DS 9 riddled with headlice, have tried everything under the sun. Please help!

[Hanarb]

DS 9 has been riddled with lice for 3 weeks now. I have tried treatment and spent nearly £100 on various remedies. He has very long, thick surfy hair and it is a nightmare to treat. His teacher has notified me which is mortifying. His childminder said she would get the clippers and shave his hair off (I’m not sure if she was joking). I don’t own any hair cutting equipment but this is seriously taking up so much of my time and causing a lot of stress. What should I do?

Unfortunately, you might have to shave his head if you can comb through or the eggs will keep hatching and he will always have lice and spread to others. His hair will grow back. Imagine how uncomfortable he must be itching and knowing there are bugs and eggs in his hair!

What do you mean it’s impossible to comb?

My daughter kept on getting them, maybe 3-4 times one after the other. I changed treatment and used one that didn't claim to get rid of them in one hit! The new treatment claimed you had to do it something like once a week for 3 weeks, to make sure you catch the eggs, nits even if they had only just developed. Yes it worked, very well. Carn't think what it was called off hand though.

If it really has never been cut he will have split ends so at least a good trim is in order. If you take off the bottom inch or so it may be enough for you to start getting the comb through. It will also look better for it: hair needs regular trims to stay at its best. I’d try that before a full shave if you want him to keep the look.

Find a hair dresser to cut his hair, you don’t have to do it yourself, many hair dressers are used to dealing with kids with head lice. His hair will grow back, he doesn’t need it all shaved off, just a short cut to make treating the lice easier.

I have also heard op that some hairdressers will treat for you if you go at a non busy time. They often put a couple of hairdressers on it, one on each side to work through it faster.

I wouldn’t allow it if I owned a hair salon but other posters might shout if they know of somewhere local to you that does.

Oh sorry someone else just posted this- but it seems it is a possibility.

Malt vinegar works the best.

Can you borrow the clippers from the childminder?
I think that as his parent and with the lice issue it's best - and kinder to your childminder - if you do most of it. If I was you I'd do a blade 4 all over and then ask the childminder (or actually a barber) to shape it a little at the back and sides. The lice/nits should be dead and gone at that stage.

Agreed with everyone that the nit comb is key. My son used to be prone to them- nobody else in the house would get them (did the odd time but nothing compared to him). The hedrin etc isn’t the fix it part- it’s the comb and as someone said- patience- go through over and over again. Keep binning your tissue that you use to wipe your comb. Repeats few days later. Don’t shave his head, maybe cut it but don’t shave

DD2 has had lice a couple of times (once at pre school many years ago and once more recently when in year 8!). She has long thick curly hair. I just bought some very cheap conditioner and then sat her in the bathroom with a towel around her shoulders, sectioned the hair with clips, then starting at the nape of the neck, use a Nitty Gritty comb to comb everything out. You need to have a roll of cheap kitchen paper to hand then you can wipe the comb off each time and rinse it too to remove whatever has come off the hair. You probably need to do this daily until you stop finding lice/eggs. even then, I would repeat every few days just to be safe! Good luck!

I think people are being a bit harsh. If it was a girl people wouldn't be telling you to shave her head! One of mine had curly hair and head lice. The others weren't infected. I think it is harder with curly hair. We tried everything too and the only think that worked was coating the hair with conditioner every day in the shower/bath and leaving it for 20 minutes. Then combing the conditioner through with a comb (not necessarily a nit comb). Then rinsing it off and using a nit comb. You have to persist. I know it's not easy.

The only thing I've ever found that actually worked on nits was one of those metal nit combs and a load of conditioner, done every single night for a couple of weeks. My kids are beyond the nit stage now, thank god, but we had about a year at primary school where we seemed to get endless letters back about nits and they did seem to love my daughter's long hair. She HATED the nit comb - but I have to admit I got a weird sort of enjoyment from combing the lice out!

You have to spend every day with a nitcomb and conditioner combing them out for two weeks. That is the life cycle of a nit and the only way to get rid of them without using strong chemicals.
Alternatively you're lucky you have a son not a daughter so you could just shave it all off

We had a lot of sucess with silicone based lice treatments. (Where were those when I was a kid??)

It also makes it much easier to comb through with a nit comb afterwards, especially for long and tangle prone hair types. But I absolutely second previous posters: a good trim to get rid of the more tangle prone ends is massively helpful. I

If your DS is agreeable, I would honestly just shave it off. If your DH knows how to shave his beard, he´ll know how to do a buzzcut!

No, I have thoroughly checked the others, they are only home at weekends due to being at boarding school so this may be a factor. However they are 100% clear and so are myself and DH. I would still do at least one treatments to be honest for everyone... It´s too easy to miss 1-2 lice!! And the advantage of the physical approach (silicone and a comb) is that it´s perfectly safe for toddlers and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers!

Have you treated your hair?

Horsey that IS weird… Makes me itch just to think of them. I now even feel like my dcs are going to catch them just because I’ve read this thread .

Am just going to Amazon the equipment so I’m ready if it strikes. It was interesting to hear the full marks formula works differently : has anyone else found this is good?

If the girl wanted to? Absolutely. Shave it / cut it short. A girl most likely wouldn´t agree and that is perfectly alright. But if she did? Why not?

@Leah5678 Don´t you have the silicone based gels / physical approach in the UK? It´s extremely popular in Germany and Switzerland, works very well and is approved for toddlers, breastfeeding women etc. No strong chemicals (except for silicicone oils)!

And it makes combing the hair out afterwards an absolute breeze, seeing as silicone is basically a conditioner... And they don´t need to be applied as frequently as the older lice treatments.

I'm not sure tbh I only have sons and I keep their hair super short for this reason. A close school friend when I was about 12 had permanent lice and I was forever having to comb them out of my hair so kinda an expert on their life cycle haha but I haven't looked into new/alternative treatments

Yeah, I remember those old ones. horrible stuff. Really harsh and did not even kill everything.

I had to participate in lice treatments a few years ago and the silicone oil based approach was an eye opener. It honestly felt like getting a hair mask and it actually worked!
Brushing the hair with a knit comb was a breeze compared to "the olden days" due to the silicone making the hair so soft...

I probably sound as if I bought shares in silicone based lice treatments😂I honestly don´t, it was just such a relief after the horrible lice treatments when I was little!😅

I have thick curly hair. It's not you OP. Your spending alot of money on stuff that works.

I used to sit for hours with teatree conditioner in my hair as mum combed and combed. Having thick curly hair is a pain. The issue is. He's being re-infected someone in his class has lice and isn't being treated.

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but use hair straighteners. Take a section and the heat will kill lice and eggs. Then once done the whole hair does as others have said and conditioner and comb them out.

I’m sure it’s been recommended but you need the nitty gritty comb! You Comb every day and it pulls eggs and lice out. The chemical treatments simply don’t work. I wish they’d just ban them because it means people believe they’ve treated their dc when they’ve done nothing of the sort. Once they’ve gone comb weekly with the nitty gritty to keep them at bay. I use it weekly (ish) and dc have never had lice to my knowledge.

Give him a buzz cut then just use loads of conditioner and nit comb every day. You have to get rid of the eggs and tiny ones as they hatch out. Chemical treatments don't work in my experience. If you comb every day with conditioner, they should be completely gone in 10ish days. I think you'll find it really difficult to eradicate in long thick hair.

I used to have to do x 2 very tight French braids in DDs hair which seemed to help keep bee infestation to a minimum once we'd done the comb thing which I s probably the next best thing

Maybe that's an alternative OP?

Oh and buzz cuts on a girl ..: Eleven in Stranger Things looked like a bad ass