Head Lice Olive Oil treatment – does it work?

It is no wonder that people look to wild and wacky methods of defeating head lice when the little creatures are so difficult to find and destroy; yes, there are several insecticide remedies on the market – permethrin head lice remedies are particularly popular – and there are very many home remedies suggested on web sites, but which one should you pick?
It is difficult to advise when there are so many, and perhaps trying some will give you a better idea of what works and what doesn’t, but one that crops up with surprising regularity is the head lice olive oil treatment, a method that may seem odd, even bizarre, at first but which on closer examination is very viable indeed.
A little bit of head louse biology reveals that the creature breathes through two holes on the sides of its body. Using olive oil relies on this knowledge, for the object is to suffocate the creatures and remove the dead carcasses. It works like this: you apply olive oil liberally to the hair, and cover it with a shower cap or similar. It is left for an hour, and as it fills the breathing cavities, the creatures are smothered to death. It is effective, if messy, but not as messy as one alternative which is to use mayonnaise instead of olive oil!
After an hour the substance is rinsed away, and the dead bugs with it; a thorough combing with a head lice comb drags out the last of the dead creatures, and you can be pretty certain that there are no more live bugs left (and you will have very smooth and shiny hair!)
However, as with many such solutions there is one downside: you cannot be sure that all of the nits, the eggs, will have been removed. This is because nits are laid very close to the scalp, and are attached to the hair by a very strong natural glue. They are also very small, and can easily slip through the teeth of the nit comb.
There is a school of thinking that says it is easier to kill living lice than it is to remove nits, and this is why the next few days should include regular washing and combing, as any nits that are left will hatch within a week of being laid, and will not begin laying again for a further week.
This is a simple routine that involves a bit of patience, but it is a method that works and uses only natural ingredients.