Natural home remedies & treatments killing head lice
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Someone asked me about how to naturally treat lice. For those who don’t know (aren’t you lucky?), a medical term for lice infestation is pediculosis when tiny bugs burrow into your scalp to feed on blood. The chemicals in their saliva will make you itch and also stop the blood clotting. The regular treatment that your doctor may prescribe is usually a lice shampoo that has pyrethrin- a pesticide from chrysanthemums, or permethrin- a synthetic form of the same pesticide. Needless to say, because of overuse of these chemicals, some studies on lice indicate it’s becoming resistant to pyrethrin.
Before you start with the natural treatments, fill the sink with water and add 3 teaspoons of Clorox. Soak all your hair utensils like combs, hair clips, etc. for some time and rinse them with water. Take all bed sheets, comforters, quilts, etc and put them in trash bags. Store it airtight for over two weeks. Because lice need you to feed, all the eggs and lice will all be dead within two weeks of being trapped inside the bag.
The first step of treatment is to apply Vegetable Shortening, Olive Oil or Mayonnaise to your hair. Rub a sufficient amount of any of these into your hair, saturating hair and roots well. Cover the whole thing with shower cap or saran wrap. Let it sit for 2-3 hours- that should be enough to kill head lice and nits. Wash your hair with shampoo and follow with rinsing with white vinegar to dissolve the the “adhesive” lice nits use to stick to the hair shaft. Rinse hair with water and use nit comb to remove the remaining nits. You should repeat the whole process in one week.
You can use baby oil or any mineral oil, if you don’t have olive oil. Also Listerine can be used on wet hair and scalp for 2 hours to kill the lice (thymol is the active ingredient).
After you done, soak brushes and combs in Lysol to disinfect.
Another totally different method is to use a parasite zapper in conjunction with the remedies mentioned to assist in destroying the lice in the whole body. Search “zapper” on Google for more information (don’t use a zapper, if you are pregnant or have a pace maker or other such devices).