Lice

[Graalsword]

I don't know whether it is due to my job on a call center (same headsets used by several people) or just having passed my head near someone with lice, or something else, but I got lice. Licekilling shampoos seem to not work, neither do vinegar. There exist those pills that "poison" your blood to make them die, but I'm not sure how safe or dangerous is that. Anyone have some alternative-not-mainstream ideas for that?

 

[ScioAgapeOmnis]

I find this website useful for a lot of pest-related issues:

http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-lice.htm

Have you tried any of the things suggested there yet, like combing them out and using "high heat" (hot water and hot blow dryer)? If heat bothers them, I'd try putting my head under the faucet in the bathtub with water as hot as my scalp can stand. This way the hot water only touches your head and not the rest of your body (as a shower would do). Also note the right hand side has more suggestions - like using olive oil.

 

[Finduilas495]

Hi Graalsword,

My husband says tea tree oil should do the trick. Good luck

 

[Adaryn]

You can try a mixture of coconut oil and neem oil. Warm it (a bit) and apply it on the scalp, massaging. Leave to rest under a cap for 1h-1H30, then rinse. Do this for a few days. On top of it, to remove the lice from the hair, you can use a special anti-lice comb, such as this one: _http://www.nittygritty.co.uk/site/home.asp
With such a comb, you're guaranteed to catch all the lice and their eggs, thanks to the comb's tiny teeth that "tear" and destroy the critters.
After the treatment, you can use a special shampoo and/or lotion made of essential oils (lavender, rosemary, tea tree, geranium) in prevention.

Good luck!

 

[cassandra]

My kids got this a few times; I used a biological shampoo. Get advice for which type as I don't know which are available in your country. Forget anything about dryblowing- won't work.
DO get rid of all the nits, using a good light (they are tricky critters to find) and bed clothes straight after washing!! They (the nits) have the shape of tiny grains and have a silvery sheen.( I had to use the end of my nails because my kids have real thick hair, and the nit comb was a little cumbersome. Yes, gross)! They grow close to the root of the hair. The stuff you use on your hair won't kill the nits, even though you are told it will. I know this to my cost! Get rid of them all.
The lice can change their colour to adapt to the colour of your hair. E.g., if you are blond, the lice will be lighter.
You can vacuum all floor surfaces ( throw away the bag), wash the clothes and bed clothes you have been using whilst infected at 60° C, put objects like brushes, combs, etc., in the freezer, or in a sealed plastic bag for, I think 2 weeks, so any nits that hatch will starve (ha ha!).
Good luck!

 

[cassandra]

Just remembered I used Mosquito Lice Shampoo - it worked and it supposed to be much kinder than the poison they normally sell. You have to get the nits, because they are really tough to kill and will hatch. Then use the shampoo once a week for prevention. One thing really got to me, and that was the people who kept being infected a shameful secret, as this is the best way that lice can spread like wildfire. Tell others.
If you are male and worried it might happen again, I also recommend a very short haircut.

 

[Graalsword]

I find this website useful for a lot of pest-related issues:

http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-lice.htm

Have you tried any of the things suggested there yet, like combing them out and using "high heat" (hot water and hot blow dryer)? If heat bothers them, I'd try putting my head under the faucet in the bathtub with water as hot as my scalp can stand. This way the hot water only touches your head and not the rest of your body (as a shower would do). Also note the right hand side has more suggestions - like using olive oil.

Thanks for the link!! I´ll try that, it is easy to have olive oil, expensive, but it's worth it.

Hi Graalsword,

My husband says tea tree oil should do the trick. Good luck

Thank you for that. Another option to bear in mind in case the others don't work, as tree tea oil is less available, but I will search for it.

You can try a mixture of coconut oil and neem oil. Warm it (a bit) and apply it on the scalp, massaging. Leave to rest under a cap for 1h-1H30, then rinse. Do this for a few days. On top of it, to remove the lice from the hair, you can use a special anti-lice comb, such as this one: _http://www.nittygritty.co.uk/site/home.asp
With such a comb, you're guaranteed to catch all the lice and their eggs, thanks to the comb's tiny teeth that "tear" and destroy the critters.
After the treatment, you can use a special shampoo and/or lotion made of essential oils (lavender, rosemary, tea tree, geranium) in prevention.

Good luck!

Yeah, there is a comb like that at home. I will consider what you say as well. It will depend on how available is at my town those ingredients.

My kids got this a few times; I used a biological shampoo. Get advice for which type as I don't know which are available in your country. Forget anything about dryblowing- won't work.
DO get rid of all the nits, using a good light (they are tricky critters to find) and bed clothes straight after washing!! They (the nits) have the shape of tiny grains and have a silvery sheen.( I had to use the end of my nails because my kids have real thick hair, and the nit comb was a little cumbersome. Yes, gross)! They grow close to the root of the hair. The stuff you use on your hair won't kill the nits, even though you are told it will. I know this to my cost! Get rid of them all.
The lice can change their colour to adapt to the colour of your hair. E.g., if you are blond, the lice will be lighter.
You can vacuum all floor surfaces ( throw away the bag), wash the clothes and bed clothes you have been using whilst infected at 60° C, put objects like brushes, combs, etc., in the freezer, or in a sealed plastic bag for, I think 2 weeks, so any nits that hatch will starve (ha ha!).
Good luck!

Just remembered I used Mosquito Lice Shampoo - it worked and it supposed to be much kinder than the poison they normally sell. You have to get the nits, because they are really tough to kill and will hatch. Then use the shampoo once a week for prevention. One thing really got to me, and that was the people who kept being infected a shameful secret, as this is the best way that lice can spread like wildfire. Tell others.
If you are male and worried it might happen again, I also recommend a very short haircut.

Yes I have told others about it, to avoid infection. I once was told that also it has to do with the type of hair (in the sense of having dryer or wetter hair) as well as something in the blood.


Edit: added the S to the word 'other(s)'

 

[rrraven]

the accepted wisdom here in Oz is forget the poisons ,they don't do much besides poison you,just use ordinary cheap conditioner and a nit comb
the conditioner glues the legs of the lice so they can not run so fast and all the nits(eggs) have to be removed mechanically by the comb
if you do this in the shower every day for 2 weeks the fresh ones that hatch have no chance to lay eggs in your scalp,yes the fresh nits are layed just under the skin glued to a hair all the ones you can see along a hair are already empty egg cases and they will not dissolve or fall off ,they have to be removed with the comb
or alternatively ,like my kids in primary school, have a no 1 hair cut,male or female,I have had them myself...very liberating and your hair grows back soooo healthy
also consider your car seats not just bedding,they like to hang there too

 

[Gimpy]

Years ago I got a bad case of lice working in a nursing home laundry. I made sure to tell my boss about it, and it turned out that one of the elderly patients had gotten it from a grandchild. It spread like wild fire through the place, and many of the ladies I knew on the nursing staff had to cut their long hair off. Mine was long and I cut it short to control the problem.

The odd thing? My husband never got them, and we slept in the same bed. (Its a trade off, mosquitoes seldom bite me, and they love him.)

I used olive oil and a shower cap to smother the adults, and vinegar and a louse comb for the nits. It took a good couple weeks to get rid of. I don't understand the stigma to getting lice, they've been around as long as people have.

Pesticide shampoos don't sound like a good idea to me at all....I never used them. (At least, I don't remember using any. This was years ago.)

 

[Graalsword]

the accepted wisdom here in Oz is forget the poisons ,they don't do much besides poison you,just use ordinary cheap conditioner and a nit comb
the conditioner glues the legs of the lice so they can not run so fast and all the nits(eggs) have to be removed mechanically by the comb
if you do this in the shower every day for 2 weeks the fresh ones that hatch have no chance to lay eggs in your scalp,yes the fresh nits are layed just under the skin glued to a hair all the ones you can see along a hair are already empty egg cases and they will not dissolve or fall off ,they have to be removed with the comb
or alternatively ,like my kids in primary school, have a no 1 hair cut,male or female,I have had them myself...very liberating and your hair grows back soooo healthy
also consider your car seats not just bedding,they like to hang there too

Thankyou. Yes, I will try to remove all the nits with the comb, well I think that after trying the oil, I will have to brush my hair with the special comb for a couple of weeks everyday. I think I also have to put pillow, clothes, robes, sheets in bleach or something like that.

 

[Graalsword]

I used olive oil and a shower cap to smother the adults, and vinegar and a louse comb for the nits. It took a good couple weeks to get rid of. I don't understand the stigma to getting lice, they've been around as long as people have.

Yes. Maybe it is as many other contagious things, though not all contagious illness are seen the same way by people. Anyway, it is already horrible to know that I have several insects walking on my head.

Pesticide shampoos don't sound like a good idea to me at all....I never used them. (At least, I don't remember using any. This was years ago.)

Yup, never again those chemicals.

 

[rrraven]

The odd thing? My husband never got them, and we slept in the same bed. (Its a trade off, mosquitoes seldom bite me, and they love him.)

it may be a testosterone thing ,I have had the same experience adult males seem to be immune ,or at least not tasty to lice, to some degree like when the boys hit puberty they don't get reinfected anymore even with primary school siblings in the house :D

 

[thevenusian]

About 15 years ago my daughter gave me head lice she had gotten at a campground as a gift. I tried the lice comb (very tedious) and several applications of lice shampoo. Neither worked. What I finally did was soak a bunch of fresh rosemary in boiled water for an hour. Then I thoroughly rinsed my hair and scalp with it, leaving as much in as possible. Then I rubbed tea tree oil generously throughout my hair and scalp and put a plastic bag over my hair, tying it at the back to make it as airtight as possible. Left this all in place for about an hour and a half. Worked like a charm.

 

[monksgirl]

Thankyou. Yes, I will try to remove all the nits with the comb, well I think that after trying the oil, I will have to brush my hair with the special comb for a couple of weeks everyday. I think I also have to put pillow, clothes, robes, sheets in bleach or something like that.

bleach won't help, just wash in the hottest water available and dry on high heat


Mod's note: Edited to fix the quotation boxes.

 

[Matt]

I don't understand the stigma to getting lice, they've been around as long as people have.

Pesticide shampoos don't sound like a good idea to me at all....I never used them. (At least, I don't remember using any. This was years ago.)

Oh I'm sure you do. People always differentiate between each other as "us" (in this case the clean ones) and "them" (in this case the "dirty" ones), in order to make themselves and their closest peers feel better and feed their ego. It's the same as "I've got a newest Batman Car 2000 and you don't!" just little more elaborate.

My sister had lice a while back, and she is very clean person. She did use some sort of prescribed shampoo back then and they went away after 10-15 days. I will find out what it was she used exactly, just for the record, as soon as I am able to. Also, nobody else in my house managed to get them, though we were very careful about that.