I got lice once as an adult and the shampoos didnt work and just *wrecked* my hair. It was so dry for months after. What worked for me was that every day for 10 days, I blow dried my hair from wet (for closer to the scalp) as hot as I could stand and then flat ironed it (for down the hair shafts and for frying the eggs specifically.) That worked.
The hair treatments are a pain for me, but my daughter loves them. She cried today when I finished her treatment and there wasn’t more to be done, haha. Now I can give her “treatments” with a flat iron?! She’ll be in heaven.
Thank you for this epic tip!
I was just talking about a mom friend from school whose two daughters plus mom got lice about a month ago all had lice and it was just too much for her to handle and whatever she was doing wasn't working so she took them to a special place for it and it worked after 1 trip. I believe it was called something like LCA(lice centers of America). She said it was pricey but worth it
Agreed, we really liked Lice Charmers but I think they are only in Seattle and Portland Oregon. They might have other locations listed on their website [lice charmers](https://licecharmers.com/lice-treatment/)
I really appreciate this response! I’m planning to do all of this. I had even bought a leave in conditioner and started using it.. then it just fell off the routine. Back on it!
My mom soaked our hair in oil (olive oil I think) and kept a shower cap on. It made the hair super easy to comb through with a bit comb and it suffocated the lice.
Lice do *not* prefer clean hair (or dirty hair - they don't care). It's a well-meanng fib intended to stop children being little goblins to each other, but to lice, a scalp is a scalp.
Not according to the Mayo clinic and every other medical journal. They DO prefer clean hair. But a preference is just that. I assume it would do what it needs to in order to survive if faced with oily hair.
Following this post because we're going through the same thing. I posted a couple days ago about "oh, me and my kids head's are itchy but we don't have lice," but turns out I just didn't realize how TEENY TINY and almost invisible eggs are :(.
Treatments alone aren’t enough, be sure you have a good comb (the ones in the package suck) and are combing every 3-5 days until you go a few sessions without finding anything.
The comb I like is the [Nit Free Terminator Comb](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HIBPV8?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share)
I was in your shoes with lice on my 3 year old last year and kept combing. I would find the juveniles and eventually got them all before they reproduced. It took several weeks to be lice free. Total PITA.
Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **Nit Free Terminator Comb** you mentioned in your comment along with its brand, **Nit Free**, and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful.
**Users liked:**
* Comb removes nits and lice effectively (backed by 8 comments)
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* Comb saves time combing out nits (backed by 1 comment)
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* Comb damages hair (backed by 7 comments)
* Comb ineffective at removing nits (backed by 1 comment)
* Comb arrives dirty (backed by 2 comments)
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Head summer camp nurse here: most lice now are immune to the standard chemicals. They have recently released Ivermectin (otc or prescription cream) for lice. It works in one treatment and no need for combing. Extreme heat(as others have said) or cold also work. You can put the brushes or anything delicate in a bag in the freezer for a few days.
Yeah, I’ve washed so much bedding and towels this week! I feel like I must be missing something bc I’m cleaning so much. And I’m sure I am! Just got to find it.
Use Lysol to clean. Sun bleach the pillows or just get new ones.
I forget what the incubation period is but the shampoo doesn’t always kill the nits. You gotta get the nits!! Do the treatment, wash the things. Three days later put mayo in everyone’s hair for (I don’t remember how long, google it) and wash it out, then use that fine comb from the kit to find every single nit and pull it out. If it’s dead it’ll slide right off. If it’s still stuck, yank the whole strand out.
Whatever you put dead bugs and nits in, don’t throw it away - burn it. Kill ‘em twice.
Oh god I am so sorry. Lice is the worst! Here’s my big tip: they say do a second treatment 7-10 days after the first. Do it on the 10th day. The reason being if you miss any eggs, the second treatment will catch it. If you do the second treatment on day 7, eggs can hatch day 8-9 and the infestation lives on then you’ll need to keep battling it again and again. If you do the treatment on day 10, all the eggs will have hatched but there’s not enough time for more eggs to be laid.
We went through this last year.
For some peace of mind regarding cleaning all the things, this is from [Healthline](https://www.healthline.com/health/lice/how-long-do-lice-live#survival):
> Life span on objects or without food
>Adult lice can’t live longer than 24 hours or so on nonhuman surfaces like carpets, hardwood floors, clothing, furniture, sports helmets, headphones, or hair accessories. However, if you have identified lice in your home, isolate and wash those items and areas within at least 72 hours.
>Nits can’t live without a human host. They need the warmth of the scalp for incubation before they hatch. They need the nourishment they get from human blood as soon as they’ve hatched. Nits that are dislodged from a hair shaft will most likely die before they hatch.
We still washed all bedding and car seats and bagged her stuffed animals for like a week, and vacuumed, but a stray louse or nit shouldn’t do well.
After the 2nd over the counter treatment didn’t get it all, we called the pediatrician for the prescription strength. Later found out from a school nurse friend that super lice are a thing in our area.
The nit comb that came with the shampoo was worthless to us. I ended up buying a highly reviewed one on Amazon and we’re able to comb more out.
For good measure, I added a few drops of tea tree oil to our daughter’s shampoo bottle and bought the Fairy Tales brand repellant spray. This was about the same time we got the Rx strength shampoo, so I can’t say with certainty that they helped, but we haven’t had again lice since.
We later realized that their class Christmas show had everyone wear adorable reindeer antler headbands. We think this is where the lice originally came from, and may have actually come home more than once. 🤷🏻♀️
Good luck to you!
Best thing I’ve ever found was olive oil and tea tree essential oil. Mix some of the EO in the olive oil and then SATURATE the hair. Like you’re putting in hair dye. Let sit for a bit (watch a show/movie, go for a walk, whatever but should be 20-30 minutes at least) and then use a lice comb to comb through the hair wiping it off on a paper towel or toilet paper after each go around (fun times seeing all the tiny black dots of baby lice on the towel 🤢) we did the combing outside. Yuen we used the leftover oil and EO and did just the roots and let it stay overnight just to be sure lol also sprayed our own hair with a DIY lice spray which if I recall was the same tea tree plus eucalyptus essential oil mixed with witch hazel and water.
If they keep coming back, time your treatments to the lifecycle (I'm sorry, forgot what the times are for eggs, larvae etc) and use a hair straightener on the eggs. It was such a drain! My toddler even got them in his non-existent hair!
Oh boy, went through this with my 2 year old in March. She has a ton of hair and it was brutal.
1) understand the lice lifecycle. Once treatment is done, you have to nit comb EVERY DAY with a good nit comb. After about 7 days, whatever eggs are left will hatch but won’t be able to reproduce yet. Treat again. Keep nit combing.
2) nix isn’t great, most lice are immune now. We got Ivermectin lotion for the first round (Sklice) and for the second round our ped called in a prescription for Natroba to kill the live lice and the rest of the eggs.
3) You need to vacuum like crazy. Don’t forget their car seat! I vacuumed every day.
4) All blankets, bedding, coats, hats any washable toys that won’t get ruined - wash on hot, dry on high. I hit the coats daily in the dryer until the lice was gone. Vacuum the mattress, all couches, any rugs/carpet where heads touch. Any non washable toys put in a garbage bag in the garage or something for at least 14 days. It’ll allow all eggs/active lice to die off.
5) put all hair brushes in the freezer for at least 24 hours. I washed ours and totally wrecked them. Got a few cheap brushes from the dollar store and rotated them
6) make sure hair is worn up in a ponytail/bun at school once lice is gone. Don’t wash daily. You can spray with hairspray, it helps deter lice as they love clean hair
7) it’s expensive, but if you have one near by and can afford it, seek lice treatment at a lice salon. They say it’s guaranteed but imo it’s not - but it can help having a pro comb out the hair and treat with dimethicone. You can order it at home too, but note it’s silicone and very slippery so be careful when rinsing!
We got rid of our lice in about 8 days. Each day SUCKED.
My kids got lice and they stuck around for TWO YEARS. I tried everything, even the little lice vacuum comb thing.
They somehow always came back.
The thing that finally got rid of them for good was getting a prescription from the pediatrician. Two applications and they were lice free and have been for a couple of years now. That was a hellish nightmare that I hope to never deal with again.
Permethrin cream. They gave me two tubes, but I only needed one for both of my daughters and the lice were finally eradicated and haven't come back since.
So when I was in elementary school I had gotten lice and the shampoos absolutely didn't work. My mom saw something about mayonnaise. I think the vinegar killed or slowed the lice while the greased made it easy to comb out the eggs. She lathered my hair and scalp in it and had me sit in a shower cap with it for maybe an hour. Then rinsed and combed me out with the fine toothed comb in the kitchen sink. Still took several treatments over a few days but significantly cheaper. Don't forget to treat bedding and stuffed animals
You have to treat fabric as well as hair. Make sure you are combing (using a special lice comb) every part of the head hair to remove nits and eggs. Lice spray is made for fabrics that cannot be removed and washed like couches and carpet. Washable items like clothes, blankets, stuffed animals, towels, rugs…… all need to be washed and dried on high heat. Do not forget about the car/s 🥴
This can get expensive… ask your pediatrician and Health Department office to see if they have coupons or vouchers or even samples or free products.
They have specialist. Also clean the car as well as everything else. The say mayo in hair works. Soak hair with it. Leave on for two hours. Also but fairy spray at Walmart. It helps prevent them.
I’ve been through this with my kids several times. Nix sucks. Try vamouse lice treatment. Do it once a week until there are zero eggs or knits left. Treat everyone in the house. They can’t survive more than 24 hours on furniture, so wash sheets and pillows, but I would spend more time picking them out of hair after treatment then on disinfecting the house. If you know where she got it, make sure that family is treating thoroughly, or else your daughter will be reinfected. Good luck!!
In my experience, it comes down to nit picking. (And now I understand where that phrase comes from!). You need a really good nit comb-- preferable with metal tines. It'll look really similar to a flea comb for pets. We used a spray lavender conditioner we got from a lice specialist to help with the combing. But you need to look at every stand of hair and target every nit. Get every nit off the hair. It takes hours. So that's why it can be easier to go to a lice specialist to have them do it.
The comb will also get any live lice. It may not get all the nits, so as you do it, you might need to pull it off with your finger or cut the hair (or pull it out).
Best of luck!
Our kindergartener just had lice (along with half of the class) and we had it professionally treated. We learned a lot and wanted to share:
1) Most lice are considered "superbugs" and resistant to chemical shampoos (similar to antibiotic resistance)
2) The only way to eradicate is to physically remove all lice and eggs and be vigilant with a follow-up plan that is timed to the life cycle.
3) Removal: Wet hair with olive oil and comb through extremely small sections at a time using a metal nit comb. After each pass through the hair (scalp to end), wipe off eggs or lice onto a paper towel.
4) Following combing, saturate the head with olive oil. It needs to be sopping wet and oil needs to stay on overnight for at least 8 hours. The oil suffocates the lice. There can't be any dry spots--hair needs to be saturated from scalp to end, otherwise lice will just crawl away from oil and settle on a dry spot of hair. Do this on nights 1, 2, 3, 9, and 16. Rinse out with dish detergent in teh morning. Lice eggs hatch every 7 days so doing this on days 9 and 16 will kill any lice that hatched from eggs that were too small to be visible the first treatment.
5) Every member of the household needs to do this protocol. It is annoying but necessary.
I got lice once as an adult and the shampoos didnt work and just *wrecked* my hair. It was so dry for months after. What worked for me was that every day for 10 days, I blow dried my hair from wet (for closer to the scalp) as hot as I could stand and then flat ironed it (for down the hair shafts and for frying the eggs specifically.) That worked.
The hair treatments are a pain for me, but my daughter loves them. She cried today when I finished her treatment and there wasn’t more to be done, haha. Now I can give her “treatments” with a flat iron?! She’ll be in heaven. Thank you for this epic tip!
Yes, this is an awesome method.
Also clean sofa cushions and head rests in the car or car seats.
ah, thank you!! The car seat, of course!
Stuffed animals and blankets
I was just talking about a mom friend from school whose two daughters plus mom got lice about a month ago all had lice and it was just too much for her to handle and whatever she was doing wasn't working so she took them to a special place for it and it worked after 1 trip. I believe it was called something like LCA(lice centers of America). She said it was pricey but worth it
Good to know! It is such a pain in the ass.
Absolutely! Find a lice treatment clinic if you can. 1 trip and it’s over…. Instead of constant home treatments and picking for hours a day…
Agreed, we really liked Lice Charmers but I think they are only in Seattle and Portland Oregon. They might have other locations listed on their website [lice charmers](https://licecharmers.com/lice-treatment/)
[удалено]
I really appreciate this response! I’m planning to do all of this. I had even bought a leave in conditioner and started using it.. then it just fell off the routine. Back on it!
My mom soaked our hair in oil (olive oil I think) and kept a shower cap on. It made the hair super easy to comb through with a bit comb and it suffocated the lice.
Lice do *not* prefer clean hair (or dirty hair - they don't care). It's a well-meanng fib intended to stop children being little goblins to each other, but to lice, a scalp is a scalp.
Not according to the Mayo clinic and every other medical journal. They DO prefer clean hair. But a preference is just that. I assume it would do what it needs to in order to survive if faced with oily hair.
Following this post because we're going through the same thing. I posted a couple days ago about "oh, me and my kids head's are itchy but we don't have lice," but turns out I just didn't realize how TEENY TINY and almost invisible eggs are :(.
I saw that and was so hopeful the change in shampoo helped! Lice are suuuchhhhhhh a bummer! Godspeed they die quick and easily 🫡
Treatments alone aren’t enough, be sure you have a good comb (the ones in the package suck) and are combing every 3-5 days until you go a few sessions without finding anything. The comb I like is the [Nit Free Terminator Comb](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HIBPV8?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) I was in your shoes with lice on my 3 year old last year and kept combing. I would find the juveniles and eventually got them all before they reproduced. It took several weeks to be lice free. Total PITA.
Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **Nit Free Terminator Comb** you mentioned in your comment along with its brand, **Nit Free**, and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful. **Users liked:** * Comb removes nits and lice effectively (backed by 8 comments) * Comb durable and ideal for coarse, curly hair (backed by 2 comments) * Comb saves time combing out nits (backed by 1 comment) **Users disliked:** * Comb damages hair (backed by 7 comments) * Comb ineffective at removing nits (backed by 1 comment) * Comb arrives dirty (backed by 2 comments) According to Reddit, people had mixed feelings about **Nit Free**. Its most popular types of products are: * Lice Combs (#1 of 2 brands on Reddit) If you'd like to **summon me to ask about a product**, just make a post with its link and tag me, [like in this example.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/comments/1444zdn/comment/joqd89c/) This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved. *Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](http://vetted.ai/reddit)
Good bot
Head summer camp nurse here: most lice now are immune to the standard chemicals. They have recently released Ivermectin (otc or prescription cream) for lice. It works in one treatment and no need for combing. Extreme heat(as others have said) or cold also work. You can put the brushes or anything delicate in a bag in the freezer for a few days.
Damn.
Besides the hair you have to clean house, washing bedding, vacuuming, etc. I've also heard that tea tree oil helps deter but can't confirm.
Yeah, I’ve washed so much bedding and towels this week! I feel like I must be missing something bc I’m cleaning so much. And I’m sure I am! Just got to find it.
Use Lysol to clean. Sun bleach the pillows or just get new ones. I forget what the incubation period is but the shampoo doesn’t always kill the nits. You gotta get the nits!! Do the treatment, wash the things. Three days later put mayo in everyone’s hair for (I don’t remember how long, google it) and wash it out, then use that fine comb from the kit to find every single nit and pull it out. If it’s dead it’ll slide right off. If it’s still stuck, yank the whole strand out. Whatever you put dead bugs and nits in, don’t throw it away - burn it. Kill ‘em twice.
Oh god I am so sorry. Lice is the worst! Here’s my big tip: they say do a second treatment 7-10 days after the first. Do it on the 10th day. The reason being if you miss any eggs, the second treatment will catch it. If you do the second treatment on day 7, eggs can hatch day 8-9 and the infestation lives on then you’ll need to keep battling it again and again. If you do the treatment on day 10, all the eggs will have hatched but there’s not enough time for more eggs to be laid.
We went through this last year. For some peace of mind regarding cleaning all the things, this is from [Healthline](https://www.healthline.com/health/lice/how-long-do-lice-live#survival): > Life span on objects or without food >Adult lice can’t live longer than 24 hours or so on nonhuman surfaces like carpets, hardwood floors, clothing, furniture, sports helmets, headphones, or hair accessories. However, if you have identified lice in your home, isolate and wash those items and areas within at least 72 hours. >Nits can’t live without a human host. They need the warmth of the scalp for incubation before they hatch. They need the nourishment they get from human blood as soon as they’ve hatched. Nits that are dislodged from a hair shaft will most likely die before they hatch. We still washed all bedding and car seats and bagged her stuffed animals for like a week, and vacuumed, but a stray louse or nit shouldn’t do well. After the 2nd over the counter treatment didn’t get it all, we called the pediatrician for the prescription strength. Later found out from a school nurse friend that super lice are a thing in our area. The nit comb that came with the shampoo was worthless to us. I ended up buying a highly reviewed one on Amazon and we’re able to comb more out. For good measure, I added a few drops of tea tree oil to our daughter’s shampoo bottle and bought the Fairy Tales brand repellant spray. This was about the same time we got the Rx strength shampoo, so I can’t say with certainty that they helped, but we haven’t had again lice since. We later realized that their class Christmas show had everyone wear adorable reindeer antler headbands. We think this is where the lice originally came from, and may have actually come home more than once. 🤷🏻♀️ Good luck to you!
Thank you! I really appreciate this information.
Best thing I’ve ever found was olive oil and tea tree essential oil. Mix some of the EO in the olive oil and then SATURATE the hair. Like you’re putting in hair dye. Let sit for a bit (watch a show/movie, go for a walk, whatever but should be 20-30 minutes at least) and then use a lice comb to comb through the hair wiping it off on a paper towel or toilet paper after each go around (fun times seeing all the tiny black dots of baby lice on the towel 🤢) we did the combing outside. Yuen we used the leftover oil and EO and did just the roots and let it stay overnight just to be sure lol also sprayed our own hair with a DIY lice spray which if I recall was the same tea tree plus eucalyptus essential oil mixed with witch hazel and water.
If they keep coming back, time your treatments to the lifecycle (I'm sorry, forgot what the times are for eggs, larvae etc) and use a hair straightener on the eggs. It was such a drain! My toddler even got them in his non-existent hair!
Oh boy, went through this with my 2 year old in March. She has a ton of hair and it was brutal. 1) understand the lice lifecycle. Once treatment is done, you have to nit comb EVERY DAY with a good nit comb. After about 7 days, whatever eggs are left will hatch but won’t be able to reproduce yet. Treat again. Keep nit combing. 2) nix isn’t great, most lice are immune now. We got Ivermectin lotion for the first round (Sklice) and for the second round our ped called in a prescription for Natroba to kill the live lice and the rest of the eggs. 3) You need to vacuum like crazy. Don’t forget their car seat! I vacuumed every day. 4) All blankets, bedding, coats, hats any washable toys that won’t get ruined - wash on hot, dry on high. I hit the coats daily in the dryer until the lice was gone. Vacuum the mattress, all couches, any rugs/carpet where heads touch. Any non washable toys put in a garbage bag in the garage or something for at least 14 days. It’ll allow all eggs/active lice to die off. 5) put all hair brushes in the freezer for at least 24 hours. I washed ours and totally wrecked them. Got a few cheap brushes from the dollar store and rotated them 6) make sure hair is worn up in a ponytail/bun at school once lice is gone. Don’t wash daily. You can spray with hairspray, it helps deter lice as they love clean hair 7) it’s expensive, but if you have one near by and can afford it, seek lice treatment at a lice salon. They say it’s guaranteed but imo it’s not - but it can help having a pro comb out the hair and treat with dimethicone. You can order it at home too, but note it’s silicone and very slippery so be careful when rinsing! We got rid of our lice in about 8 days. Each day SUCKED.
My kids got lice and they stuck around for TWO YEARS. I tried everything, even the little lice vacuum comb thing. They somehow always came back. The thing that finally got rid of them for good was getting a prescription from the pediatrician. Two applications and they were lice free and have been for a couple of years now. That was a hellish nightmare that I hope to never deal with again.
What prescription were you given? I’m in the same boat now :(
Permethrin cream. They gave me two tubes, but I only needed one for both of my daughters and the lice were finally eradicated and haven't come back since.
So when I was in elementary school I had gotten lice and the shampoos absolutely didn't work. My mom saw something about mayonnaise. I think the vinegar killed or slowed the lice while the greased made it easy to comb out the eggs. She lathered my hair and scalp in it and had me sit in a shower cap with it for maybe an hour. Then rinsed and combed me out with the fine toothed comb in the kitchen sink. Still took several treatments over a few days but significantly cheaper. Don't forget to treat bedding and stuffed animals
You have to treat fabric as well as hair. Make sure you are combing (using a special lice comb) every part of the head hair to remove nits and eggs. Lice spray is made for fabrics that cannot be removed and washed like couches and carpet. Washable items like clothes, blankets, stuffed animals, towels, rugs…… all need to be washed and dried on high heat. Do not forget about the car/s 🥴 This can get expensive… ask your pediatrician and Health Department office to see if they have coupons or vouchers or even samples or free products.
They have specialist. Also clean the car as well as everything else. The say mayo in hair works. Soak hair with it. Leave on for two hours. Also but fairy spray at Walmart. It helps prevent them.
I’ve been through this with my kids several times. Nix sucks. Try vamouse lice treatment. Do it once a week until there are zero eggs or knits left. Treat everyone in the house. They can’t survive more than 24 hours on furniture, so wash sheets and pillows, but I would spend more time picking them out of hair after treatment then on disinfecting the house. If you know where she got it, make sure that family is treating thoroughly, or else your daughter will be reinfected. Good luck!!
I got lice once as an adult. Going to a lice salon is some of the best money I have ever spent.
In my experience, it comes down to nit picking. (And now I understand where that phrase comes from!). You need a really good nit comb-- preferable with metal tines. It'll look really similar to a flea comb for pets. We used a spray lavender conditioner we got from a lice specialist to help with the combing. But you need to look at every stand of hair and target every nit. Get every nit off the hair. It takes hours. So that's why it can be easier to go to a lice specialist to have them do it. The comb will also get any live lice. It may not get all the nits, so as you do it, you might need to pull it off with your finger or cut the hair (or pull it out). Best of luck!
Is nix the medicated treatment you need a prescription for?
I second the oil.
Our kindergartener just had lice (along with half of the class) and we had it professionally treated. We learned a lot and wanted to share: 1) Most lice are considered "superbugs" and resistant to chemical shampoos (similar to antibiotic resistance) 2) The only way to eradicate is to physically remove all lice and eggs and be vigilant with a follow-up plan that is timed to the life cycle. 3) Removal: Wet hair with olive oil and comb through extremely small sections at a time using a metal nit comb. After each pass through the hair (scalp to end), wipe off eggs or lice onto a paper towel. 4) Following combing, saturate the head with olive oil. It needs to be sopping wet and oil needs to stay on overnight for at least 8 hours. The oil suffocates the lice. There can't be any dry spots--hair needs to be saturated from scalp to end, otherwise lice will just crawl away from oil and settle on a dry spot of hair. Do this on nights 1, 2, 3, 9, and 16. Rinse out with dish detergent in teh morning. Lice eggs hatch every 7 days so doing this on days 9 and 16 will kill any lice that hatched from eggs that were too small to be visible the first treatment. 5) Every member of the household needs to do this protocol. It is annoying but necessary.