Getting Rid of Head Lice

M....There is a beauty shope in Dillionvale called Hair Care 2. They sell all sorts of things for head lice for children. They are on Galbraith Rd across the street from Huntington Bank.
M. B

The most effective way is to comb them out. The medicines are poison. And as you said not totally effective. Sorry but the best way is to get them all. Launder the bedding and sweep couches and such with a vacuum. Educate them as they are getting combed not to use others personal items. Good Luck!

I to had a problem with the little buggies when my daughter was younger. I ended up buing a hair dye that matched the color of her hair and applied it. I know this sound funny but it worked all the nits and bugs just washed right out of her hair. So the next time she got them I just dyed her hair. Funny but it works. I was told by a beautician friend of mine to keep hairspray and gels in her hair because they don't like dirty hair. The cleaner the hair the better chance you will attract them. Another thing to do is rinse their hair once a week in vinegar. Hope this helps you

Ive heard thyme oil from the healthfood store works miraculously.

Did you wash bed sheets and clothes in hot water? Did you put all stuffed animals in bags and not open them for a month? Did you vacuum floor and couch and seats in cars? My son got head lice from school. I used special lice shampoo that I bought from Wal Mart. I can't remember the name of it, but it was the cheap brand. I followed the direction on the head lice shampoo box. I vacuumed couch, carpet, seats in cars every mornings and nights. I also washed bed sheets that my son slept on and clothes that he wore in hot water every day. I know it sounds very crazy, but I was depressed to get rid of those lice! I kept on checking my son's head under bright light every mornings and nights. It got on his nerve, but I had to do it. I finally got rid of head lices in a few weeks. Now, I don't have to vacuum and wash sheets/ clothes in hot water everyday now.
Hope you will get rid of lice soon!

M.,

I am a mother of four and we had it for almost four years steady. During this period at a minimum one of us had it. We tried everything over the counter and my husband and I spent hours everynight combing out hair. My dughters cried because they didn't want us to cut their hair which was suggested by family members. Then a friend told me to put rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle and spray their hair until it was really wet and then wrap their hair in suran wrap and leave it on for an hour or over night depending on the severity of the lice. We had to spray them outside for ventalation, but I kid you not we have not had one problem with lice since then. It has been almost two years and not one itchy head. Also there was no side affects to my children or their hair from the rubbing alcohol.

To no more bugs!
B.

Dear M.,

I have 5 kids and they have only caught it once or twice but it was really hard to get/keep them free of lice once they got it. What I feel really works without having to buy expensive treatments and shampoo is to buy cheap conditioner and a lice pick. When giving the kids their bath, soak their hair with conditioner and comb out the lice and nits with the pick. Then rinse out the conditioner. It may take a few tries to get everything out, but it really works. It is great when you have girls with long hair. I never cut their hair just used the conditioner. Make sure you wash all the bedding, coats, jackets anything that the lice can stick to. Let me know if this works for you.

So sorry you have to deal with those nasty critters. I have had a couple of bouts with them. I agree with all of the sugggestions given on how to get rid of them. One thing I don't think was mentioned is tea tree oil. I believe it will prevent the lice from getting in hair. I have used the Paul Mitchell shampoo with tea tree oil. I believe you can use it daily. You can also put about 4 squirts of the oil in reg. shampoo. The smell is very strong, but effective. Good luck to you.

my dad tood me to use any hair product that has coconut in it
i guess lice hate it so the smell repels them good luck

Hi! My nieces have had this problem so many times! I know they had some success with olive oil. Coat their hair in olive oil. Really work it in. Totally saturate the hair and then tie plastic over it, a bag or Saran Wrap or whatever, and leave it on for as long as they can stand it. I guess it suffocates the little buggers. Plus, it makes the hair shiny and silky. It does take some effort to shampoo out, though. I was the unfortunate recipient of "new friends" twice when they came around with head lice. The store-bought cures always worked for me.
If this is a recurrent problem, there are sprays you can use to repel lice so they would be less likely to catch them again. The ones I've seen are natural, plant-based sprays that smell nice. Just ask a pharmacist! If you can put their hair up that would help, too. Good luck.

Unfortunately, I know where you are coming from!! My daughter brought lice home from school and 3 out of 4 of us ended up having it!!! The over the counter meds didn't work for us. We ended up sleeping in a cap of mayonaisse and it killed the lice and the eggs....it smothers them. It was much cheaper and healthier too than the lice shampoos and such. Also, they sell a thing called a robi comb. It is a battery powered lice comb that zapps the lice dead and pulls them out of the hair. Every day when my daughter gets home from school I run it through her hair for about 2 minutes just to make sure she hasn;t gotten reinfected at school. It is a real reassurance that we would catch it before it was out of control again.
So far so good!! Also, as you probably know you must wash EVERYTHING on hot to make sure they are out of the house. We ended up going to Walmart and buying plastic covers for all of our matresses and pillows. Another reassurance. Hope this helps and good luck!

don't forget about washing all your bed linens, car, stuffed toys as well....as lice can live off the body for a bit.

Many people treat just the heads and don't focus on the rest of the stuff. Put anything soft like stuffed toys in a garabage bag for a few weeks, and vacume everything else. It's a pain but the best way to make sure they don't return.

Take olive oil and saturate the hair, then wrap it in a shower cap or other plastic bag type thing. (We used a garbage bag) Leave it on overnight, then wash hair in the morning and use a nit comb to get the eggs out. Blow drying is a good idea as dry heat is not something they like. Make sure you wash all the bedding in real hot water. Anything that you cannot wash like stuffed animals should be sealed up in plastic for 30 days. Vacuum thoroughly.
Check with the nit comb for seven days and re-apply if any more bugs are found.
For general maintenence, once the bugs are gone, use a shampoo with coconut, rosemary, or tea tree oil (melaleuca oil). There is a place on the net called Fairy TAles Hair Care that sells a repellant shampoo.
The bugs thrive in moist heat, so hot and humid is the worst time to get them, especially if your kids are getting all sweaty, playing. Those over the counter pesticide treatments are pretty much ineffective on the bugs, but they can cause damage to your kid's brains if used too much.
Don't despair! The lice can be conquered!

I have heard good old fashioned EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)works well. Saturate the hair with it and put a shower cap on. Sleep with the treatment on overnight. THe oil and the heat trapped inside the cap suffocate the lice and nits. You have to repeat the treatment weekly for a month, but think how soft and shiny everyone's hair will be! Best of luck to you.

OMG, my daughter had it this year off and on for 3 months...it was horrible! You know 1 lice can lay 60 eggs and it take 7-14 days for one to hatch. Nothing worked for us until I went online and took a chance on a product called licenders I want to say the link is www.licenders.com Or maybe it's spelled liceenders. Not sure. but anyway, it worked! It's not cheap, I think spent $60 but I figured by the time I wasted all that money on the over the counter stuff it would be worth a try. It's a 2 week process and make sure you do it EVERY NIGHT for 2 weeks as directed and I promise the lice will be gone. My daughter has very thick, curly hair and it was a bear getting rid of those things, this worked!

You have to get rid of every egg, one egg can lead to a whole nother slew of bugs!

S.

When I had the problem with my daughter and it seemed she and her gf kept passing them back and forth and after many applications of lice shampoo, I finally called the doctor's office for suggestions.
I was told to saturate the head with vaseline and cover with a shower cap for about 3 days. It worked! Messy but it worked...of course, wash all bedding etc as I'm sure you have already been told that.

Make sure all bedding is washed,combs, brushes, etc. Do the treatment a second time in 5-7 days. Try to determine which of her "friends" may be the source. A friend of mine had a severe problem with head lice on her grandaughter for almost 6 months and it was determined that it was her seatmate on the school bus.

i would not recommend using any product for "prevention" since that causes resistance in the next generation and then they are harder to get rid of.

actually the best way to get rid of lice is to get a good nit comb and comb through the hair till you get them all, vinegar in normal shampoo works well too, the otc treatments used to cause my sd to break out with sores on her head. the sprays for furniture and such aren't needed lice can only live off a human for 24 hours so wash what everyone came into direct contact with and you really should be fine. it's a waste of time to spend cleaning house if you don't get rid of all the eggs.

I know this was posted a loooong time ago, but I'm new to Mamasource, which I LOVE and just wanted to let you know that my step-daughter brought lice home 3 times in a matter of like 4 months. We finally found that along with washing stuffed animals, sheets, pillows etc in HOT water, putting bookbag in plastic bag in garage for 2 weeks and so on and so on, we put Cetaphil on her hair at night with a shower cap and had her sleep with it on. She would get up and wash and conditon her hair the next day and we would put either hairspray or spray gel in her hair. Wasn't long and those nasty bugs were gone. We were told that people that color their hair, use hair products and stuff don't get lice because they have nothing to attatch themselves to. Worth a try, worked for us.

(((HUGS)) Lice eggs and bugs are VERY hard to get rid of. After treating the hair you need to make sure that you treat all bedding, stuffed animal, car seat (not just the potable infant/toddler/preschool ones... if they are older the actually car seat), carpet (if kids lay on floor), chair (that your dgt sit in only if it is fabric)Even though another poster stated that you do not have to treat these area since it only live 24 hours with a live blood source..... are you really away from these thing for a full 24 hours????? You can treat and treat the hair and if you are not treating the envirnoment the bugs will come again.

We had a nasty outbreak 5 years ago in our home daycare. When I finally got my part under control... i inspected every child hair. Natural sunlight is the best. I would not take chance, even the dead nits had to be removed. It cost us over $200 to treat a 1100 sq foot daycare area. Best of luck. And make sure you stay on top of them as they multiply rapidly!

I have 2 girls with very long hair. When they were younger I would use some sort of hair product in their hair every day. Mousse, Gel, Hairspray anything. The lice don't like those things because it makes it harder for their nits to stick to the hair shaft. I feel for you I have had to clean my stepson's head at least 11 times. Now he uses the hair gel too. It has seemed to work for us. Good Luck.

It took as a while to get rid of it too! We did the some stuff from CVS that the pharm. told us to get. That worked on two of ours but my oldest just keep coming back! So we used olive oil in her hair over night and then Arbonnes Shampoo with Tea Tree oil. The olive oil got rid of it and the Shampoo with Tea Tree oil keeps it from coming back! So happy about that!
Good luck!

it is too bad that the over the counter stuff doesn't work any more. Keep using the shampoo and every night rinse with 1-2 cups, depending on amount of hair, straight viniger. I know it smells bad but the lice don't like the smells either. Wash EVERYTHING in your house. I would go as far as bombing the house like you would for fleas when your pet gets them bad enough. Also, treat everyone in the family as though they have it even if they don't. That will detour them jumping onto them. Ask the doctor if there are other perscription shampoos out there. Where did they pick up the lice? Daycare? School? How are they treating the situation? If they don't care for the problem the lice will just keep coming back. I worked at a daycare that had to check each student before allowing them in to try and get the problem under control. They even eventually had to shut down for 2 days to clean and bomb to get the lice out. The continued for 2 weeks afterwards checking every child that came to school. Good luck!

All the other moms gave great advice on tips for getting rid of them, but I wanted to write as well because I have a couple tips that weren't mentioned. Kirby sweepers work great to help you get rid of the lice on furniture, carpets and bedding. Also, the old fashioned hair dryers that have the cap and hose are great helpers as you can trap all that heat on the head, killing the lice. We used to take a neighbor girl to school and her mother absolutely refused to treat all the members of their family or their house so this one sweet little girl got lice over and over. I used preventative measures and kept towels over the furniture and seats in the car, but I also ended up keeping her home one day, treating her with over the counter lice treatment, coating her hair in oil and covering it in a bag then removing every single trace. The oil and bag help release some of the "glue" that keeps the eggs attached which makes it easier to get the eggs off each strand of hair. Also, I know everyone has said that bagging the stuffed animals and pillows for 24 hours is fine, but I'm from the old school and we bagged everything for 30 days. Better safe than sorry.

Buy lots of mayo and shower caps. I know this sounds weird but it worked. My kids bible school got infested with head lice. 21 kids out of the 30 got it. When the over the counter stuff did not work. I called my doctor and she recommended this. It worked for both the girls and boys. Put the mayo in their hair and then put the shower cap on. Leave it in their hair either overnight or about six hours during the day. It gets smelly, but it worked on all the kids the first go round. Surprisingly their hair wasn't really greasy afterwards either.

I hope this works for you. Plus it is very cost effective. Walgreens has 2 packs of shower caps for 99 cents.

My doctor told me most lice are immune to the meds now. She recommended Dippity Do, but that dried out and destroyed my daughters hair. A homeless woman I was working with suggested the old fashioned hair conditioner called Cholesterol. You can find it at Walgreens and other places. Pick their nits by hand, a long and arduous process, soak their hair in Cholesterol and put a shower cap on them at night, then wash in the morning. Takes about 3 days, but they will be gone! Nitpicking does give you lots of time to talk to your kids!

Unfortunately as a teacher I have had quite a few experiences with children with lice. First, the cleaner the hair the more likely they are to get it. Let it get oily:) Using gel or hairspray works also. To get rid of all of the lice do a treatment and/or smother all hair and hairline with Queen Helene I think it is a moisture treatment but it is a thick as tub butter. THen put a shower cap on for 6 hours. A drag I know, but it truly works. The nits and eggs suffocate. Blah - wash afterwards. My 3 and 4 yr old nieces kept picking it up at daycare and this finally took care of it. Also bag all stuffed animals/pillows and such for 30 days. Good Luck

I found a company from England that sells a chemical free oil, comb, and preventative solution to put in the hair to help repel the lice. Log on to: nitmix.com and they have very helpful info that my sister-in-law and I used on our own girls. My daughter had lice two different times before I found this product and hasn't had it since. The most important thing to know is to not spray your entire house down with a chemical spray. The lice will primarily stay on their host. They cannot live more than 24 hours without a live host. I ruined a lot of my daughter's stuffed animals by washing them in hot water and then drying them on high heat. I will never go back to any other way of dealing with head lice since I found this product. Good Luck!

I had that problem too! Uggghhh! Just thinking of the struggles I had with it makes my head itch!

This works, absolutely, although your children's hair may be a little gunky for a few days. I found out putting Vasoline in the hair and putting a plastic bag over the hair (not the entire head :() for and hour or two. Then comb through the hair with a nit comb and wash the hair. Wash the hair and comb every day until the vasoline is completely out of the hair. When we did this, the little bugs stayed away.
G. A

Mayo left in the hair over night, wrapped with saran wrap is supposed to work really well. If worse comes to worse, you may have to do what my friend did...shave their head. She has 3 girls...the oldest had to have her head shaved...she hated it but it was the only thing that worked.

Dear M.,

If you keep getting reinfected it sounds like you haven't found the source. Usually it is other kids at school but it could be friends or any other place that they go. Might have to put on your Mr. Monk hat and do a little detective work.

God Bless.

S.

A couple years ago our school nurse sent around a flyer saying that if you shampoo with a shampoo containing sodium lauryl (maybe "laureth"?) sulfate, it seemed to help prevent getting them.

K. Z.

Our family encountered this problem several years back and had the same problem with over the counter and prescription shampoo, treatments not working. Then someone told us about using plain old mayonnaise and believe it or not, it worked. It was awful, because our problem happened in the dead heat of summer, and I am sure you can imagine the smell. Anyways, you get regular mayonnaise (not miracle whip), apply to hair, make sure that the entire head of hair is covered in mayonnaise and then put a plastic cap (such as from hair color, plastic wrap, or a shower cap on) and leave on for two hours. Something in the mayonnaise smother's the lice and nits. Rinse hair thoroughly with warm water. Comb out and then shampoo and rinse again. It may take several rinses to get all of the mayonnaise out, but it is not harmful, other than the smell, and it worked for us. I hope that it works for you and yours. Let me know.

last year my daughter had head lice, and i made up my own concoction of essencial oils, mixed it with alittle shampoo, then lathered her head up really good. i left it on with a plastic shower cap for 30+ minutes.
after i washed it out, i went through EVERY cm of her hair and picked out all of the eggs, the comb doesn't really work, but i used it to start with then i went through again and used my fingernails to get the rest out.

2 weeks later i treated her again and i had found 2 live lice on her head, and a few more eggs, but that was the end of it!
i treated myself twice too, and my sons i treated once each and my husband refused to let me treat him.

everything was gone, and we haven't had a re-occurance!

i can't post url's here so i will send it to you privatly, but i just looked at the ingredients that a certain website used in their lice killer then i went to WHOLE FOODS and bought as many of the iols that i could find.
my recipee included
Fractunated Coconut oil 1 TBS penetrated exoskeleton
Olive oil 1 TBS
tea tree oil 1 tsp
Rosemary oil several drops
Lavender oil several drops
Neem Oil (very stinky!!) 1/2- 1 tsp (used in organic gardening as an insecticide!)

Eucalyptus Oil several drops
rosemary oil several drops
peppermint oil several drops

i mixed all of this together then mixed it with 1/4 cup of the suave daily clarifying shampoo. get your child's hair wet first then lather 1-2 TBS of the mix on to their (less if the hair is really short, and more if it is really long)
place a plastic shower cap on their hair then lay them on the floor to watch a movie with a pillow and a towel on it. My daughter had an extra washcloth to wipe the dribbles off of her neck.
BE VERY Careful to not get this in their eyes as it will sting!)
after 30 minutes or more rinse their hair. then NIT PICK< NIT PICK< NIT PICK!!! this is very importand to get as many nits as possible.
we left for vacation the very next day and we were gone for a week, then i treated them again when we got home. everything i read said that the lice can't live off the body longer then 48 hours.

hope this helps
M.

Hi M.,
Ask your Doctor for a perscription for shampoo.
Also make sure you wash all bed linen in HOT water,they also have a spray you can use,You should spray everything in your house were the girls have been,It Isn't cheep to do this but it work's.you have to make sure everything is soaked with the spray.
Hope it works.
D. In Port Washington,Ohio

Have you tried mayo yet??? I use to work at a daycare center and that's the first thing we would tell parent's with small children. You leave it in their hair for a couple of hrs. Also, your dr. can give you a stronger shampoo to use than what's over the counter. Make sure you are using the spray on all the stuffed toys and pillows. Put them in a garabage bag, spray them really good and seal the bag and let stand for a few days to a week. Make sure you change bedding daily and wash in hot water and treat the matress.
Good Luck !!!!

Basalmic vinager mixed with baby oil. Soak hair with it at least 2 hours with plastic bag or shower cap on. Then wash at least twice to get out all the oil. The eggs will come off when you come with a lice comb. Coconut shampoo is the best preventative measure I have found. I also use the lice comb at least once a week on my kids just to be sure.

my son brought that home from daycare once. his pediatrician said to use shampoo for cats that kills lice, just make sure it doesn't get in his eyes. i bought the spray stuff and sprayed & vaccumed everything from the floor, couches, beds, curtains..if my vaccum reached it, it got sprayed & sucked up..lol. we never had them again after that.

Rid is a great product, Denorex is good too. Original Listorine (can't spell tonight) for a leave in rinse will help get the nits off the hair shaft and items with coconut oil help since the lice don't seem to like it, sort of like mosquitos don't like Skin So Soft Bath Oil and neither do ciggers.
Are you sure you have gotten rid of all the nits in the house?
Washing all of the bedding, bombing the rooms to make sure they aren't in the carpets, etc.? Cleaning your car really well and treating it as well?
And figure out where they were before you noticed them having lice again?
I know my kids first got them at the daycare and reinfected three times before I told them I was reporting their facility to the board of health if they didn't get it cleaned up and make sure the children who had the lice stayed out of the facility for the 72 hours required.
The next time I saw them was in grade school and they were on the bus.
Pain in the back/neck, since I worked full time, and was rebuilding from a fire the when they got them in grade school.
P. R

My 3 1/2 year old daughter was sent home from daycare because she had lice. I have a treament from Rid called Pure Alternative and it doesn't have any chemicals. It can be used several times in the same day if needs be. It's not made anymore but I have followed that up with suggestions from her pediatrician. Wash hair with Dawn liquid dish soap and rinse with a 1/2 vinegar, 1/2 water rinse. Then I followed that with Head and Shoulders (prevents infestation) and coconut oil shampoo and conditioner (they don't seem to like coconut). Her hair was too baby fine for the comb so I ended up picking them out with my fingers. Also always use a hair dryer on the hottest setting, this dries/fries the eggs. Her toys are bagged up for 2 weeks and all the bed linens and laundry have been washed in hot water(130 degrees or higher) and in the dryer for at least 20 minutes on highest setting. Mayonnaise soak works but it is hard to wash out. What it is doing is smothering the live louse. I have been told that listerine as a soaking treatment is also good. Good Luck!

I just took a Communicable Diesease class a couple days ago and one way to get rid of it is to coat your childs' hair in real Mayonaise or Herbal Essence conditioner. Put a shower cap on them and let it set for 1 hr then rinse. Hope this helps :)

Hi M.
My daughter had lice earlier this year, they(doctor and pharmasist) told me to use an over the counter lice treatment i used the cvs brand lice treatment permethrin lotion1%.
there is 2 bottles of creme rinse and 2 nit removal combs.
you have to wash the hair first without a condition as this decreases the activity of the lice lotion. follow the directions completely. and rinse, rinse rinse, but... i spent over two hours getting all the nits out, that is the key you have to remove each nit, or it defeats the purpose of the treatment. i also used bedding spray for the furniture, mattress, washed all beding or anything they touched in hot water, put stuffed animals in a trash bag for a week, and sprayed the bedding spray on the floors and swept throughly.
She has not had lice since thank god:)
hope this helps/
L.

M.,

I had lice a couple years ago, I finially weaded up using
olive oil. to put it on make sure you really soak the hair in it, put a shower cap on to keep the oil from getting every
where, leave on for 24 hours. you might have to do it a few
times, but the oil is definitely better for you then the over
the counter stuff. It worked for me. Hope it does for you too.

K.

I worked in a group home several years ago and had to treat myself and the kids for lice. They did give us a prescription shampoo to use. We stripped all of the beds and clothes from the closet. We washed everything. Any stuffed animals were bagged for 6 months. Pillows were washed. I used so many cans of the spray on beds, carpets, couches, vehicles, etc. Vacuumed over and over again. Cleaned absolutely everything in my house and at the group home. I used the shampoo several times and for several days. I did this over and over for at least a week. Anything that was worn was washed. Bedding was washed every day for at least a week.

Hi M., your right, over the counter things dont work, I found that out after I spent about 100 dollars on them, I found a website somewhere that had home remides for Lice and it said to put mayo on the head for about 20 mins, at that point I would have tried anything, and it worked. You have to wash thier hair afterwards with dawn dish detergant because its kinda greasey but it works!! Try it. I hope this helps!

My mom worked at a childrens hospital that just used vegetable oil on the kids heads to suffocate the lice. They would put the oil on at night and cover their hair with a shower cap and then comb in the morning. You have to be sure to wash all bedding in HOT water and dry in a HOT dryer. Anything that can't be washed should be put in plastic bags (trash bags) for a certain length of time.....I think I left mine in bags for a week (wanted to make sure they were dead). Make sure everyone in the house is checked daily until no more signs of lice. Make sure the place where she got it from gets cleaned. Lice like clean hair, so the only preventative I know of is to keep your kids' hair filthy or put them in a bubble. Denorex is a dandruff shampoo right? Read the label and see what it says for warnings....I think it is only harmful if it gets in the nose, mouth, or eyes. I don't use it on my 3 youngest (2, 3.5, &10) because they don't really know to keep it out of their face. My oldest (15) uses dandruff shampoo because he NEEDS it and it works for him. So just be careful to keep it out of their face and rinse thoroughly. I don't think dandruff shampoo is going to help with the lice though....just dandruff. Make sure the schools are doing lice checks too. My daughter's preschool did at least 2 checks over the year which helps keep it under control.

I've heard that Mayonnaise works wonders. :)

We used LiceFreee! from Walgreens and that stuff was amazing! It's non-toxic and you can use it as often as you need to and it doesn't leave a chemical residue on hair the way RID does. Besides, RID is a pesticide and can be dangerous and those little buggers and becoming resistant to it.

Also, we now use a tea tree shampoo as a preventative measure. Lice don't seem to like tea tree oil. Don't know why...

First of all go to www.headlice.org. Their website is very informative, and tells you all about the dangers of the chemical lice killers, lice becoming drug resistant etc. Their comb is great, because as they tell you, the best way to get rid of them is combing and picking out the nits. I have used an essential oils kit from the health food store that worked very well, but don't recall the name. Just bag up the toys for a few weeks and run the vacuum a few times. Lice can't live that long without food (blood), so there's no need to bomb your house with chemicals that can harm you and your children. And do a weekly lice check for a while after you think you're rid of them...that way you can get them before they spread again if you miss a nit or two. Good luck! The whole process can be very draining...

Hello M.,

I didn't read all the advice you were given, I didn't have time. I did however want to tell you of what I did. I have three daughter's ages now 22,17 and 15. Let me tell you I have been through the lice thing a few times since they were little. I tried the over the counter stuff and it was a pain. The last time I had to deal with it, my oldest got it from a friends house, and she had it BAD. I researched online and tried a remedy I saw on there several times.
I put plain salad dressing NOT mayonaise on the girls heads and let it sit for like 2 or 3 hours. Then washed and rinsed it out with dawn dish washing liquid. Then I took a spray bottle with 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 Tea tree oil and sprayed their heads down real well (be sure to cover their eyes) then cover it with a bag. Let it sit for a hour. Wash it out with Suave coconut shampoo with a little tea tree oil mixed in it.

I read on several places on the internet that lice do NOT like coconut or the tea tree oil. Use Tea tree oil in their shampoo's to keep them from getting it again.

Anyway I combed each girl real well after I was done and let me tell you it REALLY worked! I didn't even have to do it a second time!! Be sure to wash everything you can in their room, bag up all stuffed toys and vaccum real good too.

Good Luck
T.