When you discover lice for the first time it's a very unpleasant experience to say the least and not knowing exactly how to deal with the situation throws up many questions.
I'm guessing your top two questions are, "How can I get rid of them?" and "How quickly can I get rid of them?" Before we attempt to treat them lets take a look into a head lice's world discover just what kind of insect we are up against.
Why has my child got lice? I thought we washed her hair regularly.
Have I really let the level of my families hygiene drop so low that we now have an infestation of filthy lice? Everyone will think I'm a bad parent! Firstly you need to get these kinds of silly thoughts out of your mind.
Head lice don't care if you are clean or dirty.
Fact! They are transmitted simply by direct contact, person to person.
Quite often it can be actual head to head contact or by sharing someone else's hat or head band.
In order to thrive they need a warm place to live and constant supply of food.
Your head, clean or dirty, provides both! If you are constantly itching, it's usually the first sign that lice are present.
This itchiness is the result of them biting you to feed on tiny amounts of blood and creating small raised irritations on your scalp.
If you detect the lice early on (you may only have one or two), you can treat the problem relatively quickly.
But many people don't actually get the itchy symptoms for several weeks and by that time those one or two could have turned into a full on heavy infestation! Once you've discovered lice the standard thing to do is to take a trip to your local pharmacy for one of the many treatments available like medicated lice shampoos and creams.
For years this method was thought to be the only way to treat this kind of a problem.
But recently many responsible and caring parents have become aware of some of the possible long term health threats that some of these pesticides may be posing.
A much safer and more natural alternative to these chemicals has been home based remedies.
One that has been seen to be very effective is olive oil.
The Harvard School Of Public Health conducted an experiment to see how effective olive oil was in the treatment of lice.
They submerged 6 lice in olive oil and put an equal number of non-treated lice in a separate container.
The lice removed from the oil after one hour recovered.
The lice that were left in the oil for two hours died.
Using an Olive Oil Treatment An olive oil treatment is easy to use.
Simply warm the oil and smother the hair and scalp of the infested person.
Separate the hair into small sections to ensure total coverage and then cover the hair with a plastic wrap.
Try not to let any air get inside and as with the Harvard experiment, leave the oil for at least 2 hours to asphyxiate the lice.
Shampoo the hair and finally comb through thoroughly with nit comb to remove all the dead lice and any eggs.
This process will need to be repeated several times over a period of days until you are completely sure you have gotten rid of all the insects and any eggs that may have been missed on previous checks.
This two hour olive oil home remedy is definitely something you should try before reaching for expensive pesticide shampoos.
There are many other home remedies that are showing great results in the fight against lice and you really should take the time to check them out.
I'm guessing your top two questions are, "How can I get rid of them?" and "How quickly can I get rid of them?" Before we attempt to treat them lets take a look into a head lice's world discover just what kind of insect we are up against.
Why has my child got lice? I thought we washed her hair regularly.
Have I really let the level of my families hygiene drop so low that we now have an infestation of filthy lice? Everyone will think I'm a bad parent! Firstly you need to get these kinds of silly thoughts out of your mind.
Head lice don't care if you are clean or dirty.
Fact! They are transmitted simply by direct contact, person to person.
Quite often it can be actual head to head contact or by sharing someone else's hat or head band.
In order to thrive they need a warm place to live and constant supply of food.
Your head, clean or dirty, provides both! If you are constantly itching, it's usually the first sign that lice are present.
This itchiness is the result of them biting you to feed on tiny amounts of blood and creating small raised irritations on your scalp.
If you detect the lice early on (you may only have one or two), you can treat the problem relatively quickly.
But many people don't actually get the itchy symptoms for several weeks and by that time those one or two could have turned into a full on heavy infestation! Once you've discovered lice the standard thing to do is to take a trip to your local pharmacy for one of the many treatments available like medicated lice shampoos and creams.
For years this method was thought to be the only way to treat this kind of a problem.
But recently many responsible and caring parents have become aware of some of the possible long term health threats that some of these pesticides may be posing.
A much safer and more natural alternative to these chemicals has been home based remedies.
One that has been seen to be very effective is olive oil.
The Harvard School Of Public Health conducted an experiment to see how effective olive oil was in the treatment of lice.
They submerged 6 lice in olive oil and put an equal number of non-treated lice in a separate container.
The lice removed from the oil after one hour recovered.
The lice that were left in the oil for two hours died.
Using an Olive Oil Treatment An olive oil treatment is easy to use.
Simply warm the oil and smother the hair and scalp of the infested person.
Separate the hair into small sections to ensure total coverage and then cover the hair with a plastic wrap.
Try not to let any air get inside and as with the Harvard experiment, leave the oil for at least 2 hours to asphyxiate the lice.
Shampoo the hair and finally comb through thoroughly with nit comb to remove all the dead lice and any eggs.
This process will need to be repeated several times over a period of days until you are completely sure you have gotten rid of all the insects and any eggs that may have been missed on previous checks.
This two hour olive oil home remedy is definitely something you should try before reaching for expensive pesticide shampoos.
There are many other home remedies that are showing great results in the fight against lice and you really should take the time to check them out.