Head Lice

DYE THE HAIR with hair color. It kills everything. If nessesary, Follow with Rid or Nix the following week.

do dults get lice?

at the age of 52 i havee lice for the first time. contacted by loving my granddaughters too much, my 7 year old just started 2nd grade and 5 year old kindergarten. this is only their 2nd week and my daughter found lice. this is the 2nd time the 7 year old has had lice since she started at this school. its frustrating our hair is very thick and of different lenghs. what we have to go through is tough enough but kids dont understand. thank god for ice cream. this was their reward for sitting so long and getting torchured from someone elses lack of communication. please if u ever find lice on your kids dont be emparassed let everyone know about it so they can check their kids and the school can send a note home with all the kids at school. this is one of the most important things COMMUNICATION.

You can bag isolate bedding/stuffed animals/clothing, bag hair brushes/accessories or you can throw large comforters in the dryer on the highest heat setting for 1/2 an hour. Vacuuming is very effective for removal from upholstery, dont forget the car and car-seats. The best way to eradicate lice is with a good lice comb. Unfortunately most stores dont carry a good lice comb. I would highly recommend not using a pesticide product simply because they are neurotoxins and attack the nervous system of the adult louse (the baby nymphs nervous system hasnt developed yet so the pesticides dont kill them), plus lice have become resistant to the over the counter products. The treatment only affects the nits that are most vulnerable to hatching the day you treat so you are left with not only live lice, but eggs that will ultimately end up hatching and causing the cycle to continue. Needless to say the pesticides are not the best option whether they were effective or not .. the truth is that anything that is meant to kill another living organism cannot be a good thing to put on our familys scalp. The scalp has no buffers so anything you put on it goes directly into your blood stream. Pesticides are nothing but pure poison (plain and simple). If you are battling lice and dont know what to do there are professional services out there that you can call and get advise or even have them come in and do the removal for you, If you would like to find a Head Lice Removal Service simply use the net to do so. Type in Head Lice Removal Service and your city and state and you will find someone who can help you if you need it. Not everyone knows that these type of services exist, but they do and they are priceless. If you want to know how to chose a lice service you can always do an internet search for licecompany yes, (licecompany in this case is spelled as one word) ind their link to their article How to chose a lice removal service (the link to the article is almost at the bottom of the page) as well as their site is filled with information to help you better understand lice infestation and how to get rid of it WITHOUT the use of pesticides.

I am disabled and all of this cleaning of the bedding, blankets, carpets etc is impossible for me to keep up with. My daughter brought them home and now we both have them......I'm so sick of this......MY QUESTION IS>>> Can a person isolate or leave all of the bedding, stuffed animals, carpets etc.. by moving out of the room or where ever until they die off? If the bugs and thier eggs can't survive w/o a humane body, then why bag everything up in plastic bags if we could just isolate it all? CAn a person kills the head lice and eggs on the head, and isolate everything else for a week and be safe?????

The problem with the over the counter lice treatments is that they do not work and you have to keep exposing your children to harmful chemicals. There are plenty of head lice removal services that can help parents rid their children of lice and teach you how to prevent re-infestation. I suggest finding one that treats with non toxic, pesticide free products, organic. Simply google head lice removal service in your area. Save yourself time and frustration. Let the professionals handle it.

I highly recommend using a lint brush with removable sheets and sticking the removing nits or lice directly onto the brush. They won't go anywhere and you'll be able to see them and feel confident that you put them safely out of the way.

can't get rid of nymphs ?

I think i have lice, but i am not sure. I have gotten treatment for lice once before, so i dont want to tell my mom about it. My scalp itches rarely, so i dont think i need to worry....right? It is probably dandruff or dry scalp. I dont have white dots behind my ears or on the back of my head. I only have some near my scalp. Is itlice?

I have been dealing with lice with my children for a very long time now. I have used the different lice shampoos and leave them in over night with a shower cap on their heads. It doesn't get rid of them. I am now using vasaline to kill them and hoping that it works. I want them gone once and for all. I have five children and they all have it now and I am at witts end. Please if there is any advice to keep them away please post it!

please, I am a 14 yr old who's just discovered she has lice. I need some help!! SOS!!

all this stuff is confusing. VERY MUCHLY SO

will bleach kill lice and their eggs?

so i was scrating my neck today and i found this black thing it looked like it was in egg or something was it?

I can say that lice at least doesn't like Head Shoulders shampoo. I daughter just got lice from school and she had nits all over her hair. I treated her with Nix and carefully combed her with special comb. After taking care of her, I felt a little itchy on my head. There was no nits on my head, then I took a shower and washed my hair with Head Shoulders shampoo. You know what?? Two lice came out with a few fallinghair when I was combing with my regular wide-teeth comb. I also crossed a few comments regarding taking care of kids hair with Head Shoulder shampoo with no reinfectation. I will give a try to my daughter tomorrow.

I came home from summer camp last summer with lice. It spread to all my cabin mates except one. The lice like thick clean hair. Unfortunately the thing that works the best is mayonnaise. You lather it on the hair put a shower cap over your head and leave it on for a few hours. After just shampoo it and comb it our with a nit removing comb. Make sure you comb everynight for a while.

didnt read through all the comments so I may be duplicating an answer. We bought a nit comb for $28. I cried after the first time using it lol cuz it worked so good! its called the licemeister. You have to ask for it behind the counter. It takes out the nits easy peasy!

I recommend calling a professional company to eradicate the problem all together. We used Metropolitan Lice Treatment Services,; they were fantastic and our Lice problem is a thing of the past.

who has adivce?? i need i really badly!!!! help!!!!

I have found that Mayonaise is the best thing to use, kills them better than any of the shampoos... You drench, literally drench your hair in mayonaise, not miracle whip just plain mayonaise, then you wrap your head in celafane, put a plastic grocery bag around it and leave it on for a few hours... rinse very good, i usually use a little conditioner to smooth the hair to make it easier to pick the eggs out, something in the ingredients suffucates and kills bugs and the oils in it make it extremely easy to pull eggs out... hope this helps

after you comb out the nits dip and wipethe comb with rubbing alcohol and wipe with tissue or paper towl. go over head repeatedly.

Try 1/2 part mineral oil and 1/2 part white vinegar. Put it over head , wrap with plastic bag for one hr. then rinse. The oil makes it easier to get the nits out and the vinegar kills any live lice. It works and is non-toxic unlike the shampoos.

I have a suggestion, from experience, it helps a lot to go uotside in the natural sunlight to pick nits out. You can see them lots better!

I recommend the set of 2 nit combs by Rid. I use the long one first, with alot of conditioner in the hair to detangle. I then use the shorter toothed comb with the hair parted in sections to get as many nits as posssible. I also rinse the comb after every single stroke, so as not to comb any nits or lice back into the hair, then rinse the hair with the highest water pressure possible.

my daughter has had headlice 3 times now over a period of 5 years. She is now 9 yr. old. she gets it from a little girl in her school class room, the same one since kindergarden. When i discovered it, i looked up on the web and found that lice originates from dirty laundry that has been there for a very, very, very long period of time. The child my daughter is getting it from is in the same class at school and unfortunately on the very same ball team. The child is not allowed to come to school but is allowed to go to ball practice and ball games. when i told the ball coach what was going on. he said, "i'll just tell everyone that my child is sick, just like the other little girl did to him! So everyone thought my child was sick when she wasn't at practice. The other child was at practice with the lice and I'm home treating my child, myself and the whole house. I'm very disappointed that he would not take further action to help rid the problem and let the other parents know on the ball team. I do not want to deal with lice at all, much less the whole ball season long! How in the world do people live with it and will not take all the precautionary measures possible? It seems like I do all the work and the other parent doesn't. Everytime my daughter gets in the dugout with the infested child (who by the way, didn't even have her own helmet until a week ago.) she is likely to get it again. I used lice killing shampoo and the nit remover, spray, vacuumed the matress and a host of other cleaning measures to rid the little suckers. I'm tired, mad and ready to take my child off of the ball team. But why punish my child?! i know i'll get through this but come on people tell other parents about this whomever your child comes in contact with, after all its not your fault you have it, you just want to get rid of it! Hanging in there by a thread.

my mom ,my sister and i have lice so i hope these steps will help get rid of them for good. Today i had to go get lice checked twice because yesterday was the real lice check and they found lice in my sisters and my hair . and also were going to summer camp and we just can't have lice since they check for lice there to . i know summer a little away but we had lice for along timeand we are realy trying to get rid of it we are trying really hard so this better work.

I'm dealing with Lice and It's really bad I went on this website and I saw the article about the nurse who said to use olive oil and I did that, and it really works it helped a lot! So Try It! it really works!

sorry, I pasted something incorrectly and the 6th line down is supposed to say, Head lice have six legs equipped with claws for grabbing hair. (TS)

I'm having such a tough time with this lice. It has been 18 days and continue to find nix. At this point i'm not sure what i'm looking for anymore. A doctor told me yesterday to use cetaphil and leave it in overnight. i hope this works.

I was told one night bagged, in frezzing temps would kill lice and eggs on stuffed animals or bedding is this correct???

I feel compelled to share my experience & to let those of you who feel there is no means to the end... there is an end to the fight on lice. Like most children, my daughter picked up lice in elementary school. My first priority was to contact all the parents in my daughters class to let them know that there children may have had contact and that they should check there children. Believe it or not those parents were very grateful for my call. Although children are checked at school, sometime the lice have not cycled and are therefore harder to detect and go un-noticed. By calling the parents at the onset, most of them had a chance to inform themselves on the options they had should their child get the lice. My second priority was to attack the living louse (adult). After I familiarized myself with the life cycle of the lice it was easy to decide to go with an olive oil treatment. There are three forms of head lice. Louse is the term used to describe an adult. An adult louse is about the size of a sesame seed and tan to grayish-white in color. Adult lice may live up to 30 days on a person’s head and the female can lay between 100 to 200 eggs during that lifespan. Nit is the term for a louse egg. They are very hard to see and may be confused with hair spray droplets or dandruff. Nits are oval and usually yellow to white. Nymph is the term for a newly hatched baby louse. It differs from an adult louse only in size. Nymphs mature into adults in about 7 days. When a female louse finds its way onto the head of a person, she starts laying eggs, or nits, along with a glue that firmly attaches the nits to the hair close to the scalp. An adult female can deposit 6-8 nits in 2 days! In a week or so, the nits hatch, and the newborn lice take their first meal of blood from the person’s head by attaching itself to the hair shaft, an inch from the scalp. It takes about 10 days for a newborn louse to become an adult. Once an adult, the female louse can start laying eggs. This means it only takes 16 days for an egg (nit) to become a female louse capable of laying more eggs! Adult lice live for 9-10 days, making the total life span of a louse from egg to adult about 25 days. So, armed with the above information I know that to be 100% effective, no matter what I do to treat the lice; theoretically I may have to treat for a maximum of 25 – 30 days. Supplies required. I purchased 2 long toothed metal lice combs (Approx $5. /each). 1 rat tail comb A large good glass magnifying glass (lice, especially nits and nymphs are extremely hard to see with the naked eye. I was missing approx. 15% – 30% before I got the magnifying glass.) Hair clips Paper towel (to wipe lice off comb) A good light/ that you can bend or swing in different positions. A drop cloth or sheet (for your child to sit on) A glass or shallow dish of hot water (to clean licr comb) An old used toothbrush (to gently clean ut the lice comb) Shower cap On day 1 of lice discovery: cover hair and scalp with olive oil. My daughter’s hair is both thick and long. I used ¼ cup of olive oil. I massaged the oil in for about 3 minutes. If nothing else, it was a satisfying relief for my daughter. She was totally infested with hundreds of lice in varying stages. Her head was sore from both the bites and the scratching. Not to mention what she as going through emotionally. After oiling I put her in a shower cap (I pulled the shower cap tight and secured it with a large hair clip.) I put my daughter to bed and kept the oil on overnight. Ideally 8hr. On day 2 before I washed out the oil, and before she changed out of her pajamas, I ran the lice comb through her hair for approx ½ hour, the amount of dead lice that came out in the first 5 minutes was awful. Then I washed out the oil with regular shampoo (twice) and then applied cream rinse. Then I ran the lice comb through her hair again for about 5 minutes to ensure no stragglers. During the combing process I continually cleaned the combs to ensure the lice were not being transferred from one side of the head to the other. I then helped my daughter change her clothes and we put everything in the wash. On day 4 we did the oil method again. And again on day 7 and again on day 10. Days 13, 16, 19, 22, and 25 (these were just optional days as there were no signs of Louse, nymphs, or nits after day 10). Between oil treatments I would pick through her hair each morning and every night picking out the nits and any deads that would surface. I also dry combed her hair with the lice comb. Here’s my reasoning to why I chose the every 3 day non-chemical treatment method. Oil may not kill 100% of the adult lice in each cycle. It will however kill them all by the 3rd or 4th treatment which should be about day 13 there or about. I chose to continue right through to day 25 with no signs of lice at any stage. Be wary of chemical use. Research any product before you put it on your child. Although many companies list ingredients on their products, some of these companies are not required by law to list the non-active ingredients. In some cases, children have become very ill, with life threatening health issues. Be extremely cautious of any prescription containing Malathion. You can find info on Malathion on any search engine. Good luck with your treatment which ever you chose to do. I hope this info will help.

Look, I'm a nurse and have worked at a school with kids with lice, just listen to me please, try this one. Get some plain old petroleum jelly or some baby oil and place a plastic hair cap on hair for about 2 hours and remove, you can even leave oil on for a few more hours, wash hair and then repeat if really bad for a few days, say 3 or 4. This works trust it, do not go our and spend so much money. I know it's scary, but it does work and try it please. This is why we african american do not get lice, we keep oils in our hair and please was all your combs, hair ties or throw away and brushes as well in shampoo. Dogs flea shampoo is good, just was with your own afterwards. Again try this and good luck!!!!!

FYI for anyone who reads all these posts. One woman suggested Neem oil. If you look it up this is what you find: Neem oil should not be used by pregnant women, women trying to conceive, or children.

Try 3 tbs of olive oil with 1tsp of tea tree oil in a bottle leave on for 1hour and rinse with vinager,to get rif of the lice! For prevention mix 12 drops of tea tree oil with a full bottle of shampoo and use every other time you wash your hair! Also can mix 1/2 a cup of water with 12 drops of tea tree oil and spray on hair every day! Good Luck to you all!!

Lice are horrible!!! I wish there was some instant way to get rid of them! The worst part is getting out all the nits! You have to go strand by strand of hair! UGH!!!!!!

This is my first time dealing with these nasty bugs!!!!We first used a LICE CREME treatment and this product did kill a bunch,but two days later we have more live lice.UGH!!We wash everything in hot water daily and spray all mattresses and bedroom floors daily.This must be helping ???What i did last night to myself now as well as my daughter is a MAYONAISE treatment.THIS WORKS!! What you do is cover the head with 2 to 3 cups of mayo and place a shower cap on head and leave on for 6 to 8 hours.Wash 2 to 3 times with a tea tree oil shampoo and COMB,COMB,COMB. This type of treatment is safe enough to do every other day if needed.It seems to work.Best of luck to anyone one dealing with this because it is just awful.

Has anyone had the Doctor prescribe something they gave us a script. for something that stays in the hair overnight. I was not not able to try it my daughters insurance does not cover it. It costs about $140.00 but my friends tell me the stuff works great. I cannot afford it.

This website was very helpful

these little critters are starting to get on my nerves!!!!!!!!

We are on round number four with lice....it is a horrible, horrible experience....Nix and Rid didn't work for us ,but they seemed to have worked for all of the other kids effected...this makes me feel horrible, like I am not doing enough when all I do now is clean and pick through her hair....believe or not, she has even lost her best friends over this....does anyone have a solution????

my daughter came home with head lice twice now. both times i poured olive oil all over her hair and really soaked it, thensaran wrapped her head and then put on shower cap and then a bandana. worked beautifully, never saw those suckers again!

Very informative! Thanks!!!!!

My daughter just caught lice for her first time IM horrified. Listening to other parents and reading theses comments Im realizing im in for a long journey of horror. I will do all I can to treat this problem but if my daughter has them more than likely I will too. How will i get rid of them on my own head???

I can't even begin to tell you the hell I have been going through for just over two months now. Both of my daughters have head lice. I have done everything under the sun to get rid of them and nothing has worked. I comb through their hair piece by piece in small tiny sections constantly. I have spent more money on hair products, cleaning products, laundering every single thing in my house and I just can't seem to get rid of these damn critters. I go through both of their hair daily and I thought we were in the clear because I have not seen anything in over a week. Well wouldn't you know it, I spotted a live one in my oldest daughter's head tonight. I am at my wits end and don't know what to do. I feel terrible for them, they sit in the chair for hours while I go through their hair and they are so frustrated themselves, which who can blame them, as a mother who is going through this I can totally relate to a lot of your comments. I wish their was a magical potion to get rid of the, but seeing that is not the case, here I go again with more treatments.

My daughter has had lice since JULY!!! I have used every shampoo, conditioner, apple cider vinegar, mayo, I've combed, picked, laundered, stuffed animals in bags, I've even gone so far as to have a little party with all the friends she hangs out with, so I could check their hair. I'm convinced that she is just not getting rid of them. She had VERY thick, Very curly ringlets that start at her scalp and go past her bottom. (Cutting it is not an option...she wants to be Rapunzel, after all!) I actually had an all out, sobbing, yelling screaming meltdown when I saw her scratching her hair tonight and sure enough, found bugs. (As did her brothers, as they know that they get any treatment she does, even if I don't find evidence in them.) I realize that this is long winded, but I feel I have to say this.We actually took a live bug, dropped shampoo directly on it, and then watched it crawl out of the liquid. Sigh. Please, somebody help!!!...signed...painfully, pitifully frustrated headlice warrior mom.

My sister has lice and this is very helpful website. i am very glad to have come across this website. thank you very much!

Some other things that I have seen that really work is Hair gel. Just the old fashioned Dep stuff works. It seems to neutralize the glue that holds those little nits (eggs) onto the hair. We have had parents slather their child"s head with it and put a shower cap over their head and sleep on it. In the morning they would wash and nit comb the hair and eggs slide out so much easier. Dep can be found along with the shower caps at the Dollar Store. The most important thing I can stress is to be consistent with the treatment. Vacuum the house and beds, wash bedding, bag up those stuffed animals for a couple weeks, wash hair brushes, Kill adults or live with Mayonnaise, Olive oil, for at least 6 hours to suffocate them thoroughly, then pick nits. Sometimes combing is not possible and not as effective as hand picking. Be patient and positive. You CAN do this. Praise your kids for sitting so long and please don't take it personally. EVERYONE can experience them at some point. Darn pests. Hope this helps, Sincerely, A Friend

i have to tell you. my son's lice did not really fit the typical discription. i found one actual lice.. it was very dark... looked black. and the nits were black... his hair is very light blond, but i expected to see lighter colors for nits so i doubted whether it was actually lice or not until being seen by a nurse practioner for a conclusion.

My daughter is now in the second week of live bugs, nits and eggs on her head! She was checked my the school nurse last week and everything was fine. I spoke with her peds nurse and she said use the nix or rid for 30 mins instead of just 10. Use the shampoo the same day if you want. As your pharmasist about it. And just keep washing, vaccuming and picking! I feel your pain! Good Luck!

I used Not Nice To Lice mousse product, and it worked like a charm! It was (obviously) a long process of sitting, shampooing, and combing, but was worth it. It is the best product I've used so far, although I really with they'd come out with a quicker solution... The entire process took three hours altogether! Good luck to you all.

I am a hairdresser, and was mortified when my daughter came home with lice. they arent stupid little bug, they prefer clean hair. I did the OTCstuff, with the crappy comb and all. What DID work...............Neem Oil purchased from a natural living center, and the Licemeister comb. Look up the neem Oil....it comes from a tree that bugs do not land on. They wont. I saturated the hair with it, left it onfor an hour with a cap, then METICULOUSLY combed the hair...small enough partings to see through the hair. Washed it out, and combed again. Lice defeated. YAY! Bedding and clothes put in the dryer on the hottest setting for 1/2 hour.........make sure in school they do not have their jackets up against one another. Have your kid put it in their back pack. You can also purchase Neem shampoo and conditioner for preventative.

Well i don't know how true this is but i heard that lice come from certain types of trees????? Like fleas come from dirt! Not sure but i guess it gives you an idea. I am battling this with my daughter right now we have done the Pyrinyl treatment and sat for hours picking out the nits as well (which by the way it is really hard to keep a 6 year old still!) We then decided to try a different method the mouthwash and vinegar treatment. That was Saturate dry hair with Listerine let sit for 2 hours then rinse then on damp hair apply white distilled vinegar let stand for 1 hour then rinse. not to forget that you should use a shower cap to keep both of these out of your eyes. I had one adult in my hair when i did this treatment and i have been clear ever since but on my daughter it did not work so well. She fell asleep with the listerine and shower cap on her head so the treatment was not done the way it called for. So we went back to the chemical and picking method. WE had it gone for about 1 month then school started again and to no avail we got them again. 1st week letters were going home about an outbreak. Do not throw those warnings away and think My child won't get it we are clean people. Not the case at all the cleaner the better for those nasty bugs. i checked her everyday for 4 days and on the 5th i finally saw an adult which had actually laid a small like nest all in one area of her head so here we go again. Thanks to these bugs i dont hav much spare time these days. But please do not blame your children its not like they invited them to their head or anything. Do you think they really want those things feeding off them.

What if you have done all of this and they still will not stay away and the school is calling cps? They are also telling people not to let them go to the absent parents home for visitation.

My daughter have nits I cant get rid of help.

For the mayo , should the hair be wet, or should the hair be dry when i put on the hair ??

try dawn dish detergent and baking soda the combination used EVERYDAY and BLOW DRY COMPLETELY!!!! Your hair will be really dry, but you will have no lice after two weeks of this. change pillow case daily, YOU CANNOT MISS ONE DAY OF THE DAWN AND BAKING SODA. IT is 100 percent natural, and you wont have to worry about poisoning your kids with chemicals. Also , TEA TREE OIL SHAMPOO will be a big help preventing further lice outbreaks.

Comment : To the girl with dyed hair.Try buying a beat as it has natural color in it,if the juices are spilled on material it does not usual come out.So my suggestion would be to take a real fresh beat and put it to the test.Put a few drops on it and if the vinegar changes colr in the beat right away or a few minutes later then there you have your answer.

There are number of non toxic and chemical free products on the market. Enzymes are also used in treating and controlling head Lice. One of our family friends used Best Yet Insect Spray it not only killed the head lice but it also dissovles the eggs and larva of the head lice.

Both my daughter and my son had lice, including me as well. We used mayonaise on our hair and then covered with a shower cap. You can leave it on overnight (at least 10 hours)and in the morning all of the lice will be suffocated. Then you can wash it out. Also, the mayonaise works as a very nice conditioner for your hair.

Are head lice transferred by swimming in a pool of water without chlorine?

You can get the licemeister comb from CVS.com. That's where I got mine from. When you comb your daughters hair, use vegetable or olive oil. First coat the hair with the oil than do a thorough comb through every night for 7 nights and you will get rid of the bugs and the nits. Wash the hair 3 times with regular shampoo to get the oil out. Trust me, this works!

what do you do if you find out that a close freind have lice

is there any truth to eggs that have live lice crack when you squeeze them between two finger nails but dead ones dont?

I forgot to submit why the mayonnaise & shower cap works- the mayonnaise smothers them and the shower cap keeps the air from getting to them to further help kill them. I do not remember how long to leave the cap on , we are doing at least 1 full hour and take it from there this time.

Do the lice move when they are on the head? Do they look like flakes. She has nothing behind her ears, and flakes on only one side of her head.

i have 5 children and thay all have head lice and i have done everything i know to do, i cant get rid of the eggs and 2 of them are girls with real long hair the i have used the combs and thay will not come out i have done treatments with rid and even used dog shampoo nothing is working what do i do please help.

My granddaughter has some type of bug in her hair but has no nits . The bugs are about an eight of an inch long. Are these head lice. We have treated her-but they keep coming back. No nits are visable. We examined her head daily. Nothing is there and then all of a sudden-these bugs appear.

Can pets get head lice from contact with their owners?

this is all well and good, BUT WHERE DOES IT ORIGINATE FROM!!!!! There is all sorts of information about head lice and how to treat it BUT no one seems to know how it gets started in the first place!! Like for example how does the initial person get head lice??????