Head Lice Home Remedies That Really Work

If you are facing the job of using head lice home remedies to kill hair lice, then take the task seriously and do it in a thorough and correct As a parent, thinking about a commercial shampoo to kill head lice, consider carefully the toxins that you would be exposing your child to and think about whether you really want to do that.

The noted American Academy of Pediatrics recommends using the Nix shampoo product as an effective treatment for head lice, but do you want to be putting those chemical pesticides on you child's head?

Because of the societal disgust that is frequently associated with head lice, some parents react without much thought and try to find the quickest way they can discover to get rid of the hair lice and their eggs. There are some parents though who will take a better thought through course of action by finding alternatives that will not expose their child to the commercial toxins.

Clearly, you want to get rid of all the lice and all their nits or eggs. If the person has known allergies or if you are worried about using possibly toxic chemicals on them, then you will start looking for healthier alternatives.

Perhaps the most simple and proven home remedy to minimize the need for the pesticides would be to use a fine tooth nit comb and manually remove the lice and their eggs (called nits) from the person's hair. Combing like this can be time intensive and it needs to be done daily for several days in a row. Even when you use a commercial lice treatment, the time taking process of combing out all the nits and lice still has to be done.

There is another common home remedy that has you put a substance like mayonnaise, Vaseline or Olive Oil all over the hair and left on for at least eight hours to smother lice to death. When you leave this greasy mess on overnight under a plastic shower cap (to keep the mess contained) then this remedy works quite well. This is a fairly messy process but it is commonly believed that part of the reason this works so well is because by cleaning up the hair afterwards, that process actually removes all the parasites and the eggs at the same time. When using this method, it is usually helpful to rinse the hair with Vinegar. This helps dissolve any remaining grease that was used and this procedure makes it more difficult for any residual eggs to stick on the strands of hair.

A prescription treatment you might want to consider using is a medication named Ulesfia . You would need to talk with your doctor about this one because it does require a medical prescription. If you do use this product, you need to make sure the hair is saturated and then leave the product on for ten minutes or so before you should wash it out. Whoever uses this product needs to be sure to see that it is applied again in seven days after the first application. This ensures the killing of any freshly hatched nymphs from eggs that may have been remaining. Essentially, this works by suffocating any living lice in the hair.

There are also additional home remedies that have been reported to be effective to get rid of lice on the scalp. These treatments would include remedies composed of herbs or spices and essential or aromatic oils. Probably the most common of these is the tea tree oil remedy but these treatments like other home remedies are not regulated by the FDA and they also have not yet - in most cases - been scientifically proven as to how effective they are.

To help prevent future infestations, do your homework and learn how to identify adult lice, nymphs (which are young lice) and lice nits in the hair. Also do periodic inspections of any young children, particularly those who have frequent interaction with other children. Armed with knowledge and by doing regular inspections for hair lice, you can avoid the unnecessary inconvenience of treating children for lice when there is no need to do so. Taking preventative measures you can usually avoid the problem altogether.

When girls wear their hair up and have gel in it, the chances are for lice to be transferred from one child to another. Prevention for the future starts by teaching your children about the lice cycle. The transfer of lice from one person to another only happens with direct physical contact. Lice have no wings and they do not have the ability to jump.

It is best if you teach your children to try and avoid doing things that could cause them to have direct contact with one another other. Kids should also avoid sharing hair brushes, hats, hair bows, helmets or any other item that might have direct contact with the hair or scalp of someone else.

When you teach your children to take these preventative steps, the chances of another attack is brought to a minimum. Through everyone's education, heightened awareness and by following good habits of personal interaction, you are taking the steps that will help prevent having to deal with the lousy problem down the road.