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?

Are you doing you and everyone in the family every other day as well. Have the school and childminder told other parents to treat their children as well

Without everyone he comes into contact with being treated at the same time you could end up with him infested for years.

Shaving is only a temporary solution if he is getting them from others who haven’t shaved their heads
As soon as stubble starts again then they will be back

I have a son with long, thick, corkscrew curls that go way past his shoulders- I would hate to cut it for similar sentimental reasons.

You can get rid of the lice!

What worked for us is a combination of what everyone has suggested so far.

I do one treatment with Once and accept that I need a couple of bottles if it's bad.

Then every third day you need to do this until you break the cycle so for about a week/10 days.

You need vast amounts of cheap conditioner (I used to get it from the pound shop or Boots) - this is just to get the comb through the hair, don't worry about buying brand names, you need bottles of the stuff.

First of all, get his hair absolutely sopping wet. If he has low porosity hair, this is not as simple as it seems. But this is a really important step - the shower doesn't cut it for my son. It needs to be a bath and his hair needs to be submerged for enough time, repeatedly, until it is properly drenched. Then add the conditioner until it coats it all over the hair and scalp.

Get him to sit still with the iPad, or a film or games. I shamelessly use popcorn and treats as well to bribe my DS.

Also have a spray bottle handy and more conditioner.

Section the hair into small sections - add more conditioner (this is the key) and more water if it is starting to dry out. Comb through with a nit comb.

Rinse. Repeat every 3 days.

It does work, but the key is you have to get him to sit still and work fast so it's not too overwhelming.

What are these silicone treatments marketed as? ? Ie; brand names?

They´re marketed as dimeticone preparations.
Pedicul Hermal and Nyda would be two specific examples of brand names. I am sure there are more...

For any of the treatments to work you have to section the hair properly. You only have to miss one egg and there's no way you can comb properly if the hair isn't sectioned.

If he won't sit still then he'll have to have short hair. It sounds like you've decided to cut his hair anyway but if he isn't on board he has a clear choice: either sit still for however long it takes to section hair to treat or the hair has to be short.

Thnx

Exactly!!

Only thing I’ve found that works it for 2 weeks solid at least once a day going through it with a bit comb and getting them all out.

Some of the comments here are really nasty. Sorry you are dealing with this. You don't need to cut his hair if that would cause a lot of upset.... Just comb, comb,comb!! It does work, even on very long thick hair, I promise! - no need for nasty chemicals. They don't even work!

Get a really good audio book, something funny like mr gum (very funny) And give lots of praise and reward for sitting still. Comb everybody in the house on the same day if you can. It's a mission but it works!

Tie hair up for school.

I recommend you buy the kit from this community hygiene organisation. I think their combs are more gentle than the nitty gritty. Read the instructions and follow the schedule. Use Lots of conditioner. You don't need to do it every day. Just on the correct days to break the cycle. It's all on their website and instructions in the kit. There are videos that show you how.

Use whatever comb you have until the kit arrives.

They should sell these kits at school, and do a one day a year comb where everybody does a check at home on the same day - Would massively help!

See the website!
www.chc.org

No one would be suggesting you shave y our daughter's head! If he wants to then fine, obviously, regardless of nits, but if he likes his hair he should get to keep it.

There's a video on the nitty gritty website, watch this and then follow the combing method.

Absolutely douse him in hedrin, then comb while the treatment is still in (if allowed, there's different ones). Then a couple of days later comb again with conditioner in dry hair, then after a week do it with hedrin again.

If he won’t have it combed then shave it.

@Hanarb I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned, but you also need to wash his bedding and any blankets, clothes, towels etc he's been using to make sure you eradicate the little blighters!

Good luck

Nitty Gritty comb is the best thing. Keep at it with Hedrin too. Also put conditioner on the hair when using Nitty Gritty comb so it doesn't pull the hair and it makes it slippery for the lice to fall out. Comb from top of head slowly all the way down to the bottom of hair and dunk the comb in a bowl of hot water and then wipe comb clean with kitchen paper. Repeat the process. You need to do this once a day until it's gone. You should notice the difference within a few days to a week.

Have you really put the hard work in? Combing is key and laborious but having had 2 girls with long hair I can only imagine you aren't doing this properly as with combing (hours and hours of my life lost) you should not have an issue with one boy!

I really hate them so much. I remember during covid thinking ‘week at least this will eliminate headlice’

When I see one, I just think, ‘there is 3 weeks gone now combing’ it’s a total nightmare with our hair. But I’m much calmer now that I know how to get rid of them, Hedrin once and comb every second day for 3 weeks. Its horrendous but it works.

Yep, combing. We’ve all got thick curly hair and daily combing was the only thing to get rid of them.

Also cutting hair very short or entirely shaved off. It will grow again.

I once cleared mine as a kid by covering my head in olive oil (very expensive these days but sure there are alternatives) for 3 nights running to asphyxiate the live nits. Slept in a shower cap. Combed out and shampooed multiple times in the morning. Didn't need anything else. Killed them off and there were loads of them at the time.

both my daughters have thick hair and when they had headlice i smothered them with conditioner, went through their hair thoroughly with a nit comb. dried their hair and straightened it (small sections at a time). headlice free after that.
the straighteners kill any remaining eggs and smooths the cuticles down so eggs cant stick.

i will just add that both of my daughters had long hair and one of my daughters has very curly hair. i didn't need to cut their hair and straightening it didn't ruin her curls.

I'd take childminder up with shaving and do short hair for summer.

Otherwise nitty gritty comb - I don't think you've mentioned NitNot.

You should really be washing everyone bedding/hair brushes/combs treating at least twice - it's taken 3 treatments sometimes and treating everyone in family at same time. Had a Mum friend who kept blaming re-infection at school but was only treating one child once. It does however quickly get expensive to do properly.

When he is clear try some stay away shampoo or sprays.

My DD constantly got them and nothing worked until we started using hair straighteners every day on her hair and it finally got rid of them

Even the quick treatments I found often needed to be left on overnight - so weekend for treating.

We had to deal with thick curly hair but nitty gritty got through with a lot of pre brushing.

Are you getting fewer and fewer lice each time OP ?
I wonder if either eggs are being missed close to his scalp as his hair is thick, or he is simply picking them up in school in a cycle of infestation. If it is the latter then the repellent spray worked well for my dds, only one ever picked up lice and only twice (so far, but she is in sixth form now). The lice are so small initially that you can’t see them with the naked eye, I used a magnifying glass to check the conditioner , wiped onto white tissue after combing. Then I could see any too small to be spotted. Luckily my dd reacts to head lice by getting very red and itchy so each time I caught it early. Some children don’t react to them at all and then they are easy to miss at first.

A number four would probably be short enough. Or at least start there and see how you go. That's still reasonable hair, not bald but easier to deal with

You need to shave off all of his hair. Neither of you are prepared to emplpy the proper hygiene needed to maintain his hair so it needs to go. The smell will start to become awful..

I always used chemicals because I am so freaked out by nits or any type of infestation. Ask the pharmacist for the best one and make sure you rub it into the scalp. Just squirt directly on to the scalp and rub it in with your fingers. Just as though you are applying hair dye to the roots. The rest of the family will need to use it as well. In the meantime keep him off school, it’s not fair to risk giving it to the other kids.