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?

I mentioned above that my daughter had thick, curly bun length hair when she had nits and we cleared them in a week. The difference I guess is that my DD sat to have hers combed, while the OP says that he son won’t. if she hadn’t have sat and had it combed so we could clear them properly, I’d have taken her to get her hair cut.
I don’t think the OP needs to shave her son’s head, just cut it into a more manageable length/style if he continues to refuse to allow the OP to treat him properly.

We had had same issue and had to go to the Dr in the end as nothing was working. They are becoming immune to them all except 1 which us FullMarks. Funnily enough it's the cheapest one in tesco but it works differently. It actually dissolves the lice shells and dehydrated them and they eggs and they can't survive that. First time we used it and all the lice and eggs were dead....had no issue since (and we had the issue for 5 months!)
Once they are gone use a shampoo with tea tree cause it repells them.

No don’t shave his head! The nitty gritty comb and a huge amount of conditioner. Bribe him to make him sit still. We did it over white paper and he was fascinated! We did it every night for quite a while. Can’t remember. Good luck!

I am one of those people, who got nits and couldn’t get rid of them and was using treatments every couple of days and nitty gritty combing after. My head is often hot so I think the treatments didn’t work for that reason. I tried a few brands including most listed. I didn’t manage to get rid of them with a comb and conditioner or with straighteners either. It’s hard to do it on your own hair maybe. The only thing, which worked was the shampoo and salt method, which I kept up for a good couple of months to be sure. This is horrible and I wouldn’t suggest it for your ds. I agree the only thing to do is conditioner and comb or a very short cut.

My daughter had very thick, waist length hair and kept getting nits. The only thing that worked was the nitty gritty comb and loads of conditioner (get cheap bottles as you do use a lot). Wash and comb every day for a fortnight. That should kill the egg hatching cycle.

Dr Prescribed Derbac M.

If you can't reliably get a comb through it then use hedrin to coat the hair, use it again after 1 week and again after 1 week. The hedrin will kill the lice then repeating it will kill any hatched eggs. I have used this method on children with afro hair when I couldn't reliably comb every section and it works to get rid of them.
Use a tea tree spray and tie up hair once the lice are treated as it will stop reinfestations.

It's not just his hair you have to treat. You have to tackle his environment too. Clothes, bedding, towels, brushes etc. Everything he had close contact with.

Nearly-shoulder-length hair isn't really that long. Are you seeing dead lice after every treatment?

If you decide to cut/ shave the hair , take him to a barber. When he is lice free, use leave in conditioner as the nits can’t then cling to the hair.

Honestly just shave his head! It's only hair, it will grow back. Let the CM do it or take him to a barber.

OP, please come back today and let us know he's had a buzz cut. I'm feeling itchy just reading about your poor son's situation. The hair will grow back, but you've got to get this sorted now.

Another saying tea tree

@RookieMa
@lilsupersparks

Did you read what she's tried?

Don't shave his head. Just cut it bit shorter.
Imagine going from shoulder length hair to non???

My dd had v thick, long curly hair when she got nits in Reception and I managed to get rid. She was riddled but I used hedrin, conditioner and nitty gritty comb combo. When my ds got them we did shave his hair - again v thick but not long - was just easier and he was young (4) and didn’t care!
i kept DS’s hair up or plaited for school with that tea tree spray etc.

You say you've been treating for 3 weeks, but also say you can't comb his hair fully, so your 3 weeks of treating won't have been efficient.

I think I'd be phoning around to see if someone could come and cut his hair professionally (probably at home, they wouldn't want him in a barbers). Let him choose a style, get someone to cut it short (my hair dresser would happily come and do this at our house). If you go for a style that needs some gel on it, that should also prevent him catching them again at school.

Is anyone else really itchy now 😬

Don't panic.

I have been through this and am the lice Terminator.

Stay calm.

You need 4 things:

Hedrin Once, the nitty gritty comb, a bottle of conditioner and TIME.

The Hedrin Once apply once tonight (and then again exactly 7 days later)

Tomorrow sit him in front of a movie, bottle of conditioner apply all over and start combing with nitty gritty comb. Have a basin of water and clean the comb in basin of water regularly.

Do this every second night until there are none left. (It might take 2 weeks)

They haven’t a hope.

You can do this.

Shave it off. It will grow back.

Also to add I have hair type 3b, long thick very curly curls so I understand the enormity of the task.

You can do this. You just need to persist and keep combing.

If a mum came on with a girl who she couldn't comb her hair I do think people would be saying cut it, maybe not shave buzz cut but cut it shorter.

The mum can't get a comb through it. It's never been cut it must be full of split ends impossible to comb.

Honestly I'd shave it all off. Pour a whole bottle of tea tree oil into his shampoo, it will act as a deterrent. Hair grows back!

If you can't knit comb it every night then you will have to cut it.

I shaved my dc heads as they wouldn't sit to be combed. I have long hair straight hair and it took me nearly two hours every night of sectioning and nit combing to clear it.

Another vote for tea tree oil here - always worked on my daughter's very long hair. But you have to find a way to comb through the hair, or nothing will work.

I have waste length, think curly hair and every time my son got lice I got them too. The hours - and yes, I do mean several hours a day for weeks - nit combing my hair, pulling every single ‘nit’ (egg) down the shaft of the hair - and asking a incredibly lovely friend to help me do this every afternoon for a week.

You’re best to ask the pharmacy which is the strongest and currently most effective remedy - but, assuming you’ve done the medicated lotion treatment, actually slathering his hair in conditioner and sitting nit combing his hair section by section while he watches a movie will be your only hope. And afterwards, I would tie his hair back if you can and use nit repellant spray every morning before school - unfortunately, for him to have it so badly, it means there are multiple people in his class who have it and are not treating it, so they are reinfesting each other.

good luck!

This. The treatments didn’t work for us, but this did, eventually. Make sure you do your own hair and anyone else in the house. Every day. It’s a nightmare but it’ll soon be a distant memory.

And I recommend regular conditioner and combs to check - if you catch it early it’s easy to get rid of, but if he has loads, there will be loads and loads of eggs which are hard to get so take several days/weeks of combing.

İ had them for months and this is what I found...the solution doesn't kill the eggs. The best solution was nitwits. After you've used the solution you don't know when the next lot of eggs are due to hatch. They take about 3 days after hatching to grow to maturity to be able to lay more eggs, so I blasted again with nitwits after three days. There may be more eggs due to hatch again, so same treatment again after a few more days. Kept doing it every few days for about two weeks. The key is to let the eggs hatch so you can get them out of their protective shell, but don't let them grow to maturity to lay more eggs. I didn't hot wash my bedding until the very end as wanted any that hatched to get onto my head to be blasted with the treatment. My reasoning being, they can survive off the head for a while and some of the eggs can survive super high temps anyway. Kept hoovering my bed and sofa and everywhere, everyday though.
Kept spraying my head and room with citronella spray for ages afterwards.
İf you use the treatment every few days make sure you moisturise his scalp also with some natural oils. İ didn't and had very dry scalp for ages afterwards.