ADVICE RATING |
 4.54 (Highly recommend) from 20 votes (1039 Visits) |
We are dealing with these at the moment and it has come as quite a shock as both my children are still under 3 years old!
Head lice are not a "dirty" thing, they actually like clean hair, so don't be embarrassed and think people will think you
are dirty or neglectful if your children (or yourself for that matter) do get it. There are many treatments available for them, but you don't need to spend a fortune on them if you don't want to. I worked in Pharmacy for 5 years before having my children and trained and specialised in Natural Medicine and Aromatherapy and know there are some easy, low cost, natural ways to deal with this yourself.
You will need a lice comb, some nice thick conditioner, a bottle of each Tea Tree, Eucalyptus and Lavender oils and a large bottle of white vinegar, also a spray bottle to spray the hair. In a jug or a plastic bottle you will need to mix:
- 100ml of conditioner
- 5 drops of Tea Tree Oil
- 5 drops of Eucalyptus Oil
- 5 drops of Lavender Oil
Then in the spray bottle you need to mix the same amount of oils with the bottle full of water.
Shake or mix this mixture well & generously put onto the roots of the hair then massage right through. Leave for one hour then comb out the hair with the lice comb from the scalp out making sure you do the whole head. Rinse the hair off.
After you have done this most of the lice should be removed from the hair or dead, the problem is the eggs are stuck to the hair with a heavy duty glue. To loosen the glue you can pour white vinegar over the hair - I know it doesn't sound nice but it works - leave for a minute and then rinse well and most of the eggs will rinse off down the drain. If the eggs are more than 5mm from the scalp then they are dead and growing out, if they are closer they can still hatch. If you find there are still eggs attached you can wet a towel with a mix of 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water and leave it wrapped around the head for 1/2 hour, then rinse.
Spray hair with the oil and water solution and leave in. This solution can be sprayed in everyday to deter lice and works well.
You can use these treatments everyday until you are sure the lice are gone, or just do them once every 3 days until they are gone.
For bedding, clothing and car seat covers you need to wash in hot water to kill the lice - I also add some vinegar to the was to make sure. Anything you can't wash needs to be aired outside for 2 days as lice can't live longer than a few days off the head. Floors, furniture and matresses and car seats can be vacuumed to remove any lice or eggs. The water and oil spray can also be sprayed on furniture, car seats, etc to help kill and deter lice (and it smells nice and refreshing too).
I hope this helps people deal with lice naturally as they are becoming amune to the chemical based products available. If you don't want to make your own natural products there are natural ones that you can buy, but it certainly is a lot cheaper to do it yourself.
(May 2008) (
