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Dear Nutritionist,
I've heard that tea tree oil in shampoo is effective for repelling lice. Are there any known foods or other effective methods of eradicating this nuisance? It seems to be rampant now that kids are no longer required to stay home if lice is detected, and my daughter has now gotten it several times. Any advice is appreciated!
Thanks!
Frustrated
Dear Frustrated,
I’ve found nothing gives people the heebie-jeebies like talking about head lice, bed bugs, or roaches. And yet, most of us encounter an infestation of at least one of these at some point.
And, when we do, we invariably learn that having a head-lice infestation is an insane amount of work to overcome!
For some it blossoms into a repeating nightmare wherein one (or more) family member — treated again and again — continues to be affected. This is amplified as school inclusion policies don’t keep kids out when contaminated.
I struggled with this very issue with my son more than 15 years ago in inner city Regina, Sask., which also had an inclusion policy that kept the outbreak going and created resistance. I empathize with your frustration!
As a result of that experience, I learned what does and doesn’t work. For my home treatment protocol you will need:
- Coconut oil
- Shampoo and separate conditioner
- Neem, rosemary, tea tree, and lavender essential oils
- Garbage bags
- Vacuum
- Quality steel nit comb
- Wide tooth plastic comb
- Clips for hair
- Saran wrap or plastic bags for hair
Here is what you do:
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Put a thick conditioner in a small bowl and add equal parts coconut oil to make enough to cover the heads thoroughly. Add 10-15 drops of neem oil, rosemary, tea tree, and lavender essential oils per person. Neem is an extremely potent insecticide. Mix thoroughly and then apply to the affected dry hair, thoroughly soaking the hair and wrap it tight in saran wrap or a plastic bag pinched up tight and held with a clip. Leave this on for three-plus hours. It will drip, so each person should have a cloth to dab at it.
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Make a second concoction of conditioner and 20 drops of each oil except neem, and add this to water and put in a spray bottle. This is your nightly spray-on treatment.
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It’s best to treat the entire family at once when first infested, then once a week each week for three weeks.
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Wash all bedding, linens, towels, clothes, outerwear, and backpacks, and then bag any that can’t be washed immediately.
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Vacuum the mattresses, floors, furniture, car. Cover car seats in garbage bags for extra assurance.
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Remove hair from all combs, barrettes, brushes, etc, and throw into a big bowl or pot of boiling water on the counter. Leave it to sit.
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After the three-plus hours, with the oil on the head, sit each person down with a clean towel and first comb out their hair with a large comb to remove tangles and separate the hair into small pieces and clip the rest up.
Get your family to bring you a nice cup of tea for this or put on a funny show on the TV to listen to as you work, because it’s fussy work and you need to relax so you aren’t tugging the person’s hair and making it more traumatic than it needs to be. Remember our peace of mind is more precious than these silly bugs!
The conditioner is helpful because the comb will slide through the hair and there will be less tugging and damage to the hair. Do it so you create a scraping on the hair strand, to scrape nits off. Girls often suffer twice with head lice – once from the stigma and stress and then from the damage to their hair. The conditioner avoids that scenario. Using your nit comb, comb it out and wipe on the towel with each pass.
Repeat until all nits and lice you can see are removed. Then get the person to shower and wash their hair with shampoo. They need to stay away from the others until everyone is treated. Children forget easily to stay separated, so it’s best to put the treated ones in a separate room or to bed. -
You will need to spray every head with the conditioner and comb through with the nit comb every night for one week. No need to shampoo, just rinse after. The cleaning and soaking of the heads should be done once a week for three weeks. Nits can hatch if you miss one. Most people do not comb well enough and one nit left in is all it takes to start the cycle again. So it’s most essential to make sure the combing is done every night for a week. This will eliminate the infestation within three weeks and all living lice will be gone after the first day.
There should be no shame in a mass text or email to notify other parents of an outbreak. Most will be thankful for the heads up, and it will decrease the odds of recontamination.
Lastly, any family member who does not respond well to this or gets lice repeatedly afterward when others do not will need a homeopathic remedy selected for them by a licensed homeopath. That should eliminate repeated occurrences.
Namaste!
Nonie Nutritionista
Nonie De Long is a registered orthomolecular nutritionist with a clinic in Bradford West Gwillimbury, where she offers holistic, integrative health care for physical and mental-health issues.
