Do not use a conditioner. It can keep the lice medicine from working. Rinse well with warm water and towel dry. Do not use the towel again until it has been laundered.
First, wash the hair with a regular shampoo. Then, towel dry it before using the anti-lice creme. Do not use a conditioner or creme rinse after shampooing.
Natural Oils: As a natural remedy to an itchy scalp, explore the variety of oils that can be massaged into the scalp to help moisturize the skin. Some recommendations include coconut oil and argon oil. Both have a variety of uses, are inexpensive, and have minimal side effects.
Many lice medicines recommend a second treatment in 9 to 10 days. This will kill any new nymphs that have hatched since the first treatment. Do not treat a person more than 2 times with the same medicine without talking to your doctor. Do not use conditioner for 10 days after any treatment.
After treatment, your skin may still itch for a week or more. This is because of your body's reaction to the lice. Follow-up care is a key part of your treatment and safety.
Repeat treatment every day or every other day for 2 weeks. Some lice eggs (nits) survive head lice treatments. The only way to be sure that lice won't come back is to pick out all nits. Nits left on the hair can hatch and cause a new case of head lice.
After each treatment, checking the hair and combing with a nit comb to remove nits and lice every 2–3 days may decrease the chance of self–reinfestation. Continue to check for 2–3 weeks to be sure all lice and nits are gone.
You shouldn't see any crawling head lice after the first treatment if you applied it correctly. If you are still seeing live crawlers, then you may have missed a step or the treatment is not effective against the type of lice your child has.
Mechanical removal or 'comb and conditioner' method
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.
The hair conditioner works by immobilizing the lice so that it is easier to trap them in the teeth of the comb. Without hair conditioner to slow them down, lice can be difficult to catch – they can run about 30 cm in 60seconds.
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.
New eggs are attached to the hair shaft very close to the scalp. Eggs that still contain a louse embryo are brownish in color, while the empty egg shells are white to grey.
It's essential to wash all bedding after a head lice treatment. The heat from a hot water cycle will ensure that no surviving lice can find a host again.
Nits may remain after lice have gone. They are empty eggshells and stick strongly to hair. They will eventually fall out.
Head lice can take some time to get rid of completely. For example, most treatments for lice only kill live lice and leave the eggs unaffected. This means multiple treatments may be necessary to kill all the lice from the eggs.
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. Only items that have been in contact with the head of the infested person in the 48 hours before treatment should be considered for cleaning.
Adult lice can live up to 30 days on a person's head. To live, adult lice need to feed on blood several times daily. Without blood meals, the louse will die within 1 to 2 days off the host. Life cycle image and information courtesy of DPDx.
Adult head lice can survive for 2 days and nits for around 1 week on a hairbrush. Soaking combs or hairbrushes in hot water of at least 130°F (54.4°C) for 5–10 minutes will kill any lice and nits.
Comb the hair into one-inch thick sections and remove the nits in each section by using a metal nit or flea comb. A metal nit comb can be reused if washed and boiled.
With effective treatment, head lice will completely go away after two to three weeks. The duration is dependent on how many lice made a home in your hair. Make sure you follow the instructions on your medicated shampoo, lotion or cream to get rid of lice quickly.
The only way to prevent them from hatching would be to remove them with a good metal nit comb, or your fingernails. Nits are laid by the mother and attached with a glue she formulates, to sit on the hair shaft in the perfect spot to incubate and hatch.