Dear Mama, put the jar of mayo down. This is not your fault. It didn’t happen because your house isn’t spotless. You are not dirty. And that jar of mayo? It won’t work, but don’t worry, I’m about to tell you what will.

Put the scissors down. You don’t have to cut off her long, beautiful hair. It will be ok, I promise. 

We’ve had lice 3 times. The 2nd time I got it too. Cue the heebie jeebie dancing and involuntary shudders.  It’s one of the hazards of working with youth and having a lot of kids.

The first time around I covered the girls with mayo and a shower cap.  They haven’t been able to eat mayo since.  When that failed, we tried a vinegar rinse.  Have you ever poured undiluted vinegar over your head?  Don’t.  While it won’t hurt you, the smell is awful and it doesn’t work either.   We’ve tried the hair gel trick too.  Hair gel might loosen the glue that holds the nits to the hair strands, but it doesn’t kill anything and frankly we didn’t notice any benefit at all.

Lice have adapted and are resistant to chemical treatments, and even the ones sold over the counter are far from safe.  They contain neurotoxins that are dangerous to kids. A close friend of ours was hospitalized after trying them.  Save your money and your sanity, there are safe treatments that actually work.

The first time we discovered lice, I ran to the pharmacy and bought everything.  I’m super frugal, but I wanted those things gone, asap.  The horrible thing is I spent a fortune and nothing on the shelf worked, not even the smooth nit comb.  Lice are so good at adapting and hiding, that what worked in the past isn’t the answer anymore.  Desperate moms will still buy them, so they are still sold.  It’s criminal.

There are still 3 things that work.

1 . Physical removal

2. Heat or Freezing

3. Dehydration

 

Essential oils REPEL lice but they don’t kill them.  We all use tea tree oil shampoo with other essential oils as our daily shampoo and it didn’t stop us from getting lice, 3 times.

For Physical Removal, you’ll need:

1. SPIRALIZED lice comb   The smooth ones are worthless.
2. Hair clips to section long or medium length hair.
3. A brush to detangle hair
4. A bowl of water
5. Dimethicone oil (A non-toxic silicone based oil used in lotions and hair conditioners that dissolves the glue that holds nits to the hair strand.)
6. An applicator bottle
7. A Disposable Plastic Cap
8. optional: A clean spray bottle and peppermint, rosemary, and tea tree essential oils

If you have kids, collect these things to have an emergency lice kit on hand even if you don’t have lice right now.  They don’t expire and if your child is sent home from school, the last thing you’ll want is to wait 2 days for Amazon Prime to deliver. Some of these items are hard to find at a corner pharmacy.

Start with clean dry hair.  Brush the tangles out and use the clips to section it off into workable sections.

Starting at the nape of the neck, release a section of hair about 1/8 inch thick.

Run the spiral nit comb through the hair, then run your thumb over the tines to flick any contents into the bowl of water. Nits and bugs turn brown or gray on the water, while skin flakes turn clear.  This way you’ll be able to see exactly what you’re getting.  A trained lice picker can tell you almost exactly how long ago you were infected, by what they see in the bowl.

Release another thin section of hair and continue combing in this way until you’ve gone all the way through the hair.

You will have removed a large portion of the nits and probably all of the live bugs, but even if one nit is left behind, the nightmare will start over. The next step is to make SURE they are all gone.

Put long hair in a ponytail and pour some dimethicone into the applicator bottle.  Use scissors or a razor blade to clip off the tip if it didn’t come with a hole.  Then run the oil along the scalp until the entire scalp is covered.  (No need to run it through the length of the hair.)  Cover the head with a plastic cap and leave it to sit for at least 30 minutes.  Then shampoo out.  You’ll need to wash it 2 or 3 times to get all the shampoo out.  Blow dry it (or let it dry naturally) then resection that hair and comb out with the nit comb and method you used before.

To help other family members not be infected, fill the spray bottle with water and a few drops of peppermint, rosemary or tea tree essential oil (or a blend of all 3.) Then spritz their hair.  It will repel the lice, but won’t kill them if there is already an infestation.

Heat and Freezing

Heat and freezing only works for the household items.  It’s just not possible to get the scalp hot enough or cold enough to be effective without harming the human.  A 30 minute trip through the dryer on hot is enough to kill any lice that might be on the pillows, bedding, stuffed animals, clothing etc.  And items such as hair brushes and headbands can go into a baggie and the deep freeze overnight.  You don’t need to throw anything away.

Lice can only live off the human host for 36 hours, so if you vacuum the furniture and then cover with a sheet for 36 hours , it will be safe as well.

Using a hair dryer or flat iron won’t hurt anything and might help neutralize any nits that are further down the hair strand.

Dehydration

There are lice clinics available that will help you with the combing out and head checks.  There is a special chain of clinics licensed by the AirAlle company. They manufacturer dehydration machines that guarantee to kill all lice in every stage of growth including nits.  It costs about $159 for a 1 hour treatment and usually includes free rechecks and treatments for 30 days. Some insurance companies cover part of the expense of the treatment, but even if yours doesn’t you can use HSA money to pay for it.  We chose to do this after our most recent infection.  We only had 1 child affected which made it more affordable.  The first two times we treated it ourselves and missed 1 egg the first time and had fresh outbreaks every 2 weeks for months.   I didn’t want to deal with that this time or risk infecting any other person and we opted for the one and done treatment.

In the Kansas City Area, Heartland Healthy Heads is the only Clinic chain licensed to use the AirAlle treatment.  They have locations in Olathe, KS; Liberty, MO and are opening new locations in Topeka, KS and Lee’s Summit, MO.

Here’s a short video showing how it’s done.  Each section of the head is done on a timer and it usually takes an hour total.

Also, if this is your first time around, here are some pictures to show you what you’re looking for.

The freshly hatched lice are about the size of a fleck of pepper and the fully grown ones are the size of a sesame seed.  They are grayish brown in color and with a magnifying glass you can see the definition of abdomen.

The eggs look like white clear droplets glued to the hair strand.  They are usually close to the scalp but in long hair we’ve found them several inches away. Skin flakes will come off easily but an egg has to be slid off the strand of hair with your fingernail or a spiral nit comb.

This life cycle is approximate.  Our most recent bout had the lice hatching at the end of day 5 and that’s when the kind mama called us to let us know we had been exposed.  The early detection allowed us to treat her before any adults could mature and start laying new eggs, which also kept the rest of the family from being affected.

An infection usually starts when 1 adult female crosses over to the new host. A female only needs to mate 1 time to be able to lay fertilized eggs for her entire life.  She will begin laying eggs immediately and can lay 6-10 eggs a day.  She can go 36 hours without eating, but as soon as she feeds on the new host, she will die if the new host has a different blood type than her previous host.  At that point there will be no active lice on the host until the eggs begin to hatch.  If they aren’t detected and quickly, in about 2 weeks those babies can start laying new eggs and make a real mess.

Keep in mind:

1.  Lice can’t jump, they must crawl
2. Lice can’t live more than 36 hours without human blood.  So they cannot infest your carpets or furniture the way fleas can.
3. Lice are species specific so you cannot get lice from a feather or any other animal.
4. Lice are also blood type specific and that blood type is determined at their first feed.
5. Lice are killed by extreme heat or cold, but not by chemicals or essential oils.
6. Lice don’t like the smell of peppermint, rosemary, or tea tree oil (melaleuca oil.)  It won’t kill them but it might discourage them from switching hosts.
7. Lice can hold their breath for 2 hours, and cannot be smothered or drowned.
8. This isn’t your fault.

The amazon links are affiliate links.