Whats the best way to remove head lice?

Question

my daughter has tried a lot of different of them products but it doesent work. conditioner will make the hair greasy. i do not want to shave her head.

Answer 1

Apply listerine to her damp hair being sure to saturate the scalp and hair, cover with a plastic bag and leave it in 3 hours. Rinse it out and follow with vinegar for one hour. Shampoo and condition as usual. This may have to be repeated if the eggs are not killed by the vinegar but I think they will be. I tried this method and it worked. Just think what vinegar does do to an egg or a chicken bone when you put it in vinegar if you've ever done this as a science experiment. I am not sure if this is really what done it or not though as we may have just finally gotten ahead of the life cycle of these persistent little critters. They have a life cycle of about 30 days and they can produce eggs about 6-7 days after hatching. I tried many other different methods myself and most killed them but it was impossible to get all the eggs as the hair is over hip length and very thick. I really think all that vacuuming, linen washing and putting pillows in a plastic bag is unnecessary. They need to feed off a human scalp within 24 hours to survive. They live on people not in your bed. Do wash combs and such though in case they come of in the comb or brush and someone uses it. The listerine and vinegar finally did it though and they are gone. I tried the RID, flea shampoo, smothering and rinsing with as hot as water as possible. We were treating every 4-6 days for about 3 weeks. Every time there would be less dead ones found but they would be back in a couple days so I really think it was the listerine and vinegar. The hair will smell slightly of listerine when wet but it was worth it to get rid of them. Good luck to you. I know what you are going through.

Answer 2

Hi SophieJ10,

Have you tried using Vickie's Natural Head Lice Cure Home Remedy?

It gets rid of head lice once and for all.

If not see the link below for more info.

Good luck

Answer 3

You don't have to resort to overwhelmingly drastic methods such as shaving your daughters head, this is totally over the top and completely unnecessary.

The safest home treatment for head lice is one that is contains completely natural ingredients. Steer clear from over the counter pesticide based preparations as they may not only be ineffective, but possibly unsafe.

Luckily there are quite a few totally natural remedies available that readily kill head lice.

Suffocation is an effective method where oil based products (i.e.: mayonnaise) are used to block the breathing holes and kill the live lice. The real trick though is to find natural products that will kill both the live lice and their eggs in one fast effective treatment.

Remedies containing Neem Oil are known to be highly effective as Neem interrupts the growth and reproduction of the head louse. Neem’s insecticidal properties are widely recognized now and the oil is commonly available at your local health food store.

Feel free to check out the articles at the following site for more advice.

Good luck.

Answer 4

SophieJ,

It could be the products and it could be the comb that are failing your daughter.

Neither one is fail proof and lice are becoming immune to many of the chemicals that are in the products being sold these days.

The best comb I have seen is called the NitFree Terminator that you buy online and they also have some chemical free products that seemed to work well for us.  

You may want to point her in that direction for more information.  They have Canadian and US sites so I will list both for you.

Answer 5

Whats her hair type? Thin, Thick? Long, Short? Straight, Curly? What products have you tried? How old is she?

Answer 6

Petroleum jelly is an oft-used home treatment that has been proved to be very effective in treating head louse. Apply it on the hair and wear a plastic hat that encompasses the head properly. Keep the petroleum jelly in your hair overnight, and then apply peanut butter to get rid of it. Now shampoo as usual.

Answer 7

set the head on fire

Answer 8

Is she using them correctly?  You have to keep using them for a while since the eggs will hatch out after you get the bugs out of the hair.  There's no quick way to deal with these problems but there are alot of remedies available and they ALL work if used correctly and repeatedly.

Answer 9

well i tried this and it sure did  work. when she is in the shower condition her hair leave it on for 10 minutes and comb it under the shower when you condition the hair it makes it hard for the lice to grab on to the hair so they come off (not all).when she has dried her hair after the shower apply some head lice treatment and it should get rid of most of the lice.good luck :)