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Kelly the Kitchen Kop

How to Get Rid of Head Lice Naturally – the exact steps we took! (Warning: Disgusting Video)

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*Amazon or other affiliate links may be included, see full disclosure after the post. I'm not a medical professional, so use anything you read here only as a starting point for your own research.

get rid of head lice naturally

How to get rid of head lice naturally!

Do you fear your kids coming home with 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 and for sure didn't know if we could get rid of head lice naturally and avoid all those scary lice solutions, but guess what?  We did it.  And we survived too!

Get rid of head lice naturallyAnyone 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 of reasons.  First of all, most people know that head lice can come home on anyone, there's no rhyme or reason to it, and it certainly doesn't mean your home is dirty or whatever.  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 show you how to get rid of head lice naturally in case the same thing happens at your house.

How Get rid of head lice naturally — here's what happened:

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.  However, 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 short 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 and didn't know if we could get rid of head lice naturally, but I was certainly going to try!

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 to get rid of head lice naturally (never tried myself), but I was freaked out about how much cleaning we'd be doing all weekend!  By the time I got home he'd been searching online too and found an article that said it's not really necessary to clean everything so thoroughly, because he thought it would help me to chill out.  I said, “Kent, whether or not that site is right, I can't NOT do everything to the house and our bedding that I've always heard we need to do just based on one website.”  I figured better safe than sorry so we didn't have to go through all of this again in a couple weeks!

Here are the exact steps we took 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 online reading, 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 our son to start vacuuming the carpet everywhere.
  • 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.  (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!  Apparently, from all I've read, the key is the comb, this is the most important part of treatment.  (These metal combs are what we used, but with extra diligence the plastic ones can work, too.  I suggest getting combs to keep on-hand just in case!)

Get rid of head lice naturally

  • 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 one of the boys' hair, probably not but we were all paranoid, so he asked me to shave him almost bald just to be sure.  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 of 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 her 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, did she think we could get rid of head lice naturally?  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 to use those harmful chemical pesticides on your child and that the list of short and long-term scary side effects from that stuff is long.  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 to see if they knew how to get rid of head lice naturally, because they're 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, good probiotics, and big doses of 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.

Maybe I couldn't get rid of head lice naturally…  I didn't know what to do.  I so desperately didn't want to put that stuff on her head (especially after looking over those product 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 searched online and prayed more.

One piece of information I found in my online research 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 fix anything?!  Then I knew what to do.  I went to the health food store to ask them how to get rid of head lice naturally, and dropped some more cash there.  (Notice the price tags on the products I bought?  Ouch.)

I decided to use the natural 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 also 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…

We did it, we really did it, we figured out how to get rid of head lice naturally!

I couldn't wait to show her the junk I did NOT use:

About the expense:

Here's the thing, I'm not convinced that the $22 bottle of stuff I used to get rid of head lice naturally 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 really 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 had.  (Note:  people have asked me about using Listerine, but I didn't try that, if anyone knows how that works, please comment below.)

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 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 at 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?”  As much as I'd have loved to share how we got rid of head lice naturally (!!), her teacher didn't think that was a good idea.  I thought it was sweet that she wasn't concerned about her friends 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 in your home?  Have you tried to get rid of head lice naturally?

Did you find any remedies that worked for you?  Did you wonder too if you could actually get rid of head lice without the chemicals?  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!

DON'T MISS THIS:  Get my FREE Printable with the complete list of all the steps for how to get rid of lice naturally.  Click here to get it.

Also get another free printable by clicking here:  Top 25 Simple Ways to BOOST Your Health with Apple Cider Vinegar!

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Comments

  1. Barbie says

    Back when I was a kid in the 1950’s we always used a white vinegar rinse after a shampooing our hair instead of a conditioner. We never had head lice.

    When my kids developed head lice in the 1980’s, went back to using a vinegar rinse after shampooing on everyone and it got rid of the head lice. 1/4 cup vinegar to 16 oz of water. Vinegar is not just for salad dressing!

    The special lice comb, and the hot hair dryer are essential tools. And of course washing everything in hot water and using the clothes dryer.

    Reply

  2. Carrie Glenn Huizenga says

    As a stylist, I know using products helps ton! I’ve learned that using a hot flat iron is best!

    Reply

  3. Christina Castro Falco says

    The problem is at the schools unless there is an epidemic in the class , the nurse can’t just check heads of the kids in the class . The school cannot let the class know if a kid has lice . So it’s a very cyclic problem, there are homeopathic hair clinics that do exactly what this mom did . I love all her ideas I’m going to save this for me and the other nurses I work with ! Thanks .

    Reply

  4. Maureen Garver says

    Maybe ours weren’t as extensive as yours, but we simply used a blow dryer on our kids heads. Kept it on as long and as close to their heads as they could stand it, several times a day, and the lice were gone in 3 days (or less).

    Reply

  5. Jan O'Brien Schaefer says

    I worked in a school for 30+ years and it seemed lice only went around in the grade school. I asked the school nurse why we never saw it at the high school level. She said that most HS kids use a hair dryer where GS kids don’t. She said the high heat from the dryers kills them. Don’t know how true that is, but seemed like a reasonable explanation.

    Reply

  6. Elaina says

    I’m pretty sure my 4 year old son had lice about 6 weeks ago. He was scratching his head like crazy and would even come get me at night complaining. I checked and never saw anything. But I was starting to itch also. Shortly after my hubs shaved his head just so they could match, nothing to do with lice. And then about a week ago I found lice in my daughters hair. 3 live adults. She is 20 months old and has strawberry blonde fine hair. I pulled the bugs out and in a panic (I’ve never had to deal with lice before) went to the store and got the NIX. Put it on and followed directions. The problem is the combing. She will absolutely NOT let us comb. And if we are able to get a few strokes thru her fine hair with the nits just slides right thru. So yesterday had been 8 days since the treatment and I found nymphs in her hair. I pulled out as many as I could and did another treatment on her and did one on myself as well because I’m pretty sure I had a few hairs with nits and could swear I found a live bug. So my question is what do you do when you aren’t able to comb?? There’s no way I’m able to comb out her hair. It’s impossible. Help!

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      Elaina, I honestly don’t know, except maybe treat it more aggressively with the products mentioned above to put on her hair? If that doesn’t work you may need a couple more adults to hold her while one combs. She may scream her head off, but it won’t kill her. Try letting her watch her favorite movie while you do it. Or talk to her beforehand and give her a good bribe, like going to get a treat afterward or something? I know 20 months is young for that stuff, but they’re smarter than we think. Good luck!
      Kelly

      Reply

  7. Debbie says

    I put mayonnaise in my kids hair and then I wash it then I put conditioner comb them out with the conditioner in your hair

    Reply

  8. Brenda Stern Cammarata says

    When my daughter lived in France the local school had several outbreaks. Her daughter was totally infested as she had tight, curly, fine hair. The pharmacist told her to use Listerine, vinegar and coal tar shampoo. This cleared it up, dissolving the nits with the vinegar.

    Reply

    • [email protected] says

      I want to put on here what I did. Olive oil and a hot blow dryer. Got rid of them in seconds. All clothes went in dryer for 30 min. Vacumed everything. Sprayed vinegar on everything. I have cats so I can’t use tree tea oil. It did the trick. No problems.

      Reply

  9. Terri Martinez says

    I have three daughters with LOOOOOONG hair. We made it through most of their lives without any incidents of lice…but we homeschooled up until two years ago. They were put into a private school then and the eldest (16) was moved to public school last year. She is now on the cheer leading squad and was at a four week long intensive training. It ended about 3 weeks ago…she came upstairs this morning with an adult lice wrapped in a pc of toilet paper…she said she found it when she brushed her hair. OY! Seriously? we make it all the way to her senior year and she gets it. I googled natural remedies really quick this afternoon and found something that said rubbing alcohol kills all of it instantly. Then all the other remedies with olive oil, coconut oil, vinegar rinses, high heat…etc. So off I went to the store to find plastic shower caps, a baseball hat (so she can still go to work), and 91% rubbing alcohol. She saw the bottle of alcohol and almost cried…”Mom, that’s going to kill my hair!” So, I told her I read that it kills it all instantly…she looked at me for a few seconds and I waited. Then she said, go ahead…we doused her over the bathtub till neither of us could breathe and I’d only used 1/3 of the bottle. Got her to some fresh air…rinsed her out and started combing the olive oil into the scalp. All the adults were dead that we found and the nits were falling away from the follicles as we combed and massaged the oil. She is presently wearing the oil, shower cap, and baseball hat over a tight bun and just trotted off to work. We still have to get her room cleared now…but thanks for all the info. We still have some work to do and she an I are supposed to go on a two day bus trip with a bunch of church ladies in three days…so guess what we’re doing as we prepare to go? LOL I keep telling myself it’s going to be alright. We can still go…we just need to get this irradicated and keep her head away from everyone else and spray the seat back on the bus with tea tree oil. I still need to get a real nit comb though…I bought a very fine toothed short tined comb that the lady at the store said would probably work…the tines are just shorter.

    Reply

  10. Angela McKinney says

    How did you use the vinegar rinse? I’ve gotten rid of the lice but my daughter still has nits and I need to hurry and get them out. Not sure they are dead or alive

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      Angela, it’s been a while, but just get as much on her head as you can and let it set on there for a while (20 minutes or longer if possible?) maybe do it in the tub? Just keep pouring a little more on and working it in. Remember to COMB COMB COMB. Then have her shower. Good luck!

      Reply

  11. Helen says

    SO EXCITED that I found someone else who has shared their success story using neem as part of their natural lice removal regimine. After years of no lice, our daughter finally got them and the were NO FUN. After trying almost everything we were contemplating the chemical route and almost gave in but then read an article on NEEM (from The Neem Queen) and how it kills AND prevents lice and nits. We immediately found a neem lice kit on amazon that we bought and started the process. We started with neem oil on the scalp, followed by using a neem shampoo and let it sit under a cap for 10 minutes. The All About Neem lice kit came with a comb and some neem extract spray and like others described, went inch by inch through the hair until we got out all the living lice and nits. We checked daily and washed her hair daily with the neem shampoo.

    Needless to say we are LICE FREE and have been continuing using the neem shampoo that they sell separately to prevent lice from coming back. I love the comments on using apple cider vinegar and will give that a try as well when we want to switch it up. So thankful for finding this little known miracle herb that can get rid of these nasty bugs!

    Reply

  12. anna says

    would it work if i just covered my head in olive oil, washed it out and then repeated that again in like 10 days, i really dont wanna comb my hair because if i see the bugs, i will literally pass out and i have no one to do it for me. please reply

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      Anna, I really think you need to comb out the nits, but it’s really not bad once you get going, you can do it! They’re really small and you have to get them out so they don’t keep hatching more and more. Do you have an aunt or a neighbor you could ask? I’m sure they’d be happy to help you. Email me and let me know where you are and maybe I can help you find someone: [email protected].
      Good luck, you can do it!
      Kelly

      Reply

  13. sheryl in California says

    I am pretty sure my older daughter got lice from the movie theater. So now we bring towels and put them over the back of the chairs. I tried the nasty chemical from CVS. Did not work, many many nymphs survived. I combed for 2.5 hours the first time(we had a pretty bad case by then time I realized it because she is in 7th grade and I no longer comb her hair!) and removed remaining nymphs and all the nits . Then I combed every day, morning and evening, twice a day for TWO Months. And finally, when the weather got hot in late June, we finished. I say this not to discourage people but to make them realize as diligent as I was (twice a day!!!) it took me 8 weeks of combing because her hair is so thick and the there were so many fully adult nymphs. Just finding and killing the nymphs took several days. After talking to friends, I then started using the olive oil + saran wrap+ shower cap + towel every other night. That really killed the nymphs (but not the eggs). Hence the 8 week of twice a day combing. So it may take a while.

    I think skip the chemicals (which are no long effective, any case) and use 1) coconut or olive oil every other day until the nymphs are gone 2) comb twice a day 3)spray in the AM with diluted tea tree oil is the right procedure.

    Reply

  16. Terry Ormond says

    This is very interesting. I was a hairdresser for many years and some time back I noticed the young girls who used the flat irons and hair products were not getting lice. The ones who mostly got lice were the ones who went to bed with clean damp hair or those who put their clean damp hair in a pony/bun. I started telling my clients to stop with the chemicals and start blow drying their kids hair. Also, for prevention I recommended Fairy Tales hair products because they were made with essential oils. No more problems for these families. The lady in this article did the right thing except money wasted on chemicals. Another option that you can do if there is an outbreak, is to invest in a heated tabletop hood hair dryer. You can put oil on the head with a bag over it and sit under the dryer. The whole treatment process should be done exactly 7 days later incase a nit is missed and it hatches. (just for extra insurance)

    Reply

  18. Lily says

    I’m a 16 year old girl and surprisingly got headlice despite hardly being around kids! I think I got them at a festival I went to for a few days recently. I’m going to try the oil treatment now and hope that works, I can’t stand putting all those chemicals on my head, I went through enough of that when I was younger and it’s not fun. thanks for the article 🙂

    Reply

  20. Ravisha says

    Hello!
    I am 13 an I have head lice because of school camp. I have combed through my hair a couple of times and found a couple of bugs and I get so scared and disgusted when i see them and think about them living in my hair. I got my mom to comb my hair this morning for me but she only found a few and said that they must’ve been it. I can feel that annoying feeling of lice in my hair right now and I want to cry soo bad. I have attempted the conditioner method a few times but it doesn’t seem to work out for me. I do think that the reason that my treatments are ineffective is because I am not washing/drying my bedding. Yesterday, I washed and blow-dried my hair, and I couldn’t feel anything crawling in my hair any more but this morning, the itching sensation started again. I am soo desperate to get this buggers out can someone please provide me with a easy, quick and simple solution that won’t cost anything.
    Thankyou:)

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      Hi Ravisha, I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with this! It sounds like you’re doing everything right except you need to get your bedding in a hot dryer for a while, and anything else you’re coming into contact with. Otherwise, just keep combing. You’ll get through this! 🙂
      Kelly

      Reply

  21. Ashley says

    I love the braggs apple cider vinegar!!! You mentioned if anyone used the Listerine that they should tell you. I used this Listerine lice removal remedy https://www.homeremediesthatreallywork.com/listerine-lice-treatment-at-home/ on my son when he got Lice in January. It worked really well! The smell is super strong but otherwise it worked. I think it’s the alcohol in it? If Listerine still has alcohol. A girlfriend tried using mayonnaise and I think it worked but it got everywhere. I would definitely try it since most people have mouth wash in their house. The only thing I had to get were cheap shower caps.

    Reply

  22. Karen says

    About six years ago when we got our first infestation (and after finding the particular lice were immune to the pesticide treatments) we found Licenex online. It is expensive (at it’s cheapest it’s $15 a bottle, for 6 bottles with a “special”). However, it is an enzyme formulation that works like a shampoo, you just leave it in for 15 minutes. One bottle does several heads and can also be added to laundry or made into a spray. Last month my daughter caught them again. I didn’t have the money (or the time) to purchase online but found a product, X-Pel at Kroger for just under $17.00 which is also an enzyme shampoo and only requires 10 minutes on the head. It also has a milder scent (the Licenex is strongly peppermint scented, which my daughter hated). They both work wonders, and I might stock up on Licenex after my tax return comes in just in case…

    Reply

  23. danielle says

    My step daughter has had lice several times and we
    Treat her hair get rid of them then she goes to her moms
    And comesback with them again and now my two year oLD
    has it anyone know what I could use on her hair
    Thanks in advance

    Reply

  24. Mayraaraceli Ruiz says

    Will this work cuase my daughter has lice now its disgusting and annoying to get rid of it we always used treatment and rhey always come back please answer me

    Reply

  26. Debra says

    Can anyone tell me “HOW” they clean out the nits from the comb? I have been boiling my combs and using a tissue but can’t quite get the comb completely cleaned after use so I throw it away and get another one. Any suggestions would be great!

    Reply

    • Jessica says

      Get nail cleaning brushes dollar tree carries a 2 pack I have found those to be amazing at cleaning the Combs

      Reply

  27. Monica says

    I teach Sunday school and got it for the first time in my life about a year ago! It was bad. I had a friend check me after we found it on one of the kids, but she said I was ok. So I went on for a while before I knew it was lice. I did everything you said, and it kept coming back. I have very thick hair, and I didn’t want to cut it short. I was trying to get it out of my own hair, which was really difficult. I finally bought a zapper comb, and with one session of combing it through I finally eliminated the infestation. I will keep one of those combs around now because it’s so easy to use, and I can run it through my hair when I simply feel an itch. https://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Terminator-Contact-alternative-shampoo/dp/B00K341K5W/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1419384299&sr=8-6&keywords=lice+comb

    Reply

  28. J says

    All you need is the comb. I keep a bottle of alcohol next to the comb and drown the little nits and/or lice in the alcohol. A bright light helps, too. Or take the kid outdoors into bright sunlight and comb and comb and comb until you don’t see them anymore. No special potions are needed.

    Reply

  29. Angela says

    We used the kit from LiceFree. No nasty chemicals. All lice gone in one gel treatment and comb through. Then the whole family used the preventative shampoo Lice Shield instead of our regular shampoo for about a week. It smells like lemon grass and again, no chemicals. No vacuuming, washing, drying or spraying anything. If you stop them on your heads they cannot survive anyplace else. I promise it is that easy. It worked for us two years in a row at the start of the fall semester. We have had several friends have success too. The only one who had issues used the Rid chemical. All of that cleaning and combing for days on end is just not necessary.

    Reply

  30. Debra says

    My son (in 7th grade) brought home lice earlier this month. Said there’s a girl at school who wears her hair up in a bun and they call her the bug girl because you can see the bugs and nits in her hair. He was worried he’d get those bugs and he did. The sad part is that this girl and her sister have lice ongoing. The school now does not send children home with lice because it’s not considered life threatening so this is frustrating. In a mad panic at 10pm at night, I did go out and buy and apply the store-bought chemical treatment and it bothered me so much to use it. I treated his hair and my hair the same night. Took me almost 3 hours for the both of us but I got them out. The next day I did some research for something natural. I got the same NEEM shampoo that you posted but I added Melaleuca (Tea Tree) and Lavender oils (about 20 drops of each to the shampoo) also. I soaked our heads daily with ACV (apple cider vinegar) and let that sit for 10 min under a throw away shower cap, then combed out the nits, and washed our hair with the shampoo. I also let the shampoo sit in the hair for about 15 additional min before rinsing it out. I did this for 4 days, every night before bed. After that I discovered that I could put the Tea Tree oil directly on the hair so I did just that instead of the ACV and massaged it into the scalp. Let it sit for 10 min and used the nit comb. To my amazement, the remaining tiny, tiny nits just slid right out. Looking at your video, now I think we had dry flakes by day four coming out but I was so paranoid. Back on the second day, I sprayed all of our mattresses, couches, with the homemade spray I made with water, Tea Tree, Lavender & Peppermint oils. Washing everything in hot water @ the laundromat and dried in the hot cycle because we had no hot water at home. Ughh. That was a nightmare. But I added Tea Tree oil directly to the wash cycle as well. (I even had to boil water on the stove to use to rinse our hair since all we had was cold water) And by 1 weeks end, we were lice free. I still check our hair and we wash with the Neem shampoo with added Tea Tree. I read that the Tea Tree oil also helps to repel the lice. And we make sure to use hairspray at the nape of the neck and backs of the ears to keep away lice daily since that little girl still has lice. We do not want it back! I feel so bad for that little girl and her sister. It is so irresponsible of the parents to ignore this problem. And the rest of us have to now be concerned with this being passed from head to head. I know what to do now to keep it away and what to use naturally as we are all chemically sensitive in my house. I have used all natural products to clean, etc for a long time and I swear by the Tea Tree oil. I don’t know what I’d do without it! 🙂

    Reply

  31. karen says

    Lice literally gave me a grey streak. Three years ago I had to deal and then re and re-deal with lice. I had a very hard time of it for several reasons, but to keep my story as short as possible, my advice is once you think it’s gone, keep checking heads for the next ten days vigilantly. From my experience and observing the trials of other parents, both the chemicals and natural remedies are useless if you don’t comb out ALL the eggs. It is awful! I totally sympathize with you and understand the paranoia (it’s 3 years later and I still feel itchy if I hear the word lice). My favorite way to combat the paranoia is to use the Robi comb. it’s on amazon and it is worth buying. For me it was (and still is) a lifesaver, I was so paranoid I didn’t kill all the bugs, and I didn’t have anyone to reliably check my own hair, and that’s what the robi comb does, it detects the live lice and basically electrocutes them. I wouldn’t totally rely on it to take care of an infestation, but I’d use it as the third line of defense or as an early detection tool for yourself. (For our treatment we did mayo under shower caps for 4 hours, then metal combed out eggs with vinegar – we also tried quit nits, but I’m convinced it’s the obsessive combing and then checking for new hatches that finally got rid of them). Now I travel with it and run it through our hair after an airplane flight and after sleepovers or going to houses where lots of kids are romping etc. There are some very helpful sites out there where you can learn the life cycle, what the different phases look like. Also in some areas there are salons where you can go and get your head combed out and they help you get rid of it – pricey but very helpful. Hair Fairies is one of them, check out this one for a tutorial on how to effectively comb out nits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZmHQXcQWUo Also, another word to the wise, make sure to allow yourself time to de-stress – lice battling is very stressful and the social problems surrounding it can be horrendous, which can cause stress related health issues. Also, one last thing, allow your scalp time off too, give it a break after the intensive washings or it might become out of balance and then you’ll be adding dandruff problems to the mix.

    Reply

  32. Sharon says

    Got to experience this more than once and with 3 girls. My two step daughters would bring this home after a spring or summer break visiting with their Mom out of state. Couldn’t use the chemical stuff because it causes asthma attacks in the kid with asthma. Our regimine: wash hair and comb out tangles. We found it helpful to comb out the nits and lice outside in the sunshine. Made it easier to see the buggers and the nits. In brunette or dark hair the nits will look whiter; in blond hair, darker. Because newly hatched lice are very difficult to see, we used Africa’s Pride Africian Magical Miracle Gro on the hair making sure to coat the hair well. Smothers lice and nits and makes the shaft to slippery for nits to adhear to shaft. We then braided the girls hair in small sections. You can get creative with this or just do cornrows. If product gets soaked up by hair and scalp, reapply. Use shower cap at night to protect bedding. We applied product every other night for 1-2 weeks. After treatment period, product washes out completely after several washings and hair is conditioned and in great shape. Product is pleasant smelling. (And yes, my youngest has one school yearly picture with the “special” braids)

    I know this is a lot of work but was the only thing that worked for us.

    Reply

  33. NRVMama says

    With a large family, we had several rounds of the nasty nit-picking battles. Once from a church school and once from the kids trying on a hat in Walmart! (word to the wise…do NOT try on any hats in the store, EVER!) I used olive oil and added some tea tree oil to the mix, soaked their heads and did the overnight shower caps, plus the laundry detail. The biggest key for us was sunlight. I would take them out on the porch in warm weather or to a sunshiny window and let them lie down with their head on my lap and I would comb while we listened to the radio together. The oil killed the bugs, and made it easier to see the nits to comb them out. The sunlight was a huge help. Once it was established that we found no more eggs, off to the shower to shampoo until the oil was gone, and then check again every day for three days. The key is not to freak out. Yes, they are icky but are more nuisance than health issue. I also tried a soak with Dr. Bronner’s melaleuca shampoo and that was good for soaking the hair and easy to wash out.

    Reply

  34. Erica says

    Hi Kelly,
    My kids have had lice/nits a couple of times over the years and have found the easiest and cheapest way to get rid of them is to buy a big bottle of hair conditioner and liberally apply to hair put a showercap on and sleep with it. We did this for 2 nightsin a row to start with and repeated it 5 days later and again after another 5 days. The conditioner suffocates the live lice and as the nits hatch out they are killex before they mature and can multiply. This is the treatment our school recomends with combing the hair while the conditioner is in. I have never cleanened the whole house as you did I have only changed the sheets on the bed and washed the towel that child used. I washed the things at 60ºC and just hung them outside on the line.

    Reply

  35. Hilary says

    ROBI-COMB! Look no further.

    We contracted lice from a vacation rental home. It was weeks before I diagnosed the itching. It was summer, I thought the kids were just hot and sweaty.

    Unfortunately we did a round of poison at first because I didn’t know any better. I thought that would get rid of them. 1 week later they still weren’t gone. The lice are resistent to the chemicals.

    I got a Robi-Comb and combed through zapping the bugs. The comb hums by default but when it comes in contact with a bug it stops humming. You look at the comb, brush off the electrocuted lice and carry on.

    The first comb through will get the live ones. Do it again every day and you’ll get the newly hatched ones. They should all be gone in 7-10 days.

    Reply

  36. Mary Ann Walker Hubbell says

    It’s as simple as shampoo, water and a comb.

    Our kids are 35-40 and all four had lice at the same time. I’ve shared this trick with other families and it works every time.

    Get to know your child’s hair. If they have lice, look around and see where the eggs are. We found that most eggs are laid at the nape of the neck and behind the ears – comfy, warm places. The lice will run all round but will normally have a favorite place to lay.

    Wash the hair with shampoo, rinse off but don’t towel dry. Set the child down between your legs. The shampoo and water seem to knock out the lice. They won’t be running around. Look down on the still wet hair, it will automatically separate wherever there is a louse. Pick it out. When you can’t find any more – comb. Get out any eggs. Once you have cleaned the head well, each night repeat and before long, you won’t have any lice. As often as you want, do the same after a bath (no towel dry of hair) and check to see if anything has moved back in and you’ll never have to deal with lice again.

    Reply

  37. julie says

    We had a huge problem with lice in the classroom during elementary school. We’re talking kids with nests in their heads. Like you, the thought of it in my house was unbearable, so I helped the teacher scrub down the class room, sprayed all the kids with acv, tea tree and peppermint oil. Smelled horrible…but definitely kept it from spreading. I checked my kids religiously before and after school, kept their heads sprayed with my concoction. It never spread beyond the kids that had infestations. Maybe we we’re just lucky but I think my concoction worked.

    Reply

  38. dd says

    I went through this many times with my children and also couldnt stand the thought of using those nasty chemicals on their heads… I got sick of my kids coming home with nits every few weeks because some parents could be bothered to do the right thing (or just didnt know what to look for). The main purpose was to educate parents, teachers and children that there is no stigma and no shame attached to having lice and that it is easily treated.

    With the permission of the school and all the kids parents I organized a day at our local primary school with several other trusted parents who volunteered to check the children. With teachers help we lined all the kids up outside each classroom (in the sunshine) and checked for lice (we didnt say anything to the kids as we found them but nodded to the teacher so she could mark each infected kids name down, so there was no backlash for any of the children with teasing etc) we then provided notes to be sent to parents of the all the kids in class with some helpful info to treat their child in a friendly and non chemical way. All the children received a sticker for their help and a contest was run to promote the idea educating the children regarding a safe, cheap and practical way of making sure they could help themselves regarding infestation. The surprising thing was that the children were all for it and it was done quickly and efficiently.

    My strategy at home was to first teach my kids that brushing their hair correctly and often is key! Brushing breaks the cycle and dislodges the eggs (they do not like to be disturbed at all) Then I applied olive oil with a combo of tea tree and lavender oil (3-4 drops each) combing it through first with a larger comb then a fine toothed comb. This then sits overnight (just pop an old pillow slip onto the pillow) in the morning their hair is combed with normal comb then the fine toothed com again… its amazing to see how many eggs come loose along with dead lice. They then wash their hair and I comb it again. once dry it is checked for eggs and any more lice and it may be treated again.

    The oil does 3 important things –
    1. it smothers the lice and eggs,
    2. it destroys the sticky glue the lice use to stick their eggs to the hair follicle.
    3. if you break the cycle you get rid of the lice!

    This may have to be repeated one more time with the oil depending on how bad the infestation is and with regular combing with a fine toothed comb for at least a few days more without the oil. But hey while it is annoying why not use this time to further bond with your kids and have some one on one time with them… make it fun.

    Check their hair often, the Lice do not like to be disturbed and most of all teach your kids how to brush their hair correctly front to back and back to front and side to side. this stimulates the hair follicles and makes for shiny hair! Remember how our grandmothers used to do 100 strokes (or more) when brushing their hair…?

    Reply

  39. Jenn says

    I have lice now and I only ever remember having them once when I was younger. I have been smothering my hair in olive oil, baby oil and coconut oil for the last 3 out of 4 days, leaving in over night. I haven’t bought the lice comb yet but I think I am going to try the flea comb that someone suggested. I’m also going to get some apple cider vinegar. I’m not bothered by it, I am only concerned my kids might get it because they don’t live with me but they visit often. If all this don’t work, I am going to just keep going down the list of comments until something does work, lol. Also, I wonder why those stupid things don’t get squished when I rub the crap out of my scalp when I wash it or put in the oils because I rub hard and I do it for a long time! I don’t use my fingernails but I just use my finger tips. I really don’t have anyone to look for nits so I am just going to keep combing and combing. Glad I found this post! Thanks! 🙂

    Reply

  40. Janice says

    We are going through this now and wish I found this earlier. I got the call from a friend Wed night, checked our daughter and freaked out. And freaked out more when my husband found them on me! I had no idea what to do. My husband insisted that we needed the nasty stuff. I was not feeling well that night so I just went along with it. It seemed ok the next morning but the school found three nits in her hair. Well as soon as we got home I looked online and knew that Kelly would have something posted about lice. I followed your regimen with the ACV rinse, using the nit comb on coconut oiled hair, and washed with the Theraneem. In the evening, did the coco oil again with comb and used a tea tree oil shampoo. This morning the school ok’d her to return. They asked me what treatment I had used. THANK YOU AGAIN Kelly! This post is helping me to stay sane through all the combing, cleaning and laundry! And when I told my husband the school ok’d her this morning…he said no more chemicals…he is now a believer!

    Reply

  41. Miranda says

    Thank you!

    We took our 10 yr old neice on a Greand Canyon vacation and I guess we both got lice from trying on hats. I’m 35. I had lice twice as a kid. This was very stressful and nerve wracking.
    I used a Rid kit and broke out into bumps all over my upper back and neck. Thankfully I stumbled onto this website/blog and one called leatherandlace which had good natural alternatives for getting rid of lice as well. Who knew about the hair dryer, so simple and effective! I used a combo of cocounut oil and tea tree oil I just rubbed it in my hands and then in my hair and rubbed the tea tree oil in with a little more coconut oil, wrapped my hair in plastic and when to bed. It was very soothing to my scalp and neck. This is day 8. I brushed my hair out last night after the blow dryer and couldn’t find anything. The Rid directions told me to do a follow up treatment on day 7.. i did the blow dryer instead. Fingers crossed. Thank you for offering support via your story. It helped!

    Reply

  42. Fatima says

    Thank you for this info. I had no idea what to do when I found lice on my kids’ head (9yr. old son and 12yr. old daughter) last week. My daughter has long hair to lower back and my son is growing out his hair. We all started itching and thought we were all allergic to the Pantene shampoo we’ve been using. Aparently NOT until I saw those little creatures crawling on my daughter’s head. I wanted to scream, but I kept my composure in front of the kids. To get rid of the adult lice, I used Thursday Plantation’s tea tree head lice kit and kept it on for about 30 mins. Then, I shampooed their hair, then used the blow dry to high heat. After 2 days, I also gave them an apple cider vinegar rinse just to make sure those little suckers were gone. Afterward, I applied organic coconut oil on their hair to condition it for about an hour or overnight, then used the nit comb to comb out any dead lice and nits. It’s really important to have the right lighting because it’s really difficult to see those little nit wits. We also washed all the beddings, vacuumed and put the pillows in the dryer. I also vacuumed the car and cleaned the head rest. Any stuffed toys that were on their beds were put in a plastic bag and sealed so the lice can be suffocated – Yeah! Today, after a week’s worth of combing out the nits, I made an appointment at the salon to get my kids’ haircut. We were all relieved! I will still continue to use the comb to check for more nits for the next week. This has been a tiring experience for me, but nevertheless, I have been educated about lice and nits. Thanks again for your suggestions and information.

    Reply

  44. brandy says

    A cheap alternative to buying the lice medicine just for the comb…and I know some ppl may be take this wrong but metal flea combs from the pet store…bought a pack of 3. For $5 at out local pet shop n had a comb for each member of the family…had it when I was a kid n sat for hours upon hours letting my mom comb my hair but didn’t wanna do that with my fidgety youngsters

    Reply

  45. Momma Jo says

    I am completely unable to understand after reason all the comments how so many children are left to feel so alone. How in the world can some parents not be there to help a child in such a moment of need? This is a tough enough problem for adults. Obviously by the comments it’s hard for a grown person to deal with. Not to mention a wife who has to deal with lice and can’t count on her spouse to help to even look through her own head for he. Makes me sick to think some people are so selfish as to not even help a child. The posts put on her by people who have no one they can turn to for help and the CHILDREN on here looking for help! I’m speechless and broken hearted for these children. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, be with those who haven’t an adult to care for them. God bless them.

    Reply

    • Sam says

      My parents do help, its just that we are not doing very good budget wise. My FAMILY can’t afford any of the natural or chemical treatments.

      Reply

      • KitchenKop says

        Sam, don’t feel bad, a lot of us are struggling financially. Can you just get some olive oil and/or coconut oil? If so, just try that and read over my instructions above again. Good luck!
        Kelly

        Reply

  46. Sam says

    I am 14 almost 15, and I have lice. My little sister does too, but we can’t really afford any of the stuff some people are talking about. I’m praying we can get rid of the lice. Any advice?

    Reply

  47. Shelley B says

    Our daughter has come home with it a few times. I now spray her every morning with a solution of tea tree and water. I keep it near the door, so I don’t forget. I also use Trader Joe’s tea tree shampoo and conditioner. I leave the conditioner in after their shower.

    Our hairdresser told us to use a hot iron on her hair for a few days after treatment. This will fry any eggs left. This was our saving grace! I didn’t spend the next 10 days looking at her hair and combing through to find another egg. It really did fry them. You need to get as close to the scalp as possible and on the hottest setting. I was super careful not to burn her and to use small sections of hair.

    Reply

    • Fatima says

      Thank you for mentioning about the hot iron. My daughter and I will definitely try using our curling iron. This experience has taken alot of energy out of me and don’t want to go through it again. I want to make sure that my kids don’t share hats, and other things to catch lice at school or at a baseball game where I think my son initially got it from wearing a baseball helmet.

      Reply

  48. Heather says

    Kathi-
    Human lice can establish and maintain themselves only on humans.
    Other types of animals are susceptible to other species of lice. But each species of animal is only infected by their own special species of lice. If a stray louse from another species does find its way onto a dog or cat or even a person, it will not remain there. Head lice is a human only lice. You CAN NOT get it from animals because animals DO NOT carry head lice. Head lice need human blood to live. Go to headlice.org they have some great info.

    Reply

  49. kathi says

    High heat will not only kill the lice but will kill your hair in the end. Very damaging. I think a better plan would be to avoid heat and any chemicals or additives always so when you really have to resort to the full strength ACV and a bit of heat your hair can handle it. By the way- thanks for the tip about coconut oil. We will try ACV- tea tree oil and coconut oil since those are or GO TO remedies for just about everything and plenty of combing. My daughter is not embarassed at all. We have yet to figure out if they came from the cats, dogs, horse, goats or chickens. (ARGH)

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  50. Heather says

    My daughter got a very stubborn case of Lice and then I got it when we both had VERY long hair. It was a nightmare and I regretfully used the toxic chemicals and they didn’t even work! I was determined to find a better way and came across an article about dimethicone (which I believe is a derivative of diatomacous earth) Turns out just like diatmoacous earth it kills them via a mechanical process rather than a chemical which they can get immune too. Just use a conditioner (we would leave it on for ten minutes or longer) with dimethicone being one of the first ingredients. I have noticed it in Garnier products and Suave. We also bought Garnier leave in conditioner with it in it and use as a preventive measure. There is a brand that sells dimethicone as a lice treament but it is expensive compares to just purchasing conditioner. We washed and dryed all of the bedding. Vaccuumed. I picked the knits our of her hair and we left the conditioner in our hair for over ten minutes or overnight in a shower cap. It worked and we have never had them since!! I was working in a residential home with foster care girls and Lice was going around and I told the staff and it worked for them too. PS: I saw someone else mentioned using the Flat iron, we did that too

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  51. Rochelle says

    There are a lot of replies here and I didn’t read them all, so forgive me if this has been said already. My kids are adults now but when they got lice, this is what worked for me and our neighbors who had no luck with the chemicals stuff. I used olive oil mixed with anise oil. The recipe called for any good oil, but I used olive. It has been a very long time, but I think the recipe was 1/2 an ounce of anise oil mixed in 2 oz olive oil (1 part anise to 4 parts oil). Saturate their hair with this. Pile the hair on top of their head and put a shower cap on them. Let this stay on the hair for 2 hours and then wash as usual. This will work like an oil treatment on their hair and it will come out super soft. Pick through the hair after washing but you may not find any nits because the oils will dissolve them. They will smell like licorice for a few days and this will actually help repel more lice.

    Reply

  52. Judy says

    It went off and on for 6 months at my house at least. I tried everything with Jenna. The ONLY thing that worked was to cut her hair down to 1 inch in length. My son, with short hair, never got them. My older daughter refused treatment of any kind, but all of a sudden they went away. No, I didn’t become a better housekeeper. It ran it’s course.

    Reply

  53. Claire Shuman says

    Has anyone tried natural food grade DE (diatomaceous earth) to kill lice? I have used it to kill fleas on my cats and used it to kill ants in my house. I suspect that if the powder was applied to the whole head of hair and combed through it would also effectively kill the head lice. Use caution to not get into eyes or breathe it in though because the powder is irritating to mucous membranes.

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  55. Jerie says

    I am 14 years old and recently had gotten lice. Hoping that their all gone now, after the treatment and the stress of my mom I learned if you put a lot and I mean ALOT of oils: lavender, Moroccan, or any other type you’ll be less likely to get lice.

    Reply

  57. Steph says

    Just had to deal with this. In my search for cheap conditioner (to use while combing) I found Suave Rosemary/Mint. It has eucalyptus, lavendar and rosemary oils. All oils I’ve read are good to use on lice (or to prevent?) I don’t know if they use the “right” amounts, but it is worth a try as far as I’m concerned!!! And since I needed cheap shampoo I figured it was a good find.

    Reply

  58. Anna says

    Hi there my 3rd go around with the lice. My first two girls had it in elementary school and now my son does. Mayonnaise is the best natural cure. It has worked everytime! Slather their hair w mayo put on a shower cap and let them sit n the sun ( might want to put on sunscreen first). If then sun isn’t shinning blast it with a hair dryer on low every 15-30 min). After 3 hrs rinse out mayo, shapoo and grab a fine tooth comb to carefully go through everybit of hair meticulously combing out the nits. I just wipe the comb on a clean paper towel after every swipe. Keep ur eyes open and watch for nits the comb doesn’t always catch them and u might hv to use ur finger nails to pull them out. Be sure to boils all utensils 10 min. And put all bedding in dryer 15 min

    Reply

  59. Heather says

    I’ve already commented on here a few times. My 2 girls ages 13 and 9 & have now had lice about 7 times. I don’t fret much about it anymore but it has become very annoying. Especially when there are kids not taking care of her lice (or dont know they have it) and keep spreading it around. All I do anymore is put blankets, coats, hats & pillows in a hot dryer for 30min, wash the clothes and sheets of course. now I just go out and buy cheap hair conditioner, slather it on for couple hours, suffocate the lice and then do a viniger rinse with their head over the since while I am combing with the metal lice comb. I also used to use a hot flat iron on eggs. Burn them out. Then just check everyday witht the lice comb. We get it rid of it every time! I think you just need to find your own method. What works for me may not for someone else. Good luck to everyone out there. I know how stressful and frustrating it can be 🙁

    Reply

  60. Terry says

    I have 3 girls, 13,10, 3. Last year they all caught it and oh man did I come down with some serious anxiety. I treated the problem with over the counter RID, and took every precaussion to keep them from getting them again. Well 5 months later the older ones got it again. I literally went crazy. Questioning my parenting and my kids, did you stay away from other kids hair? Are you wearing your hair up at all times? Washed every jacket, backpack, blanket and stuffed animal. Even hair bows. I did constant research on how to prevent lice. I heard about tea tree oil and suave coconut shampoo I went out purchased both put some tea tree oil in the shampoo, and I feel it worked. The problem is my baby I use Johnson Johnson and my older one has visitations with her mom so when she’s gone for 3 days she’s not using the shampoo and maybe not even taking the precaussions like I’ve asked. So over this past weekend my older daughter was with her mom. I was looking in my baby’s hair and l I found nits. I immediately did the treatment, washed everything, and checked my middle daughter (she uses the shampoo with tea tree oil daily,) but I didn’t see anything. Well my older girl came home yesterday from her moms and I checked her just to be safe and ta da, she had nits and baby lice. Again I re washed everything and did treatment on her and my middle child just to be safe. The baby lice were just falling out and found lots of nits, so all 3 of my girls were treated and I will repeat again in 9 days. I’m going to have to asked my step daughters mom if she can please take precaussion and even use the coconut oil shampoo with the tea tree oil in it cause it seems to keep them away, if my middle daughter is clear of them ( praying to god) my younger one is also going to start using the shampoo. I literally cry every morning sick to my stomach, I believe this is how my anxiety started a yeaR ago. I feel as a mom I didn’t protect my kids or do my job. It’s such a stressful situation. I know it’s not cancer or a deadly disease. I ask does everyone go through this? Cause it feels like it’s just us, and I look around and all my friends girls wear their hair down and seems so happy. Only if my life could be like that. It’s a yearly thing with us and I have no idea wear its coming from. It’s very frustrating. I just keep praying to my god and ask him for comfort, cause that’s what I need right now.

    Reply

    • abranda says

      terry,
      my heart sank when you wrote the words about how you feel you don’t protect your kids and do your job. This is not the way it should be. Lice is NOT NOT an indicator for a good parent or bad parent…although we know we have used it at times against others. I know exactly what you are feeling, you are not alone. It is so common, but so hard to deal with, no one wants to go there and talk about it…moreso run from it. If you would like, email me and I will share more on what has brought me to some freedom of these hard and suffocating feelings. They will make you miss your here and now life, always being hard on yourself. I couldn’t say this to you two or three months ago, but I can tell you I am breathing again. take care and keep breathing. this too will pass, and another battle will come 😉
      [email protected]

      Reply

  61. Shelley says

    I have dealt with lice more than I want to admit. It is awful. They love my daughter’s hair. We tried the prevention shampoo (Fairy Tales) it worked for a while, but the school doesn’t notify parents when it is in the classroom, so basically they just keep passing it back and forth. So frustrating!!! I now have a diluted solution of tea tree oil and water in a spray bottle. I keep it in the mud room and spray everything my kids have on and get a good shot on their heads too. My hairdresser told me to take small sections of her hair and use a straightening iron on the hottest setting to each section. This will fry any unhatched eggs I may have missed. It works.

    Reply

  62. Jeb Jones says

    As a follow up to the second study I cited above – upon further investigation, it turns out that the product used in Dr. Pearlman’s “Nuvo method” is unadulterated, over-the-counter Cetaphil lotion. You can get the info on the protocol he used at his website (https://nuvoforheadlice.com). Unfortunately, Dr Pearlman is somewhat disgraced for apparently not telling his patients what the product was and for repackaging it and selling it to them for hundreds of dollars per treatment (https://pediatrics.about.com/od/headlice/a/05_lice_cntrvsy.htm). Oops! Despite that, the study still seems to be scientifically valid.

    Reading the protocol on Dr. Pearlman’s website, I would hazard a guess that the Cetaphil treatment and all other suffocation treatments probably work equally well (and that is to say very well), provided you are careful in your application of the suffocant and make sure the hair is completely saturated down to the roots. That seems to be the most important factor. Apart from there being some actual scientific evidence of efficacy, the only benefit I see to the Nuvo method is not in efficacy but in convenience. In the Nuvo method, you dry the lotion on your hair after application – thus you don’t have the mess and bother associated with a head saturated in olive oil or mayonnaise and wrapped in plastic or under a shower cap for 8 hours.

    Obviously, I have nothing to gain by pointing out this method, financial or otherwise. Like the rest of you, I’m just looking for something that works as well as possible, while limiting the disruption to home and family.

    Cheers.

    Reply

  63. Jeb Jones says

    It’s highly annoying to have to wade through so much anecdotal evidence and contend with a huge list of steps that one person used to eradicate lice, of which most items on said list are probably irrelevant. I think turning the house (and life) upside down to combat lice is tremendous overkill (see CDC quotes at end), unfortunately, my wife is on the crazy-overkill side when it comes to this – despite the fact that the few times we’ve dealt with this, the “infestation” has been limited to seeing a small number of nits on one of our children and never having identified any actual living (or dead) lice (though I hear they are difficult to spot because they quickly hide from the light).

    I prefer scientific evidence, so for those like-minded folks, here is what I have found:

    First, it seems like permethrin treatments have become less effective as lice have built up immunity. According to this study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19343362 includes links to full text), permethrin treatments are only about 42% effective, while a “natural” treatment of coconut oil, anise oil and yang-ylang oil was 82% effective. The study used an over-the counter product available in Europe (unfortunately not easily available in the US). You can make your own concoction as suggested here (https://www.justcocooil.com/2012/03/23/coconut-oil-head-lice-treatment/) but the actual proportions used in the commercial product are proprietary.

    One thing that bugs me about the instructions in the aforementioned home-remedy (and other natural remedies), is that the instructions are way more involved than what would be required if there was any actual lice-killing virtue to the ingredients (ie. use the product more often, leave on the head much longer – like overnight as opposed to just 15 minutes, and don’t forget to nit-comb-comb-comb-comb-comb). The problem with such instructions is that even in the absence of any ingredient that might actually kill any lice – the act of simply properly nit-combing one’s hair to that extent will eventually eradicate the lice. Ask your doctor – repeated, proper nit-combing is the only real 100% effective cure. So if you’re going to do all that work anyway, why bother with the “treatment” at all?

    The idea of leaving a product in overnight is the same protocol to follow with any oil-based or mayonnaise remedy – the idea is to suffocate any living lice, so really, it shouldn’t matter what oil you use. Here is a study of a suffocation-based product (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15342886 includes links to full text). At the end of the full-text article, it notes that there is anecdotal evidence for the efficacy of other suffocation-based techniques such as olive oil, mayonnaise, petroleum jelly, etc. I like to see a nice proper study, but really, what’s the likelihood of there ever being a clinical trial of a common, inexpensive treatment like mayo? Pretty much zero because how would you ever recoup the money spent on the study? Such oil-based suffocation treatments may work just as well as the “DSP” (dry-on, suffocation-based pediculicide) treatment described in the study, but we’ll probably never know for sure.

    Here are some interesting quotes from the CDC faqs on head lice (found at https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/) that have made me question the need for the all-out nuclear strike on the home promoted by many:

    -Head lice are spread most commonly by direct contact with the hair of an infested person. Spread by contact with inanimate objects and personal belongings may occur but is very uncommon.

    – Head lice and their eggs (nits) soon perish if separated from their human host. Adult head lice can live only a day or so off the human head without blood for feeding. Nymphs (young head lice) can live only for several hours without feeding on a human. Nits (head lice eggs) generally die within a week away from their human host and cannot hatch at a temperature lower than that close to the human scalp.

    – Head lice may be spread by sharing towels or other items that have been in contact with an infested person’s hair, although such spread is uncommon.

    Reply

  64. Kathleen says

    Hair conditioner stuns the lice. Put it on thick and wait for 10 minutes. The lice can’t move and you can comb them away. Works wonders. Its amazing. I will never use anything else.

    Reply

  65. Malynn says

    I am sitting here at work nearly in tears. I am 26 and a half black, half native american female. My entire life my hair has been permed up until about five years ago when I went natural. I work in a heavily populated city in California and take public transportation (train and subway) to get to work every day. The first thing to know is that my house has a GOD AWFUL flea infestation from my dog and cat. I live with my parents and am not allowed to place any medicine outside of Frontline on our pets. By the time we placed Frontline on them they were both infested and so was the house. We have been lax on vaccumming and cleaning, and I know that both my cat and dog sometimes sleep on my bed while I am at work. My cat particularly likes to rub his head up against my face and the side of my head, though I have stopped this since we found out that he’s got nasties.

    Well, I was coming home from work on the subway one day and felt a crawling in my hair, picked out a bug. Mortified did not even BEGIN to describe how I felt. Later on that day I picked a TINY, brownish red looking bug off of my shoulder where it was digging into my skin. It quickly jumped away, whereas the other bug (which was slightly larger) did not try to jump away for several minutes.

    I freaked out and came home, washed my hair with tea-tree shampoo and rubbed tea tree oil onto my scalp and hair. (I don’t mind the smell and applying it to my skin does not seem to bother me). I then sat under a bonnet hair dryer for about 45 minutes to dry some curls I had put into my hair that night.

    Two days later, I found another brownish red, jumping bug crawling near my hairline. I freaked out again and went home, washed my hair with Giovanni Tea-Tree Shampoo (I have read that lice and fleas both hate Eucalyptus, Tea-Tree, Peppermint and Rosemary and that shampoo contains all of those things). I left the shampoo lathered in my hair for about 15 minutes, dunked my hair underwater and let it soak for another five, then applied a leave in Coconut and Shea Butter Conditioner and started styling my hair. I also made a mixture of water, about 20 drops of tea tree oil and 15 drops of lavender oil and sprayed this onto my scalp and hair until it was soaked. The difference was that I went through each section of my hair as I styled it with both a fine toothed plastic comb AND a metal toothed flea comb I have lying around (used it on my own hair for dreadlocks YEARS ago). I did not find any bugs and saw no little ‘cases’ on my hair near the roots, but then again, I probably did not do a good enough job. I then sat under a bonnet dryer for another hour. My dad also went through the hair at the back of my neck and behind my ears and said he found nothing but dandruff (which I have pretty badly) and lint.

    My hair feels squeaky clean now, but I am still worried. The main reason is that I fear I may have given whatever it is I have to my semi-new boyfriend, who I adore. The reason? HE HAS WAIST LENGTH STRAIGHT HAIR. I’m terrified that I have lice(please God, no) or fleas (i have read that they can get into human hair too) and have passed them along to him, which may in turn cause him to shave his head. I know he has spent YEARS growing out his hair and would not be happy. It’s also bad because he’s from the South and has grown up believing that black women are not to be messed around with. If I was to have lice, that would put fuel to the argument he was raised with, that black women are not as clean and I would be out the door, with a broken heart to boot. I really like this guy and he really likes me.

    I don’t know what I have in my hair but I want it out, gone and now. I am going to do the coconut oil, olive oil, tea-tree oil (with a bit of ylang ylang added as well) treatment tonight for good measure. I have used coconut oil in the past as a dry hair treatment so if nothing else it will add moisture. I am really hoping it is just the ******* fleas, but I probably do have lice and I’m now sobbing at the terrible thought. The worst part is I have no clue where I may have picked them up from. My guess is from the subway.

    I am terrified that I will lose not only my man but my hair as well. My hair is my pride and joy. It is not kinky, it is fine, and EXTREMELY curly like a DNA sequence spiral and has taken me four years to get to the length that it is now (almost to my armpits). I am not willing to cut my hair and I would be devestated if my man had to cut his off because of me. If I do have lice, there’s a 99% chance that he does too because we cuddle with our heads together and when we are intimate, my head will be on his pillow, not to mention that I was with him multiple times before I even found the bugs in my hair.

    Oh and I forgot-my parents are completely unwilling to help me comb through my hair. I told my mom my fear and she blamed me for being dirty and not keeping my room clean enough. I know you need another person to help and I’m too mortified to ask my bf. I’m afraid he will hate me.

    I don’t know what to do other than use the coconut/essential oil treatment and try to comb my hair the best I can on my own. Please give me some advice. My head does not itch either.

    Reply

    • Linda says

      Hon,
      It doesn’t sound like you have lice from the description you gave. I’m guessing it may have been fleas from the pets. Check around online for a product called Flea Vac and get some! I found it at a local pet store for about $8.00. You suck it up into your vacuum and let your vacuum do the work!! Clean all of the floors, furniture and drapes with your vacuum and its attachments. I didn’t buy their hose. Not needed. The Flea Vac product will kill fleas in all stages of their life cycle.
      Frontline and many of the topical flea remedies are starting not to work so well as the fleas have become resistant to the chemicals. My dog is very sensitive and got very sick from the flea meds!
      I took him to the vet and now have him on Trifexis, which kills fleas (and they can’t lay eggs), it also prevents some other worms and parasites and protects against heartworm. There is some especially for cats. Don’t give dog flea meds to cats or you can kill the cat!
      I wish you would show this to your mom. You can have a flea and/or lice infestation and be the cleanest person in the world! God bless you and I hope what we have shared here will help you!

      Reply

  66. Julie says

    I noticed my son scratching away at his head a couple of days ago. His hair is usually pretty short. Like anywhere from 1/4 inch to an inch. Otherwise he looks like he’s been playing in a haystack. Anyway, I noticed him scratching yesterday on the way to school, so we stopped and I checked his hair. Low and behold, he had bugs in his hair. You could see them with the naked eye. I’ll admit it. I freaked out! The first thing I did was notify the school and tell the school nurse. She said they don’t require that the kiddo’s heads be egg and nit free anymore. However, she did agree with my desire to keep him home and do insecticide on his hair. I did everything and was as thorough as I could be. Unfortunately for me, I have insectophobia. So, just the thought of having lice in the house makes me itch. However, my husband has checked both our heads and found no more bugs and no eggs while using the nit comb. I washed all his bedding in hot water and dried them in a hot drier. I also washed my favorite bear, which he had cuddled with and put all his stuffies outside in a black trashbag. He still scratches a bit and I intend to treat and check again next Wednesday just to be safe. However, if I’d known about all of this homeopathic stuff, I’d have done that instead.

    Reply

  67. Linda says

    It is essential that children be taught not to share combs, brushes, hats, sweaters, jackets or other items of clothing and hair ornaments! Maybe you will have to discourage them from hugging their friends while an active outbreak is going on… I know, it’s sad, but hopefully, temporary!
    I remember when my daughter was little, she got lice and I informed the parents of the kids she played with the most from our neighborhood. I figured they could just check their kids and stop an infestation if they had them, too. Well, the little darlings teased her so much and would run away from her yelling, “Oooh! She has lice!” Poor thing~ She would come home crying! I was so mad, I decided if she got lice again, I would keep my mouth shut! Fortunately, she did not get them again and I never had to make that decision again. Kids can be so cruel!
    As to the mom whose family member had pinworms, well, we dealt with that, too. Over and over and over! She always had her fingers in her mouth when she was little, so I am certain as to how she would get them! I would treat her with the liquid medication repeatedly as they kept recurring. I informed her after-school day care and begged them to TELL the parents to check their kids for the pinworms! They told all the parents there was an ongoing problem. Finally, the other parents, now informed, did check their kids and the re-infestation stopped!

    Reply

  68. anonymous8 says

    Well i’m pretty sure if you are reading this you have lice!
    The expensive chemicals from the shop didn’t work for me and from what I’ve read didn’t work for lots of people either. The best way to honestly do it is using a lice comb BUT most people brush downwards the way the hair is going this is definitely not the most efficient way to do it. You should brush the opposite way so upwards and sideways it picks up HEAPS of nits!!!
    Good luck and remember that lots of people all over the world have this problem, so don’t feel alone!

    Reply

  69. Gisela says

    My daughter (7) is just a lice magnet ! I tried everything: varoius chemical products, the combing method, mayonaise, oil – she would have been rid of it for 3 weeks or soand then it started all over again . I even coloured her hair because a physician said that helped with his daughter – doesn’t work at all and I’m embarrassed to even consider doing such a thing with my daughters hair, but I was just at my wits end). During summer holidays, we never had lice: i checked it weekly with a lice comb, but at the beginning of september, when school starts here (Belgium), she got infested all over again; so I suspect she gets it from kids at school. I just bought the nitty gritty comb and cetaphil at amazon and hope this method helps.

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      Gisela,

      Once you get rid of it this time, try the “maintenance” methods of then washing her hair only in coconut oil shampoo and/or tea tree oil shampoo indefinitely. Then maybe check her nightly for a while and then weekly later…?? Just some ideas, good luck to you!!

      Kelly

      Reply

  70. Lilie says

    I just bought the robi comb which electrocutes them. My friends daughter had them and she called me warning me to treat my son and myself and family. I couldn’t get myself to by RID or store brand alternative but saw the robi comb for the same price as I would have spent for the required 2 applications per person. I don’t think my son had it. I did hear it stop momentarily twice in my hair but didn’t see anything. So far I’m assuming I’m in the clear. I don’t remember my 12 year old ever getting it and I buy him a coconut shampoo that may be preventing it…??? Waiting to see. Has anyone else had any experience with the robi comb?

    Reply

  71. kimberly says

    i have been reading the comments from everyone!! this is great stuff!! i say that because i have spent at least 45 dollars in the last week on chemicals to get rid of the lice that my daughter probably got from school or the bus or something. i am a working mom going to college, and a single parent at that.. not much time in my day to deal with lice. i tried the chemicals first… now we are doing Crisco oil with plastic bags and going to do the vinegar afterward. i shoulda done that first!! it does work every time!! cooking oil and vinegar

    Reply

  72. Roxana Mendez Fernandez says

    I have an infestation and so does my son. We have tried everything thank you for your information or I would not know what to do. I keep trying Nix even though it is poisonous to my son. Thank you for your info

    Reply

  73. Amanda says

    Last year we had a major infestation, took forever to get rid of them. It took just constant combing and washing bedding every other day. Dryer got used a lot. I comb through my hair every time I shower. I use t-gel which helps control them and the conditioner smothers them where they are slower so easier to get them. Took weeks but best way I found for self checking and doing yourself. Kids just combed combed,and combed. Now we are all infested again. They spent a week at their dads and had to shave the boys hair. They were horribly infested. I wanted to cry. They have never been bald even when born. My daughter has been treated twice but combing and flushing them have been the best treatment. Going to get vinegar tonight to get rid of all our eggs. Tomorrow will be cleaning house top to bottom. I am so pissed because they got it from the same place last year and it seems every time they go over there they get it again. And their aunt does not believe that natural stuff kills or whatever. So they always have it. Takes me weeks to get rid of it. It is a pain and school starts in a week. So hopefully I can get it taken care of before school starts. More embarrassing is my daughter is in middle school and it is embarrassing for her to get lice at school. Most kids think it is for dirty kids and we are the farthest from dirty people. 🙁

    Reply

  74. Lynnette says

    We are dealing with our first infestation ever with my 6 and 7 year old girls. What an ordeal! I appreciate this site so much! I cried after the discovery because I felt so terrible knowing she had it; very relieving to know we are not alone in this battle! Both of my girls have very long and thick hair so this has been very difficult and frustrating. When I first discovered my oldest daughter had it (which she had it for several days before I realized what we were dealing with, very naïve on my part), I immediately ran to the store and purchased the chemical shampoo kit. We followed the instructions and did the combing the first night, almost two hours on each of their hair. I also started laundry and washed EVERYTHING. I didn’t know any better and really thought the shampoo was the only way. I was so disappointed the next day when we woke up and saw both of them still scratching. I thought they would magically disappear with the first treatment…oh, was I wrong! After further reading the instructions and a brief search online, I realized I couldn’t repeat using the shampoo, and decided I didn’t want to! So I decided to start trying more natural treatments. The next few days I tried a mixture of tree oil and olive oil and smothered their hair and attempted to cover with shower caps while they slept (which didn’t stay on very well). We combed their hair out the next few mornings and still more nits. The following treatment we tried a combination of coconut oil, tree oil and olive oil and wrapped their heads in towels overnight. Then more combing. Finally, it appears the nits are gone! I am not sure which of the treatments really worked, but if it ever happens again (which for my sanity I really hope it doesn’t!!), we will go straight for the oils and combing. I really think combing is key. I also sent my girls to stay with their Grandma for a few days (after I was sure they were clear) to spend more time cleaning and sort of quarantine our house, although I am not sure that worked either after I read the post above where it says the lice can live up to 5 days, again naïve on my part to believe they die after 48 hours? At any rate, it appears we are in the clear now. I intend to continue combing their hair daily with the metal comb for at least a few more days or weeks (or for as long as they will let me! 🙂 ) and to start using either a coconut shampoo or my regular shampoo with a few drops of tree oil daily. Not sure if it works for prevention, but it is a worth a try! Good luck to everyone!

    Reply

  75. Paula says

    I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this yet or not because I didn’t go through all the posts but I wanted to let you all know how we PREVENT lice from returning.. After months of re-infestations, hundreds of spent dollars, even more hours spent cleaning, combing, and scrubbing.. I was tired of the lice game… I went on an internet search and I found where all you have to do to prevent them is add 12-16 drops of Tea Tree oil directly into your children’s shampoo and conditioner bottles and wash just like you would at least every other day… we also took a regular 8oz spray bottle of water and added 2-3 drops of the Tea Tree oil to it and set it on mist and misted our daughter’s hair every morning before going to school… It has been over a year and NO MORE re-infestations!! PREVENTION is what you really want to save you the headache of getting rid of it in the first place! But if you do get it.. don’t despair!! You are not alone in your struggle!

    Reply

  76. Tasha says

    When my oldest son was in JK he came home with lice–but we didn’t know about it right away. Every night I would lay beside him and read to him for an hour…uh oh! I ended up getting them too! BLAH! (I have long hair down to my waist). I shaved my sons head and treated him and it was gone right away, but even with cleaning my house top to bottom, bagging up everything up (or throwing them in the freezer), and running my washer constantly I still couldn’t shake them. I combed for HOURS every night and treated myself and treated myself and treated myself. I was exhausted. On top of that, I was a student at college and we were right in the middle of exams! I was so happy when I finally got rid of them. I was “this close” to cutting my hair off. (If I ever get them again, I think I will). Needless to say, it was NOT fun.

    Reply

  77. ronnie says

    my youngest daughter went threw the nitemare in k 1st 2nd and 3rd grade-we used the chemicals because that was what we were told to use by the nurse and one of the kids dr. everytime we would spend hours combing washing drying ect and then had to be “checked” by nurse to get her back in school also had to do 3 siblings. She would be good for about a month or 2 then all over again. The school had a no nit policy so I asked the nurse why do they keep showing up? she reply i dont know- I think part of the problem was the teacher were not letting the other parents know and not sending all the “soft “items home to be cleaned and the teachers and nurse acted like anybody that had them was unclean and dirty. Even my sister in law embarassed my daughter when it was her daughter that gave them to mine over the summer one time. Glad to know that there are natural things that work.

    Reply

  78. Anna says

    The first time my girls got lice I went a little bit crazy I have to admit. I bought a bunch of “lice killers” and they weren’t very effective. I eventually got rid of them by constantly checking and combing every inch of their heads (one of my daughters has very thick hair). It was an ordeal. I kept reading about different treatments and read one about using oil to drown the lice and loosen the nits. The second time I discovered lice in one of my daughter’s hair I saturated her hair with vegetable oil (the cheapest I could buy) and covered her head with a shower cap for an hour and then combed her hair over the sink. It was disgusting to see the lice and nits fall on to the sink. I then washed her hair and checked it again for nits or lice. She still had a few nits but no lice. I then flat ironed her hair. The next day I repeated the treatment again. Its been the most effective treatment I have used. I still check their hair and flat iron it every once in a while ’cause you never know when the unwanted visitors will come barging into your house.

    Reply

  79. Amy says

    I work in a Childcare center and we just had an outbreak and one of the moms told me that they used wen shampoo with tea tree oil. They did the really hot shower put like 15 pumps of the shampoo in child’s hair and left on for like 45 min(in a shower cap). Then took off shower cap and rinsed hair they said they saw the bugs falling out when they did this. Then they put like 3 pumps of more wen in hair and used a medal comb they bought. Rewashed hair the. Ued a flat iron and comb again. They were nit free in one day. Wen is all natural and the tee tree oil with coconut smell keeps them from coming back. This was last month some kids keep getting it back but her child has not had it since. I bought some on e bay and I use it now just so I don’t get it. Hope this helps someone.

    Reply

  80. Lissa says

    My grandniece has had a bad case of lice and we have gotten rid of everything living, but there are dead nits that will not come out! We tried everything! Now I took a shower and combed 15 live bugs from my head and I cried, so I’m sitting here with a slathering amount of moisture rich conditioner in my hair wrapped up in a bag with a towel to keep the heat in. I religiously use PM Tea Tree shampoo, and it has baffled me that I have them. Will suffocating them with conditioner work too? has anyone tried it?

    Reply

    • lisa says

      Normal conditioner just stuns the lice for 20 mins (blocks their thorax which they breathe through, apparently), so you can then comb out the little critters without them managing to hide. Feel free to use conditioner with the combing technique (primary schools in Australia give this advice to parents at the moment), but by itself it won’t work, need the nit comb too. And repeat each week, until no evidence of lice, nits, eggs left. Good luck.

      Reply

  81. Jocelyn says

    I’m currently 15 years-old. The past few weeks my hair has been non-stop itching. Ever since I came back from a friends house, I’ve been uncontrollably itching. I have medium to long, thick curly hair. This morning, I was taking a hot shower and as I was washing my hair I felt this this stingy feeling. But I thought it was because I have a horrible and disgusting habit of picking at my scalp; which is why I thought it was itching so much. (By the way, I’m going to stop that habit ASAP starting today) Even as I was washing my hair, my hair was so itchy. And I was thinking to myself, ‘How could my hair be so itchy when I’m literally washing it at the moment?’ After I got out the shower, I was drying my hair with a white towel but scratching it with the white towel as well. And there it was, 4 nits on the towel. My heart dropped to my stomach. I had lice and ring-worm when I was about 5 or 6 and I sure didn’t want to live that nightmare again. But unfortunately, I am. I was literally hyperventilating. I’m so picky when it comes to my hair, I don’t like people touching it, messing with it, it has to be a certain length and this and that. So now that I have bugs in my hair, my stomach is on the ground right now. I didn’t know what to do so I shook the towel off into the shower and picked at the nits and threw them in the shower. And the worse part is, I’m not even at my own home! I’m at my best friend’s house and I’m so scared to tell her. I was so scared and nervous. It’s so disgusting to know that there are bugs crawling around in my hair right now. But all these stories and home remedies give me hope. I will try the coconut oil and brushing with a metal comb and blow-drying. Pray for me; also because I just messaged my mom about this and trust me, she is the biggest clean freak in the world. She was traumatized when me and my sister had gotten lice when we were younger, so I’m honestly scared to see what she’s going to say about it now. Hopefully this problem goes away, and hopefully my friend doesn’t get lice.

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      You can handle this, it’s ok, and I will pray for you! Your Mom will help you. No one wants to hear this, but you’ll all get through it for sure!

      Kel

      Reply

  82. Aurora says

    My 10 years old sister has lice and my mom put this poison on hair called Nix and in the past we tried other solutions like Rid and other poisons but the lice left but the nits are hard to remove what else can we do because my parents want to cut all her hair off?

    Reply

    • Kelly the Kitchen Kop says

      Just try the stuff suggested in the post, that’s all I know to tell you. Comb comb comb! Good luck!!!

      Kelly

      Reply

      • Mary says

        I am a mom of 7 children. 5 boys and 2 girls. Thank goodness I just can buzz the boys hair before treating.Take a curling iron and place it very close to scalp and move down hair very slowly. The curling iron kills the eggs. You can hear them sizzle.

        Reply

  83. Georgia says

    I just dealt with lice for the first time this Summer with my 8 and 6 year old girls. We used a treatment that I got off the Dr. Greene website. It was three TB olive oil, 1t tea tree oil and 1t rosemary oil. I switched out the rosemary for anise seed oil. You mix that all in a bowl and then put your own shampoo in with it and saturate the hair. Put on a shower cap and let it sit…as long as your kids will let it! Mine had theirs on for about 7-8 hours. My friend let her daughter keep hers on overnight. Anise seed oil kills live lice and is supposed to kill the eggs as well. I found nothing alive once we took the caps off and rinsed their hair. Combing through for a few days later and most of the eggs I pulled off were kind of crunchy feeling and slid off rather easily. I’m assuming they were dead. I am a huge believer in anise seed oil!!

    Reply

  84. Unknown11yearold says

    I hate lice…I have it…I’ve had it for about a month and have t told my parents but I have camp and they check your hair and who k owns what ever happens to the kids who pay $200 $’s like the rest of us that have lice that are going.I don’t really know what to do…I am just a 11 year old…I keep praying to god and this may sound crazy but it has been seeming to work I actually never got to the point where it was like had ALOT of it but I’d pick it out ALOT out of my hair and had no clue but now all my hope and faith is going twords god and I’m hoping he will help me even of he decides he’ll make it go away just for camp I’m perfectly fine I’d tell my parents after anyways because I wouldn’t have to worry about filling out the form saying I Had of Have lice.Well I hope it’s gone…

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      I’ll pray for you, too!!! Right now I will. 🙂

      But I’m just sayin’… You might have a miserable week at camp if you don’t tell your parents before you go, and you might give it to others, too. You know?

      Kelly

      Reply

  85. Piper Martin says

    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 🙁

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      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: [email protected].

      Big hugs to you!
      Kelly

      Reply

      • Piper says

        Well… I can’t get help because I have to move out next year when I am sixteen and it wouldn’t be good on my emancipation case. The lice isn’t crazy now and is fading thank LORD!!! Thank you for your concern!

        Reply

  86. Colleen says

    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!

    Reply

  87. Genet says

    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. . . .

    Reply

  88. sarah says

    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.

    Reply

  89. Yolanda says

    Bless your heart, Eden! Here is where you can buy those combs online:

    https://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!

    Reply

  90. Eden says

    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

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      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

      Reply

  91. hcoolee says

    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).

    Reply

  92. pen-wen says

    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.

    Reply

  93. Kelly Parker says

    https://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.

    Reply

    • Genet says

      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 !

      Reply

  94. pen-wen says

    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!

    Reply

  95. Carrie says

    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.

    Reply

      • Carrie says

        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.

        Reply

  96. Chris says

    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.

    Reply

  98. J9 says

    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.

    Reply

  99. Kimi @ The Nourishing Gourmet says

    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. https://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2012/10/effective-and-natural-lice-treatments.html

    🙂

    Reply

  100. beth says

    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.

    Reply

  101. Heather says

    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.

    Reply

  102. Michelle says

    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.

    Reply

  103. Seela says

    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

    Reply

  104. Jennifer says

    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.

    Reply

  105. Heather says

    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. 🙁

    Reply

    • Helen says

      Hi my husband and I just adopted 2 little girls, it was a private adoption so we know the Birth parents….Anyway the day we get the girls we noticed there hair has been cut but the “mom” said it was because the girls wanted short hair, On the way home we noticed the 5yo scratching her head like a mad woman, when we got home and checked she was completely eat up with lice, I was horrified.
      I called the “mom” to let her know about the problem and that she may want to check herself but she said ” Yeah I know they’ve had them about 4 months now” How can you not treat your child, some people just blow my mind!

      Reply

  106. Jennifer says

    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 https://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 !!

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      WOW, how could they just leave it – you’d think the itching would make them crazy.

      Yes, good luck to you!

      Kelly

      Reply

  107. Ava says

    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.

    Reply

  108. Jennifer says

    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.

    Reply

  109. Jaklyn says

    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.. :/

    Reply

  110. Jaklyn says

    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?? 🙁

    Reply

  111. Heather says

    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.

    Reply

  112. nancy says

    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

    Reply

  113. Heather aka Frustrated Mom says

    @ 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!

    Reply

  114. Judy says

    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!

    Reply

  115. Katie says

    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.

    Reply

  116. Frustrated mom says

    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!

    Reply

  117. Mom of 2 says

    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.

    Reply

  118. Elisa says

    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!

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      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

      Reply

  119. Yolanda says

    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! 🙂

    Reply

    • Linda says

      We went through both (probably around the same time!) over and over and over! My daughter always had her fingers in her mouth when she was little, so I am certain as to how she would get them! I would treat her with the liquid medication repeatedly as they would recur. I informed her after-school day care and begged them to TELL the parents to check their kids for the pinworms! They told all the parents there was an ongoing problem. Finally, the other parents, now informed with what to look out for, did check their kids and the re-infestation stopped!

      As to lice prevention, it is essential that children be taught not to share combs, brushes, hats, sweaters, jackets or other items of clothing and hair ornaments! Maybe they should also be discouraged from hugging their friends and put sleepovers on hold while an active outbreak is going on… I know, it’s sad, but hopefully, temporary!

      I remember when my daughter was little, she got lice and I informed the parents of the kids she played with the most from our neighborhood. I figured they could just check their kids and stop an infestation if they had them, too. Well, the little darlings teased her so much and would run away from her yelling, “Oooh! She has lice!” Poor thing~ She would come home crying! I was so mad, I decided if she got lice again, I would keep my mouth shut! Fortunately, she did not get them again and I never had to make that decision again. Kids can be so cruel! If you do decide to tell other parents, please ask them to not disclose where they heard the information so no one gets teased. If someone lets the cat out of the bag, you will know to be on your guard in the future!

      Reply

  120. Catherine says

    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.

    Reply

  121. Leah says

    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!

    Reply

  123. Natalie says

    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!

    Reply

  124. Jenny says

    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!

    Reply

  125. Kim F. says

    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!

    Reply

  126. Leon @ Organically Thought says

    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!

    Reply

  128. Rachel J. says

    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. https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7446.html
    And if we get lice again, I will definitely be trying Cetaphil next time https://nuvoforheadlice.com/method_explained.htm

    Reply

  129. Becky L says

    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.

    Reply

  130. Lori Popkewitz Alper says

    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.

    Reply

  131. ValerieH says

    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: https://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 :D. 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 https://www.licefreee.com/. It really worked. It was super easy. Gott sei dank!

    Reply

    • ValerieH says

      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. “

      Reply

      • KitchenKop says

        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.

        Reply

    • Marianne Burg says

      We’ve also had good luck with Lice Freee!
      It’s the easiest to use. Spray and leave in.
      Good luck everyone!

      Reply

  132. Diana says

    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.

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      Oooh, that’s a good idea, I’d heard that before but forgot to include it in the post, will do that now. Thanks!

      Reply

  133. Melinda says

    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!

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      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!

      Reply

    • Jennifer says

      😀 I made the mistake of doing that to my mom too!
      Thanks for the difference b/t dandruff and nits, that’s good information for (hopefully not needing) future use.

      Reply

  134. Regina says

    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.

    Reply

  135. Cynthia says

    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…

    Reply

  136. N G says

    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: https://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.

    Reply

    • Marianne Burg says

      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!

      Reply

    • Christy says

      Melaleuca oil/ Tea Tree Oil in shampoo is a preventative. You can get conditioner as well, you could easily make your own stay in conditioner, by just adding water (I’d add a few more drops of Melaleuca Oil/TTO in the spray bottle).

      Reply

  137. Abranda says

    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.

    Reply

  138. Abranda says

    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…:-)

    Reply

    • KitchenKop says

      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

      Reply

      • Jennifer says

        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? 🙁
        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 am grateful for Moms and their hard work!! Comb away.

        Reply

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