Pure Alcohol, Aka Rubbing Alcohol
★★★★★
We wet the hair with it, put a towel for 20 min and repeat every day in the beginning for 3 days and then every other day. The lice suffocate and die instantly. They cannot develop resistance to this as even larger insects (cockroaches) also suffocate and die instantly if you spilt ethanol on them.
As the normal use for this is for disinfection and the pure form is used in all alcoholic beverages, well I guess is not very bad to put lets say a very strong vodka in your hair.
EC: surgical spirits = rubbing alcohol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubbing_alcohol
Rubbing Alcohol
★★★★★
Rubbing Alcohol, Olive Oil
★★★★★
Salt
★★★★★
Roughly 3/4 table salt and 1/4 liquid dial hand soap (I would assume any liquid, even water would work since the salt is the key ingredient)....just enough liquid to make a spreadable paste out of the salt. I then saturated my daughter's head with it (mine too just to be sure even though a quick self check didn't turn up any lice or nits) and put a shower cap on for four hours.
Then the salt & soap got washed out.
My daughter's school has a "no live lice" policy but not a "no nit" policy so while I wanted to get rid of nits (alive or dead). I slathered our heads with conditioner and combed for a couple hours with a fine-tooth rat tail comb. I'm sure she had lice for at least a couple weeks since I got hundreds of nits out of her hair during that first comb out (none out of mine).
I continued the conditioner / comb out 1 - 2 times a day until I saw no nits come out. It took over a week to get them all out (in that time I never combed out any live lice so that confirmed that in all likelihood the salt mixture had indeed killed the nits as none of them hatched). More than once it was tempting to give her a pixie cut (wouldn't "get rid of them" but would make the comb out process a bit easier in shorter hair than her shoulder-length hair--I have very short hair and my comb out, combing thoroughly in all directions took me under 15 minutes, hers took 1 - 2 hrs-- and she would love the cut for any reason, but I didn't feel confident enough in my hair cutting abilities to do a good cut and I couldn't take her to a salon with nits in her hair, even if they were dead, so I just had to be thankful she didn't have long thick hair to work through).
Since getting rid of our infestation, I've taken preventive measures and added spraying our hair with tea tree oil & water every morning before we leave home / she goes out to play.
So far no new lice.
Selsun Blue, Vinegar, Essential Oils
★★★★★
You require a bottle of Selsun Blue shampoo, any conditioner, vinegar, tea tree & eucalyptus essential oils
- 50 ml of the bottle of Selsun Shampoo
- 100 ml of any conditioner
- 3/4 cup of vinegar
- 25 drops of Tea Tree plus 25 drops of Eucalyptus essential oils
Mix and shake well in a bottle.
Dampen hair slightly, apply the solution and rub in well as if you are shampooing hair.
wrap in a shower cap & leave on for 1hr if possible.
rinse hair - blow dry hair on heat - go through hair with a fine knot comb.
SPF 30 Sunscreen
★★★★★
Tapping
★★★★★
This is something that can be done at home or in private. It's easy and free. Just raise your hands and tap your skull rapidly in order to squash the lice. Do it where the itches are or areas you know they lay their eggs. Do this in addition to using a lice comb and any other product you like. (for me, I did this after using white kerosene (lamp oil). I haven't had any eggs for days/weeks.
Tea Tree Oil
★★★★★
The whole head of hair. Use the wide tooth comb to help distribute the conditioner and to get rid of the knots and tangles so that when you use the small nit combs it won't hurt!
Next when you are tangle free and there is still plenty of conditioner left, work through the whole of the hair from root to tip with the small nit comb using the thicker end first to remove the bigger nits, they become immobile in the thick conditioner. Every time wipe the comb on tissue paper and you will see what you have removed and flush this away as some will come out live. You need to do the whole head to remove live ones then use the thinner side of the comb to remove the eggs, again wiping each time to ensure you don't transfer back to scalp/ hair. Use extra conditioner if necessary. Then rinse out the conditioner and dry hair. That's it!
Try and do everone in your house on same day and tell anyone you have been in contact with to do the same. Repeat again after a couple of days and then again after 1 week. Then take more vitamin c as I think all that nit biting lowers the immune system! Good luck. This works. Every time my daughters had them we got rid of them in this way. X
Tea Tree Oil
★★★★★
(Sydney, Australiahi)
04/05/2012
★★★★★
Hi. I agree re the conditioner but would add another step. I put as much conditioner on as possible, covered it with a shower cap and left it for 30 minutes (I did for an hour plus), then combed through. I would also recommend doing it for several days in a row and put clean pillow cases on for sleeping each night. Good luck!
Tea Tree Oil
★★★★★
Tea Tree Oil
★★★★★
Tea Tree Oil
★★★★★
Tea Tree Oil, White Vinegar, Liquid Soap
★★★★★
6 ounces Dawn
2 ounces white vinegar
2 TBSP Tea Tree Oil
You can get this all at walgreens. Put six ounces of dawn in a measuring cup that measures ounces, and then add white vinegar to it until it rises two more ounces. Put two tablespoons of Tea Tree Oil into this. Mix up. Put on hair, Massage in, put grocery bag over hair, close with clothespin. Leave on 10 minutes. Take off bag, massage and rinse, put in conditioner, rinse and comb out with lice comb. Maintain this by putting 15 drops of Tea Tree oil into any botttle of shampoo or conditiuoner and using twice a week. I give the kids each their own lice comb or flea comb and tell them to brush their heair each time it itches, and anytime they think of it, morning and night also.
Vaseline
★★★★★
Also I washed it out in 3 days and reapplied and wrapped again for any eggs that will be hatching. They say they hatch within 7 days so I kept it on 4 more days. Washed hair as usual and no more lice.
For good measure I spray hair first with ACV and covered with scarf. I saw about 80% dead but some big ones were crawling around on plastic when I removed from head. I think the ACV made them run from my scalp?? One of my sons got lice from school and it only spread to me and my other son. My girls and husband were fine. I didn't treat any linen or go crazy around the house. I simply put Vaseline in everyone's hair so they have no source. We were all clear in a week.
Vaseline is cheap and simple if you can stay inside. If not put on a decorative scarf and hat/wig over it.
(Madison)
06/08/2021
Back in the day, moms would slather mayonnaise on the children's hair if they had lice. The oiliness smothered the lice as well as kind of 'sticking' them so they couldn't jump off onto someone else. It worked. (They also covered hair with kerosene to kill lice, but that's not a great idea. And they would shave heads if it was bad.)
Vaseline
★★★★★
