Treating lice

I was surprised that no one seems to know how to get rid of a dreadie lice infestation...everyone just seems quick to suggest chopping off the locks.

Well, I'm telling you that as a mother of 4, with 3 of my kids in school, we have had to deal with lice more than once, and the following seems to be the best way of dealing with it for those of you with dreads. If anyone else has anything better, please share!
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pull your dreads up and try to bun them up if you can, or at least pull it into a high ponytail. Use about a half bottle of rubbing alcohol (70% or higher) or however much it takes to cover your scalp. Don't worry about soaking your dreads, because the fumes will kill them as much as the alcohol itself. tie a plasic bag or wear a shower cap tightly around your head for about 30 minutes. It'll itch and its annoying and stinky, but it'll kill the bugs. Rinse it out, and watch the bugs fall out.

Now, you'll have to do this again in about 3-5 days because the alcohol only kills the bugs, not their eggs (though, most of the actual lice shampoos don't kill the eggs either...) so you'll have to do this process over again to kill any newly hatched critters. At this point you really should be lice free, though I would do it yet again in another 3 days....just to be on the safe side.

This is a cheap, easy and very effective way to get rid of lice. It has never once failed us. Just make sure you do it in a well ventilated area, and it helps to have a friend or relative to help so you don't accidentally pour the shit in your eyes. That shit ain't cool. Also, no smoking, as alcohol is highly flammable. (don't want you head to go up in flames, do you?) And ta-da! Lice free, for under 5 bucks, and without having you sacrifice your lovely locks!

one more note...using tea tree oil in your hair acts as a lice/insect repellant. Dr. Bronner's makes a soap with tea tree oil, and that's what we use. You can also buy it as a fancy, overpriced spritzer to spray in your hair. Also be aware that chopping off your locks isn't an instant cure for lice unless you actually SHAVE your hair down to bare skin. Lice have become resistant/immune to most of the lice shampoos available, so cutting your hair and using lice shampoo will not guarantee a lice-free head. You're better off doing it this way, believe me.

 

Thanks! This could be very useful for many people.

 

Is there any way we can get this thread stickied or something? I hate coming onto this forum, and seeing various people here and there asking about how to get rid of lice...and I hate it even more when people suggest chopping off the locks. The information is here and readily available....since it is a common topic, it makes sense (to me) to make a sticky regarding it....even if you don't use this one.

Mods???

 

I agree with above poster.

Thank god I havent had that problem(knock on wood). But I know now that I wont have to cut the locks to get rid of bugs.

 

My parents work with street children, so lice are not an uncommon problem in my family. I already cut my first pair of dreads because of that. I am now 3 months in my second pair and got them again, and I really don´t want to cut them this time so I´ll try this today. Thanks a lot

 

It's not so much the actual having of lice that would compel me to chop. It would be the thought of having a head full of dead nit bodies locked into my hair.

 

very good of you to post this, im sure it will help a lot of people. i worked at a ymca camp last summer and every week there would be a kid or two with lice. i was too paranoid to go in the health center after that lol

 

yeah that worrys me
but if you catch them early enough you shouldnt have a too bad infestation.

 

The nits do eventually come out. Don't ask me how, but they go away. (nits being the eggs lice lay on the hair shaft) My b/f, who's had his dreadies for at least 6 years, got them (as I said, we have school-age children, so it's happened a couple of times_) and there is not a single nit to be found on his head, in his locks, or anywhere else.

As for bodies, well, those rinse right out. You have yo see it to believe it, I guess, but after you rinse the alcohol from your head, you can see them in your bath if you bother to look. Now, I'm sure it would take more than a single rinse to get all of them out, but you could just vigorously rinse you head for a couple of days and be rid of any remaining dead bugs.

Once they're dead, you know they no longer cling to your hair. Just take care to rinse your head thruroughly and it shouldn't be a problem. It's never been an issue with anyone else I've talked to who's used this method.

Of course, I'm sure there are people who don't care about their locks enough to bother with the bit of extra work it takes (which isn't much) but for those of us who want to save our locks, this is a very easy, simple, and inexpensive solution.

 

I had lice in my dreads for about a week, i was in complete denial! Then i started getting nasty bites down the side and back of my neck I realised I had a problem.
I started off with hedrin.. (didnt work!)
The next day i tried full marks. It stopped the itching but then again I found several lice in my boyfriends hair the next day so I knew for a fact I had got them again.
Then I ordered 2 bottles of delacet from the website. Poured it into a spray bottle and sprayed it all over my head. I left it in overnight just to make sure! Today my head feels more itchy. but smelling the delacet it seems to be mainly vinigar! I think if I continue to spray it with this stuff they'll soon go away but I bought some tea tree oil which im going to mix in with my shampoo. Just to make sure!
If this doesnt work then its the clippers for me

 

delacet worked a treat for me, but instead of spraying it on i dumped a whole bottle on my head. i had my head over a bowl so i could scoop up the run off and pour it back on till my dreads and scalp were soaked.
i make sure my locala chemist keeps some in stock all the time now

 

lil warning for those who choose store bought chemical treatments
like the 2 posters above
you said ya left it on over night and were still itchy, well chances are the itches are not bug related but scalp dammage
im not familiar with those chems, but ive been forced to use other chemical treatments (i didnt even have bugs just dandruff, but was in a hospitol so they assumed itches were bugs refused to come closdse enoughy to even see and forced me to do 12 chemical treatments in a row and the last 1 left on for hours instead of the 15 minutes recomended...the result was a scalp burned badly, comming off in chunks, and bleeding everytime id scratch

if u get lice, dont panic
try the most gentle natural treatments u can find
do not over do them
vinagar dissolves nits
so after u do the alcahol treatment do a vinagar rince

 

The delacet worked, then I caught them again from my boyfriend!! Argg the frustration!
Also it takes about a week for it to get to my house as there are no chemists who stock it in my area!
Anyone tried apple cider vinegar? Supposidly it works, but then again supposidly shaving cream works..
You never know!
Help? Im itching this minute!

 

after the paranoia of about a month i dunked my head in a bottle of apple cider vinegar.
all is dead, but i feel terrible for the poor insects.

 

I know this is years and years after you guys have posted, but I just got lice, and I will do anything to keep from having to chop off the dreads. I just did a vinegar/alcohol rinse with the bun and everything. But I worry that not enough of the concoction got to my scalp that was under the bun since I basically have a shitload of hair. Plus when I rinsed it out an hour later, I didn't see any dead lice. But the shower floor is blue and I don't really know what I'm looking for. And then I did a kind of olive oil, rosemary oil, neem oil rub. Still feels like they're moving around up there though. I'm going to do a tea tree oil/neem oil shampoo now, and I hope it does something...

 

Just go to the chemist...

 

indeed, it is their job after all. do not chop

 

Yeah, but I've just read so much about how those brands don't work for everybody and how the lice have become resistant to them. But I guess if this doesn't work over the next week or so then I'll shell out the money for the brand name stuff.

 

There's other natural remedies out on the internet but they call for copious amounts of oil so....it's risky depending on the age of your locs. (The theory is that the oil [some recipes call for mayo] suffocates the lice...I haven't tried it obviously.) Keep trying what you're doing over for a little bit and see what happens. The ingredients are cheap so it's not gonna hurt you to try it a few times. I mean rubbing alcohol is seriously less than $3 bucks.

One thing to keep in mind is that no cure really works if you don't take it the extra steps and wash EVERYTHING that your head would come in contact with.

 

This thread makes my scalp itch!
I've heard positive things about this method. I'd try anything rather than cut!!