<p>No, No, No!!! Don’t use the toxic stuff. Lice are easy (bed bugs are hard). <a href=“The Alternative Medicine Cabinet: Cetaphil for Lice - The New York Times”>The Alternative Medicine Cabinet: Cetaphil for Lice - The New York Times. it takes three weeks to be totally lice free…</p>
<p>^ wish I’d known about Cetaphil. Even with tea tree there was still all that combing…which I guess you’d need to do for the nits even with cetaphil?</p>
<p>My deepest sympathies, lice make my skin crawl. I had them as a kid and it was a traumatic experience. I found the live ones in my hair brush one morning and freaked out. And then a month later I became convince I could see them on the follicles of my hair and pulled out so man stands I made a small bald spot. It was terrible!</p>
<p>Even if using the prescription (like the others said, just pay for the good comb), use the comb anyway to get them out. I wouldn’t rely on the box it comes in saying it will take care of them all.</p>
<p>Last year all the kids came home with lice when we had an epidemic at our school. I have four children, but they are all multiracial with very thick curly hair. My youngest is my only boy and has really short hair thankfully so he was easy. The girls on the other hand, took me hours for not only the combing but then washing all of their clothes, vacuming and spraying everything down. </p>
<p>I did have the girls all braid their hair to lessen the chance of brushing up against someone elses hair and put more product in their hair after that.</p>
<p>D got lice from her 3rd grade classroom, she had long, thick curly hair. No one else in the family got them, although I felt all creepy-crawly-itchy in sympathy pains!</p>
<p>I have never tried this (somehow we managed to escape our elementary school’s many outbreaks), but some of the families who were affected swear by the Robi-comb. It zaps nits and lice with electric currents, killing them. Apparently, it does hurt, so it’s not for wimps, but if I had lice, I’d try this device before slathering my head with toxins.</p>
<p>When I lived in a group home in high school and one of my house sisters got lice. It was awful. I didn’t actually have lice but, none the less, all 8 of us got treated and had our hair washed in the industrial sink in the kitchen. It was a religious group home so some of the girls had extremely long hair and it took hours to do theirs, I was lucky with my bob-length, thin hair. I wish we had known about cetaphil because I got a rash from the RID. </p>
<p>You may want to use baking soda or diatomaceous earth on your carpets if in doubt, it will dry out any eggs and slice up insects without an exoskeleton. My dog had a really bad case of fleas this summer and those helped immensly. I also rubbed it into our couch cushions after I took the covers off and my mattress.</p>
<p>He seems to have solved his potential problems with a very short haircut. I saw nothing upon inspection this morning, so I think he got very lucky. Today he went for his scheduled haircut and got it much shorter than I expected. It’s probably a 1/4 inch and even shorter in the back. Looks kind of military to me. He said henhad been planning to go shorter anyway. The barber went even shorter than he asked for in the back. </p>
<p>We will keep an eye on it, but think it will be ok as long as the rest of us didn’t get them. Luckily, he is fairly typical and if he isn’t at school, work, or out he is in his room. Doesn’t lounge much on the downstairs sofa, but I will spray anyway. His brother is much the same and spends even less time in the family room. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice.</p>
<p>DS13 and I went to Honduras on mission trip a couple of years ago. One of the things we did was treat the boys and girls for lice. Trying to get all the lice and nits out of thick curly hair is very hard. I think the GF is going to need help. Otherwise the next time your DS goes and visits her he may end up with lice again.Unless he is sure she is lice free when he visits I would do what we all were told to do when we got back home… Do a RID treatment just to be sure there are no lice.</p>
<p>I,was,going to ask about that. Is there a lice preventive? Now that his hair is so short it wil be easy. I can feel better letting him visit. He will just have to put all his stuff in the wash and do the RID when he gets back. I think she is coming home this weekend which will be good so her mommy can check her. Nobody cares like mommy!</p>
<p>Read this thread and now my head feels all itchy and I feel creepy crawly…carry on</p>
<p>another trick is to use a flat iron- heat helps to kill the lice----good luck!!!</p>
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<p>A few drops of tea tree oil in our shampoo and conditioner bottles worked for us. There is also tea tree oil shampoo but I like the oil for other things too so I bought a bottle. Use it now mixed with vinegar and water to clean and disinfect :)</p>
<p>Where do I find tea tree oil? Are some brands better than others? I think the salon my Mom went to recently tried to sell her a treatment with tea tree oil. Might be interesting to try some out.</p>
<p>I wondered about a flat iron. Those things get hot and seem like they would do it. Fried lice and lice eggs in the hair. Yum! Trick would be getting close enough but would surely get a lot of them.</p>
<p>Several parents told me that they were told by local head lice removal specialists (yes, there are professional nit pickers out there) that lavender spray will help prevent lice. At least one of those children who used the lavender spray has since gotten lice again.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter what brand as long as it’s tea tree oil. Google around about it, I’ve heard it mixed with lavender and/or peppermint oils are effective too. I suppose you don’t know if it worked if they don’t return, only if they do. Ours didn’t return.</p>
<p>You can get a bottle for $5 or so and it will last a long time.</p>
<p>tea tree oil is known to cause breast development in some prepubescent boys- possibly lavender also… [Lavender</a> and Tea Tree Oils May Cause Breast Growth in Boys, January 31, 2007 News Release - National Institutes of Health (NIH)](<a href=“http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/jan2007/niehs-31.htm]Lavender”>Lavender and Tea Tree Oils May Cause Breast Growth in Boys | National Institutes of Health (NIH)). just fyi!
"“The results of our laboratory studies confirm that pure lavender and tea tree oils can mimic the actions of estrogens and inhibit the effects of androgens,” said Korach. “This combinatorial activity makes them somewhat unique as endocrine disruptors.”</p>
<p>Other than the comb, there’s really so 100% safe treatment for lice :(</p>
<p>Is tea tree oil in the oil department or the beauty dept? I am not familiar with it at all.</p>
<p>You can buy it online, in most natural food/health stores, and many drugstores. I see Walgreens even has its own brand.</p>