BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Hair Any good home remedies for head lice?

I recently discovered that I have head lice (I work at a daycare so I suppose it was bound to happen at some point). I have tried all of these store bought products and such but nothing seems to work.
The only home remedy I could think of was lime juice, so I rinsed out my hair then used a bottle on it and let it soak in for about an hour, then rinsed it out. Then took a nit comb through my hair. I found many dead lice and some eggs, but it didn't kill it all I don't think. A couple days later I found another bug.

So.. Does anyone know of any good home remedies (I'm completely against cutting my hair) ?

Head Lice
There are 3 articles at this URL. One of them is about natural remedies.

My daughter used to get head lice in grade school because she played softball (we cured it by getting her her own batting helmet). However, I had to end up putting hair color on her hair to kill them. the chemicals got rid of it. Then she started taking brewer's yeast to get rid of them permanently.

We just battled this with my 4 year old at the day care she was attending. The best home remedy I did with her was to get something called Hair Mayonaise. You can find it in the hair care prodicts for African Americans. Smother your hair in it. It worked best on my daughter to put a plastic shower cap on her head. You can leave it on for at least an hour or sleep over night with it on depending on how bad the head lice case is. Rinse it out with warm water. Comb through your hair to get all the bugs out. The eggs should come out too. If not, take white vinegar, saturate the hair and wrap your hair with a towel or plastic shower cap for no longer then 15 minutes. I say no longer because it will burn your scalp!!! The vinegar causes the glue the lice bugs use to lay the eggs on the hair to loosen up and pull from the hair easier. I finally had to just withdraw my daughter out of day care because I would spend a weekend getting her hair clean, our hair clean and the whole house washed and lice free then she would have them again on Thursday. This went on for a month. I put hair mayonaise in her hair every other week because I like the way it made her hair look and feel. And it doesn't smell as bad as you think it would.

Hair dye works too, that is how I got rid of them when I worked in a day care center. You have to watch hair dye on kids below a certain age though.

When i was younger i suffered with headlice for ages trying to find something that worked. Turned out all i needed to do was really (really really) thoroughly comb my hair with a lice comb every day for about 2 weeks. We did it all in layers, so would pin up all my hair except the bottom layer, comb that thoroughly, take down the next layer, comb that, etc etc. And it completely cleared me of them and have never ever had any problems since

Yes the Hair Mayonaise is the new greatest thing I hear. My husband works at a girls camp and this summer they had a bad outbreak and that is what they used. Don't forget to wash your bedding in hot water and I would add some bleach. When my daughter had lice years ago, I had to buy all new pillows too. Also, vacuum your furniture really well (I am a little crazy and wiped all surfaces with a solution of bleach and water)

Good Luck

My mother-in-law said the remedy in her day was to rinse with vinegar.

A friend had a problem with her daughter last year. After weeks of battling, she found applying hair gel, then putting on a shower cap for a couple of hours worked.

My head is itchy from writing this!

yes using gel all over the hair works well. The alcohol in it plus the thickness of the gel will drown and kill the lice. You need to just get cheap gel and load it in and then use a shower cap. Also rinsing in vinegar or applying it with a spritz bottle and then a cap for a good hour or so followed by THOROUGH lice combing should help.

Also using pillow liners will help with the washing problem and wash everything in HOT HOT HOT water with some bleach (color safe or regular). I also steam cleaned and vacuumed my floors when my niece had them and that worked well. If you have animals be careful of contact with them because while they might not bite the animal, they will like their fur for a speedy mode of transport. So treating our furry friends with a flea and tick drop (the stuff from the vet, advantage, revolution, frontline, etc not the generic stuff) will help you too.

Using head manaise or cholesterol with a cap works well too.

Thankfully my daughter missed out on this. I remember when I was at her daycare to pick up her one time, they had a child return to daycare after being kept out because of head lice, the teacher checked the kid and found MORE lice. They allowed the child to stay...I didn't think they were supposed to do this.

I have always told Diane to NOT hug people, don't use their combs or put on their hats. I think it was just luck she didn't get it. She is no longer in daycare thank goodness.

When she was in Daycare she used to get sick so much more often.

You know, I find that taking really hot showers every day and blowdrying your hair every day will kill anything that gets on your head. Sometimes my head gets dry, but I use great conditioner to keep it from getting icky. The bugs just can't stand the heat.

-amber dawn-