Once a person gets head lice, the first thing they want to do is find a way to get rid of them. There is a definite procedure that a person needs to go through in order to get rid of lice, but first of all it is helpful to understand the life cycle of a head louse (which is the singular word for lice), so we can combat the way they spread.
Head lice are quite small creatures but are visible to the naked eye. It is quite easy to see them on a person’s head, because they tend to move just slightly on the hair shaft, in a crawling motion. They don’t actually jump from strand to strand, but they can move quite fast for their size, and will crawl over the strands of hair, from one to the other.
There are both male and female lice. Lice have a life expectancy of around 30 days only. It is the female louse that lays the egg. You can also see these eggs that are attached to the hair strands. They are quite strongly attached to the hair strand. These eggs are also called nits, and this is where we get the saying that a person has nits. In fact they have the eggs that are laid by the female head louse insect.
What the head lice live on gives us an understanding as to why they are so persistent wanting to find human heads of hair to inhabit. This is because lice live on human blood. They need to find a host so they can draw blood in order to reproduce themselves. So they travel all around a person’s head and then if another human being comes in close contact with them, they quickly travel across to the new person’s head and they have then found themselves a new host to live off. This is only nature at work, however we humans find head lice quite a pest because they cause irritating itching on the scalp and they tend to spread quite prolifically from one person to another, and are quite difficult to get rid of.
It is interesting to observe a louse that is attached to a strand of hair that is pulled out from the scalp. The louse will not live longer than around 24 hours, because it has no blood supply. Even if it has managed to lay an egg, the egg will not last attached to the strand for more than a couple of hours, and will just drop off, because it is not attached to the life blood of the human.
This helps us in being able to understand how to get rid of lice, by understanding what keeps them alive. Lice also don’t like bright lights and strong odours. So we can look at ways to get rid of lice in a step by step way. It is nothing to be ashamed of, if we find someone in our family has lice. It is not a sign of lack of cleanliness. The best thing we can do, as soon as we find the lice in our hair, is to get treatment. Stop the further spread as quickly as possible.
1) Check all members of the family, even adults.
2) Talk to your friends and the parents of the children your children play with
3) Decide that if the lice treatment is going to be effective, that it has to happen between all the people who are affected, not just one or two
4) Go to a doctor or your local pharmacy and purchase a reputable brand of head Lice shampoo that is effective in killing both the eggs and the lice themselves. Be careful in your selection and understand that there are different types of controls, some use a type of pesticide control and other products are naturally based.
5) Shampoo all the hair of those affected, being sure not to use the same towels for drying each head.
6) Use a leave in spray conditioner that has an additive that will continue to challenge the head lice. The best one for this is Tea Tree Oil, in a spray bottle. Other essential oils that can be diluted and used are Rosemary Oil, Peppermint Oil, and Eucalyptus Oil. Never use straight undiluted oils. These have the ability to slow down the movement of the lice and they may lose their grip on the strands of hair and fall off.
7) Massage the oil thoroughly in the hair whilst wearing gloves. Take time to distribute the oil through the entire length of the shafts.
8) Change the pillowcases and bedding after the shampoo and conditioner process has been done, so that there is no way that a half dead louse that fell off a strand the night before, may be able to latch onto a strand again, and start its life cycle again.
9) Buy a fine tooth comb, and after the shampoo, and conditioner, separate the hair into finer pieces and thoroughly comb through the shafts, the finer the teeth on the comb, the better.
10) Be prepared to make regular combing with the fine toothed comb a daily event for about an hour at a time. This is the most effective way of removing the eggs and the lice themselves. Even though this is not a pleasant thing to do, it is certainly effective.
11) Ensure that all hair that is dragged out on the comb does not come in contact with anyone else. It is an especially good idea to have a shower cap on your head whilst you are combing your children’s hair with the fine tooth comb in case any of the lice may move quickly to your own hair.
With constant attention you will find this is the best way how to get rid of lice, once and for all.