If your family has ever had to tackle head lice, and you’ve searched endlessly for lice cures that work, you know very well how frustrating the process can be. This can be even more of a nightmare if you have tried several different, over the counter; lice cures that failed to rid your family of lice.

If you use an over the counter lice cure, you could end up spending hundreds of dollars every time someone in the house brings home head lice, and then there is a chance that the treatments won’t even work.
A better alternative may be to try a home remedy. Most of the time, home remedies are much less expensive, safer and more effective for killing lice. There are several, safe, non-toxic home remedies that you may wish to try before sinking hundreds of dollars into over the counter, or prescription lice cures.

Of the many lice cures that are, one home remedy that has been recommended by pediatricians is the use of real mayonnaise.  To use mayonnaise as a lice cure you must saturate the hair and scalp in mayonnaise, and then cover the head with a shower cap. The treatments must be kept on for several hours.

When it is time to remove the mayonnaise, you simply wash the hair with dish soap a couple of times, and then use a specially designed comb to remove the dead lice and nits. After treatment, it will be necessary to thoroughly clean all of the surfaces in the home. Vacuum all carpets and furniture; wash bedding, clothes and coats. Anything that cannot be washed should be stored in an airtight plastic bag for at least two weeks.
The process should be repeated every four days for about two weeks to ensure that the head lice infestation is under control.

There are several home remedies that are said to work good as lice cures; they include using olive oil, or tea tree oil as apposed to mayonnaise, and regular use of a shampoo that contains coconut oil is suppose to work wonders for keeping your household free of head lice.

The most important step you can take in preventing head lice infestation in your home is to educate your children on the risks of sharing personal items, such as brushes and hats, with other children. Head lice spreads by the hair having physical contact with a louse found on clothing objects, furniture, combs, etc.

If your child is sent home from school with head lice, don’t panic. With some careful research are sure to find good lice cures that works.

Are you irritated by your itchy scalp? Do friends and officemates make fun of you because you always scratch your head? If you are experiencing this common problem, then chances are you have lice. Start to get rid of it now!

1. What are lice?

Lice are small parasite-like insects. Their home is on the hairs of people. They eat by sucking a small quantity of blood from our scalp. Lice usually thrive on scalps of 3 to 12 year-old kids. Girls are much more susceptible to lice than boys.

2. Lice facts:

- Lice do not pose a significant risk to our health
- Lice can easily spread from one person to another
- The feeling of itchiness is caused by the lice bites
- Frequent scratching of the scalp can cause further inflammation
- In rare cases, the skin can be infected which may trigger infection

3. How to treat lice:

Lice shampoos and lotions can be directly bought over-the-counter or can be prescribed. The medications are based on the lice treatment history of the patient. Do not experiment on these treatments because they are very much like insecticides. Follow your doctor’s advice or instructions carefully. The directions on the shampoo or lotion should be strictly followed so that the treatment can be effective. Your doctor may also ask you to buy hair rinses that are made to untangle hair.

These lice treatments most often than not, completely eradicate lice although continuous usage is needed for it to take affect. Seven to ten days is the common treatment period for lice by this method. Before stopping medication, you should be positive that all lice are killed since they can easily reproduce and come back with a vengeance.

4. Lice removal tips:

- Lice lay eggs attached to the base of the hair. In addition to using medication, it is recommended, especially for children ages 2 to 6, to manually remove the eggs from the hair one by one
- Combs with fine bristles should be used to comb your child’s hair after taking a bath
- Shampoo hair 3 up to 4 days in a span of 2 weeks. The hair should be wet before combing
- Beddings and clothes that are just worn by someone with lice should be washed in very hot water
- Store clothing and anything else that can not be washed in bags that are airtight for two weeks, such as toys or bedcovers
- Carpet and upholstery in homes and cars should be vacuum cleaned regularly
- Submerge objects like brushes, combs, headbands, hair ties and barrettes in rubbing alcohol or shampoo for lice treatment for one hour, or dispose of them
- Do not utilize hair dryers to dry the hair of your child after putting on the anti-lice medication. Some chemicals in the shampoo or lotion are flammable
- Shampoos and conditioners should not be used prior to lice treatment application
- Sprays or pest control should not be used to kill lice. It could do more harm than good. It can also be poisonous
- Lice treatment should not be used or applied to a single person for more than three times. If the lice are still there after three applications, the medication should be changed.
- One lice treatment should be used at time. Do not alternate it with another

Naturally when you discover that someone in your home has headlice, the first thing you want to do is begin treatment, but it is also important to pay attention to your house as well. When someone in the household becomes infested with headlice, it is not uncommon for the rest of the family to catch it too. Headlice is extremely contagious and when people live in close proximately, these tiny insects readily pass between the house’s inhabitants.

For this reason it is extremely important that if one person in the house has headlice, that all family members be closely checked for infestation. There is a high likelihood that most if not all members of the household will have headlice.

Even when all the people in the house are treated, the problem doesn’t really end there. You also have to de-louse the house itself, and all personal belongings. Treating a headlice infestation can be a tedious task, but very important if you don’t want to be dealing continually with the problem.

The proper way to rid your home of headlice is to first, treat all those who have been infested, after treatment, have each person put on freshly laundered clothing. Buy a new comb to use after treatment; do not use a brush or comb that was being used before treatment.
If you do not want to replace all your combs and brushes, it will be necessary to let them set in boiled water for at least an hour. This includes all hair accessories as well. If it is not possible to disinfect them with boiling water, place them in a plastic back, seal it and do not use the items again for at least 2 to 3 weeks.

All bedding and clothing must be washed in hot water, and dried on a high heat setting. This will kill any lice that may be clinging to the clothing, or linen. Don’t’ forget about blankets and stuffed animals. Again, if the items cannot be washed, seal them in plastic bags for a few weeks.
It will also be necessary to vacuum all carpets, and furniture, as well as mattresses. If you would like to take extra precautionary measures, you can buy insecticide designed specifically for headlice. Spray the furniture and mattresses with the insecticide and let dry before allowing human contact.
Though these may seem like extreme measures, keep in mind that it is not uncommon for people to repeatedly become infested with headlice, due to contact after treatment with a live lice in their living environment.
There is nothing quite as irritating as treating the whole family, just to find a few weeks later that the headlice infestation has returned.

Finding the right lice treatment that works quickly and effectively is crucial. Lice are tiny bugs that crawl from one place to the next. They have no wings so their crawling powers are unbelievable. These insects live on people, specifically on people’s scalps. The very idea of an infestation of this sort is enough to make your skin crawl.

Lice treatment has to be effective in slathering off eggs because the eggs are laid by the insect on the scalp. They are attached with a sticky substance that is water-resistant. This sticky substance poses a challenge for any lice treatment because it can not be blown away. It also can’t be washed away because the glue that attaches the eggs to the scalp is waterproof.

As the eggs hatch, little lice start working on the scalp. The bugs are literally parasites that feed on the blood of the poor individual who has contracted them. The well-fed mites then lay more eggs that consequently produce more lice. Not only is the host stuck with bites and developing deposits of eggs from the adults; the host is also stuck with empty eggshells called nits. Lice treatment has to deal with eggs, glue and nits as well as the bugs themselves.

These little critters are often contracted in schools or in neighborhoods where children gather in masses. They are passed along through head-to-head contact. They also can travel through personal contact and through personal items as well. Sharing combs and brushes is a common method of transporting the troublesome creatures from one person to another.

Many are under the misconception that lice jump, but they are not able to jump. They can not fly because they have no wings. It would seem that a preventive lice treatment that involves simple steps like refraining from head-to-head contact and refraining from sharing items that are worn or used on the head (like hats and headphones) would suffice but people unknowingly share the pests simply by hanging coats too closely to each other.

Itchiness of the scalp is a tell-tale sign of lice infestation. Once someone has determined that he has an infestation, he needs to seek appropriate and effective lice treatment. It is important to note that just because the itching disappears does not mean that the problem has gone away. Continuing the lice treatment after the itching has stopped will insure that the pests have been removed.

Today it is becoming more and more common for headlice treatments to fail. When this happens, the reoccurring infestation becomes evident within a few weeks after treatment. Persistent headlice infestation can go on for months, and in a few cases, even years. Not only is this an incredible amount of trouble, it can actually be emotionally traumatic for the person who has the headlice infestation, as well as others in the household.
Usually the reason behind a persistent headlice infestation is the direct environment the person is in. It may be that they are being re-infested through household items that were not treated, or someone who they are in close contact with has failed to treat their condition and is still spreading lice.

Another problem that is being seen frequently is that the common shampoo and cream treatments are no longer 100% effective in treating headlice. This is partly due to the fact that the lice are becoming immune to the insecticides in the treatments, so they are no longer killing lice the way they once did.

Persistent headlice infestation can be a big problem. For one thing you can only safely use the medicated treatments so often before they become a health hazard, in addition the emotional stress of having to continually treat all members in your household for headlice will take its toll quickly.

To best fight headlice infestations it is imperative that it be treated properly from the beginning. Treat the hair and carefully remove all the nits from the hair shaft with a specially designed comb.
Always vacuum the carpet and furniture in your home immediately after treatment, and you will also want to wash all bedding and clothes in hot water. Soak combs, brushes and other hair items in very hot water, or completely discard them and buy the items new.

Aside from these steps, you may want to let all people you, or your family has been in contact with, know that there was a headlice infestation and that they should check to ensure that they do not have them.
This will help to eliminate the possibility that the headlice will be passed back and forth between people who are frequently in each other’s company. If you have children in daycare or school, call and let them know that your child was exposed to headlice.

Another very important step is to retreat the hair after a week. This will help to rid the head of any newly hatched lice; in addition, keep checking at least every other day for a reoccurring infestation, even after the second treatment.

Also speak with your healthcare provider about what you can do to eliminate headlice.

Over the past several years there has been some speculation about the toxicity of “over the counter” and prescription head lice treatments. Some doctors believe that too much toxin makes it into the blood stream when using these types of treatments; this is especially true for children, and pregnant women. The level of toxins that could make it into the blood increases with repeated use, which may be necessary in the case of a re-infestation.
Another drawback to these “over the counter” and prescription head lice treatments is that the lice are becoming resistant to the pesticides in the treatments. This often results in either the treatment not working at all, or a very quick re-infestation.
As a result of the toxins in the treatments, and their increasing inability to kill lice, many people have turned to home remedies. While healthcare professionals have recommended some of these home remedies, others have been used for years as a treatment for head lice.

Mayonnaise: Pediatricians often recommend this treatment as an alternative to commercial treatments. Saturate the hair with real mayonnaise, and cover the head with a shower cap. Let the mayonnaise sit in hair for at least eight hours and then wash out. After washing the hair, carefully run a nit comb through the hair to remove lice and nits. The treatment should be repeated every few days for about a week and a half.
Listerine: Saturate hair with Listerine and place shower cap on head; leaving it place for at least 2 hours. After this, rinse hair and comb with metal nit removal comb. All lice should be dead at this point. Next you will need to saturate the hair with white vinegar, and again place the washed shower cap on the hair for 1 hour. After 1 hour, you can remove the shower cap to shampoo and condition hair. Again, comb hair with the nit removal comb.

Coconut Shampoo & Tea Tree Oil: Use equal amounts of tea tree oil and shampoo. Lather through hair and then use a shower cap. Let the mixture set on the head for at least two hours before rinsing. Apply a coconut conditioner, and carefully comb hair with a metal nit removal comb. Use this treatment at least three times over a two-week period, making sure to comb through the hair each time. Wash all bedding, as well as coats and scarves, and soak combs, brushes, and other hair items in boiling water.

Are you the parent of a preschooler or an elementary school aged child?  If you are, there will likely come a point in time when your child develops head lice.  As frustrating as head lice can be, it is actually a common occurrence for most children between the ages of three to ten.  This is because children are often close to each other during daycare or school.

When it comes to treating head lice, many parents head right on down to their local drug stores to stock up on lice killing supplies, such as head lice combs, lice killing shampoo, and other sprays.  Unfortunately, some of these products may not only be ineffective for your child, but they may also put them at risk.  Parents are always encouraged to avoid exposing their children to unnatural chemicals whenever possible.  The good news, however, for parents of children with head lice is that there are a number of natural remedies and home remedies that can prove successful.

One remedy for head lice involves saturating the hair with vinegar.  This approach is nice, as most individuals already have vinegar in their homes.  Parents who have tried this way to kill and remove head lice recommend leaving the vinegar on the hair for at least an hour before washing it out.  To prevent a mess, shower caps or other similar items can be placed over the hair.  Of course, be careful doing so, as you do not want to use something, such as a plastic bag, that could endanger your child.  It has been reported that vinegar will kill lice in as little as two or three days.

Tea tree oil is another natural and easy to way to kill head lice.  There are some individuals who apply tea tree oil directly to the hair in small amounts; however, many parents recommend another approach.  This approach involves placing about fifteen drops of tea tree oil in a bottle of shampoo. When doing so, it is best if the shampoo bottle is not completely full, as this allows the tea tree oil to spread evenly when shook.  Tea tree oil, when combined with shampoo, should be used on a daily basis for at least five to seven days.

Mayonnaise can also be used to remove head lice.  What is nice about this approach is that it should kill all types of head lice, including the eggs and adults.  It is also nice, as all that you really have to do is walk right to your refrigerator.  Mayonnaise should be applied to the hair and evenly spread.  Many recommend leaving it in the hair for about an hours worth of time.  As with applying vinegar to the hair, it is a good idea to cover the hair with a shower cap, just be sure to proceed with caution if you use a shopping bag or something else that can pose a risk of suffocation.

Another natural way to remove head lice is to physically do so.  Although this approach is natural, it can be extremely frustrating and time consuming.  What you will need is a comb, tweezers, and a flashlight.  In fact, this approach should be taken even after you use tea tree oil, mayonnaise, or vinegar.  These items will help to kill the lice in a child’s head, but you will still need to take steps to remove the dead lice and eggs from your child’s head.  The best way to do so is with a comb or tweezers and when your child’s hair is still wet.

What is nice about using the above mentioned natural remedies for head lice is that they can be used even if you don’t have confirmation that you child has head lice.  For example, if your notice a few specks on your child’s head that may resemble head lice, you can still use the above mentioned treatment options, without unnecessarily putting your child at risk or exposing them to many of the chemicals that are found in over-the-counter head lice medications.

Lice infest people of all ages, rich or poor. Lice prefer clean hair because their nits (eggs) stick to cleaner hair much better than oily hair. Beside direct physical contact, using infected person’s personal belongings such comb, hair brush, towels, bed linen, etc also spread lice. Children are the most infected with lice than adults.

You know you have lice when you experience intense bouts of itching on the scalp and the back of the neck and soreness on touch. When you see the scalp, area in and around the nape of the neck, you will see small white eggs called nits attached steadfastly to hair shafts. Unlike dandruff, these nits can be bit stubborn; hence pulling them out with fingers can prove to be difficult.

Easy to prevent, but difficult to treat – good hygiene is the most effective prevention of head lice.

- Avoid sharing personal items like combs, brushes, towels, pillows, hats, headwear, etc.
- Avoid head to head contact with any person.
- Trim your hair to a shorter length as lice can not find suitable environment in short hair.
- Do a regular check in and around the nape of the neck, behind the ears and scalp, especially for children.
- If one member of the family is infected with lice, treat all the members of the family at the same time to prevent lice spreading from one head to another.

To get rid of lice, you should get rid of all its nits or eggs. Nits are difficult to kill by any treatment. Since they attach themselves firmly on the hair shafts, they are also bit difficult to be pulled out… Vigorous brushing of your hair 2-3 times a day using a bristle hair brush will knock off most nits. Try using flea combs instead of lice combs for better results. Try some of these home based treatments to cure lice problem

- Mix ½ cup olive oil with 2-3 tbsp of tea tree oil. Rub into scalp and leave it on for 30 minutes. Wash your hair to remove the oil. Then rinse your hair with vinegar as it loosens the holding properties of the eggs and nits on your hair. Wait for 10 mins and rinse with hot water. Repeat vinegar rinse twice. Comb your hair using lice or flea comb to remove any remaining nits.

- Mix 4-5 drops of tea tree oil with your daily shampoo and use as usual.

- Warm few tbsp of mayonnaise (depending on who is using it either a child or adult). Slather it on the scalp just like shampoo. Wear a shower cap and sit for 30 minutes. Then wash your hair with normal shampoo. Then use fine toothed comb to get the eggs and bugs out. The oils in the mayonnaise provide lubrication to the hair and scalp, eliminating the ability of the eggs to hold on to the hair shafts. The shower cap cuts off any air flow the eggs needed to remain alive.

- Saturate your hair with olive oil and wear a shower cap with clip leaving it overnight. Brush out your hair using nit/flea/lice comb. Then wash your hair as usual with your shampoo and conditioner. Next take plain white vinegar and rinse your hair with it. Use warm water to remove vinegar. This dissolves the eggs. Repeat the vinegar rinse till needed.

- Completely soak hair with olive oil and wrap it in towel for 1-2 hours. Rinse and wash as usual. Work through your hair with fine tooth comb to remove eggs and lice. Repeat in one week.

- Mix any type of edible oil (vegetable, canola or olive) with vinegar in equal proportion. Add 18-20 drops of tea tree oil. Mix all the 3 ingredients well to get a creamy paste. Apply to damp hair. Massage well onto the scalp and comb through the ends of hair. Wrap a plastic bag around your head for 3 hours or more. Lice and nits will suffocate and slide off easily. Do this at least once a week.

Do not leave the young children unattended if you’re covering their heads with plastic bags during any of the above home based treatment – as plastic bags can lead to suffocation.

The reader of this article should exercise all precautions while following instructions on the recipes from this article. Avoid using if you are allergic to something. The responsibility lies with the reader, not the site, and the writer.

You’d think one would be embarrassed to rite about lice and lice treatment options from the point of view of one who had head lice once.  But, hey, I was a kid when I got the creepy things; I was one of hundreds of kids who are subject to the epidemics that are inevitable in school; and if my parents used something that worked, why not share the positive results of one kind of lice treatment?

So a letter comes home with me one day when I was, oh, five or six.  It reads that the school is experiencing an epidemic of head lice, and offers solutions by way of what to do, what not to do, and even what particular lice treatment solutions to use.  My parents FREAK out, rush the whole family off to our one-room camp, and begin the most miserable of lice treatment regimes I could imagine.  They isolated me from the others by putting me out back by the camp’s outhouse, doused my head with what was and I think still is one of the best lice treatment medicines on the market—called RID.  It’s in a clear bottle in a box with a stop sign (a red octagon) with white letters.  This stuff burned like ^%#$@#%^, took—to a kid–an interminable amount of time to seep in and kill lice and eggs, and smelled disastrous.  Then, the combing out of every hair follicle (as the nits and lice cling to, thrive at the base where the follicle and skull cap meet) took forever.

But really, to an adult, the RID was a fast, and more importantly, EFFECTIVE lice treatment solution.  And by the way, the studies and stats show that lice “favor” clean heads, so the implications of having head lice should not be that you are a poor, dirty think who not only bring on the lice but pass them around.  To the contrary:  lice are very common; they are very easily traded or “spread”, and they are nothing to be personally ashamed of.

The shame manifested in the infested and his/her parents and families is interesting.  It makes the victim in need of head lice treatment hide, zip the lip, and fret over such values as cleanliness being next to Godliness and all that.  But while this antiquated morality and this self-flagellation is absurd on one level, on another level it makes sense.  To be afraid of mice might be to be remembering at some past-life or psychic level the pandemic disaster that mice and other rodents once brought (in London by way of the mice carrying the plague).  So to be ashamed of lice might be, actually, a way to ensure the perpetuation of a healthy human species.  Shame (and fear) should not be such a great motivator.  Goal-orientation, here, to get rid of infestation with an effective lice treatment is…or should be.

Self-Care Measures

•You can use louse or nit combs which are of great helps in minimizing their population.

•Always keep your hair well-groomed and clean by using the proper shampoo.

•Washing your hair everyday and keeping it clean may just be one of the deterrents of warding off this problem.

•Going bald or having short hair makes it easier to remove the lice.

•Keep your surroundings clean.

•If you start the treatment keep in mind to clean everything around simultaneously to prevent re-infestation.

Home Remedies for Lice

In your regular shampoo mix 3 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon tea tree oil and 1 teaspoon eucalyptus oil. Apply this solution and cover your head tightly with a plastic bag for half an hour and then rinse it off. This can be used as a remedy to fight off these invaders.

After washing your hair apply mayonnaise all over your scalp. Keep it overnight by covering it. Rinse it the next morning and remove the lice with the help of a lice comb. The lice would slide through your hair with ease.

Apply Vaseline freely on your scalp to suffocate and remove the lice. It may be tiring affair as Vaseline is not that easy to remove. Before washing you can apply corn flour to make the process easy.

Make a concoction by mixing 20 drops each of eucalyptus essential oil and tea tree oil, 10 drops each of aniseed essential oil and lemon oil with 75ml olive oil. Apply this on your hair and leave it for an hour. Later, wash it to get positive results.

You can rub Listerine Antiseptic Mouthwash on your scalp. It may happen to kill the lice due to the presence of essential oils like eucalyptol, thymol, menthol and methyl salicylate and alcohol.

You can make a solution of baby oil or any other mineral oil with equal proportion of vinegar. Apply this on your hair. Once doused with this solution cover your hair for one hour before shampooing it. This may help in reducing the lice due to the inbound properties of vinegar and the oil.

Warning: The reader of this article should exercise all precautionary measures while following instructions on the home remedies from this article. Avoid using any of these products if you are allergic to it. The responsibility lies with the reader and not with the site or the writer.