HEAD LICE

Natural Ways to Get Rid of Lice - More Than Home Remedies

Every child in school or daycare needs lice prevention. If it's too late and your child has lice, we've also got lice cures. All the natural way. No one wants to ever think about lice. But, even the cleanest child can bring them home. School, the playground, parties, and daycare are just a few of the places where a child can get lice.

Learn how to get rid of lice naturally. Kill head lice safely without poisons. This natural lice cure will kill lice not kids! AND, more importantly, the natural way to prevent a lice infestation from occurring!    


It is bad enough that your child has come home from school with lice, you may not need to add POISONS to your child’s head. Some lice products are still made with a poison that was banned for use on crops, most lice products will kill lice and lots of other bugs (would you spray RAID on your child?), and most lice products are flammable. Almost all of the products out there can cause terrible problems if you leave them on too long, use them too often, or use them on a child too young. If you do end up using any of the commercial lice products, at least read every word of the directions first and follow them exactly.

Or, you can try the natural way. Please read all of this before starting. Don't forget to check Natural Ways To Prevent Lice.

Kill the Bugs

Lice can be killed quickly, easily, cheaply and safely with mayonnaise. Simply get a new jar of mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip) from your kitchen shelf or at the grocery store. (Don’t grab one from the refrigerator, as it will be way too cold.) Grab a handful (or several) and cover all of you child’s hair, being sure to get behind the ears and down the neck a little. You can cover this with a plastic shower cap to keep the mayonaise from dripping or getting onto your furniture. Leave the mayonnaise on for two hours to smother the lice and developed eggs. Then, remove the shower cap and throw it away, both of you wash your hands good with soap, and shampoo the hair thoroughly. It may take two or more shampoos to get the hair clean.

You can use Vaseline if you don't have any mayonnaise. The only way to remove Vaseline from hair is to saturate the hair in baby oil, rub in through the hair completely, then squeeze out as much as you can. Then wash the hair three times with Dawn dish soap and hot water (not hot enough to burn!), each time leaving the dish soap on for a few minutes to allow it to work.

Vaseline can be left on overnight if you wish, but this is not safe with mayonnaise because it turns poisonous when it is not refrigerated. Your child may scratch his head while sleeping and then put his fingers in his mouth.

If you don’t trust the mayonnaise or Vaseline to smother the lice, you can make a natural lice shampoo to kill the lice but not poison your child. To a base of five teaspoons of Olive Carrier Oil (or Coconut Oil), add five drops of Tea Tree Essential Oil, five drops of Rosemary Essential Oil, five drops of Lavender Essential Oil, five drops of Peppermint Essential Oil, and five drops of Eucalyptus Essential Oil. Add a small amount of regular shampoo to the mixture, and put this all over the hair - all the way to the edges. Leave this on for an hour under a towel or tight-fitting shower cap to prevent drips. Rinse the hair, and shampoo the hair. (Olive oil and coconut oil kill lice by "dissolving" their exoskeletons, and other oils will not have the same effect.)

Don't use a conditioner at this stage, but you will find that the hair is very easy to comb after using this oily mixture.            

Notes: 1) The respiration of a baby or child under 5 can be slowed down or even stopped if peppermint oil or eucalyptus oil is close enough for the baby to even breathe either. 2) High blood pressure may be elevated by peppermint essential oil. 3) Peppermint or rosemary may be harmful during pregnancy. Just use the recipe without the oil that may be harmful in your case.

Loosen the Eggs

After shampooing, rinse the hair and scalp with vinegar. This loosens the glue that holds the nits onto the hair shafts. Rinse with hot water - but not so hot it that burns the child.

Many of the nits (eggs) rinsed down the drain after the vinegar rinse. Now you have to deal with any nits that are left behind. The mayonnaise may not kill the newest nits since the unborn lice inside may have not yet developed enough to need air yet. Even if it did, schools and daycares will not allow children back in until the nits are removed.

Get the Eggs Out

Comb all of the tangles out of the hair with a regular comb, then comb the hair with a nit comb. You can buy this in the drug store, next to the lice shampoos.

Check the Hair

When you think you are done, you want to use good lighting to check throughly the hair once it is dry. (The nits are much easier to see on dry hair.) Nits are very small and are kind of shiny at a certain angle. They are on the hair shaft itself, with the newest ones being just off the scalp and older ones being as much as an inch away from the scalp. You will have to check the hair by tiny sections, especially around the edges of the hair, at the neck, and behind the ears - although one could be anywhere. If you find any nits, you can pull them off with your fingernails, comb them off with the nit comb, or cut each hair off that contains a nit. Be sure to put each nit or hair into a bowl of vinegar or hot soapy water with ammonia added.

Another Rinse?

If you see more than a few nits, you can use a vinegar wrap to further loosen their glue. Thoroughly wet a towel with a mixture of half vinegar and half water, wrap the child’s head with the towel, and leave it on for one hour. Let the hair dry, then check for nits again.

Eyebrows and Eyelashes

If there are any nits on the eyelashes or eyebrows, you can coat these thoroughly with Vaseline without harm. This should be re-applied four times a day.

Check Again

You will need to check the hair daily for any missed nits and the teeniest ones that have now become large enough to see. If one living nit remains, it could hatch and start the whole process over again, bringing on about eight new eggs per day.

Spread the Word

Every other person in the household will need to be checked - human lice do not live on animals (and vice versa). And, it is only polite to let the parents of any children your child was in contact with know that they should inspect their own children. This sounds embarrassing, but it would be terrible to let any other children get more and more lice before their parents notice on their own. Also, you do not want any of these children giving lice back to your child. It is especially important to inform the school office and your child’s teacher.

Second Application

If you are continuing to find nits, you should smother the hair with mayonnaise or Vaseline seven to ten days after the first application - not the sixth or the eleventh. And, continue to check the hair daily for a few weeks since your child may still be around an infected child or children at school.

Clothes, Combs, Etc.

Your child’s hair is not your only worry. All of the clothing that your child has worn and towels your child use for the last week should be washed in hot water. If there is some item that will shrink in the washer, you can put it through the dryer on the hot cycle for thirty minutes without washing it first. All bedding (sheets, blankets, pillows, pillowcases, comforter, mattress cover) needs to either be washed in hot water, dried dry on the hot cycle, or put into a plastic bag and left sealed up. (They say that lice can only live away from the human host for 24 hours or so, but we like to keep the bags sealed for at least two weeks - just in case - and because more eggs could hatch during this time period or new lice could be brought home.) Bagging will also be necessary for stuffed animals, hats, throw pillows, barrettes, ponytail holders, hair ribbons, helmets, necklaces and anything else that has come in contact with your child or your child’s comb and brush. A very nice comb or brush can be soaked in very hot vinegar or bleach, but you might want to just throw the others away and buy new ones. Vacuum the mattress, couch, chairs, rugs and floors, car seats and backs, car rugs, and upholstered church pews thoroughly then dispose of the vacuum bag.

Natural Lice Spray

There is probably no need for a spray to kill lice on any of these surfaces if you vacuumed thoroughly. If you feel there is a place you could not vacuum, bag, wash or put in the dryer, you can make your own spray that will be much safer than any on the market. The chemical sprays are poisonous. To a base of three tablespoons of Olive Carrier Oil (or Coconut Oil), add one teaspoon of Tea Tree Essential Oil, one teaspoon of Rosemary Essential Oil, one teaspoon of Peppermint Essential Oil, one teaspoon of Lavender Essential Oil, and one teaspoon of Eucalyptus Essential Oil. If this is too thick for your sprayer, you can thin it down a little with water. You would not want to drink this solution (or leave it around for a little one to drink), but it should not leave anything harmful on your furniture or in the air.

Notes: 1) The respiration of a baby or child under 5 can be slowed down or even stopped if peppermint oil is close enough for the baby to even breathe it. 2) High blood pressure may be elevated by peppermint essential oil. 3) Peppermint or rosemary may be harmful during pregnancy. Just use the recipe without the oil that may be harmful in your case.

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