The conditioner does not kill lice but stuns them for about 20 minutes enabling easier removal. The long toothed metal comb will remove nits and the stunned head lice. Wipe the comb on a white tissue and check for any lice or nits. Keep combing until no more appear on the tissue.
Washing, soaking, or drying items at a temperature greater than 130°F can kill both head lice and nits. Dry cleaning also kills head lice and nits.
Detection combing can be carried out on dry or wet hair. Dry combing takes less time, but wet combing is more accurate because washing with conditioner stops head lice from moving.
Some shampoos and conditioners that contain chemicals or special oils are marketed as nit-removal products for head lice eggs. However, new research shows that ordinary hair conditioner is just as effective.
Suffocate the Lice
Soak your child's head in olive oil or coconut oil. Cover with a shower cap for at least 2 hours (or preferably overnight). When ready, remove the shower cap, and separate the hair into small sections, then use a metal nit comb to carefully remove the lice and eggs. Rinse the hair well with shampoo.
Hair gels, hairspray, oils or other non-medicated products do not kill lice or their eggs. Cutting your child's hair or shaving their head to get rid of lice won't keep them away. Lice stick to short and just “grown in” hair too.
First off, here's what not to do: don't shave your or your child's head, or coat it with petroleum jelly or mayonnaise or anything else designed to "suffocate" the parasite. You'll probably end up with greasy, smelly, lice-infested hair.
Use hairspray to stick it to head lice
Hairspray makes it harder for the louse to grab hold. The smell of hairspray and the use of solvents (sad but true) in them can also deter creepy crawlies from finding their way in. Not to mention that if you're tying longer hair back, you've got a double whammy.
Sometimes it will be easier to remove the nits if you wet the hair with white vinegar while you are combing the nits out. Vinegar helps loosen the "glue" that holds the nits to the hair. Separate and comb small sections of hair at a time.
Lice and nits can't survive the high heat. It's true that lice and nits can't survive temperatures above 113°F (45°C). This makes them susceptible to any heat source, such as a hairdryer or the plates of a hair straightener.
Can someone have nits but no lice? It may be possible to have nits but no lice. If a person cannot find any nymphs or adult lice in the scalp and the nits are more than a quarter of an inch from the scalp, these may be dead and from an old infestation.
Since straighteners can only heat a small portion of your hair at a time, they often miss a lot of lice. Lice can crawl away from the heat as the straightener moves. Nits that are close to the scalp may not be able to be reached with a straightener. This means they will soon hatch and cause another infestation.
Coconut, tea tree oil, lavender, eucalyptus, rosemary, lemon grass, and peppermint are scents popularly believed to repel lice. Using any coconut scented shampoo and conditioner is an easy way to increase your defense. At 1% concentration, tea tree oil killed 100% of head lice after 30 minutes.
Head lice do not have wings or jumping legs, so they cannot fly or jump from head to head. They can only crawl. People catch head lice from direct head-to-head contact with another person who has head lice. This can happen when people play, cuddle or work closely together.
Lice and nits can live on pillows and sheets. Lice glue their eggs to the hair strands of their host. However, if a piece of hair with an egg falls out while the lice host is sleeping, an egg could end up on pillows or sheets.
Lice are spread by head-to-head contact, primarily among children. This happens through hugs, sharing hats, combs, brushes, hair accessories, and, increasingly, through selfies and headphones. Kids push their heads together to fit in a phone's viewing field and create a situation ripe for head lice to spread.
If they are full then they will be plump and shiny. What does a dead lice egg look like? A dead lice egg will be white or grey. As they are empty, they will be flat and dry.
Apply liberal amounts of conditioner to the scalp and massage it through all the hair shafts. Every hair has to be coated to ensure it reaches the lice. Lice live close to the scalp, so make sure that you cover the hair shaft close to the scalp. You don't have to work the conditioner onto the whole length of the hair.
Hedrin15 is formulated with Dimethicone. It works by physically smothering the lice while the Penetrol helps the product to penetrate louse eggs in order to kill them.
Lice don't care if hair has been colored. As long as a louse can grab on to a hair strand, it can make its way to the head where its food supply (blood) is. Myth #6: Lice like dirty hair.
Olive Oil smothers and kills active head lice, making nit removal easier and moisturizing the hair and scalp. Part hair and apply the oil directly onto the scalp. Massage into the entire scalp making sure to saturate the hair. Apply a shower cap.