Home remedy for head lice

Head lice thrive on humans as hosts and mostly live on human head and neck. Feeding off of human blood, they try to stay as close to the skin or scalp as possible.

They use their six lags to firmly attach to hair shaft and move around. These legs are the reason their treatment can be somewhat difficult.

The female lice lay eggs, also known as nits whose color ranges from white to gray. If you have natural dark brown hair like me, having your head infested with gray lice is truly a nightmare. I remember hours of tedious headlice treatment my mom performed that I had to endure. White ones are very difficult to detect if a person has blond. They seem to use good camouflage.

If the incubation is successful, they morph into baby nymphs. The louse goes from a nit, to baby nymph to a full-grown louse.

What do head lice look like? Picture of head louse courtesy of Wikipedia

Prevention

Wash your head regularly to minimize the risk. Head lice are not a sign of bad hygiene, but washing the hair and thus the scalp, might just help, so why not?
Shaving your hair off is fine if you are a guy, but what do you do if you are a female? For longer hair, the best "tool" to help you prevent head louse from multiplying is a nit or head louse comb available at any store.

Home remedy for head lice

Lice oil removal

Ingredients

• 10 drops of rosemary essential oil
• 10 drops of lavender essential oil
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Olive oil serves as a carrier oil, it dilutes the other essential oils keeping them from quick evaporation.

Rosemary and lavender will kill and smother the lice.

Preparation and use

• Add the essential oil to the olive oil
• Massage the scalp and apply all over the hear
• Put a shower cap on and leave on for 1 hour
• Wash off using a head louse shampoo following the instructions on the bottle

Head lice treatment lotion

The rosemary and lavender essential oils in this lotion kill the nits, and vinegar makes it easier for them to slide down the hair shaft.

Ingredients

• 6 drops of rosemary essential oil
• 6 drops of lavender essential oil
• 5 deciliters of apple vinegar
• 5 deciliters od warm water

Preparation

• Mix both oils with vinegar and warm water
• Use the lotion to thoroughly wash the hair and scalp
• Put a shower cap on
• Leave it on for 15 minutes
• Use the head louse hair comb to comb the hair thoroughly and then wash the hair off using warm water

After this, wash the hair with head louse shampoo using the instructions on the bottle.

Thyme shampoo

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon of ordinary hair shampoo (baby shampoo will do)
• 2-3 drops of essential thyme oil

When we say thyme, we usually think of food and its wide use in food preparation. However, thyme and essential thyme oil are great antiseptics and disinfectants, and also a great natural insecticide. It shouldn't be used undiluted so you need to this:

Preparation

• Mix the essential thyme oil with shampoo
• Massage the scalp and apply all over the hair
• Leave on for 5 minutes and wash off using lukewarm water
• Following the instructions, use a commercial head louse shampoo

Head lice tea tree oil remedy

Ingredients

• 20 drops of tea tree oil
• 2 oz of olive oil
• 10 drops each of: rosemary essential oil, lavender essential oil, and lemon essential oil

Preparation

• Combine the ingredients and apply to dry hair
• Cover with shower cap, wrap a towel around it, and leave on for 2 hours
• Rinse off using a regular shampoo until you remove all the residue

Wikipedia.org also suggests blending equal amounts of vinegar and olive oil and adding 20 drops of tea tree oil.

Apply the mixture to damp hair, massage and comb the hair. Wrap the hair in a plastic bag for 3 or more hours. Use this head louse treatment for 10 days or at least repeat in 4 to 5 days.

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