HEAD LICE

June - I've read your remedies for head lice section with interest - some rather extreme suggestions (especially the Vaseline!!) Anyway, I though your visitors would be interested in my experiences:

Having worked for a decade in the pharmaceutical industry I was totally amazed at the reports (and first hand experience) of how ineffective the chemical head lice treatments really are. This led me to try natural products on my family since my little boy was persistently bringing these nuisance pests home from nursery and I was loath to keep using chemicals, which clearly have problems of resistance.

Following considerable research, we came up with a winning formulation. In a nut shell, to get rid of these unwanted visitors, use essential oils (2-3%), and an Indian oil called neem, mixed in a carrier oil. You need to saturate the scalp and comb the hair for a couple of hours (use on 3 separate occasions around 5 days apart to be confident you have broken the cycle).

Then to stop reinfestation use a spray or rinse of quassia chip extract and essential oils. Tea tree is the essential oil everyone talks about for head lice, but there are several others that work too, and blended together there is a synergistic (co-operative) effect. Until recently we have been supplying people in our locality in South Wales, but now our winning formulation is available on-line. Please take a look at www.healthleadsuk.com where you will find Ultra-Nix head lice kit. There is also a free head lice advice line. Feedback most welcome.

"I just read all of your info on head lice remedies and knew I had to respond.  I have fought head lice for 3 years now.  Honestly, it's been 3 years and don't think for one minute I haven't done all I could do.  I've tried mayonnaise, vinegar, Vaseline, tea tree oil, Rid, Nix,Clear, Not Nice to Lice, alcohol, Robi Comb and even kerosene.  I've spend two months in research on the web so I wanted you to know some things.

Some strains of lice are very aggressive and almost impossible to kill.  Evidently that is the kind I've struggled with.  I used Nix every night for two weeks thinking I had to deal with the hatching process.  What a joke!  I will never use poisons again.  I have smothered my hair in Vaseline and left it on for two weeks and would still have lice when I was through.  They somehow, even though many died, managed to lay a few more eggs and I was back to square one.   I believe that hatching of some eggs last longer than normal.  Dying your hair does not work I've done that for years and it doesn't phase them!!

I've heard people rave about Not Nice to Lice and I'm telling you it didn't kill the lice on my head and I used it 3 nights in a row.  It's an enzyme based shampoo.  Nada Zilch didn't do a thing!  Olive oil is good but really too thin.  Shower caps do not smother lice.  I've slept in them for countless nights using many remedies.  I even went so far as to purchase a swimmers' cap as it is air tight and thought it might smother them better - didn't work!

I am telling you, this is the truth - nothing would kill them.  I even tried Mae Loats salt solution which did help but I left it on overnight and it burned the back of my neck because it ran down my neck.  The first night was effective, but the next couple of treatments were not.  I would have live lice the next day.  You have to do it every other day because of hatching lice.   Plus the salt thins the gel or shampoo and makes it runny and you need something that will stick to your hair.

The Robi Comb was a joke - you can't even get it close to your scalp.  That's where the lice are.  The main problem isn't just killing the lice but getting rid of all the eggs is where the real problem lies.

I found a web page at www.headliceremedy.com that a family had put together after making a solution of different herbs and oils mixed with mineral oil.  This oil solution is left on your hair overnight with a shower cap.  This process is repeated every other night for three weeks.  My daughter and I are going on our second week and I noticed a decrease in lice after 3 applications.   The reason this is done every other night for 3 weeks is to kill the newly hatched lice.  It really is killing the lice.  The mineral oil is much thicker than other oils and works so much better.  I think we have found something that really works.  I will contact you at the end of the third week to let you know for sure if we are completely rid of them.  In the meantime, thanks for the information, people have no idea what it is like if they have never had them.  I never had lice in my life until I was 42.  I do childcare for a living and it's awful.!"

I put a shower cap on her and combed out the dead/dying lice before and after a shampoo and condition. We did have two baby lice again that evening but 36 hours on we are only pulling out eggs/cases. I think that the worst is over. They are a nightmare but I did have tears rolling down my cheeks at the lengths we are all prepared to go to. In the face of lice, maintain a sense of humour . Michelle S.

Thank you Rhonda

Rhonda Crump sent this in.

Contributed by Meme

Thanks to Terry J. for this remedy.

"As a parent, I struggled with nit combs and anti-head louse chemicals for several years without much success and a lot of pain for my children. Then my mother pointed out that you can remove nits easily by simply washing the hair in a bowl of water to which has been added a bottle of vinegar.

The adult head louse can be killed by normal head washing routines. However, the nits (egg cases) are glued to the hair and are impervious to water and shampoo. They are also streamlined, so that the teeth of a comb just pass over them. However, the glue which fixes the nit to the hair dissolves in weak acid. The watery vinegar is so weak that it does no harm to eyes or skin (tears and sweat are alkaline, so they neutralise the acid anyway)...but I promise there will be no tears compared with the tears associated with hair pulled through a nit comb and chemical head louse killers. Incidentally, you could also wash the hair in coca-cola or pepsi-cola (which is extremely acid) and get the same effect. "

Many thanks to Georges Dussart for this contribution.

My best friend children was having a problem with lice. They could not seem to be rid of them. I found your site and recommended she try Coca-Cola for the nits. And follow up with Denorex. She tried the Cola, and she called me so happy, there was no nits left in her children's hair. The Cokes acid does eat the 'glue' that holds the eggs to the hair shaft, so they can simply be rinsed away. The Denorex, or even T-Gel with coal tar kills the adult louse.

They had used Rid for several weeks and not had any luck. It was like the lice had became immune to it.

But now they are completely louse free. She's going to use the T-Gel a couple times a week to keep them away.

I think this is one of the easiest methods to deal with Lice and their eggs, and it really works.

Contributed by VJ