Homemade Remedies for Head Lice
Homemade Remedies for Head Lice
The problem with head lice is that they are a surprisingly common phenomenon, and many people are averse to using the many chemically formulated, insecticide based shampoos that are prescribed for the condition. It is often the case that parents search for homemade remedies for head lice, and a quick internet search will show you just how many of these there are.
They range from the logical – regular attention with a nit comb and the application of natural herbal remedies that are known to have combative properties – to the absurd – coating the head in mayonnaise to smother the head lice! The question is, however, do these home remedies work? Will they kill the head louse population?
It is so that the methods all have their basis in actual fact, so let’s have a closer look at the different sorts of home remedy for head lice, how they work, and whether they should be considered valid.
First, the combing: as head lice live and lay their eggs – nits – close to the scalp a conventional comb is unlikely to be effective against them, hence the invention of the head lice comb. This device is smaller than a standard comb but has very closely ranged, and longer, teeth and is specifically designed to remove the lice and the eggs, too. Regular combing after washing can be very successful indeed, and is recommended in conjunction with all other home based remedies.
Next, the natural remedies: many different substances are used to combat head lice – Tea Tree oil is popular, an essential oil distilled from the leaves of the Tea Tree plant native to Australia, and used by the Aborigines as a remedy for many things – and it can be added to shampoos for extra effect. There are special shampoos available that already contain the substance, specially formulated for head lice treatment.
The smothering method is perhaps the most bizarre, but it does have claims based on fact: the head louse breathes through holes in its side, and coating the head in substances such as Olive Oil, Vinegar or the aforementioned Mayonnaise can serve to block the breathing holes of the louse, effectively suffocating it in a couple of hours.
Finding and choosing a home remedy for head lice is something that involves trial and error – what works for you may not work for others – but the sheer amount of information available on the internet, and in publications, should enable you to find a successful method.
Head Lice Nit – a Guide
Millions of people, primarily children, will suffer from head lice during their lifetime, and it is an irritating experience that makes one feel as though they have become dirty. In fact, having head lice is not necessarily a sign of inefficient hygiene, as the louse will happily live on the cleanest of hair, and as they are so easily spread and difficult to detect, it can be the case that a population has become established before the host notices. Indeed, with the symptomatic itching taking weeks in some cases to manifest, it is easy to see how an infestation of itchy head lice can be easily overlooked.
Nevertheless, there is one important factor that is essential to treating the problem, and that is that the head lice nit is central to the eradication of a colony; the nit is the egg of the louse, as distinct from the head louse itself, and it is a very minute egg that is laid attached to the lower part of a hair, near the scalp, and it is attached by a notoriously strong ‘glue’.
The traditional, and very successful plus highly recommended, method of dealing with head lice is to wet comb the hair with a special head lice comb; indeed every method of treatment will include this routine at some point. The problem is that, while the comb is likely to remove most, if not all, of the live lice, it is also likely it will leave some unnoticed nits behind.
A nit remains in that state for a week before it emerges as a young, very tiny, louse, and just another week down the line it has feasted on enough of your blood to reach adulthood; the problem is clear – if nits are remaining, they must be caught before they hatch and, if not, before they reach breeding age. This is why any routine involves paying extra attention to removing the nits.
One method of making nit removal easier is to apply vinegar – common household vinegar, preferably white – to the scalp, as the acid in the vinegar dissolves the adhesive that holds the nit in place, making it far easier to drag the nit from the hair with the comb.
Nits are so small that even the most in depth examination is unlikely to see them all, so if you do find yourself dealing with a louse infestation, make sure you repeat the process once the lice have been removed.
Head Lice Treatment Choices
Head Lice Treatment – A World of Choice
Finding out that you or your child has head lice is not a sign that your personal hygiene is lacking as the louse is just as likely to make its home in the hair of on who washes daily as one who is less frequent in their regime. Furthermore, it can be several weeks before the presence of lice is detected, these creatures are tiny and the itching that is the major symptom has been known to appear after as long as three months, meaning that by the time you make the diagnosis the lice have spread to others.
The various methods of head lice treatment can be wildly different, and while many people prefer to use over the counter, or prescribed, insecticide lotions and shampoos, there are a variety of home remedies for head lice that can be tried.
If you want to search these in depth then run a web search with the words ‘head lice information’ and you will be directed to a wealth of websites dealing in head lice symptoms, the head lice life cycle and more, and even to sites that display some quite amazing head lice pictures.
However, let’s look at a few of the more popular treatments for head lice: one that is essential whether used on its own or in conjunction with others is the wet comb technique, sometimes known as Bug Busting. This involves the use of a special head lice comb, a device with very close teeth that drags the louse from the hair and, hopefully, the nit too.
Another method of treatment is to wash with a shampoo containing the essential oil Tea Tree Oil, which comes from an Australian plant by that name and is known to have certain healing qualities. It is claimed to drive the lice away and, as it is completely harmless, may well be worth a try. Equally harmless is the practice of rubbing vinegar into the scalp, as this loosens the ‘glue’ with which nits are attached to the hair, making it much easier for the nit comb to remove them, but bordering on the bizarre are the smothering methods: in these, a substance such as mayonnaise, or preferably olive oil, is applied to the scalp, and it acts to seal the holes through which the mites breathe, thus suffocating them.
Whichever method you use there is plenty information available on websites, and it is worth reading the testimonies of others before trying out different methods.
