Scared of Lice? How to Deal with it~
Scared of lice? No one can blame you! These are sneaky, sticky little bugs that enjoy the comfortable dwelling of a host's hair and scalp! Being summer time, if you are sending your kids to day care, summer school, or rec programs, you may want to be on the look out for lice! Read on for guidance to recognizing and ridding these pests!
Symptoms & Location of Pain: Itching, skin irritation, white lice often visible in hair, & possible rash on scalp, and sometimes itching on forehead, neck, and ears.
Facts: Lice is contagious- passed directly from person to person. Daily shampooing will not prevent or kill lice. Lice can live up to 24 hours away from the human body (i.e. furniture surfaces, clothes, bedding). Also, I am sorry to say, up to 80% of the time, lice is passed from person to person in a household. (MyLiceAdvice.com) So, a safe rule of thumb is to treat everyone in the house regardless!
What do head lice (and their eggs) look like?
The adult head louse has 6 legs, about the size of a sesame seed. Their color vary, but generally they range from beige to gray.
Lice can be hard to see. You can spot them most easily in the areas behind the ears and along the hairline on the back of the neck.
Lice eggs (called nits) are oval or teardrop in shape. They may appear to be the color of their host's hair, ranging from white to yellow to brown.
What's the life cycle of a typical louse?
The female louse attaches her eggs to human hair shafts with a waterproof, glue-like substance. This ensures that the nits can't be washed, brushed, or blown away, unlike dandruff and other bits of stuff in the hair that often gets mistaken for nits.
She lays her eggs a fraction of an inch from the scalp, where it's nice and warm – just right for hatching. Nits typically hatch eight or nine days after they're laid. Once the eggs have hatched, their yellow or white shells remain attached to the hair shaft, moving farther from the scalp as the hair grows. As a result, empty nit shells attached to hairs are usually found farther away from the scalp.
Conventional Treatment: Pesticide laden shampoo and brushing thru hair. This type of chemical based hair treatment has also been shown to cause allergic reaction, skin cell mutations, and headaches.
✔Effective Natural Treatment:
☐ Trim hair a few inches (if hair is long).
☐ Suffocate lice with natural oils. Oil coats the exoskeleton of lice and prevents oxygen from getting into them. Essential oils kill lice due to their concentration.
☐ Protocol: Mix base oil such as olive oil or coconut oil with 1 or more of these essential oils (1 tsp base oil + 5 to 10 drops essential oils):
Tea Tree, Neem, Red or White Thyme, Rosemary, & Lavender. Runner Ups: Lemon or Lemongrass, Geranium, Eucalyptus. Massage into scalp and hair , and comb thru with a fine tooth comb or lice comb. Allow treatment to sit for a minimum of 5 hours (or overnight). Wash with natural shampoo after.
Treatment Frequency: Often times, treatments need to be applied more than once. It is common to treat an individual 3-5 times. Reason being, the life cycle of lice, as well as the contamination in fabrics (furniture, clothing, bedding, etc).
WASH all linens with detergent, hot water, essential oils (listed above~ 10-15 drops per load), and 1 cup of white vinegar. Then dry on high heat.
Helpful Resources:
Neem Aura Organic Neem Seed Oil 1 fl oz: https://bit.ly/3y56nIu
Fairy Tales Lice Good-Bye Lice and Nit Removal System 4 fl oz: https://bit.ly/3nt03FH
Fairy Tales Rosemary Repel Conditioning Spray 8 fl oz: https://bit.ly/3OCjQ1A
Babo Botanicals Lice Repellent Shampoo 8 fl oz: https://bit.ly/3NxLISU
SoCozy Kids Boo Lice Scaring Leave-In Spray Treatment 8 fl oz: https://bit.ly/3ORt75n
Plant-life Neem Herbal Soap with Lemongrass Essential Oil 4.5 oz: https://bit.ly/3R1GT7y
Desert Essence Organics Lavender and Tea Tree Oil 0.6 fl oz: https://bit.ly/3OPD7w2
Sources:
MayoClinic.com
“Alternative Cures”, By Gottelieb
➽Disclaimer: This information is intended for educational purposes only, and NOT intended as medical health care claims, cures, or therapies. Please consult with your doctor/specialist if you have any health concerns or questions about natural, herbal medicine. It is important to seek medical attention if needed.
Be Well,
Cara