A good lice shampoo is essential for successful lice control
Just the thought of lice can make most people’s scalps tingle. And if you have children of nursery or school age, the autumn and winter seasons are the months when you hardly dare read the parents’ newsletter for fear of new lice notices.
An outbreak of lice at a school or daycare can be difficult to contain because it takes a concerted effort to eradicate the problem. That’s why everyone should check their children’s hair for lice every few days during the dark months, so you can spot the lice straight away and start treating them.
Lice are not dangerous, but they are extremely uncomfortable and itchy, and they are very contagious.
I’ve already introduced you to the best lice shampoo currently on the market and in the following you can find a lot of useful information about lice, what to be aware of if there are lice in your home and not least how to use a lice shampoo correctly.
Facts about lice
When we talk about lice on humans, there are 3 different kinds: body lice, flat lice and head lice. Head lice are by far the most common and the ones I am dealing with here.
Head lice are small elongated flat insects that grow up to 3 mm in size when fully grown. Lice are completely transparent if they have not sucked blood. If they have sucked blood, they take on a reddish-brown colour which makes them easier to spot. In light and short hair, it is fairly easy to spot lice with the naked eye, in darker hair colours they hide more easily. But that doesn’t mean they’re not there!
When it comes to lice, the female is slightly larger than the male. Lice have 6 legs, or 3 pairs of legs, each equipped with a claw that allows the louse to cling to your hairs. I don’t recommend looking at lice under a microscope – it’s not a pleasant sight.
You rarely find lice in the lengths of your hair and that’s because the lice feed by sucking blood and therefore stick to the scalp. When they lay their eggs, however, they stick them to the hairs, but still in the innermost lengths of hair closest to the scalp. Lice eggs appear as small white dots on the hairs.
How long do lice live?
- Lice eggs hatch after 7 – 11 days
- Lice are ready to mate when they are 7 – 12 days old
- Lice live for about 1 month
- Lice can only live 24 – 48 hours outside the scalp
Symptoms of lice
There are many myths associated with having lice, one of them is that lice can only live in dirty hair, another is that you can tell if you have lice. Both are misconceptions.
Lice actually prefer to live in clean hair where there is easy access to the scalp which is their food source AND you can easily have lice without being able to feel it. In fact, there is a big difference in how sensitive our scalp is.
Some people get itchy scalps when they have lice, because the scalp itches when the lice move around or because the scalp reacts with a small allergic reaction to the lice’s droppings or to the lice’s saliva that they deposit on the scalp when they suck blood.
Others may have scalps playing with lice without even noticing!
It often doesn’t start itching until 48 hours AFTER you or your child has been infected with lice
Even if you have a sensitive scalp, it often takes up to 2 days after you have been infected with lice until they start to itch.
That’s why lice are such a big problem. In those 2 days (48 hours), children in particular can infect many people, because they often play closely together at daycare or school and then come home and cuddle with you.
It cannot therefore be stressed enough how important it is to make it a routine to use a lice comb to comb children’s hair for lice at least twice a week during the winter months.
How to get rid of lice
If lice are found in your household, there are 3 methods you can use to fight them::
- You can comb your hair with a lice comb
- You can use lice shampoo
- You can use lice repellent / lice shampoo and a lice comb
I would definitely recommend you to choose the last option if you want to be sure to get rid of the lice.
There are 2 types of lice shampoo on the market
There are 2 types of lice shampoo, or lice repellent as it is also called, on the market. One that kills the lice with poison and which is prescription and one that kills the lice using silicone, oil or a fatty acid.
The latter is by far the most common and also the one you can buy at the pharmacy, in Matas or in the supermarket.
Lice shampoo containing oil, silicone or a fatty acid
When you buy lice shampoo over the counter, it’s a lice shampoo that contains some kind of oil, silicone or fatty substance. The way this type of lice shampoo works is that it smothers the lice because it puts a membrane around the lice and their eggs which causes all the lice to be smothered and the vast majority of lice eggs to be destroyed.
The lice eggs that don’t die in the first treatment is why it’s important that you do a follow-up lice treatment 10 days after the first one. In fact, it takes a louse 12 days from hatching to being able to reproduce on its own, so it’s important to keep time in mind.
The advantage of using this type of lice shampoo is that it is 100% non-toxic and at the same time you also don’t risk the lice becoming resistant to the lice shampoo over time so it no longer works.
When using over-the-counter lice shampoo, it should always be applied to dry hair so that the active ingredient in the lice shampoo can easily coat the lice and suffocate them.
Lice shampoo which is a medicinal product
There are various medicines against lice that kill the lice using a special insecticide that is not dangerous to humans. The problem with this type of lice treatment is that it has been used for so many years that the lice have often become resistant to the poison – and do not die.
If you choose to use a drug against lice, it is therefore important that you comb through your hair thoroughly the next day to see if you can find any live lice.
If you find live lice, this means that the lice are resistant to the lice shampoo and you will have to try a lice shampoo that smothers the lice instead – you can be sure it will work every time.
How to do a lice cure with a lice shampoo
I give here a general review of how to use a lice shampoo. However, it is important that you carefully read the product instructions on the packaging of the lice shampoo you have chosen.
This is because there may be differences in the application of the lice shampoo. This usually has something to do with whether the lice shampoo is to be used on wet or dry hair and how long it should stay in the hair before it needs to be rinsed out.
1. Check for lice with a lice comb
It’s super important that you don’t just resort to giving everyone in the household a lice shampoo treatment without first ascertaining whether there are lice on the scalp of each family member in the first place.
You do this with a lice comb, or a tick comb as it is also called. It’s a small comb with teeth that fit very tightly. First comb through the hair with a brush so there is no filter and then use the lice comb and comb some locks of hair very tightly from the scalp out through the lengths. If there are lice in the hair then they will attach themselves telltale to the lice comb.
2. Read on the lice shampoo whether it should be used in wet or dry hair
There is a difference between using lice shampoo on wet hair and dry hair and it is important that you follow the instructions on the product.
If the lice shampoo is to be applied to wet hair, this means towel-dried hair and not soaking wet hair. If the hair is too wet, the shampoo will be too diluted and will not work optimally.
3. Use plenty of lice shampoo
Don’t skimp on lice shampoo when you’re curing your hair. You need far more lice shampoo than you would use regular shampoo to wash your hair.
There is a difference in how heavy the different lice shampoos are, but you should expect to use 1/2 bottle of lice shampoo for shoulder length hair and a whole bottle if your hair is long.
If you skimp on the lice shampoo, the concentration in your hair won’t be high enough and the lice won’t be killed. It’s a waste of lice shampoo – and your time.
4. Divide hair into sections if hair is long
It is important that the lice shampoo is distributed throughout the hair but especially on the scalp, which is the lice’s habitat. If you or your child have long or thick hair, it can be difficult to get to the scalp and ensure that every inch and every strand of hair is covered with the shampoo.
That’s why it’s a good idea to divide your hair into sections and soap one section at a time. That way it’s easier to get at and you avoid “holidays”.
5. Leave the lice shampoo on for the recommended time
Once the hair and scalp have been well soaped, the lice shampoo needs time to work so that it can kill the live lice and inhibit the development of the unhatched eggs.
It varies from product to product how long it should soak in the hair, you need to read the recommendation on the lice shampoo you have chosen. Usually, though, it’s somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes.
Make sure you stick to the recommended soak time to ensure the lice shampoo has time to work.
6. Rinse the lice shampoo out of your hair with plenty of water
Once the lice shampoo has sat and soaked for the recommended time, rinse the lice shampoo out of your hair.
Be careful not to rinse the shampoo into your eyes and make sure you use plenty of water to rinse out any shampoo residue.
7. Apply plenty of conditioner, hair cream or comb conditioner to your hair
Once you’ve rinsed the lice shampoo out of your hair, the lice are dead, but the vast majority still remain in your hair, even if you’ve rinsed it thoroughly. This is due to the tiny barbs that lice have on their legs. They use them to cling to your hair – even in death.
You therefore need to use a lice comb to remove them. A lice comb has very fine teeth and if you have the slightest bit of tangled hair, a lice combing will be a pain.
Therefore, use plenty of a good conditioner, hair treatment or a special comb conditioner so that the tick comb/lice comb glides easily through your hair.
8. Comb through your hair with a lice comb and remove the dead lice
Now for the hard work – comb through all your hair with a lice comb. One little lock of hair at a time. That way, you’ll get rid of all the dead lice and many of the lice eggs in your hair.
9. Comb every 2 days for the next 10 days
You should comb your hair every other day for the next 10 days until it’s time to give the final finishing treatment with lice shampoo. Combing your hair every 2 days will remove the dead lice and many lice eggs.
10. Repeat the lice treatment after 10 days
It is important that you follow up the lice treatment and do a post-treatment 10 days after the first treatment.
In the meantime, eggs will have hatched and these newly hatched lice must be killed before they become sexually mature and lay eggs themselves. So it’s important to stick to the recommended 10 days if you don’t want to have to start all over again.
Remember to check the whole family for lice and contact the day-care centre or school
Lice are incredibly contagious, so it’s important to take them seriously if you don’t want them to become a plague. If you find lice on your child or yourself, it is important to check the rest of the family and start a lice treatment immediately.
It is also extremely important that you notify your child’s daycare and school, as well as playmates and others in close contact with your child. There’s nothing embarrassing about getting lice – it’s just embarrassing not to warn others.
Since the symptoms of lice do not appear until at least 2 days after the child has got lice, there is a high probability that you have passed on the lice problem to others without knowing it.
Do NOT use lice shampoo as a preventative
Whether you choose a prescription lice shampoo that contains a toxin or you choose an over-the-counter lice shampoo that contains some kind of oil or silicone, it is important that you only use it when lice have been detected on the child or adult.
If one member of the household gets lice, the rest of the household should not apply a lice treatment with lice shampoo unless they have been diagnosed with lice themselves.
The main reason not to use lice shampoo as a preventative is that it does not work as a preventative. There must be live lice present before the active ingredients in lice shampoo work.
In addition, the scalp does not benefit from being exposed to lice shampoo for no reason. Lice shampoo can tend to dry out the hair a bit.
Are YOU any wiser about lice shampoo?
I hope you have become much wiser about lice shampoo, so that you can now easily choose the lice shampoo that you think is best for your family.
If you have questions about any of the lice shampoos I’ve introduced you to here, you can find additional product information on the retailer’s own site. Just follow the link. It is also on the retailer’s page that you can make your purchase.
Remember to buy a lice comb and a good conditioner so you have everything you need to take on the lice. Good fighting spirit.