Help, nits and very long curly hair.

[ElleLeopine]

Hi, looking for help and advice.
My DD13 has very long curly hair. We have just found lice in her hair. She is very grossed out, as she has sensory issues and ASD, so we are keen to get this sorted ASAP.
I have read lots on here about treatments and combing, but just looking for advice on the best way to tackle her very long hair. Is Hedrin Once the best, and what about the shampoo? And will one bottle be sufficient for all her hair?
And I guess I also need to factor in treating myself and her brother!
I really thought that this had passed us by! Not what I expected or need days before Christmas!

Both, comb condition and treatment

It's possible! DD12 has super curly hair (think 3b/3c) and is autistic. I've dealt with nits twice through combing...wash/detangle as usual, smother in conditioner, section and comb methodically with a nitti gritti comb. Spray bottle to keep the hair wet if needed because yes when it starts to dry even a little it becomes harder.

If you can did this every day this week OP you should eradicate by the weekend...but do comb again next week to make sure she's free. I sat DD in front of TV with sweet treats. Moving forward tea tree oil dabbed behind the ears and at the nape of the neck every day is supposed to repel them.

My daughter has an Afro from her Dad but with the volume from me. It takes hours to comb it with a wide tooth comb, there is no way I could get a nitty gritty through it.

Fortunately, for me, the only period when she caught nits we had a nanny (not in the uk). She would go through DD's hair section by section and remove them. We also some used some pretty powerful shampoo.

@marcopront I'm with you here. My dd is neurodiverse and could not tolerate it.
Luckily it was her sister with the nits so treatment is mainly precautionary

The instructions on our bottle said not to rinse out before combing op. But even on my smooth hair daughter this was a struggle. I'll probably condition first next time.

Just treat, then comb in smallish sections. Wash out tomorrow morning. Use 3 bottles of the stuff.

Repeat a week later.

Don't bother with conditioner and combing, just treat them as it will be traumatising for her if she's sensory with her hair.

Yeah I would definitely use mousse.

@marcopront agree, when my cousin caught nits from my DCs when we were on hols there was no way we could have combed his 4d afro hair with a nitty gritty. We drenched him in Hedrin Once, and repeated it a couple of times over the next 10 days and also went through and removed anything we saw by hand and he was soon nit-free. Luckily he seems far less susceptible to nits than my DCs who have straight blonde hair so they haven't come back even without any prevention, whereas I have to comb my kids every week or two with a nitty gritty as a preventative or they come straight back.

I came on to say this. I tried everything with my daughter and they kept coming back. I put tea tree oil into tea tree conditioner and used it daily. It really was the only thing that managed to get rid of them. Oh, and daily combing to get rid of the buggers.

Hedrin, dom't scrimp on amount and treat everyone all at once. Conditioner and combing for a week is torture and not very effective. Why when you be rid in an hour with Hedrin? But you must apply loads of it and treat EVERYONE in the household at the same time.

Endless combing and stinking of tea tree is so unnecessary and archaic not to mention traumatic. Why drag a horrod torture device again and again in long hair, bite the bullet and buy loads of HEDRIN. IT is THE BEST.

I don't use conditioner just the Hedrin.

Full Marks is my preferred product, i never leave it on overnight

You are unlikely to get a lice comb through long curly hair unless you ve put conditioner in and combed out tangles first. If theres actual lice, especially a lot of them the process is more effective to comb them out first so theres as few as possible that you could miss with the treatment

Obviously if the child cant stand it they cant stand it and some thinking outside the box will have to be done, but the itching is a fairly miserable thing too tbh

My youngest had them recently. She also has a lot of very thick curly hair. It took us about 4 months to get rid of them. I tried every single treatment available and thoroughly soaked her hair each time.. none worked. Mousse, overnight, over the counter.. so many different brands and nothing worked.
In the end I treated her hair and then followed a 21 day nit-combing plan (it tells you which days you need to comb), and we finally got fid of them. Because I'd treated her hair first we didn't need to do the full 21 days, I think I did two weeks and stopped when I wasn't finding any more lice or nymphs.
Sit in front of tv, use sectioning clips, misting bottle and leave in conditioner and I was able to comb it thoroughly.

Do you have any hair straighteners? I always used them in combination with hedrin once it is all thoroughly washed out.

Hedrin and then straighten each strand of hair to dry. No eggs or lice will survive that.

This might help

https://curlmaven.ie/head-lice-treatment-for-curly-hair/#what-did-work

Have two DD's with long, thick curly hair and have just had our first infestation. I spent a week doing the conditioner / Nitty Gritty and then treated us all over the weekend just to make sure. It literally took most of the day yesterday to do us all. Hope the fuckers are all gone 🙏

@MILLYmo0se

My dd has really long curly hair and when I've combed through it's always with the headrin in as the oil in it makes it much easier to comb through. I treated with headrin then combed through, washed out the next day and repeated the treatment max a week later.

I can barely get a comb through dds hair with conditioner in at the best of times.

I went through this just a few months ago. My 2 girls had it and I also had it!

My hair is super long (albeit not curly). I bought all sorts of gadgets and potions. I found conditioner and combing didn't work well and just clogged up the comb. I hated the nitty gritty comb it was horrible and I felt it caught a little even with a tiny amount of conditioner. Wasn't great for getting the eggs out either.

Anyway I got hedrin once but then discovered it didn't kill the eggs. For me what worked best was a cheap comb and the lotion and work it through and clean the comb every time, u can see the nits 🤮 I then went out and bought the hedrin that killed the eggs too, did that the next day. I also did the hedrin once again one week later as instructed. We never had anymore after the initial kill and comb.

I was super paranoid though I combed all week just to make sure. Was pulling the eggs out for months as they attach really well to the hair. I wld have to scrape them off each hair all the way to the end with my nail. They were dead anyway with the treatment thankfully!

Conditioner is awful. It slops everywhere. Use nitty gritty oil. Much better.

Thank you to everyone for all the help and advice.
We applied the Hedrin Once to her hair last night. It took a whole 100ml bottle to cover her hair! But brushed it right through to the ends. Then she washed it off and applied conditioner, and brushed it through in the shower, and got about 5 of the buggers. I then combed through with a fine tooth comb and found a couple more. Is that unusual?
I expected to find more than that, but going out today and will pick up the Nitty-gritty comb, and more product.
@gerteddy , which products killed the eggs for you?

I once spent several hours at Christmas with my sister and her daughter combing their hair through with conditioner so that I could treat them both for nits! Both had very thick long hair. My sister has a bit of a phobia about bugs of any sort so we sat in her bedroom 'bonding' for several hours while I combed the hair of both of them. It would have been impossible without copious quantities of conditioner! I used so much it was practically dripping off them. It saves Christmas though...😂

It can be done with just a comb. Two family members have long hair (past shoulder and waist length) and got nits just after the 2007 when our water was cut off - only water available for a week was literally drinking water and a few inches of water for two to share for a wash - ie no chance of washing hair. I just kept using a nit comb and it worked.