my kids, but I’m armed with what I think was a great article on the subject. Basically, shell out for the good metal comb, drench the hair with a good, thick conditioner mixed with baking soda (I think about a tablespoon soda for each handfull of conditioner). Comb and repeat at least once in seven days. The conditioner immobilizes the lice and the soda acts as an abrasive to aid in nit removal. I will never forget this information because of the horror I have of lice!
Love this! Totally bookmarking for future reference!
Kelly, I don’t have children yet, but can relate on both the ickiness factor and the hassle of clean up because I had a run-in with fleas at my home, with a cat and a new puppy. Many of the same steps need to be taken (throw in CONSTANT vacuuming!), and there are the same concerns about chemicals you use on your animals, as well as the debate around the whole house-bombing thing. It took weeks, and by the end, I had a tenuous hold on my sanity. Such little things can cause such major headaches!
We had head lice many years ago and our Dr. told us to use mayonnaise and vasoline (50/50). The mayonnaise causes the nits to swell and come off the hair shaft and the vasoline suffocates the live ones. You put this on before bed and wear a bag over your head through out the night. In the morning start washing it out. That is it. No nit picking and not need to repeat.
Fortunately, our children never did bring lice home, but we had several rounds with pin worms. Ugh. I wonder if there’s a natural treatment for that? Each time, every member of the family had to take a pill. That was 33 years ago!
I’m 18 years old and I just recently quit babysitting for my sister in law and her daughter had lice one day so she told me to check my head. My mom was usually the one to do it for me but she wasn’t around seeing as I was already out of the house and I didn’t want my roommates to know, let alone my husband checking my head. So I just excepted that I didn’t get it. Well around December I had just gotten out of the shower and felt something moving on my scalp and went straight to our room and combed my hair and sure enough 4 bugs came out. I put them on a piece of paper and went to go see my sister in law. I was freaking out! She went and got us Lice Treatments and when I combed my hair out with the plastic comb nothing came out beside a few nits and a little bug but everyday I’d comb my hair out and for a while I was lice free. Now, though, my roommates wife brought it home with HER this time and I got it again! It’s been so frustrating because we don’t have the money to spend on it and she says she’s taken care of it but I still see bugs crawling in her hair. I just don’t know what to do anymore so I’ve been feeling around my head and finding as many nits as I can since I know how to from an early age. I just feel helpless in this topic! Any advice would be great please and thank you!
Be sure to read all the comments above, there’s some good info here. Good luck and keep combing!
Also, not sure if it was mentioned here yet, but I heard that coconut helps repel the lice long term, so we began using only natural coconut shampoo and conditioner. Don’t know if it works, but it’s an easy thing to do.
Kelly
My daughter is a lice magnet, she’s 8 and her hair is super thick (imagine combing that out). I know she gets it from school, because during summer vacation it’s completely gone. But the thought of her not having that social experience is just saddening. So here is what I do. She shampoo’s everyday with coconut shampoo (suave $1) and then while the coconut conditioner is in her hair (again, suave $1), I comb through it with the metal comb.. everyday. If I happen to find something, I allow her to rinse the conditioner and soak her hair in apple cider vinegar, cover with a shower cap, and rinse the next morning. Not only does it dissolve the glue that holds the eggs in (makes it much easier to remove), it also suffocates any bugs that are still there. Since we started this routine, we’ve had no outbreaks. Instead of stripping everything down and blah blah blah.. I fill a spray bottle with apple cider vinegar and spray everything with it (and I do mean everything). Wait for it to dry and vacuum. While they can live in things live carpet and furniture, it is unlikely that they are there because they cannot go 24 hours without feeding, so they prefer to stay close to your head, so make sure you pay close attention to bedding, beds, and couches. In addition to my 2 kids, I also have 4 step kids.. and I manage to keep lice away with as little as $5 (shampoo and conditioner plus a big jug of apple cider vinegar) and for your tally, that’s 8 people in my house hold. And allow me to clear up the myth that you can get head lice from your dog or cat. Ask a vet if you don’t believe me. The lice they carry can only attach to their fur, not your hair. It’s a different form of it. Hope this helps someone else, because I know I got tired of spending hundreds of dollars every other month.
I totally agree with Mom of 2! My daughter is also 8 and has had lice maybe 7 times in the past 2 yrs. I know she is getting it from school because we were clean all summer. I also have have another 12 yr old daughter and they share a room but my 12 daughter yr old never gets lice…either do i. The very first time was a nightmare and i cried because it was so frustrating. Now, we are much more relaxed about it. I haven’t been diligent about combing through my 8 yr olds head everyday and that’s one of the main reasons she’s had it so many times. We also use shampoo with tea tree oil and we have lice shield shampoo as well as coconut shampoo. I found that the metal lice come works the best. even for getting out the live bugs instead of the mayo treatment. I usually sit and get out the eggs but there are always ones i miss so checking her head before and right after school is my routine. The metal lice comb is still the most effective thing you can use aside from looking for lice everyday. There is a problem with lice in this particular school and i don’t see how parents miss this. When i was in school we actually had a nurse and the teachers check us when there was an outbreak. What happen and why is it so different today?? Lice will never go away if it isn’t treated!
I am dealing with lice right now. My 10 year old has a bad case, and my 3 other kids each had a few bugs. Last night my husband found a nymph on me, and I just want to cry. I don’t know how I’m ever going to get all the nits off of my own head. Thanks for all the great natural treatments to try! I used olive oil on my daughter’s head yesterday, and the lice came marching out from under the plastic wrap. It didn’t kill the ones still on her head, though. I’ll try vinegar and the hair dryer next.
I think I can answer why schools treat lice outbreaks differently today. A few years ago, our district had a horrendous outbreak with hundreds of cases, including 20 teachers at one school alone. Parents started to panic. Kids were being isolated and treated differently because of the stigma attached to lice. Our district changed its policy…they no longer notify parents or even teachers if a child has lice in their class. It’s really a shame, because teachers can take certain preventive measures to limit the spread. I immediately notified my daughter’s teachers and they were incredibly grateful. They would not have known otherwise.
Katie,
We found the Nuvo method one way to treat it that was non-toxic and really effective.
I was SO glad to find it.
http://www.nuvoforheadlice.com/
Hi,
CUT THE HAIR SHORT. Lice don’t like light. Nothing else worked for us. All that cleaning – totally unnecessary.
This brought back horrid memories. My daughter was off school for 6 weeks one year (I had a call from the truant officer). I think the worst part is feeling like you’re a bad housekeeper/mother, etc. There is only one way to get rid of lice, in my opinion. I spent hours doing a lot of the things mentioned here. Did you mention kerosene? We did that three times, mayonnaise – what a joke. My son with his short hair, never got them. I cut my hair right away and got rid of them. I spent hours picking the nits out of Jenna’s hair – all to no avail. Then I had her hair cut very short – no more lice!
@ Katie- I feel so bad for you because I’ve been there many many times and the first time ever…it brought me to tears. I don’t happen to agree with cutting hair since my daughters is long and beautiful but I know that is an option that works. Mayo helped us the first few times but i learned it’s so much better to use the metal lice comb. Like I stated before, the metal lice comb is the best! I know it’s a pain in the butt but combing through your children’s hair daily helps (especially after school). Vinegar really helps loosen the eggs too. I usually lay my daughter on the kitchen counter (after finding and killing the live lice by combing through hair than sectioning off and combing through again until your sure you got the live ones) and rinse her hair with vinegar and let it dry. Then comb once again after hair is dry to get the eggs out. I always have a hot bowl of water next to me to rinse out and drown the eggs/lice. I also put coats, hats, pillows…etc. in a hot dryer for 30 minutes to kill any lice. I also vacuum the floors and beds. A lot of work when you have them but less work when you can keep them at bay by checking heads for lice. So far my daughter has been lice free for a few months and I still check her hair everyday!
I m 22 and i have this problem of lice and nits for past 3 years and I have also tried different combs , applied different oil and have also applied this lice killing poison .. but still I have this problem due to which there is too much of hair fall.. what else can be done .. kindly guide me plz
Nancy, is there anyone the kids can be getting them from? Are you checking the hair everyday and combing with a lice comb to be sure the lice are gone? Cleaning bedding? My daughters problem was school kids not getting the lice taken care of and spreading it around again and again. I would get her head clean and she would get it again.
Okay, So I have head lice right now and I’m 15 going on 16 this month, and I remember that when I was in fourth or fifth grade I would go to the nurse in school to check my hair, and this would happen every day for at least two months.. And the nurse gave me some lice shampoo but, it didn’t work!! And we just did the comb brushing.. But I’m scared to try the natural potion, and the chemical shampoo, because I don’t want to damage my hair, what should I do??
Jaklyn, you might want to try the NUVO method. A little work, but overall easy, and can be done with a basis face wash you get at the store! Here is the link: http://www.nuvoforheadlice.com/
I talk about our success using it here:
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2012/10/effective-and-natural-lice-treatments.html
It worked great for us! But it helps to have someone do it for you, if you can.
Also whenever I’m in school, I could feel the sensation of something crawling in my hair, but whenever I comb my hair with the metal comb, I find nothing but nits and very tiny lice.. So I really am confused if I should be super worried about this, and I also have dandruff, if that helps at all.. :/
My granddaughter constantly has lice, subsequently my daughter and I get them too occasionally. This is such a nightmare (I am over 60! Already my hair falls out a lot, but after an infestation it is really, really bad). We keep getting rid of them, but back they come, because other people aren’t doing their part. (Other school kids – father’s side of the family) I read that article about not bothering to clean your house – what nonsense. Lice certainly live very long. Every time I have kept 1 or 2 in a sealed jar. Guess what, after 5 days they are ALWAYS sill alive. And there isn’t even any air inside that jar. Try it.
First of all who would want to keep them, eww. Lice are known to live for 14 days without human blood. That is why they suggest putting stuffed animals and such in a plastic sealed bag for that amount of time. I don’t remember reading anything about not cleaning the house when I was going through this.
I always vacuum and launder evrything. Usually I just throw the pillows and blankets in the hot dryer for 40 min and that seemed to have worked. We have had lice 5 times (and I know it was from other kids). The first time I cleaned the house top to bottom meticulously (ven used the nasty lice spray on everything) but after that, less and less effort because that is all that was needed was to vacuum and launder items.
This is to Ava
Hi,
First of all, I did not WANT to keep them, I only kept the lice as an experiment to see how long they would actually live, and after 5 days, could see they weren’t anywhere near dying, squashed them and threw them down the toilet. (Because it would make us all feel so much better, if they would just die out after a day or so – but nooo)
If you look near the top of this blog, just under the video, about 17 lines down, you will find a link to this site http://www.nitmix.com/headlice-myths-day5.htm. I saw that site ages ago, when we first got infested last year when my granddaughter started school, and the man suggests that you are only wasting your time by cleaning the house. But after doing that experiment in the jar, I now know that those critters live forever, and you really have to clean everything to eradicate them. And I’m sorry to say, for that site, the lice CAN JUST fall out of your hair, if you have enough of them.
My baby has had them 7 times now since last October, and I have had them 3 times, and her Mother has had them 4 times. (Although my Daughter and I have only had one or 2, compared to my granddaughters 20′s, or 30′s or more – we can’t keep count!) I thought I had them now again too, but did my hair yesterday, and have not found anything – so fingers crossed. If only everyone at school would take this seriously, but we live in Switzerland (supposedly a great place, and it is), but for this, they don’t even have a school nurse, and even when they know you have lice, the kids can go to school – rather that than miss school – heavens forbid!
The first time my granddaughter got them, they told their neighbours. The little girls are friends. They obviously didn’t do anything. The little girl admitted she also had lice and my daughter offered to do her hair as well. She replied – “oh no, we don’t do the shampoo – we just leave it” – Honestly?
GOOD LUCK TO US !!
WOW, how could they just leave it – you’d think the itching would make them crazy.
Yes, good luck to you!
Kelly
Well that’s just awful of them to just leave it. No wonder it spreads so much. Most schools don’t have nurses here either. I have had them once but my daughter has had it many times. I have two girls that share a room and still just one has gotten the lice numerous times, i thought that was odd since lice spread like wildfire. Have you thought of keeping her home until the problem is taken care of? Not the most ideal situation for sure. I hope everything works out for you Jennifer, such a hard problem to fix it no one else does.
Hi Heather
Well, it’s only my granddaughter, so I really have no say. But here, school is more important, so they don’t mind at all. The doctor even, would not book her off! (Hey, my husband had pneumonia, and he was not even booked of work, he could barely breathe or walk) Switzerland is STRICT. And if she would stay home, the bet is, when she goes back, she will just get it again, because others haven’t done their part.
Funny thing, lice. It is always just me, my daughter and granddaughter that gets them. The men are immune, seemingly, and my son’s wife also. And she always cuddles up really close to them, much more so than me – I am always in the kitchen, so why just the three of us???
Anyway, to date, still all clear with the combing. Although I do have lots of itching. (That could be in the mind) All that comes out is hair, hair and more hair. That is what really worries me, much more than the lice! But we have been doing treatments for more than a year now, even though I have only had them 3 times (and only 1 lice, then 2, then 1, and never any nits to be found, which is really weird), but still have to do the treatments, in case. Then a follow up after seven to ten days – that’s gotta make your fall out ?
Thanks for your input.
I just came across this blog as I was researching preventive headlice care.
The tto and coconut oil is fantastic way to get rid of lice. We used it last year. My daughter’s school is sending notes home about lice right now. It’s just that time of year.
Last summer, when my daughter and I had lice(yeah, I got it too
). I did a treatment on Monday. Left it in over night like you did. Washed it out. Combed through. ( I don’t think I was nearly as vigilant as you were with the combing, but this was also right after school ended so I didn’t have to worry about sending her to school with it). Then, the following week I rechecked hair, found a newly hatched louse and redid the hair with the tto/coconut oil and ylang ylang concotion. It got rid of it.
I think the big thing is the retreatment. You have to retreat the following week otherwise the nits that weren’t combed out and or dead were will hatch. But the week between treatments is okay, since there is no adult lice to reinfest the hair with newly laid eggs.
Then a week later, redid the whole process again. It got rid of the lice and
Before Thanksgiving, our school sent a note home to have us check our kids hair for the next few weeks because lice had been found on a child, so this morning, when I was checking my little girl’s hair, I found a dead louse. Just one. I checked more and found no living lice, no nits, nothing but that one. So I kept her home, emailed the teacher and had my husband go to the store for some RID. Thank goodness I didn’t use it. After reading this site, I discovered that I had coconut oil, olive oil and tea tree shampoo, so I ended up treating both my daughter and myself just in case since she uses my brush. I told her we were having a spa day and using hot oil treatments on our scalp. She loved it. After applying the oil, I wrapped her hair in cling wrap and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Then I washed the oil out with more tea tree shampoo and then combed and combed and combed. Never found anything. Then I blow-dried her hair on hot. Never found anything on either one of us, but I’ll probably repeat that treatment in about a week. I’ll probably rinse both our heads in apple cider vinegar for the next few days just in case.
When I was younger, I got lice from Disney land, my dad used one of the store bought lice treatments but it ruined my scalp. I now have psoriasis and dry scalp which causes severe dandruff that I can’t get rid of. Those poisons are awful and I was so thankful I wasn’t going to have to use it on my little girl.
I also used rid the first time because i never went thru this before and didn’t listen to all the forums out there. I too have very bad dandruff now and so do my girls….ever since that first treatment. Now i know what caused it, thanks to you
I wish i would have known then what i know now.
THanks for this post. i stumbled across it. my poor daughter has come home like 5 times now with head lice from school, and have gone through the ordeal of informing the school, friends etc. even putting a no friends over policy in place to ensure it didn’t get bounced back and forth, which to her was like a punishment for getting the lice. so not fair for a child! Not to mention no one else in the family got it, and my better half started making jokes about me being a monkey.
So i’d been treating her naturally with a mix of dr bronner’s tea tree soap mixed with a some cold pressed neem oil, and combing a lot. washing her hair everyday with the tea tree neem soap as it’s supposed to be a good repeller as well. (both being main components of most natural bug repellent make sense) seems a couple weeks after the last nit is gone, she’d come back with it. just before christmas break lo and behold, again, just in time to mingle with family for the holiday! ARRGGGGG!
the biggest problem is combing for her though. she can’t stand it….Using 1 part white vinegar to 1 part water to saturate the hair before combing helps somehow to get the nits off the hair, and the vinegar smell is gone in a few minutes.
i’m very familiar with neem oil and have been using and researching it for years for human, pet and plant use. it is my understanding that neem not only suffocates the pest( as all oils will do), lice in this case, but it also disrupts the reproductive cycle of any surviving adults after the suffocation. Neem oil should also destroy the egg, it will still be attached to the hair but won’t hatch. i’ve heard that a traditional indian method of treating lice with neem oil is to make a paste with the oil and tumeric. I am out of neem oil, so maybe i’ll hit up our local healthfood store and see what good neem shampoos they have.
Well thanks for this piece, it was helpful for me to keep my peace.
Hi Beth,
I’ll say a prayer that it’s finally gone for you once and for all!!!
Kelly
Oh, Kelly. We went through it too, but we ALL got it. I freaked out. In the the end though, I found out a lot of really interesting information and super effective natural treatments. I won’t be so scared if we ever had an issue again, now that I know how to treat it, and know that it really isn’t that bad to treat naturally if you know what you are doing.
Here is my longish post sharing what I found effective. http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2012/10/effective-and-natural-lice-treatments.html
My kids had lice a few years back, just as school was ending for the summer. Without the help of a school nurse to double check their heads, I quickly became frantic. I used Rid on everyone after speaking with my pediatrician. Fearing that this traetment was toxic & might not be effective, I spent all of my time researching & contacting professional lice removal specialists. They shared some valuable info that I think most people do not have. First, no matter which treatment you use, natural or chemical, NOTHING will kill a nit (egg attached to hair folicle) other than scraping it off. Any nits left in the hair will hatch and start the lice life cycle all over again. Combing them out is key to preventing a reinfestation. Second, the comb that’s used is very important. The ones that are sold in the drugstores are not the best but will work in pinch. If possible, it is best to use one with metal teeth. (The best ones are sold on line.) Anyone who uses a regular comb or brush and thinks this will work is mistaken. Third, live bugs, no matter what stage of their growth, can be smothered with oil. We used olive oil every few days after the Rid and it was very effective. Sleep in it, with a shower cap and then comb with a nit comb. (Dip the comb in a bowl of water between passes, any nits will float on top.) It is messy and will require you to shampoo with dish washing liquid to help cut the grease from your hair but it works very well. It should be repeated every few days until all nits are gone. The reason for this is to smother any newly hatched nit that you might have missed before it becomes adult enough to lay more eggs.
Been through that 2 years ago. Thank God it’s over!
It’s awesome that u took the time to put this info out there for all to use and therefore make our lives easier when these things come into our home (or heads i guess is more like it). If more people would actually think of others rather than worry only about what other people may think or say, this country would take a giant step in a positive direction. Thank you to you and your family esp u and ur daughter for this info.
My oldest daughter had lice as a young child, her Dad’s family did not have the greatest living conditions and she visited every other weekend. They knew that she was getting them there, and would treat her while she was there with an OTC. They would neglect to tell me. I would get a call from school on Mon or Tues telling me that I needed to come pick her up and treat her. I would go crazy and she cried. I was basically treating her on a weekly basis and I thought for the longest time that she was getting them at school. I blew my top when her step-mom finally decided to let me know that they were treating her as well. My poor girl is 18 now, and has the worst dandruff I have ever seen. Add to it that her hair is thin and limp.
My son never had a problem, but he has always had a buzz cut.
My baby (18 months) brought it home from daycare. None of the OTC treatments are approved for a child under 2. I started researching. I also discovered that I had them as well, since the little one is such a snuggle bug. I can tell you that plain yellow listerine (or store brand) works. Saturate dry hair and scalp with it, squeeze the ends to stop drips, wrap in a towel and leave on for at least 30 min, then wash with the coconut shampoo and conditioners, don’t rinse out all of the conditioner but leave a thin layer on hair. I also put 30 drops of tea tree oil in a spray bottle of fabric refresher spray and sprayed pillows, furniture, back packs, car seats, and carpets. The coconut and the tea tree oil are repellents. The listerines ingredients do kill the bugs, and apparently do something to the nits as well because they changed color and became kinda mushy.
I am a school nurse now and I pass along the non pesticide remedies to my parents.
How cool that you can help school families to know the safe options!!!
My line is “We don’t want to eat foods covered with pesticides, so why would we intentionally cover our children with it.” I wish I had known about some of the less harmful ways when my oldest was suffering thru this.
My 6 year old started a new school 6 weeks ago, and she has already caught the ‘itchy friends’ twice! First time I saw them was a thursday evening when I was brushing her hair for bed, the second time was tonight, URGH! I am fairly used to them, my daughters nan is a nursery leader, and she often comes back with them (icky!) but I thought to myself, there has got to be a way to prevent the little critters?! I cracked on 3 ideas. 1, lavenda oil spray (sadly my dr says theyve become resistant to this classic, doh) 2, vodka spray…but I couldnt see the school being best impressed if she came in smelling like a pub and 3, tea-tree oil. It worked amazingly well, or she was super lucky! Annoyingly enough, this spray has become part of her daily routine, to the point I put conditioner in it too so it acts as a anti tangle spray too (myy girl spends 23.5 hours a day looking like shes been pulled through a bush backwards!). Yet, it seems the nits in our new town are resistant to tea tree oil (boooo) so I am now on the hunt again for a repelant! I admit, to my shame, I have resorted to chemicals tonight. Not impressed and the price too! £15 for ONE treatment, and it says to follow it up with a second course in 7 days, so £30 to treat one head! Thank god my boy still has no hair at age 4, ha ha. Can’t decide if im infested too or itching because of what I found on her. I love your blogs, this one esp, I had never heard of coconut oil as a killer before, thank you!
http://www.licefreee.com/products/licefreee-spray!/
I have to recommend this amazing product. I had lice last week and this kills it in a snap !
It just comes right off. The comb is even optional. No need to comb at all ! Gosh, I am in love it. I have shoulder length hair, but I cut it into a bob 
But I think it looks somewhat like Karlie Kloss’s.
What I do to get rid of lice is:
1st: Wash hair with shampoo & a few drops of tea tree oil (I heard it kills lice)
2nd: Blow dry in the high heat
3rd: Spray with licefree Spray.
4th(optional): Comb through & those little pests will come out
5th: Repeat for the next 2 weeks
Also I heard using Listerine Original Mouthwash actually helps. I used it and it somewhat helped. You’re suppose to pour mouthwash all over your hair. Put a hair cap over it and let it dry in the morning.
And I also heard vinegar(white or apple cider) works pretty well.
I used the Listerine on my children and it WORKED like a CHARM! Dose the head, put on the shower cap, let sit 30 minutes and shampoo out. You have to repeat it in 5 days, because it doesn’t kill eggs. Ok. . . .not so natural, but certainly not that nasty lice stuff either.
I just went to Walmart and bought a flea comb (metal) like they use in dogs. Don’t freak, it was clean and new. lol. . . .
That way, I didn’t have to buy the box of stuff just for the comb.
I am also surprised that no one has mentioned the Robi – Comb. It is like a little mini-bug zapper. . . .Ok. . .that is a little weird too, but again NOT a chemical. If I had repeatative problems, I would look into it !
Me again, but I just have to share with you all what I found that ACTUALLY WORKS!!! So, having coughed up £30 for the nasty chemicals for my daughters head she manged all of a week ‘flea free’. Grrrr! I went n moaned to a friend who suggested I get a nitty gritt comb. Her daighter has the wildest hair you have ever seen, so I trusted what she said to work on my messy head child. Its basically a metal tooth nit comb, but the teeth have spirls going down, it rips the live and eggs from the hair, absolutly AMAZING. One going over and I pulled out countless eggs, and about 26 nits. Second go I pulled 10 eggs, no nits, 3rd time, nothing. Shes not itched at all
its £10 here, id guess thats about $14-15 ish in america, but its amazing. Im in love with it, ha ha ha. My daughter thinks ee should use it on the cat, she refuses to beleive me that the cat is flea free as I have her jabbed monthly with a substance thst makes her blood bitter seeing as shes allergic to flea drops and collars. If only I could get somethinh like this for the cat! It would be fantastic, but thats my next mission.
I do believe using the comb was mentioned by several people already. I swear by it too. I used the comb by itself and got the live bugs out without using anything else too (just the comb).
Hi my name is Eden and I have lice. I’m just an 8th grader trying desperately to
get rid of the lices in my hair. I honestly don’t know how I got it. I mean all of my friends straight their hair everyday and I’m the only one who have curly hair. The only products I use is a wide-tooth comb, a baby oil, and shampoo & conditioner.
So far it has improved but it’s still itchy though. I’m not asking for help but I just want to know where you guys buy those metal lice combs? My Wide-tooth comb is too wide and it doesn’t help much. PLEASE REPLY
Hi Eden,
Good advice from Yolanda, also I found those combs inside the kits of crappy chemicals at the store. Then I threw out the chemicals and just used the comb.
Good luck, you can do it!
Kelly
Bless your heart, Eden! Here is where you can buy those combs online:
http://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Tales-Terminator-Lice-Ounce/dp/B002STJFP2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371122433&sr=8-2&keywords=head+lice+comb
I do not know if one of these would be available in your local stores, but you could check at CVS, Walgreens or Walmart, perhaps and see. If you do not live with someone that can help you, please talk to someone at your school, the school nurse, or your teacher, and tell them what you need. The lice products that people usually buy are toxic and don’t work good at all.
Good luck!
Standing here scratching my head!! My daughter got lice when she was 3 or 4 and it was a nightmare to get rid of. Her hair was long and my niece kept giving it to her…My sister treated my niece, but my niece’s father would take her to his family’s house knowing there was lice there. Now my daughter is almost 13 and I found some eggs and a louse this morning. When we got back from our outing today I looked through her waist length hair and found more eggs, nits, lice. I normally cannot even say the “L” word around her cause she freeks. I think I know where she got them and will let that person know (without accusing) and the other friend she was hanging out with last weekend. I’m dreading constantly combing out her hair, but oh well. Last time I could only use the chemicals gotten from the doctor. The OTC stuff did not work. I do not dare use the mouth wash on her hair as she has psoriasis all over her scalp and I am afraid the alcohol will hurt her more than it will the lice. She already uses a shampoo that has tea tree oil.
I am getting ready to cook up the cocoanut mixture right now, have all the ingredients and the cap. I will probably have her wash it out before bed, but we will see. Planning to use the vinegar tomorrow and comb everything out more. All of the bedding is being washed right now too.
My son does not have any sign of them, but his hair is pretty short. My husband does not have any…again very short hair. Me….well, I really am not completely sure. I have looked but it is not too easy to look for them in the mirror and my husband has no clue what he is looking for.
Since someone mentioned the flat iron above, let me also say that IF it is an option for you, that lice (and nits too I think?) are also killed instantly by the heat of a curling or flat iron. Get up as close to the scalp as you can. Of course, after that high heat, your hair may NEED the coconut oil to repair the damage !
I have also heard that they are killed instantly by a salon style perm, although I am not sure what kind of chemicals are involved in that.
Just thought I’d mention it though. . . .
I have had lice and have dealt with it with many different things. How much is the tea oil stuff and where may i get ahold of the curly comb in case I get it again. I am in high school and I hate lice. I got it the times in freshman year hopefully I wont get it again but we will see
thanks for all of the advice 
cross your fingers and knock on wood!
I have cried about my infestation of ONE YEAR. I hate it… reading this made me feel better though. I had never gotten lice when I was little because I lived in Nebraska and it is too cold there for any lice to survive… then I moved to Texas… I’m fifteen and cannot let me parents know because my dad would hit me and my mom would cry. They knew the first round it came on… and they were so very upset. Now that I am well armed with 40$ I can comb, comb, comb!!! I have been up since two in the morning researching… and it is now three. I’m heading to the bathroom! Pray or me
Piper, I am praying for you, but not *just* for help in getting rid of lice.
I’m also praying that you have the courage to get help from an adult you trust. An aunt? A teacher? A neighbor mom? A friend’s mom?
Nobody should hit you. Please talk to someone you trust, OK? And keep me posted: Kelly@KellytheKitchenKop.com.
Big hugs to you!
Kelly