Head Lice prevention

[NikiM20]

I am a preschool teacher and we have a epidemic of headlice. the school has been treated, the kids are supposedly treated at school but they keep coming back I have treated myself twice just to be safe, but is there anyway I can prevent myself from getting them? I have been hairspraying my hair, gel. Anything else I can do?

 

[Hedy]

Pony tail, braid or bun if your hair is long enough.

 

[mickeylove2]

I think what you need is the Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Shampoo. That is supposed to deter the lice from liking you!! Keep your hair up and you are doing the right thing with gel and hairspray. Just have someone keep checking your head, I would do it every day.

 

[Maggimus]

I hear that if you get some peppermint extract and put a couple drops into your shampoo that it will repell lice. They apparently dont like the smell of it.

Ive never had them but they are one of my biggest fears.

 

[Soulsearching]

My girlfriend told me to do this when my children's class came down with a big case of lice and it really did help.

She told me to go buy a big can of Aqua Net Hairspray and to spray my children's head with it after I pulled it up into a ponytail and put it in a bun. It sort of acts like a repellent. Of course the stuff really gets hard so I guess the lice just bounces right off of their heads. LOL

All I know is that it worked!!!

 

[corie161]

I've also read that tea tree oil is a deterrant. I bought a small bottle from Bath and Body a while back, just add a couple of drops to your regular shampoo.

 

[kathi29]

I add a couple drops of tea tree oil to the detangler. Or put a dot of it at the base of DDs head - in the back right at the bottom of her hair.

Also, I would wash her hair less. Apparently lice don't like dirty hair.

 

[ptlycloudy]

Yes, tea tree oil is the ticket. Of course I can't stand the smell but it is better than lice!! I add it to conditioner and detangler. If I know there is an outbreak then I put a little around the hairline around the ears and base of the neck. My girls may not have beautiful smelling hair, but at least I can kiss the top of their head without any fear!!

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

Is B&BW the best place to get the tea tree oil?

 

[tl_swift]

I am a preschool teacher and we have a epidemic of headlice. the school has been treated, the kids are supposedly treated at school but they keep coming back I have treated myself twice just to be safe, but is there anyway I can prevent myself from getting them? I have been hairspraying my hair, gel. Anything else I can do?

Couple of questions. 1) How can a preschool treat the kids? The medications you would use like RID or NIX are considered a pesticide. I would have a hard time believing that, that would be allowed. It would be something parents have to do at home. The stuff needs to sit in their hair for 20 min and then be rinsed out.

2) The medication only kills the adult lice not the nits (eggs). The eggs still need to be removed from the hair. This is very time consuming as they are very hard to see. If you do not remove the nits you will continue to have a problem.

3) Even after you think you have all the nits removed you need to retreat 7-10 days later with the medication.

At home parents need to wash everything anything that can not be washed needs to be either put in a bag for 2 weeks or sprayed with a pesticide spray made for lice. This includes the car seats they probably ride back and forth from school in.

Good Luck

 

[Orange County Girl]

In addition to the Paul Mitchell tea tree shampoo, I like their tea tree hair & body moisturizer. I rub it between my hands and run them over my kid's hair including along their ponytails and on the backs of their neck.

 

[RNMOM]

I have seen small bottles of tea tree oil at Trader Joe's.

 

[TNT21]

Is B&BW the best place to get the tea tree oil?

You can also get it at WalMart in the vitamin section, it's around $4 for a small bottle.

 

[NikiM20]

Couple of questions. 1) How can a preschool treat the kids? The medications you would use like RID or NIX are considered a pesticide. I would have a hard time believing that, that would be allowed. It would be something parents have to do at home. The stuff needs to sit in their hair for 20 min and then be rinsed out.

2) The medication only kills the adult lice not the nits (eggs). The eggs still need to be removed from the hair. This is very time consuming as they are very hard to see. If you do not remove the nits you will continue to have a problem.

3) Even after you think you have all the nits removed you need to retreat 7-10 days later with the medication.

At home parents need to wash everything anything that can not be washed needs to be either put in a bag for 2 weeks or sprayed with a pesticide spray made for lice. This includes the car seats they probably ride back and forth from school in.

Good Luck

Ok im back home, I went and got tea tree shampoo and conditioner. The kids are not treated at school . I meant the kids at school are supposedly treated before returning to school.

 

[Eviie]

Yikes! I have never had lice but there was this girl in i think it was.. 2nd grade? And she was my bestfriend. My grandma hated her lmao She said that her hair was always knotted, & that she probably had lice. Well she didn't have lice... she had something else. I would hug her in the mornings as a way of saying hi, when i came home my grandma would always check my head to make sure i was lice-free. Well turns out i got something alright, it was a black bugs, they looked like tiny specs of black, i forgot what it was called. It was the next common thing next to lice. Well my mom went with my grandma and I to buy something that was made special for that thing i had (Don't know the name ) & i got home, soaked my hair with water, rinsed it then poured the liquid on my head and scrunch it until it was foamy & leave it in a bun for 10 minutes, i took it off with hot water, and they rinsed my hair. They checked and we noticed that there wasn't as much, so we did another treatment later that day, & they were gone. I would go to school with this cologne which was for babies called "Violeta" in spansih but it's really just a violet cologne. I'd put some on my hair, roll my hair in a bun & i never got anything, again. I never hugged that girl either...

I don't know if that helps. I hope it did.

 

[lchadwick]

tea tree oil works

My 14YO kept getting it whenever she'd sit next to this girl on the bus, so I heard about desenex shampoo and that seemed to work, but since I also had a preschooler in the house and I couldn't used that I started using Aussie hair assurance, which has (maybe HAD) tea tree oil in it and she NEVER got lice. I've bought tea tree oil in WalMart and put it in another detangler I have and so far so good.

 

[shortbun]

"Treatment" is not necessary for head lice. It only kills the adults and not the eggs/nits. Daily and diligent nit picking are what gets rid of lice. I have now treated lice twice(not happy about that) and never used pesticides. Both times, we were successful in the first go round by drowning the adults in olive oil(great for your hair) and MAJOR nit picking with great light and reading glasses. You HAVE to get rid of those nits. We now use tea tree oil in our shampoo. I take a towel to the movies and I no longer share a pillow with my son.

 

[Friendly Frog]

OK dumb question but how do you know if you or someone else has head lice? Does it itch or just look like dandruff?

 

[MiniGirl]

I'm also told the coconut shampoo and conditioner is a lice deterrent. Last year someone in my dd's preschool class ended up with lice. They sent home notes and such asking that parents check their child's head for the critters and the nits, and also that they come to school with their hair pulled back and sprayed. Only about half the girls' parents did this though, so the critters hung around. My dd's teacher was lamenting the fact that she just couldn't do anything else if these people wouldn't comply. I left school, went to the store and bought a huge bottle of hairspray, and bag of cheap combs, and a bag of hairbands and brought them back to school. If someone came into her room with the hair down, she pulled it back and sprayd it. Nobody complained and the lice was gone soon after that.

Good luck. They are such a nuisance.

 

[daisyduck123]

I take a towel to the movies

I don't even go to the movies anymore.
Possible lice on the seats is part of the reason why. (Just think how many people have had their heads there in the past 24 hours!!)

I'm a teacher.....never had lice...hope never to get them!!