Natural Home Remedies For Head Lice

Head lice, the parasite we love to hate are a big nuisance with children, at pre-school. It is estimated that 6-12 million people in the USA get head lice every year. My colleague recollects how her mother would pounce on her head after school every day to check whether they invaded her head. Hair lice is not considered a serious disease, but is embarrassing to have and can cause uncomfortable itching. Here are some home remedies to get rid of them. Read also about its eggs, nits and its survival cycle.

 

Adult female lice lay eggs, called nits. These nits are usually attached to the base of the hair shaft, very closes to the scalp. Often these nits are confused for dandruff and left untreated. After a week or so, these untreated nits hatch into baby louse called ' nymph.' They look similar to the adult louse, but are smaller in size. They become an adult within 10 days, and as an adult live for about 30 days. To live, nymphs and adult lice must feed on blood.

Head lice are found on the scalp, behind the ears and the near the hairline at the neck. Recent research states that they can change their color to match the host hair.

Natural remedies

• Apply Aloe Vera to the scalp and let it rest for an hour. Cover the hair with a shower cap. Rinse with warm water. Do not shampoo the same day.
• Wash your hair with vinegar. It will kill all the nits within two days.
• Apply a mixture of lemon and butter on your head, wait for 15 seconds and then rinse your head.
• Massage your head with mayonnaise and comb it after 2 hours. This will kill all the lice and their eggs.
• Mix ten to fifteen drops of tea tree oil with your daily shampoo and use it daily.
• Mix 2-3 tbsp of tea tree oil with ½ cup olive oil. Rub the mixture on the scalp and leave it on for 30 minutes. Wash your hair to remove the oil. To loosen the holding properties of the eggs and nits on your hair, rinse your hair with vinegar. Rinse it with hot water after 10 minutes and repeat vinegar rinse twice. Later comb your hair using lice or flea comb to remove any remaining nits.
• Soak your hair completely with olive oil and wrap it with towel for nearly 2 hours. Rinse and wash as usual with your regular shampoo and conditioner Later work through your hair to remove nits and lice. For better results do it at least once a week.
• Trim your hair to shorter length.
• For better results use flea combs instead of lice combs.
• Avoid sharing personal items like brushes, towels, pillows, combs, hats....etc with the person who has head lice.