How To Get Rid Of Head Lice 2022 | Home Remedies And Overnight Treatments
Have you often had an itchy feeling on your scalp and to your horror spotted a few minute creatures roaming around?
Well, it seems like you’ve become a victim to the menace of these small wingless creatures – head lice!
It’s important to know how to get rid of head lice, so you can save your hair from damage and yourself from embarrassment.
Even though adults can get head lice, children are more prone to getting head lice and parents have to be extra precautions.
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These creatures aren’t very harmful or detrimental to health, but aren’t pleasant and need to be taken care of as soon as possible, but you do not need to panic!
So if you or your child has succumbed to these small little creatures, then this article is the right one for you!
You will read all about head lice, how they differ from nits, treatment methods, and how to get rid of them.
I’ve also added in some FAQs to make your search easier. So let’s get right into it.
What are head lice?
Head lice, also often called ‘head louse’ are minute parasites that attach themselves to the scalp and hair of a human being and feed on their blood and require consuming blood every 12 to 24 hours to be able to survive.
They reproduce quickly and thereby can spread easily over your head and from one person to the other.
Each of these head lice have a lifespan of around 30 days on the human head, but only with sufficient feeding on blood.
How to get rid of hair lice 2021
How To Get Rid Of Lice Naturally In One Day
Clean items in contact with lice-infested hair
Washing of towels, pillow covers, and bedsheets, etc used by the person with a lice infestation is very essential because it can be a cause for transmission for the others around.
Another way lice can get transmitted is through hair accessories.
So even if you do not share hair accessories, washing of hair combs, hairbrushes, scarves, etc once used, to avoid the fallen out lice from getting back into the person’s own hair or someone else’s.
For the items that cannot be washed, you can try the method of starving the lice (if any), by placing the used item in a plastic bag for two to three days.
This makes sure that the lice don’t have a host body and cannot feed on blood and will eventually die of starvation.
How To Get Rid Of Head Lice At Home
Use neem oil
Neem oil or neem extract has often been used as an effective remedy for lice removal because neem contains a compound called azadirachtin.
Now, this is one of the active ingredients in neem which has the property of inhibiting the growth and spread of lice.
How To Get Rid Of Head Lice Overnight
Use diluted essential oils
Essential oils have often been used for the treatment of lice infestation, but may not be the most effective method.
Still, they seem to work for milder infestations if you leave them overnight.
You can use these essential oils (like tea tree oil, clove oil, lavender oil, neem oil, etc) by diluting them with any other carrier oil of your choice and apply it to your hair.
Let it sit for an hour at the minimum or so before you can comb out your hair with a lice comb and then remove the visible lice by hand.
Caution: Patch testing before complete application is recommended to check for reactions or allergies.
How To Get Rid Of Head Lice Eggs
Use a lice comb
This method is of course more time-consuming but can help to a large extent.
This method involves using a lice comb or a fine-toothed comb on wet or oiled hair. Partition your hair and work in parts.
The fine teeth of the comb will help trap the lice in between them and then you can remove each one with your hand and kill them.
Remember to repeat this process at least once a week. Therefore, wash your lice comb after every use.
The best part about this method is that it’s helpful to get rid of lice eggs or nits as well. There are even special nit combs for the job.
How To Get Rid Of Head Lice Fast
Use over-the-counter treatments like ‘pyrethrin’, a chrysanthemum extract:
This lice treatment medication is often used not only by people who have lice infestation but also on people who come in close contact with the lice-infested person, to avoid the spread of the lice.
This treatment helps immobilize the lice (to avoid transmission) and kill the nits, avoiding the growth of the nits. So those allergic to these flowers must avoid this treatment method.
How To Get Rid Of Head Lice Permanently
Try lice shampoos:
There are certain shampoos available over-the-counter to help get rid of lice. These often come with at least 1 percent of Permethrin lotion or lindane that are lice-killing chemicals.
What to avoid using when you have head lice?
Here are some important tips to keep in mind in order to keep the lice infestation under control:
- Do not over do any method of treatment like excessive shampooing or excessive oiling of hair; it may lead to side-effects.
- Do not let any medication come in contact with the eyes. If it does, rinse off with plain water immediately. Do not rub or itch.
- Use of only one lice treatment medication at a time is always recommended. Do not mix medications; it can result in side-effects.
- Shampooing of hair is advised, but skip the conditioner as medication is harder to remain on conditioned hair.
Is there a difference between head lice and nits?
Now, this may be a bit of confusion in the minds of most people.
So let me get this out of the way and for that, I will need to get a little into the details about the life cycle of head lice, in order for you to know what’s on your head and how to diagnose this problem.
A single head louse has three prominent stages of growth – the nit stage, the nymph stage, and the fully grown adult lice stage.
A female lice (slightly larger in size as compared to the male) mates with male lice and reproduces within 24 to 48 hours after mating.
These eggs, called ‘nits’, are laid on the hair shaft and are round in shape, not flat.
On an average female head lice can lay around 100 eggs in their lifetime, wherein she lays around 4 to 6 nits every single day for around 16 days before she dies.
These nits hatch after a week of birth and can develop into fully grown adult lice around 10 days after they hatch.
It is important to know that not all nits hatch and some nits die in the egg and do not survive.
FAQs about head lice
#1 – How do you know if you have head lice?
Here are some of the common symptoms that can often mean you have head lice:
· Itchiness on the scalp due to the lice bites.
· Appearance of nits on the hair shafts closer to the scalp, which can often be confused with dandruff flakes.
· Redness and sores due to itching.
· A tingling sensation on the scalp from the head lice moving around.
· Visibility of adult lice moving on the scalp.
#2 – How do you check for lice?
A common method used to check for lice is combing of wet hair with a thin-toothed or fine-toothed comb because it makes the head lice appear more visibly.
Another method you could use is partitioning your hair into sections and looking closely at the hair strands nearest to the scalp, to be able to spot the nits.
#3 – Do head lice spread from one person to the other?
Head lice are wingless creatures and can hence only crawl. So the transmission from person to person is highly possible.
School-going children are at most risk of lice transmission because they could be seated close to another student who already has a lice infestation.
Nevertheless, adults too with close contact with another lice-infested person can get lice.
Some other ways lice can be transmitted are:
· Sharing hair accessories like combs, hats, helmets, bandanas, etc.
· Sharing a bed with someone who has a lice infestation.
· Sharing clothes, towels, or linen.
It is important to remember that lice cannot survive outside a host body for too many hours because they require feeding on human blood every 12 hours minimum, in order to live.
#4 – Are head lice dangerous to a human?
Head lice aren’t considered dangerous and do not pose a threat to human life, but can cause itching and irritation in the scalp leading to scalp infections and bruising like scalp sores, redness, and wounds.
#5 – Can you get rid of lice by washing your hair often?
A common misconception that people have is that if they wash their hair often, the lice will fall off.
This simply isn’t true as head lice, when in contact with water, get a firmer grip on the hair and lock themselves to the hair shaft.
They can also withstand water submersion for long periods of time without dying.
Therefore, no matter how often you wash your hair or how much shampoo you use, the head lice will not fall off this way.
#6 – Are head lice a sign of poor hygiene?
This answer is a big no! Head lice aren’t a sign of poor hygiene and therefore, irrespective of your hair cleanliness, lice infestation can happen.
Lice only feed on blood and therefore, the environment they are in, whether clean or unclean, doesn’t matter, for their survival.
The final takeaway
Nits are small and white in colour and stick to the hair shaft. It is often confused with dandruff flakes.
Therefore, it is important to look out for the symptoms of lice infestation before getting treatment.
If you have a severe case of lice infestation, it is always better to consult a professional medical practitioner or a doctor to get the right treatment.
Since head lice reproduce very quickly, it is important to remove the nits and head lice once or twice a week using a lice comb.
Apart from the other methods of treatments you have chosen to use, in order to keep the lice infestation in check.
Also Read:
What happens when you sleep with wet hair
How to get rid of smelly scalp
How to tie hair and protect it at night
Nix Ultra Lice & Nits Treatment
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